PERQUIMANS COUNTY, NC - CEMETERIES - "Lost" Cemeteries On Or Off Craney Island Road ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Janie Stallings Hill ==================================================================== "LOST" CEMETERIES ON OR OFF CRANEY ISLAND ROAD (#1212) Copyright (c) 2000 by Janie Stallings Hill. This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives. Craney Island Road is located in the northern part of Perquimans County in the Up River section and runs off Turnpike Road (#1001) near the upper part of the Perquimans River. Once many families lived down this road. Most of the information on these cemeteries was furnished by Asa Stallings who has lived on Craney Island Road all of his 88 years. He remembers some family cemeteries that are have been lost to cultivation or overgrown into woods. CEMETERY (Black) The cemetery was less than one fourth mile from Turnpike Road on the Craney Island Road, just across the Cypress Run on the right, and was up a lane going to the home place of the late James T. Winslow. There was a black cemetery not far from the road on the left side of the lane. Asa Stallings recalls his mother saying she remembers people being buried there. It grew up in woods and then was taken into cultivation. INDIAN CEMETERY About three fourths of a mile down Craney Island Road, just east of the Juniper Run, on a hill on the right side of the road, was an Indian Cemetery. This was what Asa Stallings had been told by generations before him and he remembers a large rock there many years ago, but it has since disappeared. HOLLOWELL CEMETERY The Hollowell Cemetery was about 1.3 miles on Craney Island Road from Turnpike Road. It was just past the Elias Stallings home place and where Craney Island Road turns into a narrow sandy road. It is on the left side of the lane going to the Stallings Cemetery. Asa Stallings was told there were Hollowells, Riddicks, and a baby of James Stallings buried there. It was a large cemetery. It is a wooded area and there were several lightwood stakes marking graves. Hollowells owned the land before the James Stallings bought it. WILLIAM SEXTON CEMETERY Now under cultivation the cemetery was located on the Craney Island Road about 1.7 miles from the Turnpike Road. The cemetery was just across an iron bridge which was placed there in recent years due to the draining of the Dismal Swamp. Asa Stallings says he was told that a large water oak tree that was once there marked the head of his grave. Sexton was living in that area at the time of his death. SKINNER CEMETERY On further down the sandy portion of Craney Island Road in a northwest direction on a sand hill was the Skinner Cemetery. This cemetery is now under cultivation. The Skinners owned this land. WHITE CEMETERY (BLACK) About a hundred yards west of the Skinner Cemetery is the White Cemetery on a ridge in the woods beside the Perquimans River Swamp, and near the end of Craney Island Road. The earlier Whites were freed slaves and owned the land. There are supposedly several generations of Whites buried there. There are no stones, but railroad irons and other pieces of iron mark the graves. Asa Stallings remembers Willis White, Amy White, Lace White, and Jane White being buried there. Jane White was the last one buried there. There were cemeteries down the old Long Swamp Road which ran across the Perquimans River Swamp from Craney Island Road to Sandy Cross Road (#1204) Several families lived on the road, and it was a much traveled road. The Long Swamp Road was made impassable by a large landowner who cut a big ditch through it trying to drain the Dismal Swamp. The road is now grown up in woods. NOAH STALLINGS CEMETERY Asa Stallings was told that his great, grandfather Noah Stallings and his wife, Elizabeth were buried off the Long Swamp Road. Elizabeth was supposedly buried beside the road and later her body was moved to the back of the field where her husband Noah was buried. Asa remembers his father showing him the hole were Elizabeth was first buried and the cemetery where Noah and Elizabeth were buried. JONES CEMETERY (Black) Across the road from the Noah Stallings' farm was where one of the Hayward Jones' children (black) was buried. Asa Stallings remembers a rail fence around the grave. There were possibly other people buried there.