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Dowsers say more grave sites revealed at County Home Cemetery
By Rose Hooper
Tom Stewart with his stainless steel divining rods and Alvin Frady with his dual copper rods believe they discovered about 75 more grave sites at the County Home Cemetery during a dowsing expedition Sunday (Aug. 29).
“I knew there were more graves up there, from hearing my family members talk about them, but I never imagined there would be that many,” said Frady, who has relatives buried on the hillside above Ingles.
“We believe we are 99.9 percent sure of the grave sites,” Frady said of their dowsing. “Sometimes I dowsed first and Tom came behind and confirmed what I found; other times I came behind him and confirmed what he found.”
Some of the grave sites are within 20 feet of the barbed wire fence running along N.C. Department of Transportation property; a couple are within 50 feet of the creek up there, he said.
“Best way I could describe how the graves are laid out is like spokes in a wagon wheel,” Frady said.
He called their find “a significant piece of county history.”
The Jackson County Home was established in 1924, records indicate, although it is believed the house on N.C. 116 was built before that date. The structure was torn down in 1986, according to Paul Lewis, who bulldozed the property that is now a parking lot at Southwestern Community College.
Previously, Frady and others believed that most of those buried at the cemetery were residents at the county home, or “inmates,” as he said they were called.
However, Frady feels his dowsing results confirm that many deceased were buried on the hillside even before the county home was established. He is arranging for geoscientists to confirm the results.
Frady, who would like to maintain the cemetery as an historic site, will renew his efforts to purchase the 3.9 acres, a request he made to Jackson County Commissioners during their Aug. 10 meeting.
Commissioners’ Chairman Stacy Buchanan said then that commissioners had previously agreed to trade the property to DOT in exchange for property that could be used by SCC.
Frady has started a County Home Cemetery Fund with donations to offset the costs of restoration, putting up grave markers and having a monument with all the names of those buried at the site. Donations may be mailed to P.O. Box 811 Sylva, N.C. 28779.
Along with N.C. Department of Corrections volunteers, Frady is seeking additional volunteers to clear and clean the site. Tools, such as shovels, rakes and weedeaters are also needed. For more information, call 586-0809.
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