Cross Creek Cemetery

Cross Creek Cemetery is a cemetery located in Fayetteville, North Carolina, near a creek of that name that "meanders for more than a mile from downtown Fayetteville to the Cape Fear River."^[2] It was established in 1785.^[3] The cemetery is organized into five numbered sections and is managed by a cemetery office within Fayetteville–Cumberland County Parks & Recreation.^[4]

Cross Creek Cemetery
Details
Established	1785
Location	Fayetteville, North Carolina
Country	United States
Coordinates	35°03′31″N 78°52′18″W
Type	Public
Find a Grave	, , , ,
The Political Graveyard	Cross Creek Cemetery
Cross Creek Cemetery Number One
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
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Location	Jct. of N. Cool Spring and Grove St., Fayetteville, North Carolina
Area	5 acres (2.0 ha)
Built	1785 (1785)
Built by	Lauder, George
NRHP reference No.	98001209[1]
Added to NRHP	September 25, 1998

History

The original section, known as Cross Creek Cemetery Number One was established in 1785 and expanded in 1833. It contains approximately 1,170 gravemarkers dating from 1786 to 1964.This cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Fayetteville.^[5]

After the Civil War ended, the Ladies' Memorial Association of Fayetteville had all soldiers who had been killed in battle—along with those who had died and been buried in various nearby locations—interred (or re-interred) in Cross Creek Cemetery.^[6] The group then raised the funds to erect a Confederate Soldiers Monument in Cross Creek, the first Confederate monument in North Carolina;^[6] it was dedicated on December 30, 1868.^[7]

In 1915, the Cross Creek Cemetery Commission was created via an act of the North Carolina General Assembly, providing for the maintenance of the cemetery.^[8]

Cross Creek Cemetery #1 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 1998 as a national historic district.^[9][10] In June 2010, "more than fifty headstones were damaged and in disarray" in Cross Creek Cemetery #1, following a report of vandalism.^[11]

James C. Dobbin.

Midnight Moon by Elliot Daingerfield, circa 1906.

Notable burials

Politicians

• J. Bayard Clark, United States Representative (1929–49)
• James C. Dobbin, United States Secretary of the Navy (1853–57)
• Wharton J. Green, United States Representative (1883–87)
• Edward J. Hale, United States Ambassador to Costa Rica (1913–17)
• John G. Shaw, United States Representative (1895–1897)
• Charles Manly Stedman, Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina (1885–89) and United States Representative (1911–30)
• Warren Winslow, Speaker of the North Carolina Senate (1854–55) and United States Representative (1855–61)

Others

• Robert Adam (1759–1801), merchant and first captain of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry^[12]
• Elliot Daingerfield (1859–1932), artist

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. "Cross Creek Linear Park: New trail section a respite in middle of Fayetteville". The Fayetteville Observer. September 17, 2011. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
3. Cross Creek Cemetery I Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine from the North Carolina Department of Commerce
4. "Contact Us". Fayetteville-Cumberland County Parks & Recreation. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
5. Ruth Little and Michelle Kullen (May 1998). "Cross Creek Cemetery Number One" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places – Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
6. Emerson, Bettie Alder Calhoun (1911). Historic Southern Monuments. Neale Publishing Company. p. 241. OCLC 263023092. Retrieved September 13, 2011.
7. North Carolina Civil War Monuments: Fayetteville from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
8. North Carolina General Assembly (1915). Journal of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina. E.M. Uzzell and Company, State Printers and Binders. p. 724. Retrieved September 13, 2011. H. B. 1541, a bill to be entitled "An act to create the Cross Creek Cemetery Commission to provide for the maintenance of a cemetery in the city of Fayetteville. and to amend chapter 30 of the Private Laws of 1S73-74." Passes its third reading by the following vote and is ordered sent to the Senate without engrossment.
9. North Carolina Listings in the National Register of Historic Places Archived 2012-11-30 at the Wayback Machine from the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office
10. "North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office Assistance to Cumberland County". North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. December 31, 1999. Archived from the original on April 2, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
11. "Police Investigating Cemetery Vandalism". Press release. Fayetteville Police Department. June 14, 2010. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
12. Ashe, Samuel A'Court (1906). Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. Vol. 4. C. L. Van Noppen. p. 19. Retrieved September 13, 2011.

External links

• Photographs of Cross Creek Cemetery from the NCSU Libraries
• U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Cross Creek Cemetery