gravestone

The resting place of Hattie Maryland Wright.

Hattie Maryland Wright‘s headstone gleaming in a patch of sunlight in Sharpsburg Cemetery. Though tilted, it is nearly as pristine as it was when it placed and was so lovely I wanted it to have its own post.

She is not dead but sleeping. We trust our loss will be her gain.

Hattie Maryland Wright (1872-1930).

——

In the 1880 census of Rocky Mount township, Edgecombe County, North Carolina: farmer John Maryland, 58; wife Melvel, 40; and children Haywood, 17, Schofield, 16 (who was deaf), Walter, 10, Mary, 9, John, 7, Hattie, 6, Primus, 4, and Jonas, 2.

On 11 September 1895, Turner Ward, 21, of Nash County, son of Mack and Rhoda Ward, married Hattie Maryland, 19, of Nash County, daughter of John and Penelope Maryland, at John Maryland in Coopers township, Nash County.

In the 1900 census of Rocky Mounty, Edgecombe County: day laborer Turner Ward, 25; wife Hattie, 25; children James H., 3, Minnie P., 2, and Ernest, 6 months; and niece Emma Maryland, 7.

On 4 September 1908, George Wright, 35, of Nash County, married Hattie Ward, 40, of Nash County, in Rocky Mount township, Nash County.

In the 1910 census of Toisnot township: on Elm City and Tarbor0 Road, farmer George Wright, 35; wife Hattie, 35; daughter Delia, 2; wife’s children Jessie, 18, James, 12, and El Gray, 6; and boarder Mamie Brant, 30.

In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Wilson Rocky Mount Road, farmer George Wright, 45; wife Hattie, 45; and children Elvira, 17, Estella, 11, Georgeanna, 9, and Samuel, 6. Next door: James Wright, 22, and wife Maggie, 18; Jordan Armstrong, 24, farmer, and Cella, 23; and boarder Charley Ford, 22, farmer.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user marj11249.

Cemeteries, no. 34: Sharpsburg Cemetery.

I found Sharpsburg Cemetery. And wow. Though it was active into the late 1990s, it has nearly completely reverted to woodland, with dozens and dozens of headstones standing above the forest floor, many in nearly pristine condition. Unlike wisteria-choked Rountree and Odd Fellows, however, these woods are easily traversed, though covered in naturalized English ivy.

The cemetery is on the Nash County side of Sharpsburg, down a gated track. It appears from county records to be privately owned. Its families lived in Nash, Edgecombe, and Wilson Counties, and I took photos with an eye for representation rather than Wilson residency. I’ll probably make a return visit when I’ve been able to study its known burials.

The gate threw me for a minute. But only a minute.

The open area at the front of the cemetery. The oldest part of the cemetery appears to be an area to the south deep inside the treeline.

Headstones, saplings, and grapevines. There was some trash at the site, but nothing to indicate it has ever been a dumpsite like Odd Fellows and Rountree. This clearly was a generally well-tended cemetery until perhaps 20 to 25 years ago.

  • Maggie Armstrong

In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Ernest Taylor, 49; wife Lela, 47; and children Lawrence, 18, Billie, 16, Carrie, 14, Addie, 12, Lee, 11, Lela, 8, Mary, 7, Thomas, 6, Maggie, 4, Nellie, 3, and Robert, 2; and brother Fred, 20.

In the 1930 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Ernest Taylor, 49; wife Lalar, 47; and children Tomie, 16, Maggie, 15, Mollie, 13, Robert, 11, Ona, 9, Blanche, 8, Roscar, 6, James, 5, and Daisy, 1.

On 30 December 1932, Richard Armstrong, 21, of Jarratt, Virginia, son of Gus Armstrong and William Ann Turner, and Maggie Taylor, 21, of Sharpsburg, N.C., daughter of Ernest Taylor and Lala Anderson, were married in Greensville County, Virginia.

In the 1940 census of Lower Town Creek township, Edgecombe County: farmer Richard Armstrong, 28; wife Maggie, 25; and children Earnest M., 6, Lawrence W., 5, Ivy Lee, 3, and Grady Earl, 1; widowed mother William Ann Armstrong, 68; and niece Mary Jeane McQueen, 15. Maggie and Mary Jeane had been Wilson County residents in 1935.

Maggie Armstrong died 11 February 1942 in Wilson, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born 1 April 1915 in Wilson County to Ernest Taylor and Lala Anderson; was married to Richard Armstrong; was engaged in farming; and resided in Sharpsburg, Edgecombe County. She was buried in Nash County by S.E. Hemby, Fountain, N.C.

  • Ernest and Lalar Taylor, “Death is but life. Weep not.”

Ernest and Lalar Taylor were buried under a classic Clarence Best-carved double headstone.

——

In the 1900 census of Upper Town Creek township, Edgecombe County: farmer Robert Anderson, 60; wife Margaret, 58; and children Lanie V., 21, Francis, 19, Lala, 17, Charlie, 15, and Lee E., 14, and grandson Luther, 8 months.

Oon 8 January 1902, Ernest Taylor, 22, son of Caroline Taylor, married Lila Anderson, 19, daughter of Bob and Margaret Anderson, in Toisnot township, Wilson County.

In the 1910 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Earnest Taylor, 29; wife Lalar, 25; children Lawrence, 8, Lula, 7, Billie, 6, Carry, 4, Eddie B., 3, Lee E., 2, and May B., 2 months; and sister Hattie, 17.

Lalar Taylor died 12 March 1942 in Rocky Mount, Nash County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 21 June 1883 in Nash County to Robert Anderson and Margaret Rice; and was buried in Sharpsburg Cemetery by S.E. Hemby, Fountain, N.C.

Earnest Taylor died 4 December 1961 in Rocky Mount, Nash County, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born 10 May 1880 in Wilson County to Caroline [maiden name unknown] and worked as a farmer.

  • Turner Joyner

For reasons that are not apparent to me, Simon E. Hemby was the undertaker of choice for many families in Sharpsburg Cemetery in the 1930s and ’40s. Hemby’s business (which is still in operation as Hemby-Willoughby) was in Fountain, Pitt County — some 21, two-lane miles away from Sharpsburg. Amazingly the temporary metal marker Hemby placed at Turner Joyner’s grave in 1938 is still legible.

In the 1880 census of Rocky Mount township, Nash County:  farmer Jason Joyner, 40; wife Milbry, 44; and sons Hawood, 16, Nevison, 13, and Turner, 12.

On 18 December 1889, Turner Joyner, 22, married Martha Pittman, 19, at Evelina Pittman’s in Nash County.

In the 1900 census of Sharpsburg town, Rocky Mount township, Nash County: day laborer Turner Joyner, 30; wife Martha A., 26; and children William S.T., 8, Ella, 6, Billie, 3, and Minnie S., 1.

In 1918, Bill Joyner registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 9 December 1896 in Sharpsburg; was a cropper for Dr. Barnes “near cor. limits of Sharpsburg”; and his nearest relatives were father Turner Joyner and wife Emma Joyner.

In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Turner Joyner, 52; wife Martha, 48; and children S.T., 27, Mary, 25, Maggie, 18, Annie, 15, Mamie, 13, Eva, 10, and Grady, 2.

In the 1930 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Turner Joyner, 61; wife Martha, 56; daughter Annie C. Clark, 26, and children J.C., 7, James, 5, and S.T., 4.

Turner Joyner died 10 August 1938 in Sharpsburg, Township #14, Edgecombe County. Per his death certificate, he was born 20 September 1873 in Nash County to Jason Joyner and Milba Joyner; was the widower of Martha Joyner; and was buried in Sharpsburg by S.E. Hemby.

  • Harry Williams, “He Is Gone, But Not Forgotten”

You know I love a headstone artist, and Sharpsburg Cemetery contains many examples of the grave markers produced by this unknown person. He (almost surely) worked in concrete, stamping letters and numbers with a die or punch and incising elaborate floral designs with wedge-shaped elements. My guess is that this was a Nash or Edgecombe County artist, as I have not encountered this type of headstone in Wilson County cemeteries.

——

In the 1910 census of Township #14, Edgecombe County: farmer Harry Williams, 51; wife Mollie, 39; and children Mandonie, 17, Mack, 16, Starka, 13, Turner, 11, Harry Jr., 9, Paul, 7, and Silas, 3.

On 11 February 1920, Harry Williams, 21, of Toisnot township, Wilson County, son of Harry and Mollie Williams, married Mamie Justice, 21, of Toisnot township, daughter of Preston and Carrie Justice, in Elm City, Wilson County.

In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farm laborer Harry Williams, 22, and wife Mamie, 19.

Harry Williams died 1 July 1928 in Sharpsburg, Township #14, Edgecombe County. Per his death certificate, he was 30 years old; was born in Edgecombe County to Harry Williams and Mollie Lawrence; worked as a farmer; and was buried in Sharpsburg cemetery. Mondon Williams was informant.

  • Lillie Bell Williams

Lillie Bell Williams died 7 April 1929 in Toisnot township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born 23 October 1928 in Wilson County to Paul Williams and Gladys Howard and was buried in Nash County.

  • Jacob C. Bellamy

This appears to be the headstone of the Jacob Bellamy who was born 1891 to James H. and Cherry Bellamy and lived in Edgecombe County. It is a lovely little marble stone in an older area of the cemetery that is overgrown with English ivy.

  • Eskimo Parker

The delightfully named Eskimo Parker, a Nash County native, is one of several veterans whose grave markers are visible in Sharpsburg Cemetery.

Lane Street Project: one of the few gravestones at Vick.

This 1991 article about the city’s clean-up activity at Vick Cemetery prior to the 1995 gravestone removal includes the only known photograph of its headstones. It is unattributed. Was this one of the photos Charles Pittman showed council two years later?  

The image depicts a substantial white marble monument that likely dates from the first twenty or thirty years of the cemetery when this type of rooftop obelisk marker was in common use for people who could afford them. In the first half of the twentieth century, Wilson’s wealthiest African-Americans were often Masons or Odd Fellows and were buried in those fraternal organization’s cemeteries. Not all who could afford headstones were lodge members though, and there is no reason not to believe that in its heyday Vick was not substantially populated with headstones. If only ten percent of graves were buried (and that seems a low percentage, though I have no basis for calculation), there would have been more than 400 headstones.

By the way, Earl Bradbury’s assertion that the Commission did not keep records for Vick because it did not kn0w the city owned the cemetery is preposterous. 

My thanks to Joan L. Howell for sharing this article. 

Lane Street Project: the Mincey family plot.

With donations from readers like you, we were able recently to engage Foster Stone and Cemetery Care to clean and reset markers in the Mincey family plot at Odd Fellows cemetery.

We’ve seen the nearly buried white marble headstones of Prince Mincey and Oscar Mincey, standing a few feet from Benjamin Mincey‘s fire hydrant. Prince Mincey was Ben Mincey’s father, and Oscar, his brother.

Marble headstones are both heavy and fragile, and Foster uses site-built equipment to safely lift them.

Voilà!

The style of Oscar Mincey’s headstone suggests that it was placed shortly after his death in 1906. Prince Mincey’s engraving, however, appears to be machine-cut, suggesting manufacture and placement well after he died in 1902.

Though their grave markers have not yet been found, it seems likely that Prince Mincey’s wife Susan Mincey and Ben Mincey’s wife Mattie Barnes Mincey are buried in the family plot as well.

——

In the 1900 census of Wilson town, Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Prince Mensey, 60; wife Susan, 52; children Ben, 19, Emma, 19, and Oscar, 12; and niece Rosetta Mensey, 7.

Photos courtesy of Billy Foster.

Lane Street Project: an unexpected gift.

Last year, when someone accidentally toppled Henry Tart‘s magnificent obelisk, I despaired that resetting it would cost more than Lane Street Project’s meager coffers could ever disburse.

Today, then, when I read Billy Foster’s PM, I could hardly believe my eyes.

Here’s what Tart’s gray and white marble grave marker looked like yesterday.

And here it is after Foster Stone & Cemetery Care put it to rights.

Here’s the military marker for the grave of Corporal Willie Gay, the only known African-American Spanish-American war veteran buried in Wilson.

And here, released from a foot of soil:

I am deeply grateful to Billy Foster and Foster Stone & Cemetery Care for this generous gift to Odd Fellows Cemetery and Lane Street Project. We are working with him to identify our most pressing needs for repair and restoration and will raise funds to pay for his expert service.

Photos courtesy of Billy Foster.

Lane Street Project: Daniel and Fannie Blount Vick.

The double headstone of Samuel H. Vick‘s parents Daniel and Fannie Blount Vick marks two of the oldest graves in Odd Fellows Cemetery.

The headstone was cast in what I call the Concrete Stipple style. Disturbingly, it was used as target practice at some point, and bullets took a chunk out of its top left corner and left a pockmark that obliterates Fannie Vick’s death date. (That date appears to start with “18,” but she was alive at the time the 1900 census was taken.)

——

Daniel Vick and Fannie Blount registered their six-year cohabitation in Wilson County on August 31, 1866. [Blount, for certain, and most likely Vick, arrived in Wilson from neighboring Nash County shortly after the Civil War.]

In 1867, Fannie Blount Vick’s mother, Violet Blount, filed letters with the Goldsboro Field Office of the Freedmen’s Bureau opposing the apprenticeship of her grandsons Marcus and Oscar to Benjamin H. Blount, their former owner. She named Daniel Vick as a suitable “master” for the boys, who were the sons of his wife Fannie’s deceased sister Margaret.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: baker Samuel Williams, 30, carpenter Daniel Vick, 25, wife Fannie, 24, children Samuel, 8, Earnest, 3, and Nettie M., 5, plus Violet Drake, 52.

In 1877, Vick purchased one acre of land just east of Wilson town limits, his first recorded real estate acquisition. He went on to purchase additional land along what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.

In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: grist mill worker Daniel Vick, 38, wife Fannie, 35, children Samuel, 16, Nettie, 14, Earnest Linwood, 12, Henry, 10, and James O.F. Vick, 8, plus Frank O., 20, and Marcus W. Blount, 26.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: carpenter Daniel Vick, 52; wife Fannie, 52; and granddaughters Annie, 8, and Nettie B. Vick, 6, and Mamie Parker, 20, laundress. Vick reported that both his parents were born in Virginia.

Lane Street Project: an unknown burial.

Volunteers uncovered this concrete headstone and vault cover in Odd Fellows Cemetery during the season’s first clean-up. They lie about ten feet from Lula Dew Wooten‘s grave. The vault cover is unmarked, but the marker bears a very faint inscription that I set forth below as best I can decipher it. The use of a vault cover dates the burial very late in Odd Fellows’ period of activity, i.e. the 1950s or very early 1960’s, which the inscription seems to bear out. 

JACK ED

JULY 16 18 

2 1960

Photo re Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2022.

The resting place of Joseph Batts.

Joseph Batts‘ grave marker is unique in Rest Haven Cemetery. A small metal plaque etched with his name in Gothic script is affixed to a slab of concrete and flanked by his hand-engraved initials. Beneath, a worn inscription notes his birth and death dates, but they are illegible. Without this information, I am unable to identify him specifically.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2021.

The Jacksons’ resting place.

The Clarence Best-carved double headstone of Benjamin and Annie F. Jackson stands over their graves in Rest Haven Cemetery.

——

In the 1900 census of New Bern, Craven County, N.C.: baker Edward Jackson, 58; wife Sophia, 46; sons Benjamin, 10, and George, 7; and nephew Hallie Taylor, 20.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: wagon driver John W. Farmer, 37; wife Edmonia, 33; and children George, 13, Paul, 12, Annie, 9, Mary, 7, and Fannie, 5.

In the 1910 census of New Bern, Craven County, N.C.: baker Edward Jackson, 56; wife Sophia, 54; and children Ida J., 37, seamstress — dressmaking; Benjamin, 21, butcher at meat market; George, 19, delivery boy for retail dry goods store; and Garfield, 22.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: express wagon driver John Farmer, 48; wife Edmonia, 41, a laundress; and children George, 23, factory laborer; Paul, 19, hotel servant; Annie, 18; Mary, 16; Fannie, 14; Arthur, 8; Melton, 6; and William, 4.

On 21 August 1917, Ben H. Jackson, 28, of Wilson, son of Ed and Sophia Jackson of New Bern, married Annie Lee Farmer, 26, of Wilson, daughter of John Wash and Edmonia Farmer, at the residence of the bride’s father. Walter Maynor applied for the license, and Presbyterian minister H.B. Taylor performed the ceremony in the presence of Emily M. Daniels, Cornelia E. Maynor, and S.B. Thomas. [Note that the officiant, Halley B. Taylor, was Benjamin Jackson’s first cousin and had lived with the Jackson family in New Bern at the time of the 1900 census.]

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Vick Street, barber Ben Jackson, 30, and wife Annie, 28.

In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jackson Benjamin H barber W M Hines h 721 e Green

In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jackson Benj H (c) barber h 721 e Green

In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jackson Annie (c) cook h 721 e Green

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jackson Benj H (c; Annie) barber Wm Hines h 1212 Washington

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1212 Washington Street, owned and valued at $1500, barber Benjiman Jackson, 39; wife Annie, 38; and daughter Devaria, 4.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1212 Washington Street, paying $10/month in rent, Robert Shaw, 30, presser at Moore’s Cleaners; wife Bertha, 25; and roomer Ben Jackson, 50, barber. [What happened here? Where was Annie Jackson? If Ben Jackson was a roomer, who actually owned the house at 1212? I suspect this is an enumerator error.]

Benjamin Harrison Jackson died 24 October 1951 in Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 9 November 1890 in New Bern, N.C., to Edward Jackson and Sophie [maiden name unknown]; lived at 1212 E. Washington Street; and worked as a barber.

Annie Farmer Jackson died 8 February 1983 in New York.

Photograph by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2021.

The mystery of Julia Boyette Bailey’s grave.

Julia wife of Moses Bailey Born July 25, 1832 Died May 23, 1869 A tender mother and faithful friend

Brian Grawburg shared this astonishing photograph recently — the headstone of Julia Bailey, who was born enslaved in 1832 and died in 1869, just four years after the Civil War ended. Her grave marker, beautifully and professionally engraved, may mark the earliest African-American burial I have seen in Wilson County, and its discovery was serendipitous. While kayaking on Buckhorn Reservoir, Al Letchworth spotted a broken headstone in the water. Getting out to explore further, he found Julia Bailey’s marker. Letchworth mentioned his discovery to his friend Guy Pittman, who knew of Grawburg’s project documenting obscure and forgotten Wilson County cemeteries. Julia Bailey was almost certainly buried in a family cemetery, and it seems tragically likely that at least part of that cemetery was lost in 1974, when Contentnea Creek was dammed to create the reservoir, or in 1999, when a new dam was constructed downstream.

What do we know about Julia Bailey and her family?

A 1921 Wilson Daily Times piece about the death of her son Nathan Boyette offers another fortuitous glimpse of her life:

Nathan Boyette “was born on September 18th, 1850 and was a slave belonging to Jimmy Boyette living about twelve miles from Wilson in the Old Field Township. At the close of the Civil War Uncle Nathan was a husky boy just fifteen years of age. He had seven brothers and three sisters, one sister being older, Nathan being the next oldest child. His mother was name[d] Julie, and evidently had a very strong character. She could read and write, and she taught Nathan and the other children to read and write. …”

The 1860 slave schedule of Oldfields township, Wilson County, lists James Boyett as the owner of eight enslaved people: a 28 year-old woman, who was likely Julia; six boys aged 19, 12, 9, 7, 4 and 2; and a girl aged 8. The nine year-old boy was probably Nathan. (Or perhaps the 7 year-old, with the 8 year-old girl his older sister.) [Like most people enslaved in small units, Julia’s husband Moses Bailey had a different owner and lived apart from his family.]

On 15 August 1866, Moses Bailey and Julia Boyett registered their 15-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace.

Per her headstone (which was probably placed long after her death, see Lula Wooten’s similar marker), Julia Bailey died in 1869.

In the 1870 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farm laborer Moses Baily, 51, and children Allen, 15, John, 13, Patrick, 10, Yamah, 5, and William, 8. [Next door: white farmer Neeham Bailey, 67, and wife Peninah, 38. The 1860 slave schedule lists Needham Bailey with four slaves, but none of an age to be Moses. However, in 1860 Levi Bailey, Needham’s close neighbor, owned a 40 year-old man among his eleven slaves.]

In the 1870 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: Alfred Rice, 40; wife Amy, 30; and son Thomas, 13, with Gray Baily, 24, all farm laborers. Next door: Violet Baily, 45, and Isabel Baily, 12. [“Emma” Bailey and Alfred Rice also registered a cohabitation in 1866. Gray Bailey was born to Moses Bailey’s earlier relationship with Isabel Bailey, and it is likely that Amy was his sister. Mary Bailey, daughter of Moses Bailey and Hannah Bailey, who married Hilliard Bailey in 1868, may have been their half-sister.]

On 21 April 1870, John Boykin, son of Rose Boykin, married Dicy Baily, daughter of Moses and Julia Baily, in Wilson County.

On 5 January 1871, Moses Bailly, son of Benja Bryant and Juda Jones, married Isabella Renfrow, daughter of Mingo Hinnant and Patsy Deans, at Moses Bailey’s in Wilson County.

On 24 December 1875, Allen Baily, 20, married Harriet Taylor, 16, in Oldfields township. Minister Elisha Horton [early pastor of Rocky Branch Church of Christ] preformed the ceremony in the presence of H. Powell, R. Jones, and Gray Bailey.

On 5 March 1879, Patrick Baily, 21, married Atsey Sanders, 19, of Nash County, in Wilson County.

In the 1880 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Moses Bailey, about 60; wife Isabel, about 45; and son William, 15.

Also, in the 1880 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: Allen Baily, 22; wife Harriett, 21; and children Cora A., 4, Lucy A., 4, and Dortch, 1, sharing a household with Randall Hinnant, 33; wife Angeline, 26; and children J. Thomas, 10, James H., 8, Lilly Ann, 6, Roscoe F., 4, and Hugh N., 7 months.

Also, in the 1880 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: laborer Patrick Bailey, 19; wife Atsy, 20; and son Arthur M., 6 months.

Also, in the 1880 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer John Boykin, 26; wife Dicey, 25; and children Julian, 8, Rear Ann, 7; John C., 5; W. Brogan, 3; and Sallie A., 9 months.

On 23 February 1882, Nathan Boyett, 31, of Wayne County, son of Moses Bayley and Julia Bayley of Wilson County, married Charity Crow, 27, of Wayne County, daughter of Jorden and Jane Crow of Wayne County, in Mount Olive, Brogden township, Wayne County, North Carolina.

Gray Bailey died 7 July 1914 in Oldfields township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 10 March 1845 to Moses Bailey and Vilet Bailey; and was buried at New Vester.

Dicy Boykin died 6 October 1929 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 66 years old; was born in Wilson County to William Bailey and Julia [last name unknown]; was married to John Boykin; and worked as a housewife. Daughter Sudie Woodard, Smithfield, was informant.

Nathan Boyett died 2 June 1937 in Wilson, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 15 February 1850 in Wilson County to Moses Bailey and Julia Boyett; was married to Emma Boyett; lived at 115 West Walnut Street, Wilson; and worked as a laborer.

——

While researching the lives of Julia Boyette Bailey, her husband, and children, I came across this Notice of Intention to Disinter, Remove and Reinter Graves published several times in the spring of 1998 by R. Ward Sutton, a Rocky Mount, N.C., funeral director:

Wilson Daily Times, 15 April 1998.

This notice raises more questions than it answers.

What it tells us:

  • the cemetery was located on property then owned by Sudie Bailey Sullivan, who inherited said property from Levi T. Bailey. (Note, per the referenced deed, in 1974 this property was subject to a condemnation action and is shown on the Buckhorn Reservoir Land Acquisition Map filed in Plat Book 13 at pages 73-76);
  • Levi T. Bailey (1873-1931) was the grandson of the Levi Bailey whom I identified above as the likely owner of Moses Bailey;
  • of approximately 18-20 graves in the cemetery, only two were marked — those of Julia Bailey and Andrew W. Tarell;
  • Andrew W. Terrell was a son of Alonzo and Jane Cooke Terrell, who were both born in Wake County, N.C., and settled in what is now the Buckhorn area before 1880;
  • all of the graves in this cemetery were to be removed and reinterred in Bailey Cemetery, Bailey, Nash County, N.C. (about 5 miles north);
  • a record of the reburials was to be filed in the Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.

What it doesn’t:

  • did this cemetery start as a burial ground for enslaved people that was turned over to the Bailey family as a family cemetery?
  • why was Andrew Terrell buried there in 1905, rather than in New Vester Missionary Baptist Church’s cemetery, where his father Alonzo was buried in 1918 and several other Terrells later? (Though New Vester’s roots date to the slavery era, perhaps it did not establish its cemetery until much later. The earliest markers bear 1911 as a death date.)
  • is Andrew Terrell’s marker the broken stone that first drew Al Letchworth’s attention?
  • digital records for Bailey Cemetery show graves for neither Bailey nor Terrell/Tarell, and why was Bailey cemetery chosen at all (rather than, say, New Vester)? Bailey Cemetery was white-only for nearly all of its existence and is in Nash County.
  • the cemetery is on land condemned in 1974 for the first Buckhorn Dam, and disinterment was necessitated by the expansion of Buckhorn Reservoir in 1999, but if Julia Boyette and Andrew Terrell’s graves were removed, why are their headstones still in the woods?