After 40 years of searching out the history of Anson County, you would think I would know it all by now — but the accidental discovery I made in November 2011 totally blew me away.
Anyone living in the Brown Creek community along Gould’s Fork and Grindstone Creek will find this article just as interesting.
In Anson County Deed Book V page 351 – April 15, 1826: Dr. William Mendenhall of Anson County to Abel Coffin and John Stewart of Guilford County, them being trustees of the Deep River Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends, have given unto them this day the aforesaid Abel Coffin and John Stewart for said society 2 ½ acres located between Gould’s Fork and Grindstone Creek in the County of Anson as represented by a plat (where is this plat that is mentioned here?) in the face of this indenture with the following boundaries — beginning at a permission tree near the line of a small tract deeded by Mary Boggan to William Mendenhall which runs South 73 East 11 and runs north 20 poles to a stone in an old field and then east 20 poles to a stone near a gully and then south 20 poles crossing a gully to a stone near a house then west to the beginning containing 2 ½ acres — to have and to hold by the aforesaid Coffin and Stewart of said Deep River Monthly Meeting of Friends for their use and benefit, which said tract includes a small graveyard and the grave of Mary T. Ingram as represented in the aforesaid tract — deed witnessed by George C. Mendenhall.
Since the above transaction states that the grave of Mary T. Ingram is located on the property, I decided to search cemetery records and located the following — “Cemeteries of Anson County, N.C.,” Volume I page 246 – Mendenhall Cemetery surveyed on April 5, 1994 by Evalyn Allen Huntley and Frank Tucker — Mary T. Ingram, daughter of George Mendenhall Esquire of Guilford County, N.C., departed this life on Sept. 22, 1824.
Directions to the cemetery: Go north on U.S. 52 for a half-mile and turn left onto State Road 1641. Travel 1.6 miles, then walk into the woods on the right side of the road where you will see surveyors’ tape hanging from a tree and then go in on the left side of the barbed wire fence. Walk about 300 yards and you will see a patch of periwinkle. Then you will see a large headstone leaning against a tree. (Remember, these directions are from April of 1994 so most likely all the landmarks mentioned in the directions have changed.)
Steve Bailey is employed with the Anson County Historical Society and has specialized in local African-American family history for 20 years.