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Old Town Cemetery
Old Town Cemetery Tarboro
Old Town Cemetery Tarboro
Old Town Cemetery Tarboro
Old Town Cemetery Tarboro
Old Town Cemetery Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Calvary Churchyard Tarboro
Old County Home Cemetery Tarboro Edgecombe County
Old County Home Cemetery Tarboro Edgecombe County

Tarboro, N.C., cemeteries

I don’t have to leave the country to find interesting and historic cemeteries. There are a few notable ones, for example, in the historic small town of Tarboro, N.C., where I lived for several years.

The meticulously landscaped Calvary Churchyard is the final resting place for a governor, a bishop, and a Confederate general killed at Gettysburg during the Civil War. The Old Town Cemetery a couple of blocks away holds some of the town’s founders from the late 18th century.

Greenwood Cemetery, TarboroA Tarboro police sergeant took me to the Greenwood Cemetery graves of Matt Ransom Gwatney and Plummer Ray Riggan while I was writing a story about the department for the local newspaper long ago. The two Tarboro policemen were shot to death in 1917 while searching a house on Trade Street for illegal liquor. The only indication on the marker that they were slain is the word “duty.”

MemorialMemorialTheir names have always stuck with me, and I found the names again years later on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington. I still have the original photo I took for that long-ago story. I’ll eventually add it here.

Old County Home Cemetery, Edgecombe CountyI learned about the paupers cemetery — the Old County Home Cemetery — a few miles outside of town while working on another story for the paper. It was in sad condition then — overgrown and neglected, with sunken ground often the only indication of a grave. I found it in much the same condition in 2011, though a shiny plaque at the entrance indicates that an Eagle Scout took on a cleanup project here a few years ago. I didn’t venture far past that sign on this day. Even though I could make out some paths beyond the gate, I was leery about what might be lurking in the weeds and brush on a steamy summer morning.

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