In August 1766, 400 acres west of Martinsburg along the Tuscarora were granted to David & Elizabeth Crochett by
Lord Fairfax. (It is believed that these were the famous Davy Crockett's grandparents).

Eventually, the property was sold several different times and ended up being owned by John and Elizabeth Emert. Most of the stone house on the property began as a log house and was built by the Emerts. They also added a wash house & smoke house to the farm. Limestone on the barn bears the initials J.E. (John Emert) and the year 1844. On March 25, 1850, the Emert's sold the 140-acre farm for $5,626 to be used for the poor of Berkeley County.

In August 1916, the brick steward's house was built.

There are three known cemeteries on the property dating to deaths before 1849. The grave markers that used to be behind the brick steward's house bore the names: Emert, Bender and Patterson. Two potter's fields are also on the property. In the 1950's, the advent of the welfare system made the Poor/Alms House system obsolete. The houses on the farm were leased out as private residences and group homes until 2001 when work began to turn the county-owned property into a park.

Cemetery #1 was located below the brick house at the corner of the yard. Documentation from 1973 indicated that a few tombstones could be read. Today, the stones can no longer be found.

Cemetery #2 is an unknown burial ground started sometime between 1850 and 1867 and is thought to have been located behind the barn against the hill.

Cemetery #3 is located on the opposite side of Poor House Road and across the street from Salem United Methodist Church. It is presumed that the third graveyard was established around 1884.

There are no marked graves in Cemetery #1 or #2, only a list of the people who are buried there.

The county erected a memorial in Cemetery #3 and there is one temporary marker and one individual engraved marker.

These cemeteries may also be known as:

The Poor House cemetery
The Alms House cemetery
The County Farm cemetery
The County Alms cemetery

Cemetery history courtesy of the Berkeley County Historical Society.