County Home Cemetery

LOCATION

The County Home Cemetery was located on private property on a hilltop above Silver Bluff Village (includes Silver Bluff Nursing Home, Pigeon Valley Assisted Living Rest Home, Arrowhead Cove Assisted Living, and Silver Bluff Rehabilitation Center). The hilltop pasture location of the former cemetery provided a panoramic view of homes on Murray Road to the north as well as a view of Cold Mountain to the south.

DIRECTIONS

Since all remains were removed during the 1980s from the former cemetery, which was situated on private property, there is no longer an operating cemetery. The former County Home that provided the last habitation of the deceased whose remains were at the County Home Cemetery is now Pigeon Valley Assisted Living Rest Home, a part of Silver Bluff Village. Directions to Pigeon Valley Assisted Living Rest Home are as follows:

From Waynesville - Take Highway #276 South traveling eastward from Waynesville and continue on this road for 6.2 miles.  Turn left onto Highway #110.  Travel 0.7 miles north and turn right at the sign for "Silver Bluff Village." The historic brick building to the left, Pigeon Valley Assisted Living, is the former County Home.

From Canton – Take Highway #110 and travel south for 3.4 miles to the Silver Bluff Village sign. Turn left on Lake Drive. Pigeon Valley Assisted Living is on the left.

HISTORY

COUNTY HOME

Haywood County has provided indigent care programs for its citizens since its earliest days. During the early 19th Century, Haywood County offered care for impoverished persons by boarding them in homes at county expense. From 1868 through 1891, Haywood County officials included nine Wardens for the Poor whose duty it was to ensure that deprived people received humane consideration. By 1879, The tax rate was $.75 per $100 valuation, with one third set aside for the poor fund. By the 1880s, the county allowed indigent individuals a provision of room, board, and clothing in exchange for work on “the poor farm.” By 1884, the county elected to build a “poor house.” In the early 1900s, North Carolina passed a law requiring each county to provide a location to house deprived homeless people who had limited options and were incapable of caring for themselves.

In 1911, Haywood County built a Classical Revival architectural style brick structure, “the County Home,” to accommodate these disadvantaged citizens. The facility was located at today's Silver Bluff Village in the building that now houses Pigeon Valley Assted Living Rest Home. Haywood County supplied a small stipend to residents to pay for their care. While most residents were elderly, some children lived with at least one parent at the facility. Lisa Leatherwood, Silver Bluff Nursing Home Administrator, recalled a story about a visit from a lady in the 1960s who confirmed the fact that she had lived at the County Home decades prior (from age two – six). The county considered it cruel to separate a young child from her mother. The mother and daughter fled the County Home when the child turned six, however, when county officials determined that the child was old enough to be separated from her mother. This young girl was the last child to live at the County Home.

The Allison family oversaw operations of the adjacent twelve-acre farm that included a barn built in 1914 by inmates from the local prison. People living at the County Home were expected to work, either on the farm, in the kitchen, or cleaning – if physically able. Produce from the farm played a significant role in feeding residents.

By 1952, Haywood County, deciding to place its indigent population in private rest and nursing homes, auctioned the “Haywood County Infirmary” – the official name for the County Home. New owners, the Teague family, converted the facility into a rest home.  By 1962, the Kenny family purchased the building, In 1980, their children, Don Kenny and Jean Kenny Longley, purchased the buildings. Upgrades and additions resulted in today's Silver Bluff Village campus, and the operation remains in the family. Lisa Leatherwood, daughter of Jean and Max Longley, is the owner/director.  

CEMETERY DESIGNATION

Some individuals who lived at the County Home during its era of operation (1911 – 1952) died, with no claimant for their bodies.  According to the current owner of the property that once housed the former cemetery, Lora Jones Holcombe, the land where the cemetery was located was not a part of County Home property but was on private property on a hilltop adjacent to the County Home. The land has been in her family for generations, dating to the era of her great grandparents.  Inherited property passed to Flora Murray when she married George Stamey. Their son and his wife, Wayne and Jane Stamey, inherited the land that consisted of over one hundred acres after their daughter, Judy Stamey Jones, acquired the property and added a bit more. Haywood County government officials approached Wayne Stamey about the need to find a burial ground for deceased individuals who had been living at the County Home. The bodies were unclaimed, and no relatives ere responsible for burial.  Stamey, sympathetic to the plight of these people, agreed to cordon off a section of his pastureland to allow for the burials, thereby creating a small graveyard, better known as the “County Home Cemetery.”

Search for the County Home Cemetery

For decades, family members have attempted to locate the County Home Cemetery so that they could pay tribute to their loved ones.  Individuals have contacted Silver Bluff Village, the Haywood County Historical & Genealogical Society (HCH&GS), and Bethel Rural Community Organization's (BRCO) Historic Preservation Committee in attempts to determine the location of the County Home Cemetery.  Until 2023, however, none of these groups could determine the location.  Cheryl Inman Haney recalled that her brother, Ted Darrell Inman, described the general vicinity. Jennifer Cathey with the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources supplied a map of the cemetery, but there was no larger context to determine the precise location.  County Commissioner and surveyor, Kevin Ensley, supplied a larger map that placed the cemetery in perspective to its larger surroundings. This map also indicates the general area of the County Home Farm. Two visits to property owned by Lora Jones Holcombe as well as a discussion with Holcombe about her recollection of the cemetery's removal when she was a child, allowed Lisa Leatherwood (Owner/Administrator of Silver Bluff), Frances Adamson, Evelyn Coltman, and Carol Litchfield who are members of both the Haywood County Historical & Genealogical Society as well as BRCO's Historic Preservation Committee, to visit the site of the former cemetery.

GOVERNANCE

When no one claimed the bodies of deceased County Home residents or if the family had no funds for burial costs, the county covered the expense and arranged for burial at the County Home Cemetery. County officials needed a nearby burial area to accommodate the deceased. These officials made a convenient choice, made possible by the generosity of Wayne and Jane Stamey, to bury these unfortunate individuals on Stamey property.  

FUNDING

Wayne and Jane Stamey provided the land for the burial location in a pasture area on their approximately one-hundred-acre land. Unknown is whether the county paid the Stamey couple for the use of the land.  Haywood County, however, did provide caskets and funded the burial process.

GRAVES AND GRAVE MARKERS

All graves were removed in the 1980s at the request of Judy Stamey Jones who inherited the land from her parents, Wayne and Jane Stamey. There are no known photographs of the burial area during its existence as an active graveyard from early to mid-1900. If Haywood County or loved ones placed markers at the grave sites, there is no available record of such information. According to Lora Holcombe, current owner, the graves did not appear to have vaults since many of the graves were sunken at the time of removal.  The danger of sunken graves was a primary reason Judy Jones requested removal. According to Holcombe, NC State University assisted with the transfer of the remains to a final resting place.  

Find-a-Grave's online link indicates that twenty-eight individuals have dedicated memorial contributions registered to the County Home Cemetery. The earliest reported gravesite was 1914, and the last interment was in 1948. Documentation on Death Certificates for some individuals does indicate that their burial place was the County Home Cemetery.

Continuing Search

BRCO's Historic Preservation Committee is continuing its research to determine the final resting place of individuals whose remains resided at the County Home Cemetery. The Department of Natural & Cultural Resources and NC State University are assisting with attempts to locate records of the removal and transfer of the remains. BRCO also contacted officials with the Haywood County Health Department and the Haywood County Register of Deeds, but they

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBSITE SEARCH LINKS

Denton, Frances Blalock, “Andrew Jackson Murray Family – Private Collection of Haywood County Documents, while Haywood County Sheriff for 30 Years,” My Children's Children – the Murry Clan, Vol. 1. Self-published history of the Murray family, 1994. *Chapter IV includes information about Haywood County history from the private papers of Sheriff Andrew Jackson Murray, Sheriff of Haywood County, which the Murray family held in its private collection.

Haywood County Genealogical Society, Haywood County Heritage North Carolina, Vol. 1., Walsworth Publishing Company, Marceline, MO, 1994.

Unlike most cemeteries in Haywood County, the County Home Cemetery is NOT registered as a cemetery in the book by George Augustus Miller, Sr., Cemeteries and Family Graveyards in Haywood County, NC, June 1, 1979.

*Find a Grave Virtual Cemetery

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2436759/county-home-cemetery

*Haywood County NC Cemetery Records LDS Genealogy - https://ldsgenealogy.com/NC/Haywood-County-Cemetery-Records.htm

The following individuals enabled BRCO to solve a seventy-year-old mystery of finding the location of the County Home Cemetery:

*Frances Adamson assisted with phone calls and visits to locate the owner and visit the property.

*Ted Carr contacted Kevin Ensley, surveyor, and relayed the map that detailed the precise location of the County Home Cemetery.

*Jennifer Cathey with the NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources (NCDNCR) provided a cemetery map.

*Evelyn Coltman initiated the search and made contacts and visits that resulted in the location of the cemetery as well as researching/writing about County Home history.

*Kevin Ensley, surveyor with Ensley Land Surveying, located the survey map that led to identification of the precise location of the County Home Cemetery.

*Cheryl Haney relayed oral information that assisted in pinning down the location of the cemetery.

*Bill Holbrook, Chair of the Bethel Community Cemetery, assisted with confirmation that the remains of individuals from the County Home Cemetery were not transferred to Bethel Community Cemetery.

*Lora Holcombe relayed details about the location, the property and its history, burials and interment, and disposition of the remains.

*Lisa Leatherwood, Owner/Administrator of Silver Bluff Village, relayed oral history and documented history about the County Home.

*Carol Litchfield assisted with reading maps, visits to locate the property, contact with the Haywood County Health Department and the Haywood County Register of Deeds, contact with NCDNCR, and contact with N.C. State regarding the removal and transfer of the remains disinterred from the County Home Cemetery.

*Sherri Rogers, Haywood County Registrar of Deeds, consulted Haywood County records to determine disposition of disinterred remains.

*Carol Litchfield provided directions

*Article written by Evelyn M. Coltman,Historic Preservation Committee Chair,

Bethel Rural Community Organization