The caretakers of a historic cemetery in Spring Lake are holding a fundraiser for the cemetery’s upkeep and to cover the cost of relocating a gravesite unearthed by Hurricane Florence in 2018.
The fundraiser to benefit Hillside Cemetery is Sunday at 3 p.m. at Bethel AME Zion Church , 255 Vass Road in Spring Lake.
The small cemetery is next to Williams Chapel Free Will Baptist Church at the corner of Bragg Boulevard and Chapel Hill Road. The land on which the graveyard rests is bisected by a road and drainage ditch, giving it three distinct sections.
Aside from small headstones dotting the field, the site is not marked or gated and is easily missed by the thousands of daily commuters heading to and from nearby Fort Liberty.
“The oldest marked gravesite goes back to 1905 and among them are veteran markers from Vietnam, Korea and World War II,” according to a flyer from the church.
The church said that after Hurricane Florence hit, caretakers discovered the storm had unearthed a casket. The area near the cemetery was among the hardest hit by the category 4 cyclone. A motel not far from the cemetery washed away when the Little River breached its banks, damaging dozens of businesses in the area.