Mount Olive has issued a check to purchase a monument for unmarked graves at Carver Cemetery. Most of the $3,700 cost is being covered by private donations. Town Attorney Carroll Turner, right, updated the town board on the project during the board’s Tuesday, July 18, ordinance work session held in the town hall conference room. From left are Jeremy King, town utilities director, Mayor Pro-tem Steve Wiggins and Turner. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
A rendering of what the monument for unmarked graves at Carver Cemetery will look like.
Commissioner Vicky Darden, center, points out an area of Carver Cemetery, where there are 128 unmarked graves, as she talks to Justin Hill, the town’s cemetery director, left, and Town Manager Jammie Royall. Mount Olive is purchasing a monument to memorialize those buried in the unmarked graves. (File photo)
Only a few of their names are known, but the 128 sets of remains that have lain unknown for almost 40 years in unmarked graves in Carver Cemetery are no longer forgotten.
And within the next several months a new monument memorializing them and telling part of their story will be erected at the cemetery.
Wording for the monument reads:“In memory of Ester Holloman, Susie Birden, Inell Artis, Edna Earl Champ and 124 unknown individuals whose remains were reinterred in this section of Carver Cemetery from the Stanton Cemetery, October 1984 due to the construction of U.S. Highway 117.”
Below that is: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43.
Mount Olive Town Attorney Carroll Turner updated the town board on the project during its Tuesday, July 18, ordinance work session held in the town hall conference room.
The cost of the monument is $3,709.56, most of which is being covered by private donations, including $2,000 from the Mt. Olive Pickle Co.
The town made up the difference of about $150, issuing the check Tuesday, July 25, to Keene Memorials in Four Oaks for the work.
“I am proud of the fact that it is primarily being done by private donations,” Turner said.
The town attorney said he is unsure how soon the work will be completed. During the work session, he said he expected it would take one to two months to get the monument in and set up.
The board agreed by consensus for Turner to proceed with ordering the monument.
A dedication ceremony will be scheduled, he added.
Ester Holloman, Susie Birden, Inell Artis and Edna Earl Champ are the only four of the 128 buried in the cemetery’s unmarked graves who have been identified, thanks to research by Turner.
They all 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 1984 because of the construction of the U.S. 117 Bypass.Most of the graves were relocated to Carver.
About 150 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.
The next ordinance work session is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1, in the town hall conference room, 114 E. James St. Commissioners do not vote on items during the sessions that are open to the public.
