H-44

CEMETERY SERVES AS REMINDER OF 'SELF-CONTAINMENT'

By DEDE NORUNGOLO. March-2005
Special to the Daily Journal / Daily Messenger

NEWRY - Imagine an entire community constructed for the sole purpose of reaping 
the rewards of a new industry. Imagine living in a village where the need to 
leave the community is rare because all basic needs could be met within walking 
distance from home.

Established in 1893, the village of Newry was this Utopian society where workers 
were employed by the Courtenay Manufacturing Company and provided housing by the 
textile firm. The then-idyllic neighborhood, which was founder by William 
Ashmead Courtenay, who named the region after his ancestral home in Ireland,
became home to former farmers and others seeking the promise of a new way of 
life.

For  Newry native Lori McJunkin, 33, the village continues to be a central part 
of her life despite the fact she resides in Walhalla now. Her maiden name,
Green, resonates in the still somewhat self-contained community of Seneca near 
Clemson.

"When I come to the 'hills,' I can visit all my family," McJunkin said, pointing 
to the homes of her "granny," mother and aunt. She also said her sister resides 
in Newry, not far from her mom's home. "I was born in '71... we went into the 
mill when I was very little and ran all over the place, all over these hills. I 
knew everybody and never got bored."

With her daughter, Carrie, McJunkin is quick to accept the quest of locating the 
community cemetery, which was reportedly established' in 1895. McJunkin recalled 
first coming up on the tombstones years ago as a child, scouring a hillside not 
far from the mill.

After an uphill climb through quite a bit of trees, markers dating back to the 
early 1800s come into view, scattered like quartz rocks strewn over the ground.

"Loggers were up here and destroyed many of the tombstones," said McJunkin as 
she searched for a distinctive marker she can never forget. The marker bears a 
three-dimensional rose draping down from the top of the headstone for the infant 
son of Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Norton, who was born and died the same day in 1906.

For her teenage daughter, the hillside search provided her an opportunity to 
become a historian of sorts, as she read information dating back more than 200 
years about children who never got to enjoy the safe streets of Newry. According   
to historical accounts, a smallpox epidemic killed many of the village's chil-
dren in the late 1800s. Information obtained at the Oconee Heritage Center in 
Walhalla indicates there was a smallpox outbreak in 1910 and in 1918 Newry was 
faced with an influenza outbreak.

Not only have logging efforts damaged the cemetery, but trees ravaged by 
Southern Pine Beetles fail to protect the remaining visible tombstones.    
GenWeb Tombstone Project documents state that "three out of four graves
appear to be that of children" and as many as 30 sites are marked with field 
stones.

Two cemeteries are listed as existing in Newry - God's Acre/Graveyard Hill 
Cemetery and the Newry Memorial Garden, also known as the Courtenay Memorial 
Garden.

This information was made available online through the Oconee County S.C. GenWeb
Tombstone Project.