An Old Graveyard in Union County SC

From Union to Spartanburg Court House there are three public high ways.  The main route passes a considerable part of the way on the ridge between the Pacolet River and the Fairforest Creek; another of these ways crosses the latter stream a few miles west of Union and leads near a fashionable watering place known as Glenn's Spring.  The third is an intermediate route and lies across the tributaries of the Fairforest until it intersects the main road at a place called the Rich Hill.  Eleven miles from Union on this intermediate route you come to a small space enclosed with a substantial stone wall.  A gate way through the northern wall af fords an easy entrance.  Over this space, perhaps near an acre, are dispersed a variety of tombstones, some of marble neatly polished and engraved; others of soapstone, more coarsely wrought and engraved, but bearing the most ancient dates.

The first which attracts attention on entering has the name Margaret Hodge inscribed near the top. You might learn from what follows that she was born near the first of the last century and died near its close.  Passing around near the eastern wall you find the name of James McIllwaine.  In another part a slab marked Gen. Hugh Means.  Close by another which covers the grave of John R. Golding, late professor in the University of Georgia.  Under the bough of a majestic oak you find tablets marking the graves of the Rev. Daniel Gray and his wife, Mary.  Over the whole space you discover mementos of man's mortality.  At one moment a memorial of an infant of days excites sympathy for bereaved parents and the next you are reminded that you tread by the ashes of one whose locks were whitened by the snows of ninety winters.

horizontal rule