From left ,Cemetery Director Justin Hill, Mount Olive Commissioner Vicky Darden and Town Manager Jammie Royall examine an area in Carver Cemetery that contains 128 unmarked graves. Town Attorney Carroll Turner was able to track down information about the unmarked graves as the town works to erect a memorial to those buried there. The graves were relocated from the Stanton Cemetery because of the construction of the U.S. 117 Bypass. It was located on what is now the west side of the U.S. 117 Bypass between the Dudley and Mount Olive exits. (File photo|mountolivetribune.com)
Inell Artis was about 5 months old when she died on Dec. 5, 1919. Edna Earl Champ was about 7 months old when she died on Nov. 18, 1939.
Now after 39 years of laying all but forgotten in unmarked graves in Carver Cemetery, the two infants have their names back — so do Esther B. Holloman, who was 26 when she died on Aug. 22, 1935, and Susie Birden, who died in 1909.
Thus far they are the only four of the 128 buried in the cemetery’s unmarked graves who have been identified.
And now Mount Olive has the information it can use to add to a planned memorial to those buried in the unmarked graves.
They had been buried in the Stanton Cemetery on what is now on the west side of the U.S. 117 Bypass between the Dudley and Mount Olive exits.
The graves were relocated between September and October of 1984 because of the construction of the U.S. 117 Bypass.
Most of the graves were relocated to Carver.
However, over the years since that happened the information was lost, becoming a mystery the town has been working to solve for sometime.
The goal is to erect a monument in remembrance of those in the unmarked graves. To that end the town has been trying to find information to provide some guidance as to what to inscribe on the monument.
Mount Olive Town Attorney Carroll Turner updated the town board on his findings during its Tuesday, May 2, ordinance review and work session.
“Now the good news is we have plenty of information to put on a monument when we get ready to, including the names of four of the decedents” he said.
“We have plenty of significant information, accurate now, that we can put on a monument indicating where they were originally located, how many.”
Turner, who is known for his interest in local history, took the lead in doing the research.
“Sometimes it is like a crossword puzzle or something that about drives you crazy until you get it,” Turner said. “Somehow this situation at Carver just fascinated me. I knew there had to be an answer somewhere. I kept chasing every rabbit hole imaginable, coming up with zero several times. Several times I just gave up.
“My wife said several times ‘how much time are you going to spend on this,’ and I finally found it.”
Turner said someone suggested he visit the Wayne County Register of Deeds office in the Wayne County Courthouse Annex in Goldsboro.
Turner said he tracked down a statute that plainly says that in order to relocate graves that permission first must be obtained from county commissioners.
Certificates of notice must be filed in the county as well.
Wayne County’s Register of Deeds is fairly new and the volume he needed to see is a rather obscure book, Turner said.
Turner said that as many times as he had been in the Register of Deeds office that he had never seen that book.
The book has an index about grave removals and re-interments, he explained.
The Register of Deeds office referred Turner to State Archives in Raleigh. However, people in that office told him that whatever they had was provided by the county and sent him back to the Wayne County Register of Deeds.
He was told three times there was no such record in the local office.
“Finally I called a former Register of Deeds in Wayne County,” Turner said. “She met me at the Register of Deeds office and walked right straight in and straight to the obscure book … and there it was.”
Turner has compiled a report of his findings.
The removal and re-interments were done between late September 1984 and October 4, 1984 in conjunction with the construction of the U.S. 117 Bypass, he said.
The graves were removed from the Stanton Cemetery that was located to the west of the new highway between the Dudley and Mount Olive exists, Turner added.
It appears that the cemetery might have been located on a Kornegay farm or plantation, he said.
About 150-some graves were moved with about 90 percent of them re-interred in Mount Olive.
Four unknown sets of remains were moved to the Snow Hill Cemetery in Roseboro. Another set was taken to Kinston.
Of the 128 taken to Carver Cemetery, four sets were known. Turner said he had researched the death certificates for them.
He said he plans to look for more when he returns to the courthouse.
The graves were removed by a company that appears to have since gone out of business, Turner said.
“Here’s a couple of maps and things,” Turner added. “What I’m going to do is make a complete file on this.”
That includes a copy for the office of Mount Olive Cemetery Director Justin Hill and Town Clerk Sherry Davis so that the town will never have to deal with this issue again, Turner added.
Town Manager Jammie Royall and Mayor Pro-tem Steve Wiggins asked if any information had been found concerning what the state had paid for the lots.
Turner said that he will provide the information he has found to Finance Director Jamie Butler who should be able to pull those town records between August and September of 1984 to find that information.
“I guarantee they didn’t pay what they needed to,” Turner added. “They probably got a volume discount. I don’t know.
“But then again that was 1984.”
In response to questioning by Commissioner Barbara Kornegay, Turner said said he does not know when all of the people were buried — just a few based on their death certificates.
“The ones that are unknown, you just don’t know,” he said.
Turner said he assumed the few who were identified was because of markers in the Stanton Cemetery.
