As noted elsewhere in this volume, local tradition in Southampton Township states that Joseph Powell led a band of thirteen men northward from Virginia into the valley drained by Town Creek and its tributaries in 1728. A number of the band died soon after they arrived in this region and were buried in a graveyard that was already being used by local Shawnee people. It, of course, was named the Shawnee Graveyard.
The Shawnee Graveyard was located at the south end of Warrior Ridge to the northeast of the 'T' intersection of Black Valley Road, State Route 3007 and Chaneysville Road, State Route 326. Pond Branch, a tributary of Town Creek, flows southward and the east through the Black Valley Gap to the south side of the road as it also passes through the Black Valley Gap. A sign beside the Prosperity Christian Church states that the Shawnee Graveyard was located just to the west of the church.
The near-mythical 1625 Log of Thomas Powell told of how the adventurers stated, when they reached the Little Sweet Root Creek, that "There were lots of Indians here; they showed us all the friendship they could." No village was noted, but the Shawnee Graveyard may be evidence of 'lots of Indians' in the region.
