‘Hidden treasure’: Overgrown historic Polkton cemetery gets attention from community
A cemetery in Polkton with graves that date back to the 1700s has grown unkempt with weeds.
These headstones hold so many stories, dating back to the 1700s when North Carolina was just a colony. It is the final resting place of slaves, slave owners and veterans. But it fell into disrepair. At 5 on @wsoctv how the community is working to restore this historical cemetery pic.twitter.com/WGOjOrQHaV
— Genevieve Curtis (@GenevieveonTV) May 16, 2023
Anson County’s Burnsville community is asking for help to clean up the important site.
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Stepping through the Poplar Springs Cemetery is like stepping through time. Each headstone holds a story.
“We have descendants of slaves, slaves, slave masters, descendants of slave masters -- a lot of the American history that we read about in our books is here,” volunteer Allen Jackson II said.
They’re stories of lives which began before the Revolutionary War, which was when North Carolina was a British colony.
Those lives intertwined through a complicated history of Burnsville. The land was once owned by plantation owner Jasper Turner. His family is buried here.
Records show Turner’s descendants willed the land to a slave named Lizzy Turner.
The graves belong to Civil War and World War I veterans, infants and beloved ancestors.
“So much hidden treasure that needs to be brought out to help strengthen us as a people, as a community, and as a county,” said Carol Smith with Burnsville Recreation and Learning Center.
The cemetery recently received a historical designation, but over the years, it’s fallen into disrepair. A few years ago, a development nearby altered the grading there. Many headstones are broken or buried, and graves are sunken in.
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Smith discovered its condition a few years ago, and described to Channel 9′s Genevieve Curtis how it felt to see it that way.
“Sad, brokenhearted,” she said.
She also discovered her great-grandmother’s gravestone.
“She passed away when she was 24,” Smith said.
In 2020, Smith and volunteer Allen Jackson were able to get the cemetery designated as a historical site by the state so no other development can alter the hallowed ground again.
“This place is a place of reverence, this is a place of history that can be told throughout generations,” Smith said.
On Memorial Day weekend, they’re hosting a day of service to tend to these final resting places as they work to preserve the past for future generations.
“If you want your story told, you have to tell it yourself,” Jackson said.
Smith said they are looking for helping hand this Memorial Day weekend, and they are also still working to identify many of the graves.
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