Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011

Restored cemetery saves Cary history

On Oct. 22, The Friends of the Page-Walker, the Town of Cary, and the Jones family held Remembrance Day at White Plains Cemetery, where restored graves and an interpretive sign were unveiled. This was the culmination of a 35-year effort to restore this historic cemetery.

Nathanial Jones of White Plains (1749-1815) owned 10,000 acres on the east side of today's Cary. He called his plantation White Plains after his fields of cotton and to distinguish himself from the unrelated Nathanial Jones of Crabtree, who owned the western half of today's Cary.

In 1780, Nathanial Jones of White Plains started a family cemetery near his home near Walnut Street. Along with running his plantation, Jones served as Wake County commissioner, a justice of the peace, sheriff, clerk of court, a member of the General Assembly and a delegate to the constitutional convention held in Hillsborough in 1788. In 1792, he offered land for the founding of the capital for the state of North Carolina, but the Joel Lane land in Raleigh was chosen instead.

Jones is best known for his will, because in it he requested that his slaves be freed. He wrote, "Every humane person, be his colour what it may, is entitled to freedom." He died in 1815, 50 years before the Emancipation Proclamation, so his act was rare and significant for that time.

During Cary's Centennial in 1971, four Jones great-great-granddaughters trudged through the woods to find the cemetery. They discovered it in terrible disrepair. Nathanial Jones' 15-foot obelisk was leaning precariously. The box vault tomb of his second wife, Rachel, was destroyed and covered with graffiti. Other small headstones were missing.

In 1974, the Cary Historical Society was formed, and this cemetery went on their to-do list. In the mid-'80s they were prompted to action when SunSouth Homes announced plans to build the Maynard Oaks subdivision on the land surrounding the cemetery.

In 1989, SunSouth deeded the cemetery to the town of Cary. After that, the Historical Society, which later became the Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel, began restoration. The obelisk was straightened, Rachel's box vault was rebuilt with a temporary slab on top, and a wrought iron fence was erected around the plot. Neighbors in Maynard Oaks adopted the cemetery and continue to maintain the grounds.

Recently, the Friends had an engraved slab made for Rachel's box vault. Small, unmarked headstones were placed at each of the other nine graves in the cemetery. The Town of Cary and the Friends collaborated on an interpretive sign for the cemetery. The town also cleaned up the grounds, planted ground cover and created a path through the plot.

During the recent Remembrance Day, members of the Jones family watched as Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht re-dedicated the cemetery. It was a truly wonderful event.