Finding Buster's Cemetery

Bing Images

Deserted tombstones,

Bleak and cold,

Who knows what stories

Could be told

Of people now so long removed .
Only hints and whispers  fold

Around us as we think,

“So old,   so old,    so old.”

                             Shirley Taylor

Our Genealogy Group in Belmont has taken an interest in a deserted cemetery in Gaston County, NC.  One of our members, I’ll call him “Buster,” found this deserted cemetery after years of investigating among his family members, and much searching out places around the county.  Some people would remember it being “somewhere near . . . ,” or maybe “over by . . . ,” etc., but never an exact site. 

In the process, as he explored around the county, he found many old deserted cemeteries which were in deplorable condition, really, really sad condition.  He found one cemetery where there were many open graves, big holes in the ground!  Certainly there had been things taken.  He was told by the person showing him around that there were groups of people in the area involved in devil worship and such who desecrated these places for bones and tombstones.  He found where a campfire had been made close by, probably used in some ceremony.  It was sickening to think that the remains of someone’s relatives had been subjected to this horror.

Bing Images

But, finally, at a reunion,  he found a very old aunt who remembered going to a funeral many years ago, at an old cemetery above Dallas, NC, on old route 321, and he went searching.  After much tromping around in high weeds and thick brush, over rutted ground, picking up beggerlice, and ticks, he found the site.  It was completely overgrown, but there was a small stone wall surrounding it.  He found broken headstones belonging to his great grand uncle (a brother to his great grandfather,) his wife and two small children who had not lived long.  The headstones were broken and he had to piece them back together to find the names and dates.  He is certain that there are many others of his family also buried there – it is not a tiny cemetery. 

He came back to our group excited about his find.  He tried to tell

us where it was, there were no obvious entrances or drive way, and it was not visible from the road.   “It was in a field, behind a farmhouse, up a hill,  just a little beyond Little Long Creek,.”  On old Hiwy 321. 

This was all we had to work with but we jumped right in.  I found it on Genwebnc.  It was a recorded cemetery with the proper  name.   The cemetery was named for his family.  But even when it had been abstracted and listed years ago in 1985,  only a couple of stones besides our four were recorded.  It must have been rejected by the public a long time ago.  It was recorded that a small trailer park had once been nearby, and it was thought those children had played there, destroying the stones.  This listing on Genweb had the same directions to get there that we were working with.  One and a half miles north of Dallas, 165 yards beyond Little Long Creek, up a hill, to the right, behind a farm house.  We had our cemetery!

At our meeting Jim pulled up the site from Genweb for our group to get all this information, and we began brainstorming on what to do and how to do it.   Our brainstorming sessions can really become. . . shall I use the word “energetic” to say the least . . .and we do

Richard's Map

really have FUN!   Richard went to the GIS maps and located it.  He layered over several different grids and was able to find the correct property lines, and he enclosed it with a bright red border line, with the cemetery plotted and the land owner noted.   I emailed Robert Carpenter (see the note below about Robert’s September class) who knows EVERYTHING about Lincoln and Gaston County history, and he went to a friend of his who works on abstracting abandoned cemeteries and is an expert in this area, and he went to a friend in the County Tax Department  (I told you it was a GOOD thing to network!), and he came back to us with the present land owner who lives in this area.  It verified the name Richard had found.

Buster is Thrilled!  After his years of searching, we accomplished this for him in two weeks.  He will be contacting this person to get permission to go on the land.  He has gathered up all this information to take to a family reunion which is coming up this fall.  He wants to organize the whole family to join his project to clean up this cemetery and give it back the dignity it deserves.  He is thinking about what kind of sign or marker should go there to recognize the history of this place.  With permission from the County Commissioners, it is possible to remove the stones to another cemetery where a lot of his family is buried, but if the land cleans up nicely he might just leave the gravestones there.  I'll keep you updated.

Bing Images

I told in my blog  We Came From The West  how, when I began working in genealogy so many years ago, my cousin Sandy took me all over Union County finding all the graves.  My great grandfather Ambrose Pinckney House, his wife and family, were all buried at Old Bethel Methodist Church Cemetery in Union County, just above Monroe, NC, on Hiwy 74.  It is not right on the highway, you must go up a short road to find it.  The church had long been moved to another site, leaving the cemetery there by itself, looking forlorn and lonely.  When I first saw it, it was completely grown over with brambles.  We could hardly find the stones.  It was awful and sad.  I didn’t live there, so I couldn’t do anything.  But looking at my deserted, grown-over great grandfather's site, I was ashamed.   Later my sister sent me a newspaper clipping with a picture and an article about a woman who had cleaned up the place (it looked better, but still not GOOD,) it was too big a job for her alone and she was asking for help in keeping it trimmed.  Now I see on Find A Grave a picture of the cemetery cleaned and neat and wonderful looking.  A sign notes that now two people are responsible for keeping up the cemetery  – Doug and

Old Bethel
Find A Grave  images

Andy House – they would be cousins of mine.  It makes me proud to know someone has taken up the duty to respect our ancestors.  If I lived nearby I would help.

Think about this matter.  Go find your deserted ones.  Clean up their place.  Give them the dignity they deserve.  And you will receive good karma.

Remember

NOTES:  Thanks to Robert and Terry and Karen for all their HELP.  In the article above notice how we used our GENEALOGY TECHNOLOGY and our networking to get the job done.  Use everything you have.

I found a wonderful website which gives all the official rules and regulations for dealing with old deserted graves in North Carolina.  It is from the website of the Olde Mecklenburg Genealogical Society   

(http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncomgs/).

Find the tombstone article at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncomgs/tombstone.pdf

___________________________________________________

Everything is now working smoothly with the blog.  You will find all  postings listed in the "archive" section above.  Still pondering the mysteries we all pursue in our research, meandering through my mind where whispers of long passed relatives reach out to me, and finally getting down to the "nitty-gritty" hard work involved in this endeavor called GENEALOGY.  Hope you find it interesting and come back to me if you have comments on these subjects or find some connection in my family lines.  See My Family Lines tab at the top.

____________________________________________________

Robert Carpenter has announced his annual class for Beginning Genealogy at Gaston College in Dallas.  Starting Thursday Sept. 19 through Nov. 21, 2013 (10 sessions) from 7 - 9 p.m. on Thursday nights.  WHO SHOULD SIGN UP?  Any person interested in learning about genealogical research regardless of your level of experience.  Emphasis will involve research strategies, introducing students to various sources, deciphering documents, and will conclude with a trip to the State Archives in Raleigh.  Anyone with questions about signing up should contact Robert  by email at  rcarpenter2@charter.net.  As one who has been there, I can tell you this is a marvelous class for beginners and intermediates.  Robert is considered to be one of the foremost historians for Lincoln and Gaston Counties, and his head is full of wonderful genealogical "stuff!"  He is currently a professor of history at Belmont Abbey College.

SIGN UP by contacting Gaston College at 704-922-6251 or 704-922-6353 or Email Beth Hollars at hollars.beth@gaston.edu.  They are busy running all over the school so be persistent in calling.  If you leave your number, they will come back to you.

Robert has an Advanced Genealogy Class for 10 sessions starting late in January each year.  This class is so popular that previous students state that "they have failed the class" so that they can return each year, and there is a bunch who return each season to  experience the class again.  Take if from one who has "failed" over and over in order to take the class again.  And I’ll be there again in January 2014!

 ________________________________________________________

You can see we have great FUN in our genealogy forum every Tuesday in Belmont, NC.  If you live nearby, come join us from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., at the J.Paul Ford Recreation Center at 37 E. Woodrow Ave.  We will be taking a summer break for the months of August and September, but will be back in October.  Each week we explore a different aspect of genealogy research including storage possibilities, story telling/sharing, genealogy technology, brickwall help, etc .     You can find us at: http://belmontgenealogyclub.blogspot.com/ .  Of course, when a member in the group needs help like Buster, or if someone new comes along with a problem, a "brickwall" or such, we drop what we are doing and all jump in  to explore with them.  

______________________________________________

Genealogy Group  in Gastonia, NC.  Meets the first Thursday of the month in the NC History Room, second floor, at the main Gaston Public Library on Garrison Street in Gastonia.  Meeting time 7:00 - 8:30.  Linda Klocker who has had previous groups in Belmont and in Mountain Island Lake will be leading this new venture.  Whether you are a beginner or an experienced searcher, come meet the group.

______________________________________________________________________