Previously, I had written a lengthy dialogue of my visits to a few chosen family cemeteries that had ties to a group of individuals I have been recently researching. The original version was verbose and descriptive and became burdensomely long. It also self-deleted twice. Therefore, I've rehashed it as a trilogy, and a more perfunctory one at that. This last breath of air into a difficult tale of a journey into the Oakboro area historic cemeteries has already deleted once from just a tap on the phone screen. Alas, let's trek forth for this one brief end to the journey, shall we?
Whitley families, after making their way from the Eastern part of the state to the middle of it, as this part began opening up more to settlement and became safer after the establishment of a Fort near Statesville and the establishment of the town of Salisbury, near Trading Ford. There were several early Whitley's in this area, many of them only temporarily. It's commonly accepted that the ones who remained were of one family, at least a generation or so back, but I've not looked into this long enough or deep enough to verify that long held assumption. The family of George Whitley, with a multitude of descendants, has been researched fairly well. The family of Exodus Whitley, whose descendants I've been looking into, not so much. The availability of records, or lack of such, has been a detriment. Most calls are unproved, or assumptions based on cumulative, and circumstantial evidence.
The first Whitley Cemetery I stopped at was well North of Oakboro. The early Stanly County Whitleys were seen taxed as living on a variety of Stanly County Creeks from Stony Run to Bear Creek to Stillwater. This cemetery is located near the headwaters of Stony Run Creek. Situated along the current Austin Road, it can be said to be between Bloomington and Ridgecrest or just out of Frog Pond and Red Cross, or a hop, skip and a jump from Lambert, all of them places, and not towns, except Red Cross, which has incorporated.
The Whitelys has a "look", at least back in the 19th century. After a few generations of intermarriage with a variety of spouses from various other places and other origins. I have described the look in a preious post as "square jawed and light-eyed". Below are a few examples.
The above hawkish looking young man is George W. Whitley, in his Civil War uniform. He was the son of Green Deberry Whitley and wife, Jane Almond Whitley. He was born in 1836 and died here, in Stanly County, NC in 1902. George was married to Nancy Ledbetter, a daughter of Alfred Ledbetter, whose family and cemetery I have mentioned in an earlier post in this series. He was in the George Whitley line, and a grandson of the George who married Rebecca Cagle and later moved to Georgia to start a new family there, leaving the old one behind. That's a lot of George. George W. the Confederate is a good example of the Whitley 'look', and they were generally a good-looking bunch in their youth.
Temple Whitley, shown above, is from a younger generation. He was the son of Israel Irenus Whitley and Oma Jane Morton, and the Grandson of Temple Irenus Whitley the first, who was in turn, another son of George Whitley and Rebecca Cagle, so a first cousin once removed of George W. Whitley, above. He still bears the classic Whitley male look, however, of the square jaw and serious, light eyes.
The Green Deberry Whitley family cemetery was my first stop. Standing in repose by the side of Austin Road, next to a verdant July cornfield, an old farmhouse guards over the resting Whitley clan. I am not sure how far back it dates to, but it was not underpinned, which puts some age on the structure.
Graves here date back to at least the Civil War, and the most recent internments date to the 1940's.
A monument has been placed to the family as a whole, and a flagpole proudly flying Old Glory over the fields and family has been erected.
Out to the side of the cemetery, oddly sits the grave of Adison Franklin Whitley. He rests beside a bush and I wonder why his grave and his alone, was not included in the neat rows of graves with the rest.
White pebbles line the rows of graves of most of the Whitley's in this family. Above is the marker of he matriarch, Jane Almond Whitley, wife of Green Deberry and mother of George, the soldier pictured above.
This one pays tribute to Elizabeth, wife of Noah A. Whitley, a younger son.
The family monument, with the flag, is adorned with a new floral arrangement, proof this old ground is still visited often, well preserved and lovingly cared for. The memories of those resting here have not been forgotten. The monument is simply engraved "Whitley", with the agrarian scene of farm equipment and crops engraved softly into the marble in various tones of gray. The lush field of corn behind the monument is the perfect backdrop.
One of the rows is shown above, with original markers fronted by modern foot stones to mark the graves for posterity.
A memorial bench proclaims ,"If tears could build a Stairway and Memories a Lane I'd walk right up to Heaven to see you again."
The next stop was the Allison Whitley Cemetery, and this one was dead in the heart of Oakboro, in town, but pretty difficult to find. After stopping by a local store, I found someone who knew where to look. It's located in the middle of a lively neighborhood, down what looks like an industrial entrance to an old factory.
The cemetery sits east of the parking lot and anything but abandoned.
Allison Whitley was the oldest son of John Whitley, who died in 1842, and wife, Jane Hathcock Whitley, who followed her younger children to Iredell County and died there sometime after 1880.
Alison Whitley Cemetery
Also known as Jones Hill Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery
Oakboro, Stanly County, North Carolina, USA –
Online, the cemetery is claimed as the Jones Hill Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery.
Most of the souls here inclined are the children and grandchildren of Allison and his wife, Betsy, but a few standouts exist.
The cemetery seems to date back to the Civil War era, but with the graves of children, two year old Willie Whitley in 1861, and one year old John R. Whitley in 1862. The oldest was young Jacob Whitley in 1860, just 18. The most recent interment is from 1989, so their are living descendants who keep these grounds well-tended.
One of the saddest parts of the plot is what I refer to as "Infants Row", with the markers of young children, some named, others just noted as the son or daughter of the parents named.
That wraps it up for my search of a select few Oakboro area cemeteries. See you next our "Mayberry -esque", bucolic little burg! Until it's time to do the red-white and -blue again.
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