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125    UNIDENTIFIED CEMETERY - FORMER CRAIG AND CURRIE PROPERTY (Abt 1800-1850s)

Location - In NW Chapel Hill Township west of Old Hwy 86, off C D Farms Road, a private road. Private property.

Coordinates: 36d 00m 29.2s N; 79d 06m 37.5s W Click here for Online Maps

Survey - This cemetery was surveyed on 8 Aug 1977 but the location was later lost. Margaret Jones of the Orange County Environment and Resource Conservation Department and Milton Forsyth relocated and surveyed this cemetery on 28 Jan 2008 with the permission of the property owner.

Graves - In the original 1977 survey two rows of graves were identified, with possibly 6 to 8 and perhaps more graves. The only marked fieldstone carries the initials "J. D. C." (as identified in 1977, with the "J." difficult to make out but the "C" clearly incised by a scriber tool). In 2008 only one clearly identifiable row of graves is evident, with a second row possibly indicated to the east of that. However, these may be footstones for the identifiable graves - it is difficult to tell because large trees have grown up over several of the graves. An example of the most evident of these stones is here.

Because the cemetery location had been lost and the cemetery was not at all obvious, a temporary vehicle track may have inadvertedly covered the second row of graves a few years ago. Fieldstones marking this row of graves may have been moved. The overall view photo of the cemetery above was taken looking west, with the clearly identifiable row of graves marked by the second row of red flags in the background beyond the three large trees. There are no burials listed for this cemetery.

Comment - Although this cemetery was identified in 1977 as the "Currie Family Cemetery" -- perhaps based on the one engraved fieldstone -- it is not at all clear this is the case. Possession of the property was researched and no mention of a cemetery was found in any deeds seen. The property on which the cemetery sits was purchased in 1806 by Hugh Currie (1763 - 18 Apr 1851) from the heirs of William Craige, an original settler of the area [O. C. DB 12:266]. So the burials could go back to the time when the Craige/Craig family owned the property.

Following Hugh Currie's death this property passed to the children of his absent son William N. Currie, said to have been "in the West." Each of the four sisters and one brother inherited an undivided fifth of the 224 acres [O. C. Will Book F, pp. 491-492]. It was referred to in deeds as the "Currie Tract" and in 1891 by D. I. Craig in "A Historical Sketch of New Hope Church" as "the Currie place."

The one male child of William, also named Hugh, purchased additional one-fifth interests from two of his sisters in 1857 and held interest in 135 acres. From 1858 to 1873 this 135 acres appears to have been owned by James N. Craig [O. C. DB 36:126; 42:46] and then from 1873 to 1912 by Jesse W. Cole and following his death until 1915 by his daughter [O. C. DB 42:47; to T. H. McCauley, 71:390 (1915); to Cora Morgan, 74:147 (1917)]. But it is unlikely the burials are from that later period as members of these "C" surnamed families are buried in other cemeteries. Interestingly, few Currie burials from this period have been identified in this area.

The cemetery site is located on a 63 3/10 acre portion of the 135 acres that lies west of the Chapel Hill-Hillsborough Road (Old Hwy 86). This acreage was purchased by Charles W. Davis, Sr. in 1941 from the Morgan heirs and remains in the family [O. C. DB 114:314; and see especially O. C. Plat Book 85:147 where it is surveyed as a subdivided 62.7 acres]. (Research by Milton Forsyth, March 2008)