Smith revitalizes cemetery

BURNSVILLE — Carol Smith of the Burnsville Recreational and Learning Center has joined forces with Margret Price, Vicky Matlock, and the men of Poplar Springs Missionary Baptist Church to revitalize the church’s historical cemetery, which has fallen into disarray after decades of neglect.

Originally belonging to Jasper Turner family, the first grave recorded at the cemetery was in 1828. In 1866, land would be donated to the family of Lizzie Turner, who was a former slave of Turner.

This land would eventually be home to Poplar Springs Missionary Baptist Church, a cemetery, and a one-room schoolhouse were all given to the recently emancipated Turner. The church, originally a log cabin, was built in 1876 as a place for former slaves to worship.

Black residents from Anson, Stanly, and Union counties were buried at the cemetery until the early 1960s. For a long time, it was one of the few Black cemeteries in the area.

“Eventually, Poplar Springs started burying people at another location near the church. This location is owned by Joh P. Harris,” explained Smith.

In the decades that followed, the cemetery became neglected, overgrown with weeds and trees. “It became just a bad place to go,” said Smith. Many of the grave markers were just large stones. Most of the headstones were illegible.

The property would go through many hands and, at one point, the land belonged to Dirt Track USA, which built a series of tracks around the property, resulting in the cemetery now being on uneven ground.

To correct this, Smith has been working with Lynn Thomas Grading in Polkton. “They have been instrumental in the revitalization process,” said Smith. Smith is also working to restore old grave markers and maintain the landscaping of the property.

Matlock, Price, and Smith formed a non-profit group called The Grave Hunter. They conducted extensive research in order to accurately record who all is buried in the cemetery. This has been done by reading the markers and going through death certificates. N.C. began registering deaths in 1913 but general compliance of this didn’t start until 1917.

Price and Matlock also worked with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (NCDCR) and has successfully gotten them to record the cemetery in their records.

The NCDCR utilizes data at the county level collected by individuals, such as smith, as well as organizations to protect abandoned public graveyards from threats such as urban development, vandalism, and agricultural activity. The Poplar Springs Missionary Baptist Church cemetery has been assigned the site number 31AN242.

Smith says the effort is all done to protect the memory of those buried, “Since we have started this, it’s like the dead have been saying to me, “I matter, I lived just like you. Don’t forget that I once walked the earth, too.”

Rev Joshua Ellerbe is the current pastor of Poplar Springs and his congregation have encouraged the work Smith, Matlock, and Price have undertaken to revitalize the property.