A property owner who has no ancestors buried in an abandoned family cemetery cleaned and restored the cemetery. Then he built a corral-type sign attached to tall posts as an entrance.
“This property has been between the Case and Laughter families since the first deed,” said Jake Laughter, who made the sign and restored the cemetery. “I just wanted to keep it up.”
The cemetery contains the graves of James L. Case, 1842-1918, and his wife, Caroline Garren Case, 1843-1903; the Rev. John L. Case, 1848-1912; and Jacob Case.
There are also about 16 field stones with no inscriptions or illegible inscriptions.
Jacob Case was born in 1817. All seven of his children are supposed to be buried at the cemetery.
Three Confederate veterans have grave sites in the cemetery.
Jacob Case, born 1817, enlisted in the 25th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. A, Edney’s Grey. He was wounded in the head at the Battle of Oak Grove during the Seven Days Battles in Virginia, and discharged in July 1862 by reason of being over age. He died in 1880.
James L. Case enlisted in the 25th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. A, Edney’s Greys at the age of 16. He was discharged in 1862 by reason of being under age. He re-enlisted in Co. H, Cane Creek Rifles, as a substitute for William Youngblood. He served out the war. He died in 1918.
John L. Case enlisted in the 60th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. D, Henderson Rangers. There are no military records after 1862. He died in 1912.
A deed in 1918 left the cemetery to heirs in “love and consideration paid by Jacob Case and Lucinda Laughter Case.”
The deed also provided for free passage to and from the public road to the “burying ground.” The cemetery was “for use by anyone who may wish to bury their dead.”
The cemetery is off Old Clear Creek Road in Edneyville on .22 acre and is on the county’s GIS cemetery map layer.
The grave site of the Cherokee ancestor of the Owens family is also located near the cemetery. J.C. Russell of Edneyville recently erected a monument to his ancestor at the site of her unmarked field stone. For more than 200 years family members were shown the location of her grave, many descendants stated. The Owens brothers were free blacks who settled in the Edneyville community prior to the Civil War.