Old Toxaway Baptist Has Two Cemeteries

This large carved headstone is unmarked.

Old Toxaway Baptist Church is located four miles south of the town of Rosman.  The church was established in 1879 as the Baptist Church of Christ at Toxaway in the community of Galloway, which officially existed as a post office from 1887-1914.  Also known as Toxaway Church the first reference to it as Old Toxaway Baptist Church did not appear until the 1925 Transylvania Baptist Association Minutes.

The church maintains two cemeteries.  The Upper Cemetery is located on a wooded hillside northeast of the church.  It has over 100 marked graves, plus over 100 that are unmarked.  A few of the marked graves date to before the church was established.  The most prevalent surnames found there are Aiken, Chapman, Galloway, and Powell.

James Earl Galloway was the church’s pastor in its early days.  He was a 1^st Lieutenant with Company K, 62^nd Regiment N.C. Troops, the “Brevard Rangers”, during the Civil War.  Galloway was captured at Cumberland Gap on September 9, 1863 and remained in prison until taking the Oath of Allegiance on June 11, 1865.  He was also the Galloway post master from 1887-1898.  He died on January 1, 1920 at the age of 81 and is buried in the Upper Cemetery at the Old Toxaway Baptist Church.

Molisa Elmina Summey's headstone is one of three
grave markers in the Upper Cemetery that are constructed
of square chucks of quartz cemented togethter, enclosing
a marble slab.

A monument at the Lower Cemetery reads, “This hallowed ground was consecrated with the burial of Connie Meece January 15, 1918.  Little Connie was the first to be interred here.”  She was the three-year-old daughter of William Morris and Kannie Galloway Meece.  She was a granddaughter of James Earl Galloway.  The Lower Cemetery is located beside the church and has considerably more graves than the Upper Cemetery.

For more information on the Old Toxaway Baptist Church and its cemeteries see Old Toxaway Baptist Church by Larry and Dorene P. Mahoney and Where Our Ancestors Rest A Written & Photographic Tour of Old Toxaway Baptist Church Upper Cemetery published by the Rosman Historical Association.

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 828-884-1820.

Gillespie Cemetery Was First Public Burial Ground

Grave marker of Clayton and Sarah Gillespie.

In 1907 H. Clayton Gillespie established the Gillespie Cemetery Company to provide a public burying place in Brevard.  There were already approximately 30 graves on his property on the southern side of town.  The original H.C. Gillespie Cemetery Grounds (A, see map) covered 1.09 acres and was divided into 84 plots.  The property survey was filed and registered on December 11, 1915.

Evergreen Cemetery (F) was originally a separate cemetery.  It was first registered on October 31, 1940.  However about 20 markers in that section pre-date this time. 

The earliest is that of Della R. Reid, who died on January 31, 1918.  Interestingly, Frankie Monteith’s “Transylvania County Cemetery Survey” published in 1985 lists Reid at both the Lakeside Cemetery in Lake Toxaway and Gillespie Evergreen Cemetery.  Her husband, Theodore Edwin Reid, died in 1981 at the age of 97.  His plot at Gillespie Evergreen has markers for himself and his first two wives.

Map showing the six sections of the Gillespie-Evergreen Cemetery.

Three children of William and Corrie Brown who died between 1918 and 1921 and were buried in the Glazener Cemetery on Glazener Rd. in Brevard also have markers near their parents in this section.  Their mother Corrie Mae Hogsed Brown died at the age of 98 in 1987.

In September 1952 a group of interested citizens established the Gillespie-Evergreen Cemetery Fund in order to provide permanent care of the Gillespie and Evergreen cemeteries.  In 1981 a new organization, the Gillespie-Evergreen Cemetery Association, was formed to provide for the care, upkeep and maintenance of Gillespie Cemetery and Evergreen Cemetery. 

Today the Gillespie-Evergreen Cemetery covers approximately 8 acres.  Over the years additional sections were added—the Gillespie Cemetery Extension (D) was registered on September 6, 1945; Gillespie Supplement Section (B) on October 30, 1945; Mary Queen Gillespie Extension on May 23, 1955; and the Gillespie Cemetery Extension Section #2 (C) on November 26, 1957.

The Veteran's Memorial monument and flagpole were dedicated in
March 1948 by the American Legion Auxiliary.

There is a network of paved walkways among the plots the older sections of the cemetery.  Many plots also have low concrete or stone walls around them.  Gillespie-Evergreen Cemetery served as the main public cemetery in the county until Pisgah Gardens (now Blue Ridge Gardens of Memory) opened on the Hendersonville Hwy. in Pisgah Forest about 1959.

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 828-884-1820.

Complex Goes From Tracking Station to PARI

As NASA expanded its space exploration and satellite program a network to track satellites and the data they collected also developed.  There were Minitrack Stations in the U.S., England, South Africa, South America, and Australia but in 1963 the only data-acquisition facility was in Fairbanks, Alaska.  The purpose was to gather data from satellites and space craft.

This required a location with quiet surroundings—minimal outside noise, air traffic, radio interference and no nearby high-voltage electrical lines.  The 70 acre site near Balsam Grove provided this, plus was located in a secluded valley on national forest land.

The Rosman Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Facility, locally known as The Tracking Station, was constructed in 1963 and formally dedicated on October 26, 1963.  The enormous “dish” or ears picked up and tracked data from satellite locations to an astronaut’s blood pressure, as well as “other sounds” from outer space.  The tracking system could also send commands to satellites and space craft.  The staff of approximately 100 was mainly scientists, engineers, and technicians.

As technology developed and NASA’s communication needs evolved tracking stations were phased out in the early 1980s.  In 1981, the Rosman facility was transferred to the Department of Defense.   At its peak there were approximately 250 employees.  The work was highly secretive and employees were not allowed to talk about their jobs, even with family or friends.

In 1995, the Department of Defense closed the facility and returned the site to the U.S. Forest Service. 

In 1999, the site was purchased from the U.S. Forest Service and gifted to PARI for use as an astronomical research and educational facility.  Today PARI is known as a world-class research center, offering STEM educational opportunities from elementary school through post-doctoral.  PARI is open to the public for self-guided tours and offers scheduled guided tours.  Visit their website at www.pari.edu. 

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.

Brevard Leaders Buried in Oak Grove Cemetery

B.C. Lankford

The Oak Grove Cemetery on the Asheville Highway across from Blue Ridge Community College is the burial place of two men who played a major role in the formation of the Town of Brevard.

When Transylvania County was established in 1861 a supplemental act stated that the county seat would be named Brevard and located within five miles of W.P. Poor’s store.  Commissioners were to “purchase, or receive by donation, a tract of land of not less than fifty acres” between May 10 and June 10, 1861.  On June 8, 1861 L.S. Gash, B.C. Lankford, and Alexander England sold 50 acres for this purpose to the Chairman of the Court of Pleas and Quarters of Transylvania County for $1.00.  

Braxton Caldwell Lankford was 37 years old in 1861.  He was a successful businessman and farmer.  His home and Valley Store, located across the road from Oak Grove Methodist Church and cemetery, was the site of the first meeting of the court for the newly formed county on May 20, 1861. 

Lankford family graves at Oak Grove Cemetery

Lankford would go on to hold various county offices, serve as Brevard’s postmaster from 1881-89 and mayor in 1892-93.  He was a Master of the Dunn’s Rock Masonic Lodge.  B.C. Lankford died on August 24, 1895 and is buried beside his first and second wives, who were sisters, at Oak Grove Cemetery.

The England family plot is at the door step
of the former Oak Grove Methodist Church.

Alexander England was 39 years old in 1861.   Although he lived on the same plot of land his entire life, England was born in Buncombe County, spent his early adulthood in Henderson County and was instrumental in establishing Transylvania County.  He served as mayor of Brevard in 1893-94.  England died March 6, 1896 and is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery. 

The cemetery, which is owned and maintained by St. Timothy United Methodist Church, covers less than 4 acres.  It includes the former Oak Grove Methodist Church and has approximately 1000 graves.  The oldest marked tombstone is Amanda Thomas Lankford, 14-month-old daughter of Braxton and Amanda Lankford.  She died on May 9, 1861.  Her mother died three years later and is buried beside her.

Family names in the cemetery include Aiken, Allison, England, English, Fortune, Lankford, Lyon, McMinn, Meece, Morris, Neely, Norton, Pickelsimer, Reece, Rogers, Siniard, Tinsley, and many more.  The privately owned “annex” on the southwest corner has about 49 gravesites.

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 828-884-1820.