The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-09-30
AN OLD GRAVE YARD.
IN THE HIsTORIC:TOwN OF HILLS
RORO.
A Small bit of Ground Beneath whose
Sod Lie Many Once Distinguished
Persons


Persons.
BY ANNA ALEXANDER CAMERON.
A very old graveyard it is, for here
the earliest settlers of this ancient
borough found their graves, and here
the first church erected in this part of
the State was built-an Episcopal
church, whose rector was " Parson
Micklejohn."
After the Revolutionary war the
church fell into disuse, having no min
lister in charge, and SO went to decay,
nor was another Episcopal congrega-
tion gathered together again under a
minister until 18-, when the Rev.
William Mercer Green, now the ven
cradle Bishop of Mississippi, was call
ed to the pastorate of st. Matthews,
the present church, which was built on
land decided to the congregation by
Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin.
On the site of the old church stands
now the one in which the Presbyterian
congregation. worships. The grave
yard having been used for many years
as the pnblic burying ground is so
thickly peopled with the dead that the
town authorities have forbidden furth-
er interments, except in privates
squares. A prohibition rendered nee
essary by the frequent invasion of old
graves. And ah! the terrible secrets
that those old graves sometimes re-
vealed. One day not many years ago
the sunshine fell soft and golden into
one Of them where rested an old, old
coffin, in which face downwards, lay
the skeleton of woman. The poor
pathetic bones were in such position
that no doubt could remain that the
unfortunate creature had been buried
alive and had struggled wildly to es-
cape the horrible imprisonment, which
meant a still more horrible death.
In the northwest corner of the
churchyard in a small square over
grown with brambles and creeping
vines, is a gray weather-stained tomb
stone on which the inscription is almost
efaced, yet enough remains to tell
that Here sleeps William Hooper,
signer of the Declaration of Indepen-
dance" etc. One of that band of res
olute patriots who wrote their names
none the less firmly and boldly because
thereby they were risking all but hon
or and the liberty they held SO dear.
Across the graveyard towards the
east amongst waits and strays rests
bit of the worlds strange driftwood.
A French captain lies here, gentle
men of courage, honor and refinement.
He was one Of the Caroline Murat's
body-guard, and after the downfall of
the Nepoleonic dynasty he left Naples
and went to Spain. Subsequently, be-
ing engaged in revolution on the is
land Of Malta, he was banished and
fled to New York. From thence be
drifted here as music teacher in a
large female school. After holding
this position for number of years,
he became private tutor in the family
Of a wealthy gentleman of the place,
and it was while thus employed that
he began to lose his sight. Although
treated with the most generous kind
ness and consideration and offered a
home and every comfort for his de-
clining years, his pride could not
brook the thought of blindness, help
lessness and dependence, and so he
made choice of what he thought by
far the most honorable alternative by
ending his life.
Long ago, when the inhabitants
were few, there came to the village
peddlar, and he put up at a tavern
kept by an old man and his wife.
Anon the peddlar disappeared. "Gone
on mine host said, ''to other pastures
green There was just suggestion
ofsomething mysterious about the sud
den departure, for no one had seen
him 60. Still, nobody made it his
business to inquire closely, and in
time men forgot or ceased to speculate
about it.
The old people passed away. The
man, in a gloomy and morose old age,
hung himself in his barn, and the wife
disappeared, none knew whittier.
Years afterwards, in digging a grave
in the church yard, the grave diggers
came to something that seemed more
like box than coffin, and on un-
earthing it it proved to be chest, in
side of which was the skeleton OF a
man whose skull had Deen fractured.
Amongst some of the "old people,
were those who, III seeing the chest,
recognized it as very peculiar one
that used to stand in the passage up
stairs at the tavern and which could
not he found when the fixtures of the
tavern had been sold. Here, then,
had come to light the unfortunate ped.
dlar and the crime committed so long
ago.
Within a few feet of the door Of
the Presbyterian church has lain in
his grave for more than halfa century
one OF the most remarkable men that
North Carolina has ever produced
.ohihnld Dahn.u hf.,.rhx, A. H.