This article was contributed by Barbara Taylor of the Matthews Heritage Museum, 232 N. Trade Street Matthews, NC 28105
In late May Jeff Hauser, President of the Olde Mecklenburg Genealogy Society (OMGS) contacted the Matthews Historical Foundation and the Matthews Heritage Museum (MHM) asking if they knew of an old cemetery in the Crestdale section of Matthews. Barbara Taylor, Director of the MHM, having completed over a year of research on the neighborhood said she had never heard of a cemetery in the area. The question was posed because a Piedmont Gas worker, Michael Doby had come across a number of cemetery markers with dates in the mid 19th century in a wooded area in Crestdale Crossing. The earliest marker dated to 1817!
Hauser and Taylor felt that they needed to investigate the tombstones to see if they could find where they belonged. They spent half a day individually recording what turned out to be 41 stones with inscriptions on them. The stones were rather unusual as they were only 6 to 8 inches wide, and 11 to 27 inches tall. They only had initials, rather than full names, and only 11 had a date on the marker. They thought some, because of their size might be foot stones. After documenting the stones, they began trying to research who these tombstones were for. With initials and dates, we thought we might be able to discover a name in the census record or possible an obituary in the newspapers.
Taylor decided to share this mystery with other historians in the Charlotte History Roundtable, to see if they might have a better way to identify the people the stones represented. Within a few hours, historian John Blythe answered the call, identifying one stone with two sets of initials as a stone for two brothers who died on the same day and were buried in Sardis Presbyterian Cemetery. The next day, using a database he has created from his years of research and FindAGrave, he was able to identify most of the initials with people who were buried at Sardis Presbyterian Church.
Taylor contacted David Blackley who oversees the cemetery. He remembered that in 1970 the church cemetery had suffered vandalism with a number of its stones knocked over. The church decided to place many of them flat on the ground. But others were given to Neil Huntley, caretaker of the cemetery to keep them safe. He brought them home and stored them in a wooded area behind his house. Huntley died a few years ago. For almost 50 years they had been there when Doby discovered them. After Blackley reviewed the pictures and information on the stones, he was convinced they were footstones for many graves at the cemetery.
Currently the town of Matthews has them in safe storage. But this interesting mystery has been solved thru the cooperation of a handful of individuals and organizations who believe in the preservation of history. Plans are being made to bring the stones home safely to Sardis Presbyterian Church.