Author and Henderson County native Robert Morgan’s historical novels, short stories and poetry tell of his childhood memories and family heritage.
“These powerful stories ring like bells,” one book reviewer wrote. “They are about our mothers and fathers, our land and rivers. They are about us. They map our hearts.”
Most of Morgan’s ancestors, on whom the characters in his stories are based, grew up in the Green River community, and many of them are buried in the Pace Family Cemetery off Cabin Creek Road.
The earliest Pace ancestor who settled on the Green River was Daniel Pace, 1791-1871, a son of Burrell Pope Pace and wife, Lydia Woodruff Pace. Their grave sites are in the Mountain Page community.
In 1815, Daniel Pace married Sarah Revis and moved to the Green River community.
“In 1819, he bought 200 acres on Chestnut Mountain for $150,” said descendant Leon Pace. “He attended Mud Creek Baptist Church and was elected as a messenger to the French Broad Baptist Association.”
Later, he and his wife were charter members of Hendersonville First Baptist Church.
In 1838, he bought 520 acres on the Green River for $799.
“He built a log house near a spring known as ‘Pace’s Spring,'” Pace said. “Later it was known as ‘Morgan’s Spring.'”
The log house was located across the road from today’s Green River Baptist Church. The land on which the church was built was donated by his youngest son, John Benjamin Franklin Pace. The couple had eight children.
Daniel Pace and his wife are buried in the Pace Cemetery, along with about 375 descendants and other relations and neighbors.
The couple’s youngest son, John Benjamin Franklin Pace, 1838-1918, was a farmer. He married Mary Ann Jones. The couple had five children.
He enlisted in the 35th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. G, Henderson Rifles, in October 1861. He was captured 6-17-1864 near Petersburg during the Siege of Petersburg, a prisoner at Point Lookout, Md., and Elmira, N.Y., and released 6-12-1865. He died in 1918.
Morgan said that his ancestor was in the prisoner of war camps during the coldest winter on record.
“The poorly clothed prisoners lived in sheds and tents,” Morgan wrote. “More than one-third of the 8,000 there died of smallpox, exposure or malnutrition.”
“Franklin said they caught rats for meat and sold them to each other for four cents each,” Morgan wrote. “The guards served them soup made of potato skins.”
“He told the story of how he once stole Gen. Robert E. Lee’s lunch,” he wrote. “The Southern soldiers were starving and Frank saw an orderly bringing a thick piece of beef into camp for the general. It was left on a stump while the orderly gathered wood for the fire. Frank grabbed the meat and made off with it.”
Pace’s daughter, Sarah Matilda, married John Morgan Jr. John Morgan Jr.’s father died in the Civil War as a prisoner at Camp Douglas, Ill.
Two other men from the community who also served in the Confederate Army are buried in the family cemetery.
Philip Jackson Hart enlisted in the 64th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. E, in June 1863. He was confined 9-28-1864 by the Union at Knoxville, Tenn., transferred to Louisville, Ky., and released 10-14-1864. He died in 1916.
John Franklin Taylor enlisted in the 35th N.C. Infantry Regiment, Co. G, Henderson Rifles, in October 1861. He was appointed third lieutenant 4-21-1862. He resigned 8-12-1862. He later re-enlisted as a private on 5-6-1863. He died in 1908.
Also buried in the Pace Cemetery are members of the Levi family. One of the members of this family died in World War II.
Robert Glenn Levi (1915-1943) died serving with the 813th Bomb Squadron, 482nd Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force. He attained the rank of master sergeant. He died in a non-battle death Nov. 10, 1943, in England. He was born in Greenville County, S.C., the son of Robert Hampton Levi and Julia Capps Levi. By 1920 the family had moved to the Green River community of Henderson County. He was working at Green River Mills in Tuxedo at the time of his enlistment in 1941.
The oldest graves in the cemetery are those of the Hart family. The oldest marked grave is that of Alvy M. Hart (1822-1852).
The grave site of the ancestor of the Hart family is located within the cemetery. Ephraim Hart was born in 1787 in Virginia and died in 1853 in Henderson County.
In addition to Hart, Levi, Pace and Taylor, other surnames of persons with graves in the cemetery include Andrews, Bayne, Beddingfield, Bell, Capps, Corn, Davis, Huggins, Hunnicutt, Jones, Maybin, McDowell, Morgan, Mullinax, Sentell, Staton, Summey, Thomas, Ward, and others.
The cemetery is meticulously maintained.
The cemetery is located on 2.06 acres and under the control of the Trustees of the Pace Cemetery Association. It is recorded on the county’s GIS cemetery layer. Signs are placed along Green River Road and Cabin Creek Road directing people to the cemetery.