In 1896, Rev. Owen L.W. Smith purchased from the Town of Wilson, in the person of Mayor John F. Bruton, lot 7, F Street, Section North of Oakdale Cemetery (col’d). Oakdale was the mysterious cemetery of Cemetery Street, south of the business district.

This document raises so many questions:

• Oakdale was a city-owned property. When was it developed? Where are records?
• Where is “the official plat of said cemetery”?
• O.L.W. Smith’s family, including members who died shortly after this plot was purchased, are now buried in the Masonic cemetery. Were they, and the countless other burials at Oakdale, exhumed?
• Why and when did the cemetery close?

Deed Book 46, page 348, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

[UPDATE, 18 May 2018 — See here for answers.]