THE WAXHAWS

In 1975 the Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Church was listed as Entry no 41 in the American Presbyterian Reformed Historical Sites registry. On 11 September 1975, the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The script of a walking tour
given by Nancy Crockett as she
guides visitors around Old
Waxhaw Cemetery is presented
here:

OLD WAXHAW CEMETERY

Just as it was the desire of Jacob "to be gathered unto his people, to be buried with his fathers in the cave, that was in the field of Mechpelah," so it was the graves of their forefathers that brought the members of Waxhaw not once but thrice to rebuild their church within sight of the old burying ground.

Follow me now on a brief pilgrimage through the graveyard. Let the tour begin on the right and end on the left.

The Davie Memorial, located on the site of the third church building, was erected in 1927. The remains of General William Richard Davie, his uncle (the Reverend William Richardson), his parents (Archibald and Mary Richardson Davie) two of his sons (Frederick William and Hyder Ali) and a granddaughter (Mary Allen Davie) were removed from the cemetery and reinterred in slate-lined vaults in a brick enclosure. William R. Davie, founder of the University of North Carolina, governor of North Carolina, "Tivoli", on the west bank of the Catawba River at Landsford where he died November 5, 1820.

Between the Davie enclosure and the cemetery is the Revolutionary Plot, which has been set aside for markers to Revolutionary soldiers who lie in unmarked graves in the cemetery or in nearby family burying grounds. It is fitting that the central figure in this plot should be a monument in memory of Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, President Andrew Jackson's mother, for she figured prominently in the struggle of this section for independence.

On entering the cemetery proper, the stone walled enclosure first catches ones eye. This has no entrance, but can be climbed by rocks set into the east wall as steps. The plot contains the graves of the wife, son, and aunt of Robert Leckie, the contractor for the stone work of the Landsford Locks. These three died of malaria within four months of each other.

Next is John Gettys who was born in County Antrim, Ireland in 1754 and became a storekeeper in the Waxhaws sometime after the American Revolution.

Beyond the Leckie enclosure is the granite marker erected to President Andrew Jackson's father in 1931 by the Catawba Chapter NSDAR, Rock Hill, S.C.

The lower, or eastern end, of the cemetery below the Leckie enclosure was a part of the original 4 - 1/2 acres deeded to the Waxhaw Congregation in 1758, and in this part, on the upper side, you will find the oldest stones.

"Here Alexander Nisbet lies and his wife Agness likewise." This epitaph goes on the name their six sons and two daughters.

Col. John Montgomery, captain of a militia group during the War of 1812, has a marker that reminds us that we had to fight England not only once but twice for our independence. The Montgomerys were among the early settlers of the Waxhaws and many descendants live in Lancaster County today.

At the lower end of the cemetery is the horizontal stone of William Blair which recounts in detail the role he played in the Revolutionary War, but the extraordinary part is that he refused a pension for his military service, declaring that "If the small competence he then possessed failed him, he was both willing and able to work for his living; and if necessary, to fight for his Country without a penny of pay." The monument of his wife, Sarah Blair, also engraved by T. Walker of Charleston, records George Douglas as her father, the names of her children, and the hour of her death as well.

Captain James Walkup, on whose plantation the Battle of the Waxhaws was fought September 20, 1780, is buried here along with his wife Margaret Pickens, a first cousin of General Andrew Pickens. Their stones with coats of arms have been beautifully reset in a handsome granite boulder.

Nearby is Moses Cantzon's marker. His father, the French doctor Jean Charles René Cantzon, gave the Waxhaw Settlement the distinction of having a full-time "Physician of Physic" as early as 1763.

The ace of spades on Samuel Barnett's keystone monument suggests that the pioneer settlers were not ignorant of the relative place value of the 52 cards in a deck.

A tombstone with an intriguing inscription is that of Sarah Dunlap "alias Latta otherwise Ramsey".

Archibald Cousart served as a member of the ninth General Assembly of S. C. from Lancaster County until his death 3 June 1791. His wife, Molly Cousart, knew Andrew Jackson from his natal hour.

If this region had not been called "the Waxhaws", it might have become known as the Dunlap Settlement. There are forty-six persons buried in the cemetery by the name of Dunlap, eleven said to have been elders.

The Crocketts come next with thirty-six. John Crockett had a ship carved on the back of his stone and the lines "Born upon the sea near Pennsylvania shore in 1730".

A name prominently connected with the Waxhaw Settlement from the beginning was that of the Fosters. All of them are descendants of Henry and Ann Dunlop Kelsey Foster.

The oldest headstone that can be deciphered today is that which records "Here Lyeth the Body of / Mary Taylor / departed this Life in the /Sixty fourth year of hir / age SepT the 5 /1758".

Major John Barkley's tombstone is highly ornamented with Masonic emblems.

Anna C. McKenna, consort of William McKenna, is buried beside her parents, James and Elizabeth Cousar. William McKenna, Lancaster County's richest man of the 1850s, is buried in the Catholic cemetery in Columbia, S. C.

Captain Isaac Donnom came into the Waxhaws from Colleton District before the Revolutionary War. The obelisk-type monument marks his grave.

Major Robert Crawford, who departed this life October 5, 1801, had the distinction of having President George Washington spend the night of May 27, 1791, in his home on Waxhaw Creek.

If Major Robert Crawford's brother, James Crawford, in whose home Andrew Jackson was born, is buried here, his grave is not marked. But there is a stone to George and Margaret Hutchinson M'Kemey. It was in their log cabin that the North Carolinians claim that the 7th President first saw the light of day. Andrew Jackson's cousins, the Lathans and Faulkners, are also buried nearby.

Alexander Carns (1739-1814) was Waxhaw's representative to Presbytery many times between 1798 and 1813 and was appointed commissioner to General Assembly in Philadelphia by the First Presbytery of South Carolina in 1802.

An inscription in the Walkup plot recounts the heartbroken lament of a father, Robert Walkup, whose four sons and a nephew were burned to death when fire destroyed the home in 1823.

Dr. Samuel C. Dunlap (1765-1810) was buried here but his wife was buried in Alabama. It was to her that Jackson sent a valued snuff box in 1831 "as a memento of his undeviating friendship of a childhood acquaintance, Mary Crawford".

Nearer the entrance to the cemetery are the horizontal markers of Colonel James H. Witherspoon and his wife, Jean Donnom. Interred with them is one of their grandchildren and beside them another, both children of Dr. J. H. and Jean White Witherspoon Thornwell. It was to James H. Witherspoon that Andrew Jackson wrote, "I was born in South Carolina, as I have been told...".

A rock wall enclosure moved out from time to time, with entrance now open, loosely guards the testimonials to the men, women, and children from the 1750s to the present who have lived and died in the Waxhaws.

The five hundred graves and more in this churchyard continue to bind the past with the present and the future.

-Nancy Crockett