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. It looks largely unused, however a 1992 archeological
survey confirmed that there are many graves in this area, probably the unmarked
graves of settlers killed by 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 as 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 or wild animals. Most of the graves are facing east so those buried had wanted
to be facing the sun when they arose on “Judgement Morn”.
The Old Burying Ground is owned by
the Town of Beaufort, and is maintained and managed by the Beaufort Historical
Association.
1. Capt. Josiah Pender (1819-1864). Led a group of fifty men who seized Fort Macon a month before NC seceded
from the Union in 1861. An improvised Confederate flag was raised in place of
the national colours. Confederate forces held the fort for a year and eleven
days until it was retaken by Union General Ambrose Burnside (our mate Sideburns)
in April 1862.
2. Susanna Thomas (1771-1808). The shape of Susanna’s
stone represents a gate – the gateway to heaven – a very popular style. The
inscription demonstrates the old use of the letter ‘f’ for ‘s’ in describing her
as “consort” (spouse) to Captain Thomas.
3. Josiah B.
Davis, MD (1831- 1901) and son of George (1874-1937). Practiced medicine in the
Apothecary Shop now on the Historic Site. Both doctors lived across the street
from the Old Burying Ground.
7. Reverend
Bridges Arendell (1782-1850). One of six of the Ann Street Methodist Church
ministers buried here. He died in Morehead City, because there was no cemetery
there, he was brought back here.
8. Josiah Bell (1767- 1843). With his wife Mary Fisher,
Josiah lived on Turner Street in the yellow house on Historic Site. Like his
grandfather, Joseph, he was a leader in church and civic affairs.
9. Nathan Fouller (1750-1800). His ancestors are believed to have come
to America on the Mayflower. He was honoured in 1987 by the Daughters of the
American Revolution.
14. Sergeant George Johnson (1800’s). A member of the
35th U.S. Coloured Infantry (U.S..C.I.) George was one of 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.
17. Robert 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. Many
of these were captured by Confederate forces. It was discovered that twenty two
of them had previously fought for the other side, they were hanged as deserters.
This had a profound effect on the morale on the other members of these
regiments. Most of them spent the rest of the war in the relative security of
Beaufort and Fort Macon.
18. Colonel 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 in 1788.
19. British Officer (1700’s). The grave of an officer in
His Majesty King George III service, he died on board ship in the port of
Beaufort. Not wanting to be buried “with his boots off” he was buried standing
up "in rebel's ground" 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.”
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 in this shipwreck of January 1886 are buried together here. It is
said this tragedy led to the establishment of the Cape Lookout Lifesaving
Station in 1887.
21. James W. Hunt
(1794-1848). James came from Franklin County in the war of 1812 as Surgeon, U.S.
Army. He stayed, was active in public affairs and had the unusual distinction of
marrying (for a second time), making his will and dying all on the same
day.
22. Captain Otway Burns (1775-1850). Historians say that
Otway was one of NC's greatest naval heroes in the War of 1812. He received
Letters of Marque and Reprisal from the United States, which only had 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 NC 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 NC is named
after him and his statue stands in the centre of the towns square.
23. Gabriel Plot
(1800’s). The tragic story of the Gabriel family is told in the inscription on
the grave of a young mother who died following childbirth:
“Leaves have their
time to fall
And flowers 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 in death.
24. Girl in the Rum Barrel. This is the grave of a little girl buried in a
barrel of rum. In the 1700’s the English family including an infant daughter
settled in 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 bring the girl safely home. She died at sea on
the return journey and would have been buried at sea but her father could not
bear to break his promise. With no ice or means of preserving his daughters
body, he bought a barrel of rum from the captain, placed her in it and brought
her home for burial. Local children and visitors alike keep her company with
toys and trinkets.
25. Captain Christian Wulff
(1810-1856). This unusual looking stone was sent over from Denmark by the
devoted sister to mark the grave of Captain Wulff of the Royal Danish Navy, who
had sickened and died of yellow fever. Ladies of the town had nursed him to no
avail and had corresponded with his sister. She herself was lost when the
Austria bringing her from Copenhagen to visit his grave was burned at
sea. Now that is a bad luck story.
26. Nancy Manny French (1821-1886). Her story has become a local
legend. 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
Arizona and became a chief justice. Meanwhile the postmaster in Beaufort, a
friend of Nancy’s father, intercepted letters between the two. His conscience
drove him, before his death to tell 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. The kind of story that makes for an incredibly sad
and moving film starring Bette Davis.
27. Captain James Lente Manney (1827-1889). 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 study 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 New Bern
in 1864, and served with Lee's army at Petersburg, Virginia 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 symbolise that his life was cut short.
