General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> /Bolzar/
Excerpts from THE WEST VIRGINIA ADVOCATE, article by Wilmer L. Kerns:
"The grave of Balzar Stoker (1723-1796), one of the first settlers along
the Little Cacapon River, has been located and positively identified. 
Stoker and his family were pioneer settlers near the Little Cacapon River
in the Okonoko section of Hampshire County and near where the Little
Cacapon River, after winding its way through the county, empties into the
Potomac River about three or four miles upstream from Paw Paw, West
Virginia. The inscription on Stoker's gravemarker reads:"Balzar Stoker,
deceas'd, November ye 14, 1796, age 73 years." Balzar Stoker's grave was
discovered in an 18th century Stoker graveyard (now Ginevan Cemetery)
located on a high hill on the west side of the Little Cacapon River. 
Approximately one acre was set aside for burial plots.  Descendants of
Mathias Ginevan still maintain the cemetery.  Next to Stoker's grave is a
grave designated by an uninscribed firld-stone.  This is believed to be
the burial site of Stoker's wife, Eve Stoker.  In this old section of the
graveyard, there are at least 30 uninscribed grave markers made from
field or river stones.  These probably indicate burial places of other
18th century settlers who lived in the same region as the Stokers.  Some
of the earliest settlers in that area of Hampshire County were named Cox,
House, Enoch, Anderson, Johnson, Critton, Fryback, Stoker, and Neill.  In
Novermber, 1774, Lord Fairfax appointed a new surveyor for Hampshire
County.  He was a young man named Elias Poston, who came from Charles
County, Maryland.  One of Poston's first surveying jobs was in the Little
Cacapon River area.  In January, 1775, Balzar Stoker served as a pilot
for Poston, acting as a guide who knew territory which was unfamiliar to
members of the survey party.  The purpose of that survey was to designate
a Little Cacapon Mountain 90-acre plot of land which was to be granted to
John Critton.  The plot was adjacent to land then owned by Critton and
also adjacent to land then owned by Isaac Cox..."