By Susan Shinn
sshinn@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE ó Nathan Simmons works for Linn-Honeycutt Funeral Home, but he’s been a bit of a detective lately.
There’s a cemetery adjacent to the old Swink plant on U.S. 29 north of China Grove.
“The Swink plant kept it mowed as long as the plant was running,” Simmons says.
But he wondered why nobody had been taking care of the small cemetery since.
“I just feel like, personally, we need to keep up all the cemeteries,” he says.
Simmons, who studies genealogy, made a trip to the history room of the Rowan Public Library to find out more.
He was told, “That cemetery is a mystery.”
It was there, he learned, because a church was there.
“The church just disappeared,” Simmons says. “There’s no record of it being burned or moved.”
But the funeral home has records, and the last burial at the cemetery took place in 1966.
The church was St. Mary’s Episcopal, owned by the Episcopal diocese in Raleigh.
Simmons asked the diocese for permission to clean the cemetery.
Simmons is working with a diocese committee to raise money for a cemetery sign.
Meanwhile, he located a sketch of the church in Ford’s History of the Episocpals in Rowan County.
It was established in 1875 in Locke Township.
The Rev. Francis Murdock, who pastored St. Luke’s, started smaller chapels, according to Simmons’ research.
St. Mary’s was one of those parishes. As best as Simmons can tell, it was active until about 1900.
It’s obvious from the names on the gravestones that several families had membership there ó McKenzie, Hammer and Sumner are some of the names listed ó but he doesn’t know how many members the congregation had.
“I’m wondering what happened to the records,” Simmons says. “I know there are people here who know these people.”Many of the gravestones still have flowers.
For the cleanup effort, Simmons enlisted the help of Boy Scout Troop 315 at Grace Lutheran Church, just a few miles away. Scoutmaster is Donny Raymer.
The Scouts gathered Oct. 25 on a rainy morning to mow, trim around gravestones and clean away limbs and remove brush from the site, which was overgrown.
They made short work of it, finishing by lunchtime.
“We actually did better than I thought we would,” Raymer says. “They jumped on it and worked on it real well.”
Seven Scouts and six adults worked on the project. Scouts who participated were Alex Osterweil, Alex Peeler, Alden Roseman, Alex Corriher, Joseph Jenkins, Matthew Henry and Todd Swink. Adults helping were Ryan Edwards, Tammy Peeler, Samantha Dobney, Hugh “Bud” Smock and Dan Roseman.
The cleanup was just one of several service projects the troop has participated in this year. They pick up trash on Grace Church Road four times a year.