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.