Carteret County, NC - Old Burying Grounds Gravesites of Interest

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Beaufort Historical Association

"Gravesites of Interest"

The following information is contained in the brochure "Old Burying 
Ground" at the Beaufort Historical Association, 100 Block Turner 
Street, Beaufort, NC 28516-0363
800-575-7483
www.beauforthistoricsite.org

Old Burying Ground, Beaufort, North Carolina
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Established 1709

The Old Burying Ground grew up around the building used for sessions of 
the Court and for reading the service of the Anglican Church in St. 
John's Parish. The cemetery was deeded to the town of Beaufort in 1731 
by Nathaniel Taylor following the first survey of the town.

The northwest corner is the oldest part of the cemetery. The corner 
looks empty, however a 1992 archeological survey confirmed that there 
are many graves in this area. It is probable that some of the unmarked 
graves contain victims of the Indian wars whose skulls were cleft with 
tomahawks of hostile Coree and Neusiok Indians. It is recorded that in 
September, 1711 the area had "been depopulated by the late Indian War 
and Massacre."

The earliest graves were marked with shell, brick or wooden slabs, 
because stone markers had to be brought from afar by wooden sailing 
vessels. Characteristic of this period are vaulted graves bricked over 
in an attempt to protect them from high water and wild animals.

Most of the graves are facing east. The reason is simple. Those buried 
had wanted to be facing the sun when they arose on "Judgment Morn."

The Old Burying Ground is owned by the Town of Beaufort and is 
maintained and managed by the Beaufort Historical Association.
 
Gravesites of Interest

(1)  Captain Josiah Pender (1819-1864) - Led a group of fifty men who 
seized Fort Macon a month before North Carolina seceded from the Union 
in 1861. An improvised Confederate flag was raised in place of the 
national colors. Confederate forces held the fort for a year and eleven 
days until it was retaken by Union General Ambrose E. Burnside in 
April, 1862.

(2)  Susanna Thomas (1771-1808) - Note the stone's design. The face and 
back are flat, the edges straight. The shape of the stone represents a 
gate - the gateway to heaven. The style was very popular and is quite 
old. The inscription demonstrated the old use of the letter "f" for "s" 
in describing Susanna as "consort" (spouse) to a Captain Thomas.

(3)  Josiah B. Davis, M.D. (1831-1901) and son George Davis, M.D. 
(1874-1937) - Practiced medicine in the Apothecary Shop now on the 
Beaufort Historic Site. Both doctors lived across the street from the 
Old Burying Ground.

(4)  Vienna Dill (1863-1865) - This child died of yellow fever and was 
buried in a glass-top casket. Legend tells us the grave was dug up by 
vandals and the body was seen to be intact. But when they opened the 
casket, the body disintegrated.

(5)  Samuel Leffers (1736-1822) - Early schoolmaster who with his wife 
Sarah, owned the Leffers Cottage now on the Historic Site. They also 
lived in the Hammock House, Beaufort's oldest house. Samuel wrote his 
own epitaph:
"Praises on tombstones are but idly spent,
A man's good name is his best monument."

(6)  Pierre Henry (1812-1887) and Annie Henry (1816-1904) - African 
Americans who were leaders in the education of emancipated slaves and 
their children at the Washburn Seminary. He was born free during the 
period of slavery. The school was one of many established in the South 
by the Congregational Churches of the North following the Civil War. It 
was adjacent to St. Stephen's Congregational Church.

(7)  Reverend Bridges Arendell (1782-1850) - One of six Ann Street 
Methodist ministers buried here. At the time of his death he lived in 
Morehead City. Because there was no cemetery there he was brought to 
the Old Burying Ground for burial.

(8)  Josiah Bell (1767-1843) - With his wife, Mary Fisher, Bell lived 
on Turner Street in the yellow house on the Historic Site. Like his 
grandfather, Joseph Bell, he was a leader in church and civic affairs.

(9)  Nathan Fuller (1750-1800) - His ancestors are believed to have 
come to America on the Mayflower. He was honored in 1987 by the 
Daughters of the American Revolution.

(10)  Captain John Sabiston (1800's) - Died near Charleston, SC and was 
brought home by his crew. People gathered by the wharf at the foot of 
Turner Street as his body was taken off his ship. They followed as it 
was taken on a bier through the dark streets of town to the graveyard 
and lowered into the readied grave by torch light. Because embalming 
was unknown in Beaufort until the 20th century, it was necessary to 
perform burials quickly.   

(11)  Captain John Hill (1817-1879) - Sailed the seas. His son had an 
inscription cut on his stone that could well apply to others in this 
seaside graveyard:
"The form that fills this silent grave
Once tossed on ocean's rolling wave,
But in a port securely fast,
He's dropped his anchor here at last."

(12)  Jechonias Willis (1838-1862) - A Beaufort man killed when Fort 
Macon was taken by the Federals. Beaufort members of the garrison were 
brought home on a flat and released on parole. The body of Willis was 
brought at the same time. General Burnside himself stood at the wharf 
witnessing the joyful reunion between soldiers and families. Then, as 
the pine box containing the body of Willis was claimed by sorrowing 
loved ones, sympathetic tears rolled down the general's cheeks.

(13)  Captain Matthew Gooding (1830-1863) - As the pilot of the 
blockade runner Nashville, he ably ran the Union blockade of Beaufort 
Harbor during the first year of the Civil War.

(14)  Sergeant George Johnson (1800's) - A member of the 35th United 
States Colored Infantry (U.S.C.I.) Johnson was one of almost 200,000 
black soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War. He was 
seriously wounded but survived the war. Many former slaves were anxious 
to prove that they deserved freedom and equality by fighting alongside 
the white soldiers. By the end of the war, almost a quarter of the 
Union Army was made up of black soldiers.

(15)  Sarah Gibbs (d.1792) and Jacob Shepard (d.1773) - Sarah was 
married to Jacob Shepard, a seaman. Jacob's ship went to sea, but never 
returned. He was presumed dead. Later, Sarah married Nathaniel Gibbs 
and had a child with him. After an absence of several years, the 
shipwrecked Jacob Shepard unexpectedly returned to Beaufort to find his 
wife married to another man. The two men agreed that Sarah would remain 
with Gibbs as long as she lived, but must spend eternity at the side of 
Jacob Shepard.

(16)  A.P. (1756) - While 1756 may be the oldest legible date, if not 
the oldest marker, it is certainly not the oldest grave. Chances are 
good that it will never be known just which grave is the oldest. The 
earliest records of the cemetery were kept by the established church, 
the Church of England. During the Revolution, some Anglicans loyal to 
King George III fled, taking Burying Ground records with them. A.P. is 
possibly Abigail Parker, child of Reuben and Jane Parker.

(17)  Robt. B. Woolard (1800's) - A member of the 1st North Carolina 
Infantry Regiment (Union). Two regiments of volunteers from eastern 
North Carolina joined the Union Army. After many of these North 
Carolinians were captured by Confederate forces, it was discovered that 
22 of them had previously served in the Confederate Army. The 22 were 
hanged by the Confederates as deserters. This had a profound impact on 
the morale of other members of the two union regiments. Most of them 
spent the rest of the War in the relative security of Beaufort and Fort 
Macon.

(18)  Col. William Thomson (1732-1802) - The highest ranking officer 
from Beaufort to serve in the American Revolution lies in a grave 
marked by a simple stone. Declared "the most influential merchant of 
his day," he served the town, county and province in many offices and 
was a delegate to the Provincial Congress at Halifax (1776) and to the 
Constitutional Convention at Hillsborough (1788).

(19)  British Officer (1700's) - The grave of an officer in His 
Majesty's Navy who died on board ship in the port of Beaufort. Not 
wanting to be buried "with his boots off" he was buried standing up in 
full uniform:
"Resting 'neath a foreign ground,
Here stands a sailor of Mad George's crown
Name unknown, and all alone,
Standing the Rebel's Ground."
Brantley

(20)  "Crissie Wright" Common Grave - "Cold as the night the 'Crissie 
Wright' went ashore" is still heard around Beaufort. The sailors who 
froze to death after the wreck of that ship in January, 1886 are buried 
together in this grave. It is said this tragedy led to the establishment 
of the Cape Lookout Lifesaving Station in 1887.

(21)  James W. Hunt (1794-1848) - Came from Franklin County in the War 
of 1812 as Surgeon, U.S. Army. He remained, was active in public 
affairs, and had the unusual distinction of marrying (a second time), 
making his will and dying on the same day.   

(22)  Captain Otway Burns (1775-1850) - Historians say he was one of 
North Carolina's greatest naval heroes in the War of 1812. He received 
Letters of Marque and Reprisal from the United States, which had only a 
small navy. He sailed from Nova Scotia to South America plundering 
British ships. It is said he captured cargo worth more than $2,000,000 
on one trip alone. His tomb is surmounted by a cannon taken from his 
privateer, Snapdragon. After the war, Captain Burns was a member of the 
North Carolina Legislature. Later, a grateful state made him light-ship 
keeper near Portsmouth. He died there and was brought by sharpie to 
Beaufort for burial. The town of Burnsville, in the mountains of North 
Carolina, was named for Otway Burns and a statute of him stands in the 
center of that townÕs square.

(23)  Gabriel Plot (1800's) - The tragic story of the Gabriel family is 
told in the inscription on the grave of the young mother who died 
following childbirth:
"Leaves have their time to fall
And flowers to wither at the 
North wind's breath
And stars to set...but all,
Thou has all seasons, for thine own,
O Death"
Her baby soon followed her in death.

(24)  Girl in Barrel of Rum - Here is the grave of a girl buried in a 
barrel of rum. In the 1700s an English family, including an infant 
daughter, came to Beaufort. The girl grew up with a desire to see her 
homeland, and finally persuaded her mother to allow her to make the 
voyage. Her father promised his wife he would return the girl safely. 
The girl enjoyed her visit to London, but died on the voyage home. She 
would have been buried at sea, but her father could not bear to break 
his promise. He purchased a barrel of rum from the captain, placed her 
body in it, and brought it to Beaufort for burial.

(25)  Captain Curistian Wulff (1810-1856) - An unusual looking stone 
was sent over from Denmark by a devoted sister to mark the grave of 
Captain Wulff of the Navy, who had sickened and died of yellow fever in 
Beaufort in 1856. Ladies of the town had nursed Capt. Wulff to no avail 
and had corresponded with his sister. She herself was lost when the 
Austria, bringing her from Copenhagen to visit the grave, was buried at 
sea.

(26)  Nancy Manney French (1821-1886) - Her story has become legendary. 
Nancy loved Charles French, her tutor. Her father opposed the romance. 
Charles went away to seek his fortune and vowed to return to Nancy. He 
went to the territory of Arizona and became a chief justice. The 
postmaster in Beaufort, a friend of Nancy's father, intercepted the 
correspondence between the two. His conscience drove him, before his 
death, to confess to Nancy what he had done. As an old man, Charles, 
still not able to forget Nancy, returned to Beaufort and found her, 
whose love had never faltered, dying of "consumption". The couple 
married and a few weeks later Nancy died.

(27)  Captain James Lente Manney (1827-1889) - He graduated from 
Columbia Medical College in 1848, but went to California as part of the 
Gold Rush of 1849. He returned to Beaufort, poorer but wiser, to 
practice medicine. He joined the secessionist militia takeover of Fort 
Macon in 1861. Later he became an artillery Company Commander in the 
Confederate Army. Following the Union capture of Fort Macon a year 
later, he was exchanged and returned to the Confederate Army. He 
participated in the attack on New Bern in 1864, and served with Lee's 
army at Petersburg in 1865. After the war he resumed his medical 
practice in Beaufort.

(28)  Lafayette Leecraft, M.D. (1837-1864) - The family of this young 
doctor had the monument made to appear broken to symbolize that his 
life was cut short.