Cemeteries Provide Another View of Life

There are more than 100 cemeteries scattered throughout Transylvania County.  These range from small family plots to abandoned cemeteries to church cemeteries to public cemeteries.

Gravestone for Alfred Erwin Gash located in the Orr Cemetery.  

The inscription states that Gash was 

“fatally wounded in the streets of Asheville, N.C. 

while endeavoring to make peace between two combatants.”

Cemeteries can provide another view of our past.  The monuments, from simple to ornate, and their inscriptions tell about individuals or families.

Cemeteries verify outbreaks of illnesses or other tragedies that strike a local area.  The Glazener-Kitchen Cemetery contains the graves of six children of J. & N. Glazener who died between 1842 and 1848.  Ben Fisher and three of his sons who drowned on May 16, 1936 are buried in Oak Grove Baptist Cemetery.

Often graves include references to military service, military markers or markers from fraternal organizations such as the Masons, Eastern Star and Woodmen of the World.   

Tombstone of Hume family 

beneath St. Philip’s Episcopal Chruch.

Transylvania County’s must unique cemetery is located beneath St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.  The original wooden church was built around 1890 but was destroyed by a Christmas Day fire in 1925.  The new stone church was built above the small cemetery behind the original church.  There are about a dozen graves dating from 1879-1907.

In the early 1980s a group undertook the task of identifying all of the cemeteries and tombstones in the county.  Transylvania County North Carolina Cemetery Survey is a compilation of cemetery locations, along with inscriptions from readable grave markers.   As noted in the book’s preface many graves are simply marked with fieldstones, others have not stood the test of time and are illegible.  And there were a few graves that were just missed, but overall this provides researchers with valuable information.

More recently individuals and groups have compiled lists of grave markers and supplemental information for specific cemeteries throughout the county.  The Rosman Historical Association has published four books covering Mt. Moriah Calvert Baptist Church Cemetery, Old Toxaway Baptist Church Upper Cemetery, Middlefork Baptist Church Cemetery & Galloway Memorial Park and the Glazener Family Cemetery.  The Cathey’s Creek Heritage Committee recently published Cathey’s Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. 

In addition the Library has copies of unpublished books for the Gillespie-Evergreen and Oak Grove cemeteries in Brevard, and Lakeside (Lake Toxaway Baptist Church), Oak Grove Baptist Church, Whitmire (Flat Creek Valley Rd.), E.D. Owen, James Reid, Miller, Union and Montvale/Whitewater cemeteries in the upper part of the county.

To access an index of Transylvania Times obituaries (1983-2013) visit the Transylvania County Library website at library.transylvaniacounty.org.  Click on the Local History button and then Indexes.  Digital copies of obituaries may be requested free of charge through the Library’s website.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.