Guilford County, NC - Ai Methodist Memorial Cemetery

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Ai Methodist Memorial Cemetery is located in northwest Guilford County 
at the intersection of NC-68 and Alcorn Road.  It is very near the Old 
Mill of Guilford. If you travel north on NC-68, the cemetery will be on 
the right of the highway, just past the stoplight at Alcorn Road.  An 
old, white, abandoned church sits to the side of the cemetery.
 
Here is the story behind the church, as written by Mary A. Browning in 
the Guilford Genealogist, Winter, 1992:
 
"In the Old Testament, AI (always Haai in Hebrew) was the royal city of 
the Canaanites.  Since it was best known as the place destroyed by Joshua, 
the name, meaning "the heap of ruins," may refer to its later state 
rather than to whatever it was before.  The name is remembered also for 
the fact that Abraham pitched his tent between Ai and Bethel.
 
Is there a symbolic reason in all of that for "Ai" to have been chosen 
as the name for this little country church and graveyard?  One person 
familiar with the church says unequivocally that the name is Biblical.  
But there's another story about it which was related to Helen Booth by 
Mrs. Dorothy P. Anderson (one of the members of the cemetery committe):  
The first grave was dug soon after the Revolutionary War when people were 
travelling through the district.  Among the travellers was a little girl 
named Ai or A.I. who died and was buried in what later became Ai graveyard.
 
The earliest marked grave belongs to Nathan Dillon (1748-1819), and the 
tradition is that he owned the land that the church property stands on.  
I wasn't able to document that tradition, but, based on location, I think 
it's probably true.
 
Ai was one of twenty-four Methodist Protestant churches in Guilford Co.  
Moriah (formerly Methodist Episcopal) was the first in the county to be
reorganized as M.P. in May 1829, but later in that same year Ai, Sandy 
Ridge, Fairfield (formerly Liberty) and Flat Rock churches followed suit.  
In 1830, John Coe was the preacher for the Guilford Circuit, and in 1831 
Alson Gray held that post.  Ai was among churches listed as belonging to 
the denomination in 1831.  Sally Stockard credits the labors of Revs. 
Alson Gray and A.W. Lineberry for building up Bethel, Flat Rock and Ai."
 
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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
Christian McCall - Chinlee89@earthlink.net
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