Descendants working to preserve historic Rock Hill Black cemetery in Castle Hayne
CASTLE HAYNE, NC (WWAY) — Neglect, abandonment, and destruction have been why many cemeteries no longer exist.
Some descendants of people buried at Rock Hill Cemetery, a historic Black cemetery, want to continue its preservation as a new community is built near it.
For the past several years, those descendants have been gathering information about those interred there.
They’re concerned about the cemetery’s proximity to a new community subdivision called Sunset Reach.
They said more than eighty people were buried there including Rudy Holiday’s grandparents, but only 10 headstones remain standing.
She said the grounds need to be preserved.
“So its, it’s history and I think it’s important that we preserve our history, because it’s being taken out of the schools, especially black history,” Holiday said. “So I mean, its history for everybody, it’s American history so I would love to see the cemetery preserved.”
Family members said at one point, the cemetery extended close to where I-140 was built.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation said: “The Interstate 140 project went through the National Environmental Policy Act process and was completed in coordination and compliance with federal and state agencies and their regulations.”
As the Sunset Reach community has been built up, Sunset Reach manager James Yopp said preservation has been an important goal he has focused on.
“Because it was not accessible before. It wasn’t where you could actually see the sites,” Yopp said. “It was completely overgrown, vines, briars, tree limbs, everything was just, it wasn’t even navigable. So now we actually created a site that is more of a park setting where people can come and visit and understand the history of the northeast Cape Fear River and hopefully enjoy what once was and the people that actually worked on the plantations.”
Some family members also said they would like to see the cemetery closed off to anyone except descendants, along with a memorial plaque that names all who were buried there.
Yopp said he is also interested in placing a marker or plaque that tells the cemetery’s history.
