There is a cemetery located in the woods behind Monticello United Methodist Church on Island Ford Road in Iredell County, North Carolina, on what was once Crawford family land. The last direct descendant of the Crawford family to own the property on which the family cemetery sits was Lillian Miller Gaither who sold the land in 1968. Born Lillian Estelle Miller (1898-1978), known as Lillie, she was the daughter of Charles Monroe Miller and his wife Martha Bost Miller. Lillie married her husband, Clyde Gaither, in 1916. Lillie’s mother was born Martha Bost. Martha’s mother was Mary Crawford who married Archie Bost.
To clarify, let’s learn about Mary’s family tree. Mary’s father was William Ross Crawford, one of fourteen children born to John and Mary McLelland Crawford. In 1784, John’s father, David Crawford, had received a land grant (quite a large one) in what would become the state of Tennessee. He moves to Iredell County and marries his wife, Elizabeth Lowrance, in 1788. Although Iredell formed in 1788, no marriage record for the couple has been found. They are not listed in Rowan County. When David died in 1814, he left his property near Fifth Creek to his son James. We are told that John relocated to the Loray area of the Shiloh Township. David and Elizabeth are both buried at Bethany and the assumption is that the family was of the Presbyterian faith. John’s family would have worshipped at Concord Presbyterian, being the closest church to them. In the earliest surviving church records from 1850, John’s daughters Mary and Margaret are listed in the membership rolls.
It is unclear why John was not left anything in his father’s will besides one male slave, especially when one considers the fact that he was probably the oldest child. Family lore says he was the eldest and he is listed first in David’s will; usually an indicator of birth order was the order in which the children appear in a parent’s will. Whatever the reason for not receiving land from his father, John moves to the other side of the county. The same year his father died, he purchased 597 acres from Andrew Watts, who had inherited the property from his father. James Watt(s) is listed in Mildred Miller’s Early Landowners Map right where the Morganton and Island Ford Roads meet. Today this is where Island Ford meets Highway 64 to Taylorsville. In the 1815 tax list, John Crawford is listed as living in Third Creek, while his brother James is living near Fifth Creek, literally on opposite sides of the county from one another.
In 1807, John married Mary McLelland and they would have fourteen children together. They are listed as follows:
Harriet (Gibson) 1808-1898
Mary L. 1810-1887
Nancy L. 1812-1844
David S. 1813-1891
Margaret M. 1815-1896
William Ross 1817-1892
John N. 1819-1847
Dorcas A. (Woods) 1820-1886
Adalisa M. (Cooley) 1822-1891
Ensley 1824-1825
Abraham 1826-1864
George 1828-1868
Ann 1831-1900
James M. 1836-1924
Some peculiar things to point out about the Crawford children, is that only three of the daughters got married, and later in life. Also, John and Mary died in 1847 and 1843, respectively. In the 1850 census, all of their adult children are still living at the family home, David as the oldest is listed as head of household. Although they are listed together, each child had their own plot of land courtesy of John Crawford’s will. Each of his children received approximately 60 acres, except William Ross who received 210 acres of land in Alexander County (which had just become a county in 1847). The Crawford children would continue to hold their parcels of land until their deaths, some earlier than others. Abraham and George died in the Civil War in 1864 and 1862, respectively. Their tracts transferred to their siblings. When Harriet died in 1898, she left her land to her sister Ann who died in 1900. The Mascot advertised for the auction sale of land following Ann’s death and Archie Bost, her nephew-in-law, was the highest bidder.
Archie’s daughter Martha received the lands upon his death in 1913 and her daughter Lillie Gaither is the last Crawford descendant to own the property.
Although Abraham and George died away from home and are both buried in Virginia with other Confederates, there are two footstones in the cemetery labeled A.L.C. and G.M.C. The first, although it matches Ann’s initials, is nowhere near her burial location and there is no one else in the direct family with the initials G.M.C. other than George M. Crawford. It is likely the tightknit family chose to place small markers in the family plot to honor their memory.
Many of the stones’ inscriptions have faded over time. Some burials we know of from obituaries, others are educated guesses. Mary (b. 1810) and Ann (b. 1831) were both unmarried and are buried here. Ann’s obituary says that and they both have surviving stones. There is no stone for their sister Margaret (b. 1815), but she was also unmarried and it is a safe assumption to say she is also buried here based on the number of marked stones. The cemetery is also laid out in presumably chronological order of burials. Therefore, the stone just before Harriet (d. 1898), should be Margaret’s, as she died in 1896. The stone before that should be William Ross (d. 1892) and the stone before that may be David (d. 1891). Although David is on the census records in Cherokee County in 1860, 1870, and 1880, I believe that he was brought back to be buried with his family. It is also unclear why the cemetery has been referred to as the Crawford-Waugh cemetery. There are no inscribed markers for anyone from the Waugh family, although there was oral tradition that claimed members of the family were buried here.
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