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237    CRAIGE, ISAAC FAMILY CEMETERY (Abt 1830)

Location - In Chapel Hill Township off of a private road extension of Homer-Ruffin Road (SR #2217), south of New Hope Church Road (SR #1723) just west its intersection with I-40. Private property.

Coordinates: 36d 00m 11.0s N; 79d 05m 07.0s W Click here for Online Maps

Survey - Milton Forsyth photographed this cemetery on 12 Feb 2008. Mr. Louis Freeland informed the survey about this cemetery.

Graves - Two burials are identified by a modern grave marker. Any other evidence that there was a cemetery here apparently disappeared years ago.

Comment - This property was the home of Isaac Craige, and a nearby house contains portions of the original farmhouse. A large oak tree once shaded this cemetery, but the site is now in an open field. The two 19th-century burials are marked by a modern grave marker and surrounded by a chain link fence installed by Homer Tapp, who at one time owned the property. The original settler William Craige apparently used the Scottish version of the spelling of his surname but most descendants dropped the "e" from the end; Mr. Tapp chose to use the original spelling on the stone here.

Isaac Craige is buried here with his first wife. He married, second, Nancy Jacobs, [O. C. Marriage Bond 3 Dec 1838; see Shirley J. Mallard, Death and Marriage Notices from the Hillsborough Recorder, 1997, p. 72, 13 Dec 1838: "Married - Isaac Craig to Nancy Jacobs, dtr of Thomas Jacobs, in this county, Tuesday evening 4th inst by John Blackwood."]. Following the death of Isaac, Nancy married William McCauley [O. C. Marriage Bond M-063, 12 Mar 1861; see Mallard, p. 269, 13 Mar 1861: "Married - Col. William McCauley to Mrs. Nancy Craig, in this county 3rd inst by Ruffin Tapp."; also see her enumerated in the 1860 O. C. Census and see O. C. Deed Book 36:340, 1 Mar 1861, where her property is arranged for prior to the marriage]. William and Nancy are buried in New Hope Presbyterian Church New Cemetery.

At Isaac Craige's death his nephew, James N. Craig, inherited his land except for the 380 acre plantation "on New Hope [Creek]" which was the life estate of Nancy, and this also later apparently passed to James. [See O. C. Will Book G:219, dtd 3 Feb 1858, probate May Term 1859; also D. I. Craig, A Historical Sketch of New Hope Church (1891): "John Craig, the eldest son (of William Craige, the original settler), married Mary Blackwood, the daughter of William Blackwood, and settled 'the Isaac Craig place,' afterwards owned by J. N. Craig, and now the property of J. W. Cole."]

The Craige/Craig families were among the earliest settlers of the area, and were founders and members of the New Hope Presbyterian Church, located a few miles to the east of this homesite. A large number of Craig burials are recorded in the two cemeteries there.

1. Craige, Betsey Murray   (b. - d. bef Dec 1838)
First wife of Isaac Craige.
2. Craige, Isaac   (b. 10 Feb 1779 - d. 4 Apr 1859)
Husband of Betsey Murray. [O. C. Marriage Bond 22 Jan 1803; See Shirley J. Mallard, Death and Marriage Notices from the Hillsborough Recorder, 1997, p. 252, 13 Apr 1859: "Died - Isaac Craig, 81, in this county 4th inst at his residence on New Hope, of dropsical affection. Survived by wife."]. Masonic emblem.