‘Piece of history’: City to relocate dozens of graves dating back to the 1800s in Monroe

MONROE, N.C. — The City of Monroe is planning to relocate dozens of graves in a historic cemetery to pave the way for economic development.

The Billy Woods Cemetery dates back to the 1800s, and no one has seen it for decades.

Channel 9’s Gina Esposito visited the site and found some of their descendants are against the plan.

The cemetery is tucked in the middle of a wooded property of North Sutherland Avenue in Monroe.

Some of the tombstones at the site are 180 years old. Over time, they have been damaged by overgrown brush and cattle that used to roam the former farm land.

Lori Deans says her ancestors are buried here, but until now, she’s never seen their graves.

“The grandfather that is buried out here was born in 1769. His father was in the Revolution,” Deans told Esposito. “He was in the War of 1812, and then he was buried out here in 1842 with his family members.”

Deans stumbled across the hard-to-make-out grave markers of her grandfather, several generations back, John Medlin, as well as another ancestor.

“This is a piece of history,” she said. “I’m grateful to be able to see it before the city picks them up.”

Monroe purchased the property in 2018 but only discovered the Billy Woods Cemetery earlier this year.

The property is zoned industrial, and city leaders hope to sell it for development.

In June, the Monroe City Council voted to relocate the entire gravesite to the city-owned Suncrest Cemetery about three miles away.

“It’s horrifying, I don’t want my ancestors dug up,” Deans said. “I don’t think anyone, when they really think about it, would want that either.”

Assistant City Manager Jeff Wells said the city wants to complete this move with respect. A funeral director and an archaeologist will be at the cemetery on the day of the relocation.

“The intent is to transport them basically in the same configuration that they are at in this cemetery,” he said.

Wells told Esposito the city hired a company to conduct a historical investigation into the cemetery. The report says it dates back to 1842 and was used for about 100 years.

There are about 50 graces at the cemetery with many of the names familiar to those in Union County. More than half of the people buried there have the same last name.

The report also named 170 descendants who were mailed letters in April about the possibility of the graves being moved, but only 15 people responded.

Deans said she didn’t get a letter and found out weeks after city leaders gave their final approval for relocation.

“We should have at least an opportunity to organize and see if we can work it out and save it or move it where we would like,” Deans said.

Wells said they tried to work through specific burial requests, but ultimately decided to spend $68,000 to relocate all of the graves to the Suncrest Cemetery.

“We feel like that is our best approach because there’s so many descendants,” Wells said.

The city plans to relocate the graves and their tombstones at the end of the month, saying the process will take three days.

“It’ll be a lot of shovels, maybe some very small equipment, but it’s going to be a lot of hands on work,” Wells said.

Deans said she is going to try to do “the right thing.”

“I’m going to be able to tell all the family that I tried to save them,” she said.

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