Every life is a story that ends in a sad event — namely the death of the central character.
So to walk through a quiet cemetery is to leaf through a storybook filled with narratives of people who loved, lost, worked, fought, struggled, laughed, cried and experienced the whole of it — like what we are doing now.
Fayetteville, which started as a settlement of Scottish immigrants in 1739, has plenty of old graveyards, as one would expect. So you can drop in any one of those “open books” and leaf through history’s pages.
I will tell you a little about three of them.
At Second Baptist, there are stories but sometimes no markers
I bumped into Joann Adams, historian at Second Missionary Baptist Church not long ago, and she told me about the interesting folks buried in church-affiliated cemetery at the corner of Wright and Mann streets. It was established circa 1894, and is located just south of the church, which is at 522 Old Wilmington Road.
Last year: Fayetteville historic cemetery has ‘very concerning’ damage. What is being done?