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Cemetery Located on High School Property

Hartley Family Objects to Disinterment

Story by Kathleen McFadden Joanne Hartley and Geologist Keith Seramur

From the beginning of the discussions about the proposed site for the new Watauga High School in Perkinsville, folks have raised concerns about the cemetery that could be located on the land. Last week, Keith Seramur and Associates located the burial ground.

Seramur, a consulting geologist the county contracted to look for the gravesites, has located 19 possible grave shafts and 11 possible headstones lying down a gentle slope from Hilltop Road.

Seramur studied infrared aerial photos from the early 1960s and old documents to help narrow the focus of his search on the 94-acre site. The photos, he said, showed grave-shaped soft areas of the soil. He skimmed off the topsoil in the area with a backhoe and used ground-penetrating radar to test for “reflectors,” signals that indicate a change in the soil and the presence of archeological features.

In addition to a trash pit and large rocks, Seramur also found the grave shafts, indicated by hard soil above and below the actual burial location. Seramur did not excavate the gravesites, but marked the head and foot of each shaft with painted stakes.

Last Thursday, Seramur met members of the Hartley family at the site to explain the work he had done and what he had found.

Joanne Hartley wasn’t surprised that Seramur located the cemetery. “I had heard about it all my life,” she said. Opal Gragg wasn’t surprised either. She has lived in the neighborhood for 52 years and remembers when her children used to play at the cemetery site.

The Past

Joanne Hartley and other members of her family have compiled extensive genealogical information that traces the Hartley roots to Shropshire, England.

The family’s American branch started with Waightstill Hartley and his family who emigrated to Maryland in 1740. Waighstill’s only son—John Richard Hartley—married Elizabeth Beckett, and the couple had seven children.

One of those children was Reuben Hartley, and he’s the man who established the cemetery in Perkinsville.

Reuben Harley’s handwritten will dated August 27, 1857, includes land bequests to his children and the following declaration: “I have reserved one acre of land for a burial ground to be measured off and fenced in with posts and plank.”

That’s the site the family believes Keith Seramur found, and Joanne questions the county’s ownership of the tract. Based on Reuben Hartley’s will, she pointed out, “It is not willed, not deeded and not owned by anybody.”

The Hartley line continued through plenty of children in each generation, and Joanne’s lineage goes straight back to Reuben and John Richard.

Reuben’s son Eli is next on the tree, followed by Eli’s son Azor, followed by Azor’s son Estes and then Estes’s son Gray. Gray Hartley was Joanne’s father.

Along the way, of course, the Hartleys joined with many other families through marriage.

The direct line includes wives from the Greene, Estes, Cook and Wooten families. And that doesn’t count the marriages by everybody’s brothers and sisters.

The point, Joanne said, is that the rediscovered cemetery is not just a Hartley cemetery. “There are other families,” she said, “and we want them to be a part of it.”

The Present

In the 150 years since Reuben Hartley set aside that acre of ground, the graves have been obscured and the stones possibly scattered because the plat was formerly used to grow Christmas trees. Those trees are gone now, but brush piles still on the property, Joanne said, likely contain more headstones. Not long after Joanne mentioned that possibility to Seramur last Thursday, family member Archie Johnson and Jay Thacker—who works with Seramur—found a potential headstone in one of the brush piles and carried it up the hill to place it with the ones that had already been discovered. Joanne is concerned that some of the graves might have been dislodged as well, and she is discussing additional survey work with Seramur.

The Future

Watauga County Manager Rocky Nelson said that the high school architect will meet with the school planning subcommittee to discuss the cemetery discovery, and the committee will make a recommendation for action to the Watauga County Board of Commissioners. If the board votes to relocate the cemetery, Nelson said, the county is required to follow a detailed procedure for identifying and notifying heirs and next of kin. The county attorney will monitor the process to ensure that the county follows the law, Nelson said.

“The county is very sensitive to the family’s concerns and feelings,” Nelson added.

But Joanne doesn’t want the bodies disinterred and removed to another cemetery. “There’s not a member here that wants the bodies moved,” she said. “It’s our history of over 150 years, our heritage.” Joanne said that all the family members she has contacted—from North Carolina to Virginia to Ohio to Arizona—want the burial ground to remain undisturbed.

Joanne continued, “This is not about our children getting an education. We are not against the school. This is about our heritage which is also Watauga County history and North Carolina history.”

Joanne and the other members of the family are still collecting genealogical data and invite anyone who has ties to the family—by blood or by marriage—or information that they would like to share to write her at PO Box 1153, Boone, NC 28607 or fax her at 828-963-9268.

Joanne’s dream is to see the cemetery restored to Reuben Harley’s original description—surrounded by post and plank.