MARY LOVE CEMETERY

[Bill Dennis]

RYAN HOLMES DOING A GREAT JOB KEEPING UP MARY LOVE CEMETERY

[Jean Raby Nelson]

The front entrance takes me back 60 some years. As a Seaboard employee, my granddaddy L R McManus lived in Seaboard housing on the backside of Mary Love. We thought nothing of walking from 507 Austin St to Grandmama and Grandaddy's home. Just a small hike. I love the pictures. Bill does such a great job capturing Hamlet people and places in photos.

[bedford1864]

I have visited this cemetery many times as my great grandparents are buried there (WN Cosby, Sr. and Lorena Folkes Cosby). There must have been a time when it became somewhat rundown as I recall my grandmother talking back in the late 1950's or early 60's that she did not want to be buried there because of that, even though they had plots in the Cosby plot there. They picked out a spot in Richmond Memorial Park which at that time was very isolated on Hwy. 74 toward Rockingham. Ha, look at that area today!! Now it is difficult to find the cemetery for all of the business. Years later when interested in genealogy I came to Mary Love and thought how beautiful a place and how peaceful. It even overlooked the tracks where my grandfather spent over 50 years of his life. I may be mistaken but did not this area also overlook an old icehouse? I wish my grandmother could have seen how beautiful it is and made the decision to rest there instead. Wayne Cosby

[Wayne Fuller]

The old ice plant was about 1/2 mile north towards the yard. Mary Love Cemetery over looks where the old roundhouse was located.

[bedford1864]

When I saw your post I recall my grandfather telling me the exact same thing. It was the roundhouse. Wasn't there a tunnel to drive under the tracks to get to the roundhouse? Maybe further north? Wayne

[Bill Sapp]

I have visited this cemetery many times as my great grandparents are buried there (WN Cosby, Sr. and Lorena Folkes Cosby). There must have been a time when it became somewhat rundown as I recall my grandmother talking back in the late 1950's or early 60's that she did not want to be buried there because of that, even though they had plots in the Cosby plot there. They picked out a spot in Richmond Memorial Park which at that time was very isolated on Hwy. 74 toward Rockingham. Ha, look at that area today!! Now it is difficult to find the cemetery for all of the business. Years later when interested in genealogy I came to Mary Love and thought how beautiful a place and how peaceful. It even overlooked the tracks where my grandfather spent over 50 years of his life. I may be mistaken but did not this area also overlook an old icehouse? I wish my grandmother could have seen how beautiful it is and made the decision to rest there instead. Wayne Cosby

Wayne: It may have been the decline of the neighborhoods surrounding Mary Love Cemetery that prompted your grandparents to seek a spot at Richmond Memorial Park. Possibly one of the reason too, for them leaving their Wilmington Street home and building a new house on Stacy Avenue which is clear across town. As stated in a previous post, when we lived on Spring Street, our back yard jutted up to the Cosby's backyard along one side. We moved from Spring Street to Charlotte Street in the summer of 1970. While I loved our little bungalow, I always wished my parents had bought elsewhere on the other side of town. Now, some may not like what I am fixing to say, but it is what it is. In my opinion, with few exceptions, that entire side of Hamlet, say from Hamlet Avenue on over, is a run-down disgrace. It has been in a state of decline for years now. Some long time residents died, others held out, but eventually with what was moving in, they too, left. I sold the house on Charlotte Street almost 10 years ago and moved across town. I am much happier with that location.

Bill Sapp

[Wayne Fuller]

There is a tunnel further north. It went to the ice house but you could go down a dirt road to the round house. The tunnel is approx. 1/2 mile north toward the yard.

[Wayne Fuller]

It is just as you stated. The neighborhood from Hamlet Ave. to the cemetery has run down so bad that it is kind of scary to drive up spring street. When residents on Washington has to sit in their house with a weapon in their lap that really bad.

[bedford1864]

Mr. Fuller - I distinctly recall the tunnel. I think you went up Hwy 177 to cross over. I remember that was the way to the icehouse also. Was the open end of the roundhouse toward the cemetery? The only reason I ask is that a Marchant image of the roundhouse in 1910 says it was taken from the roof of an icehouse so evidently there once was one much closer to the roundhouse.

I hate hearing that the area east of Hamlet Ave. has degraded. Mr Sapp is probably very correct in that probably being the reason my grandparents chose not to be buried in Mary Love. Spring Street was a favorite of mine as I could walk up it to my cousin's home at the Clyde Kirkley place. This is a bit off topic but just like to throw this out. I recall playing as a child on Wilmington St and always in the dirt. The soil is extremely sandy as one would expect in the Sandhills. One thing I recall very vividly is that playing would always get my hands and such just black. Then I recalled my dad said growing up in the 20's and 30's and 40's that twice a year they had to scrub down all of the interior walls in the house on Wilmington Street because of the coal smoke residue from the engines. Evidently it was thick enough to make its way throughout the house. No A/C in those days so I'm sure windows were open all summer. So I'm thinking that the first few inches of ground that I played in were saturated with coal ash and cinders from 50 plus years of smoke from the locomotives since we were only a few blocks from the tracks, etc. Does that seem reasonable? Why I remember such things I have no idea. Wayne Cosby

[Al Thompson]

Your comments about the smoke that infiltrated everything in Hamlet is spot on. In the 40's I grew up on Charlotte St. one block from the tracks and when trains went by you not only could smell the coal burning you could feel the smoke settling on your and everything around you. Fun times.

[Wayne Fuller]

The tunnel that I am talking about being about 1/2 north is accessed from 177 and the ice house was there at it tunnel. The ice house caught fire years ago and finely fell in. There is a small tunnel that goes under the railroad tracks that the blocks of ice went through to get to the ice plate form. This tunnel is covered with dirt now. I think the roundhouse was located further south (towards town) than the ice house. The old rail yard was located between the ice house and Mary Love Cemetery. I have some date nails that were put in the crossties when they were laid in the early 1900's. I do think that we are talking about the same tunnel.

[gradyormsby]

Who was Mary Love?

[bedford1864]

There is a good write up on the NC GenWeb site about how the cemetery got its name at the address below. Perhaps someone locally can substantiate this story.

http://ncgenweb.us/richmond/marylove.htm

The short version is that the Freeman family donated the land and were among the first buried there. At some time afterward Mrs. Love asked to be able to keep the cemetery clean. Possibly she did this long enough to have the "Hamlet Cemetery"named in her honor.
Wayne Cosby