OLD POLK CEMETERY AND THOMAS POLK MARKER
Located just off Tarlton Mill Road (west side), several miles south of Polk Mtn. Grocery.
Historical marker is on Tarlton Mill Road near cemetery.
New Salem Township, Union County, North Carolina
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Thomas Polk
Feb 28, 1757- May 3, 1842
From Bob Johnson: These pics are from the Thomas Polk Cemetery. The dates on the Thomas Polk marker is the correct date for my Great Great Great Grandfather Thomas Polk, and not for the Colonel/General Thomas Polk from Charlotte (this Thomas Polk's uncle) that formed the 4th NC Regiment and called the meeting and read the Mecklenburg Independence Resolves from the Court House steps in Charlotte.
Cannot find this Thomas Polk's service records from the Revolutionary War. They are possibly confused with his Uncle's records. Indications are he was a private. The marker was placed beside the road in 1950 and the date is scribbled in the concrete base of the marker.
The cemetery is about 300 feet from the marker/road in a field and is overgrown with trees and has no legible markers.
Thomas Polk marker | Base of Thomas Polk marker showing date it was erected (May 27, 1950) | Thomas Polk marker from road - cemetery in background |
Old Polk Cemetery about 300 feet from Thomas Polk marker | Grave stone in Old Polk Cemetery | Grave stone in Old Polk Cemetery |
Grave stone in Old Polk Cemetery | Grave stone in Old Polk Cemetery | Old Polk Cemetery |
Old Polk Cemetery | Old Polk Cemetery | Old Polk Cemetery |
Polk Mountain |
ADDITIONAL SOURCES FOR THOMAS POLK INFORMATION: Polk Family and Kinsmen. By William Harrison Polk. Louisville, Ky.: Bradley & Gilbert, 1912. Page 95: Thomas Polk, eldest son of William Polk by his first wife was generally called “Colonel” Thomas Polk. He married Mary Shelby, a sister of Reese and Thomas Shelby, and said to have been a sister of General Evan Shelby, father of Governor Isaac Shelby, hero of King’s Mountain and the Thames, and twice Governor of Kentucky. The parents of Mary Shelby, says Miss Garrett in her Polk sketches, resided just across the South Carolina line in Chesterfield District (now county), and died there. Thomas Polk and his wife Mary, lived on Watson’s Creek, but later removed to Richardson’s Creek, at what was called little Mountain. After his settlement there it became known as “Polk Mountain,” and he died there in 1842. In 1880 the name of the mountain was changed to “Gibralter.” Colonel Thomas and Mary (Shelby) Polk had issue: Shelby, Andrew, Thomas, Jobe, Hannah, Dicy, Patsy, Mary, Elizabeth…… .. |
LONG FAMILY HISTORY (part 1) Originally published in The Monroe Journal, March 27, 1953, By Mrs. G. H. Pettaway: |
MORE UNION CO, NC GENEALOGY & HISTORY
This page created May 16, 2008 by Julie Hampton Ganis
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