Stanford Family Cemetery in Orange County

STANFORD (MARY MOORE STANFORD) FAMILY CEMETERY

Location - In Bingham Township west of White Cross Road (SR #1951) in a remote and heavily wooded area on private land. On a rise 500 ft west of a field on the Atwater farm, which is at 804 White Cross Road. The cemetery is listed on the Orange County GIS system as PIN 9737-73-9241.Coordinates: 35d 52m 28.0s N; 79d 12m 35.0s W (See location map below.)

Survey - Date of 1970s visit not given. Milton Forsyth visited and photographed the cemetery in February 2005 courtesy of Don and Warren Atwater who allowed him access across their land and provided directions.

Graves, Marked [1970s]

- There were 3 or 4 marked graves.

Graves, Unmarked [1970s]

- There were 7 or 8 unmarked graves.

Status [2005]

- The cemetery originally stood near an old house, the remains of which was not readily evident in the current heavy woodland, but it is to the east of an old, now overgrown, roadbed. It had at one time been enclosed by a barbed-wire fence which is now almost gone. Unattended and covered with periwinkle, pinestraw and leaves with some small trees growing on the cemetery. A fine monument and some new stones were erected in the mid-1900s.

Comment: In 2009 Terri Bradshaw O'Neill of Colleyville, TX provided information that the cemetery was established by a 1909 deed from Thomas A. Atwater & wife, Isa, to James O. Webb, Trustee, and his successor for a consideration of $1.00, setting off 6/100's of an acre "for the purpose of preserving the Burial Ground of his ancestors." The description says, "This Cemetery is situated on Great Uncle Saurin Stanford's place." [Orange Co. Deed Book 107:220] She noted that the monument was dedicated on 17 July 1949 and was probably arranged for by Ralph H. Stanford of Burlington, NC. She furnished several photographs of the ceremony.

Above information courtesy of http://cemeterycensus.com/nc/orng/cem275.htm. Go to the website for the names of those interred and the photographs of their tombstones and monument.

Map Location of Stanford Family Cemetery

Editors Note: Honorable Richard Stanford, member of Congress, and husband of Mary Moore Stanford, died in office in Washington, DC on April 9, 1816, and was buried there in the Historic Congressional Cemetery.