1812 (NSD1812) in recognition of her leadership in replacing the National Marker at the Deep Water Point Encampment Site, which the hurricane destroyed. Mrs. Gwen Causey, NC Society Parliamentarian and Honorary Vice President National, and treasured friend to so many of us. Gwen presented a program entitled “Unearthing Brunswick County Cemeteries,” which details her near lifetime of experience locating and recording ancestors’ graves.
Gwendolyn Clemmons Causey can trace her lineage on both sides of her family back to before Brunswick County, North Carolina, originated in 1764. Gwen’s historical research began in the 1980s when she and her parents marked 300 abandoned cemeteries in the county by pen and paper, laying the groundwork for the county’s current system, which now recognizes more than 400 abandoned cemeteries. Gwen has said, “I see it as an obligation that I have for the future and future generations… to see that this is preserved for them and to teach them respect for people and for property.”
In 2024, she received the Spirit of 1812 Award from the National Society, Daughters of Florence. The original marker was erected in 2012 to commemorate the large encampment of volunteers from the Cape Fear in recognition of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. Gwen continues to serve as Secretary-Treasurer of the Snap Dragon Chapter of NSD1812.
Below is the summary of Gwen's speech: So happy there is no limit to what you can post on our blog. Plus, now you have all the information from Gwen's speech to refer to.
Looking For Old Grave Sites
Me, My Mother, and the Abandoned Cemetery Survey
It all began in 1978. That year, the North Carolina General Assembly established a committee to study abandoned cemeteries in North Carolina. A coordinator in the Department of Archives and History would guide the volunteer program. The survey would be conducted to determine the number, location, and condition of abandoned cemeteries. A final report was to be presented to the 1981 General Assembly summarizing the results and suggesting recommendations for new legislation that would preserve and protect these abandoned cemeteries. However, the deadline was not met in Brunswick County. It turned out to be a time-consuming project. Our survey was completed in 1983.
What took us so long? Reasons include:
• My fulltime job as a school teacher
• Only had the weekend to visit cemeteries
• Young children
• Recorded all cemeteries we visited
• Size of the county
• Lack of other volunteers
We visited our first cemetery on March 17, 1980. Over the next three years we met lots of interesting people, had some lively conversations, and found our way through dense forests and along farm roads. We met little resistance from neighbors of cemeteries. Once we told them the reason for the survey many would often accompany us to the cemetery and then overwhelm us with stories about the people buried there.
My father took a map of the county and began to make the location of cemeteries that he saw as he traveled the county in his position with the Health Department.
We divided the county into sections and would “be on the road every weekend.” We would stop at every country store and ask if anyone knew of a nearby cemetery. If someone at the next store repeated a location we had already heard about we treated the information as new. We wanted everyone to feel that they had been part of the survey.
Brunswick County is covered in cemeteries from the Horry County border (Tharpe) to Leland (Leland Baptist Church Cemetery) and from the Waccamaw River (Wright Cemetery) to Southport (Old Smithville Burying Grounds).
The closest cemetery is in our own backyard. And the farthest away is located on the banks of the Cape Fear River in Northwest, NC.
We found church graveyards such as Zion United Methodist Church, Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Johnson Chapel AME Zion, New Hope Presbyterian Church.
We found community cemeteries such as Prospect, Galloway West, Forest Lawn.
We found family cemeteries such as Mintz, Coleman, Elvington, and Hankins.
We found cemeteries owned by funeral homes such as Brunswick Memorial Gardens and Cape Fear Cemetery.
We found new family cemeteries such as Law, Clemmons, Russ.
We found cemeteries along the banks of rivers such as Coy Formyduval (Waccamaw), Green Banks (Northwest), Mouth of the Juniper (Waccamaw).
We found cemeteries encroached by farming (Stanaland, Mt. Pisgah).
We found cemeteries with Civil War soldiers (Hezekiah Milliken, Nathan Edwards, Daniel Vereen, Anthony Clemmons, Christopher C. Little and a marker for Captain Oliver E. Mercer who was killed at Gettysburg and whose body is still there.)
We found cemeteries with Revolutionary soldiers such as Simpronius Russ in the Old Burying Grounds in Southport.
We found cemeteries with War of 1812 soldiers such as Samuel Tharpe in the Bethel Cemetery in Southport.
We found cemeteries that had been relocated such as the Drew Cemetery which was moved in March, 1954 from the Sunny Point Army Terminal to a site near Orton Pond.
We found the Skipper Cemetery in Maco where Isaac William Skipper, the assassinated sheriff is buried.
We found cemeteries destroyed by developers (yes, back in the 1980’s this was happening) such as the Phelps on Stone Chimney Road in Supply, NC.
We found, perhaps the most written about cemetery in the county. On Hale Swamp Road is the Gause Family Tomb. Today the family has restored the site and recently PBS Television made a video for a program.
We found cemeteries of historical significance such as Orton, Lilliput and Rice’s Creek.
We found cemeteries known by 2 names such as Lehew/Chapel Hill, Galloway/Swain, Brooks/Parker.
We found cemeteries located on land belonging to timber companies such as Johnson, Gilbert, Potter, Woodside. The forest service personnel were very helpful with locating these cemeteries. Every time a new one was located they would call us immediately.
We found cemeteries that had been encroached upon by neighbors. One family, when informed, reclaimed the cemetery, cleaned it up and made it visible to the public.
We found the County’s Potter’s Field, those moved to the widening of Highway 17, the Catholic Church and the site of Joe Baldwin and the Maco light, graveyards where churches once stood, a row of 24 markers for people moved from a family cemetery to a church graveyard, and graves covered with bricks and seashells.
We found cemeteries of historical significance and abandoned cemeteries where families had come together to reclaim and restore (Beaverdam).
We photographed unusual grave sites and tombstones. Soon, we realized we were going to uncover some pieces of history that had been forgotten. And we were told about some we could never find, such as Ludlum (Ash) Swain on Midway Road.
The cemetery I get the most calls about is the Williams Cemetery near the Lockwood Folly Bridge on Highway 211 headed from Supply to Southport. From the highway it is difficult to see the entire cemetery and it looks like it’s being encroached upon.
The grave markers also reveal the history of an area in a number of ways. Graves have been found in small family plots dating back to the 1700s long before the establishment of area churches and community cemeteries. Several small wooden markers might be for those who died from influenza. In Prospect Community Cemetery there is a row of 9 graves for one family. Located in the Smithville Burying Grounds is a marker erected by the citizens of Southport remembering lost pilots—five were lost on the MARY K. SPRUNT and five were Cape Fear pilots who drowned on December 11, 1872.
My 2 favorite cemeteries are located on the edge of the Green Swamp near the border with Columbus County.
One of the most interesting stories is about the David Spivey Cemetery on Myrtlehead Road going from Exum toward the Waccamaw River. He told his family that when he died he wanted to be buried so far back in the woods that only the deer and the bears could walk across his grave. They fulfilled his wishes and today his gravesite is accessible only by a long narrow dirt, timber company road. Two of his family have now been buried beside him.
Anson Nichols (1901-1936) is buried in Camp Branch Baptist Church Graveyard. On his tombstone is the following epithet:
“When you are passing around my grave, stop and see as you are now I have been.
As I am now you will be, prepare for death and follow me.”
As a result of the information-gathering program the state’s criminal and civil statutes pertaining to burial sites have been strengthened. They protect abandon public cemeteries from the threats by urban development, agricultural activities, lumbering operations, vandalism, and neglect.
The idea behind the survey is protection and preservation of abandoned cemeteries. As an outgrowth of this survey more and more communities are undertaking the upkeep of the old cemeteries as a community project.
One aspect of the survey was to record vital statistics from the cemetery. That is, to list the name, latitude and longitude, all dates and any interesting epithets on every tombstone in the cemetery. Also, account for wooden markers and unknown gravesites. This proved to be an insurmountable task for us. It was time consuming and arduous. In fact, we were unable to complete this part of the survey. In the smaller cemeteries, we were able to do this.time-consuming And, some of the well know cemeteries had been catalogued by researchers and we took advantage of the survey conducted by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Abandoned Cemetery Survey has permanently preserved historical, genealogical, sociological, demographic, and cultural data contained in abandoned or otherwise not-cared for cemeteries.
Today, the US Genweb website and the Brunswick County Genweb website have a list of the cemeteries and their online transcriptions. The GIS also has a listing of the locations of cemeteries.
The goal was to map each and every cemetery in the county, and at the beginning we had no idea how many there would be. In August 1983, we had compiled 302 survey forms. Today, the number of identified and reported cemeteries is closer to 400, as more abandoned gravesites are located and we hear of more new cemeteries being formed.
The survey was fun and exciting. My 2 young boys and 2 nephews were excited to go along with us on our numerous trips. Besides riding in the back of the pickup truck, they were explorers and delighted in finding a cemetery long forgotten and covered with bushes and small trees.
Data compiled in the North Carolina Cemetery Survey is available in the Search Room of the North Carolina State Archives.
Just recently, a copy of one of the cemeteries we recorded was sent to me to use in a case involving a sand mine permit the community was objecting to. Guess what? It was one of the surveys we did many years ago.
Thank you Suzanne Palmer and guest speaker Gwen Causey for the information provided in this blog post.
