St. Colman's Roman Catholic Church and Cemetery, historic church 2 miles east of the town Beckley in West Virginia
St. Colman's Roman Catholic Church and Cemetery is a church and burial ground in Raleigh County, West Virginia, standing since 1877 on Irish Mountain. The simple white wooden structure sits beside a well-maintained cemetery with rows of gravestones marking the burial places of local residents spanning multiple generations.
The church was founded in 1877 after Maurice Sullivan donated land in 1876 to Bishop Joseph J. Kane for one dollar, giving the growing Irish community a place to worship on Irish Mountain. The original log building was later covered with boards and painted white, preserving the appearance it holds today.
The church served as a gathering place for the Irish community on Irish Mountain, where families gathered for worship and marked important life events. The cemetery stones reflect the heritage of Irish settlers, with some inscriptions showing where buried people were born in Ireland.
The site is easily accessible in a rural area at the top of Sullivan's Knob on Irish Mountain. Visitors can walk through both the church and cemetery grounds at their own pace, taking time to read the gravestones and observe the layout of the burial area.
The cemetery holds a special section called the 'Lost Corner' in its back area, containing graves of infants and people who died without baptism or proper burial rites. This quiet area marks the difficult realities faced by early Irish settlers in this isolated mountain region.
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