page_title: Fourth Creek Congregation
section_title: Fourth Creek Burying Ground
hierarchical_section_title: Fourth Creek Congregation / Fourth Creek Burying Ground
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Fourth Creek Burying Ground, 1750-1888. dedicated by the Presbyterian Church to the memory of the pioneers and the soldiers of the Indian Wars, the Revolution and the Confederacy who lie buried here. Built by the pioneers, this wall was reconstructed by the National Government and the city of Statesville as a tribute to the patriotism and character of these citizens of Iredell County. 1934 This tablet was erected by the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the Confederacy, the American War Mothers and the American Legion Auxillary.
context_page_description: The community of the Fourth Creek Congregation was a group of Scots-Irish Presbyterians who first arrived in the Province of North Carolina in the mid to late 1730s and established a congregation by 1750 under pastor John Thompson in Anson County which became Rowan County in 1753 and finally Iredell County in 1788. The site of the Fourth Creek Congregation was chosen as the location of the county seat of Iredell County in 1789 and was named Statesville in 1789. The Fourth Creek Presybterian Church officially became the First Presbyterian Church of Statesville in 1875.
context_section_description: The Fourth Creek Burying Ground, also called Fourth Creek or Old Fourth Creek Burying Grounds was used by the Fourth Creek Congregation and is located near the original church building. There are 600 marked graves – the oldest known burial being that of Margaret Archibald who died in July 1759. In addition, there are six more graves with dates between 1762 and 1767. The cemetery contains the remains of many of the founding fathers of Statesville and Iredell County. The Fourth Creek Congregation built a rock wall around the cemetery sometime between 1790 and 1800. This rock wall still stands today. The cemetery expanded from its original size to 1.6 acres (0.65 ha). When the city of Statesville was incorporated in 1847, a large granite boulder was placed in the northeast corner. The cemetery served as the city cemetery until 1880s when it contained an estimated 1,200 graves. In 1887, the city of Statesville created a new city cemetery, Oakwood cemetery. The First Presbyterian Church conveyed Fourth Creek Cemetery to the city of Statesville in 1933, on condition that “the city accept and maintain the same as a memorial cemetery to be designated as Fourth Creek Memorial Burying Ground and be preserved in perpetuity as a memorial to pioneers and soldiers buried there.” In 2018, The First Presbyterian Church, Statesville, funded a ground penetrating radar study of the cemetery to attempt to identify the number of burials.
caption: Tablet commemorating the construction of the wall around the Old Fourth Creek Burying Ground in 1934
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384", "Image DateTime": "2019:02:05 10:38:47", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2370", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "37022", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "37136", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "19629", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "560", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:10:18 10:27:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:10:18 10:27:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "36", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "36984", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "54", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4164"}