North Monroe Colored Cemetery 

This cemetery in Monroe, NC, and bound by the streets -- Adams, Stafford, Carr and Wiatt -- has gone by many names.  It is one of the oldest burial grounds for the black community of Monroe, NC, and it went by several different names including:  Methodist Cemetery, People's Cemetery, New Town Cemetery, Monroe Cemetery.  Because it is adjacent to Hillcrest City Cemetery, the black municipal cemetery that began around 1940, the older grounds have been combined with it on Find A Grave under the name of "Hillcrest City Cemetery".  But it is actually a separate burial ground that is no longer used.

The photo shown here was taken in 2005, when I began the project of "reading" all of the markers on these old "original" grounds as well as the ones in Hillcrest. Several others, volunteers and some staff of the Union County Library,  helped with this reading.  Each marker had a form that was filled out, noting the condition of the marker, what type, such as "tablet on base", the material it was made of and of course what was inscribed and any other details.  The reading took at least two years.

 A database was created and printed for the Dickerson Genealogy & Local History Room.  It was intended to be stagnant as it was a reading for that time.  Find A Grave had become popular online and it was deemed, by myself, that it could hold the current or up-to-date information for the cemetery. However if any marker was uncovered later, for I believe there are markers just beneath the surface, then those would be added to the printed list in the room (while I was still working in the room).

An example of a marker that could be beneath the surface is Guy Chambers. His marker was seen in the 1914 NC Historic Cemetery Survey.  A card from the 1914 survey with his name and date of death was found at Family Search as well as it being listed in Clara Laney's "Union County Cemeteries 1710-1914 and Roster of Confederate Revolutionary Soldiers", page 55. But the marker was not seen during the 2005-06 reading. It should be noted that Chambers' burial is the oldest on record for this cemetery.

Viney Crowell, also in Laney's book but also not seen at the time of the 2005-06 survey, was later uncovered when a portion of her marker with her first name was found in 2013.  Photo here was taken after her marker was uncovered. However, in 2025, the lower portion of her marker has sunk and no longer readily seen.