This article was published in 2006 in the Hendersonville Times-News. There is not a link to the newspaper’s web site. The entire story and photographs are not published on the newspaper’s web site.

When reading this article, remember that the Methodists in Western North Carolina held campground meetings and brush arbor meetings, and that the cemetery will always predate the actual building of a church.

Here is the article in its entirety:

By Jennie Jones Giles
Francis Asbury, considered the father of the Methodist church in America, crossed King’s Ferry on the French Broad River and forded the Mills River on Nov. 13, 1800, according to his journal.
He had spoken in the field where pioneer families congregated for worship at what came to be known as the Shaw’s Creek Campground.
Asbury made another visit Oct. 12, 1801: “We found lodging at Maj. Brittain’s near the mouth of Mills River. After having a sermon at Morrough’s (Murray’s) from N. Suethen, myself and James Douthat gave an exhortation.”
By 1826, Methodists living in the Mills River community organized to build what many consider the first Methodist church building in Henderson County. Settler families continued to meet at Shaw’s Creek Campground in Horse Shoe, constructing a log building in 1835.
“On Aug. 15, 1826, John Clayton, in consideration of ten shillings, deeded a site to John Murray, Phillip Brittain, John Johnson, Frazier Banning, and John Clayton, trustees, after which Mills River Methodist Church was organized, and occupied a frame building on it,” church history states.

Cemetery on Turnpike Road

Graves in the cemetery predate the first church building. The oldest legible gravestone is that of Samuel L. Woodfin, the 5-year-old son of Col. John Woodfin, who settled in the Mills River valley as early as 1790 and was one of the 15 justices during the formation of Henderson County. Woodfin also served on the committee to establish Hendersonville.
The old Turnpike Road (Old Buncombe Turnpike) that early settlers traveled can still be seen today at the cemetery. The old road separates the old cemetery from the new section of the cemetery.
“The old road went between the old and new sections,” said Ray Bryson as he stood in the path of the old road, pointing toward the stand of trees behind the cemetery. “It was called the Turnpike Road, one of the original roads in Western North Carolina.”
The Bryson family has passed down maintenance of the old cemetery for more than 100 years. On this Saturday, he was placing flags on the graves of veterans for the upcoming Memorial Day. One of those graves is that of Edward Dillard, killed in action during World War II (see World War II veterans and their grave sites on this web site).
“I remember coming out here when I was a small boy,” he said. “Now the Men’s Club mows it. It doesn’t cost the church any money.”
The old road was well traveled, passing alongside the cemetery and original church. Bryson remembers the story told by his Grandma Gilreath.
“There was snow on the ground,” he said. “When they went to the church that Sunday, there was a new grave of a small child. They could see the wagon and horse tracks. Someone had dug up the ground through the snow and buried a child.”
The name of that child is still unknown.
Bryson stood in front of the gravesite of Capt. J. Wiley Bryson, a member of the Methodist church for 20 years; it is stated on his gravestone. Bryson died July 25, 1862, of pneumonia contracted while serving with the Confederate army. “He died at midnight,” Bryson said. “At 1 a.m. his son, Wiley P. Bryson, was born.”
On the son’s gravestone is written, “My father’s face I never knew.”
Wiley P. Bryson never married. In his later years, he lived with Ray Bryson’s grandparents.
“As each of my grandfather’s kids was born, Wiley named each one,” Bryson said. “Each one was named after a Confederate officer.”
In the historic cemetery are the names of Union and Confederate soldiers.
There can also be found the graves of the wife and three children of Confederate officer Hal Joseph Bryson. While he was gone, fighting in the war, “Yankees came to the house where they lived on McDowell Road,” Bryson said. “His wife and daughters were all shot.”
As he walked toward the back of the cemetery, Bryson pointed out the graves of other early settlers. In one row are eight fieldstones, some of which are legible, and a grave with a missing stone. Each of the nine graves is a child.
“They were the infants and children of a Flowers family,” Bryson said. “They all died during a cholera epidemic in 1869.”
Each stone states the son or daughter of J & J Flowers.
Monuments flat on the ground mark the graves of John and Elizabeth Johnson. Written on Elizabeth Johnson’s monument are the words, “She joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in the year 1800 and remained a constant member until her death.”
There is an open, grassy space at the rear of the cemetery. It will remain an open, grassy space, Bryson said. Slaves were buried in the area.
“Years ago the stones were moved,” Bryson said. “But we know they were buried here. This section is set aside on the cemetery plat. We’ve talked about putting up a monument.”
Also found in the cemetery is a grave marker with the words: “Jack Rhodes, big, powerful black man.” There is no birth or death date.
In 1998, a Garden of Remembrance was built inside a rock enclosure for burial of ashes.

Handmade bricks

 The first frame building was torn down before the Civil War to construct a new building made of brick. A freed slave, Josh King, made the bricks for the building.
“No two of the bricks are alike,” Bryson said.
Americas Barnett, with the help of others, constructed the church with the handmade bricks.
“Mr. Barnett broke his leg during the construction and was not able to continue working, so the building was not completed until after the close of the Civil War,” is written on the church’s history.
“You can go all over the country and not find another building with this many different sizes of brick,” Bryson said.
The Mills River Chapel, which has stood for more than 130 years, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The original front columns still stand as pillars. Inside the historic chapel are the original chestnut pews.
“They’re as old as the church,” Bryson said. “Here’s the pew where my grandmother sat every Sunday for 70 years.”
As the church has grown, new additions and buildings were added.
But, the original chapel still stands, connected to the new sanctuary by a covered walkway, where one can stand and look at the park-like setting of the historic cemetery and the visible remains of the old Turnpike Road.

Additional information

The oldest legible gravestone is that of Samuel L. Woodfin, the 5-year-old son of Col. John Woodfin, who settled in the Mills River valley in 1790 and was one of the 15 justices during the formation of Henderson County. Woodfin also served on the committee to establish Hendersonville.
In one row are eight fieldstones, some of which are legible, and a grave with a missing stone. Each of the nine graves is a child, the children of J.J. Flowers. They all died during a cholera epidemic in 1869.
There is an open, grassy space at the rear of the cemetery where slaves were buried.
Also found in the cemetery is a grave marker with the words: “Jack Rhodes, big, powerful black man.” There is no birth or death date.
There are 23 Confederate graves in the cemetery. Buried here are Augustus F. Allen, Isaac Allison, Richard Allison, Williamson Bird Allison, Mithridates D. Barnett, Barnett Burnett, Elbert E. Carland, Jasper H. Crawford, Chesley J. Davis, Harvey Young Gash, Daniel Leander Johnson, Henry C. Jones, Isaiah Laughter, Isaac DeLafayette Morris, Adolphus Erwin Posey (son was a mayor of Hendersonville), John E. Posey, William Jackson Stepp, John A. Warlick, and Benjamin Harrison West.
Also buried here are Silas Carland who died of disease while home on sick furlough in Henderson County; Wesley C. Duncan who died of disease either in Henderson County or in Kinston; and John P. Murray (possibly a memorial marker) who was killed when a tree fell on the camp near Kinston.
Beverly T. Morris is buried at this cemetery. He was born 1838 in Rutherford County (Polk) and grew up near Saluda. He married Susan Jane Pace. He was captain of the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. E. Most of the men in the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment were captured at Cumberland Gap, Tenn., but his company was not there. The company was kept at the Woodfield Inn (Farmers Inn) guarding the Flat Rock estates. He and his men were at the Battle of Asheville on April 7, 1865. They were also at defense of Swannanoa Gap on April 20, 1865. They were guarding the last two artillery batteries in Western North Carolina when they were captured April 23, 1865.
One Union soldier is buried at the cemetery: John B. Swayngim.
Thomas Franklin Bird is buried here. He represented Henderson County in the N.C. House of Representatives from 1880 to 1886. He married Mary Ann Carland and moved to the Mills River community in Henderson County in 1849. He left the county during the Civil War, after the death of his wife, and returned during Radical Reconstruction when he was appointed by the government to assist in reconstruction. He married Mary Jane Williams in 1867. He was a farmer and lime manufacturer. His tombstone has “Rev” engraved on it. He did not list reverend as his occupation in census reports or in legislative biographical facts.
Jesse Sherrill Rhodes (1850-1912), a Henderson County Sheriff and state representative also has a grave site at the cemetery. He served in the state house from 1909 to 1911. He served as Henderson County Sheriff from 1902 to 1906. He was born near Saluda, the son of Jesse Rhodes and Jane Thorne Rhodes. He married Frances Arminta Morris. By 1880, he moved to the Mills River community and was a farmer. He served on the committee of the Carolina Baptist Association to select a site for a school. A site in the Fruitland community was selected and the Fruitland Academy, later named the Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, opened in 1899. In 1903, he served on the board to organize the first Western North Carolina Fair.
A sailor who died in World War II is buried at the cemetery.
Thomas Edwin Dillard was a sailor serving on the USS Bush. He was killed in action April 6, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa. He was born in Henderson County, the son of Christopher Lynch Dillard and Bessie Picklesimer Dillard. He enlisted in the Navy in 1943.