Oliver Cemetery
Macon Co., NC

Surveyed Fall 2005.

Directions: From the McDonald's in Franklin, take Hwy. 441 southbound. Take a right onto Addington Bridge Road. Take a right onto S. Skeenah Road, which becomes N. Jones Creek Road. Travel a total of about 3.5 miles from Addington Bridge Road. Turn left at the driveway marked 2195 across from Gillespie Chapel. Go 1/10 mile to the cemetery on the right just before a blue and white mobile home. The cemetery is marked with a small sign and the known graves with orange flags, which were placed by Stacy Guffey. Many thanks to Mr. Guffey for letting us know about this cemetery.

The cemetery is difficult to find as all the graves are marked with low fieldstones, none of which have any writing on them that we could find. Stacy Guffey, who was the Planning Director for Macon County at the time of the survey, directed me to this cemetery. The person who had recently bought the property on which the cemetery rests was planning to build a house over the cemetery. Stacy stepped in and has done what he could to drum up publicity in order to preserve the cemetery.

According to Stacy, who talked extensively with Edith Byrd and Barbara McRae before contacting me, this is the Oliver Cemetery. It was used as the original burial ground for Gillespie Chapel before the church moved into its current building across North Jones Creek Road. It is unknown who is buried here, but there are supposed to be at least 26 graves. I found between 19 and 22 individual graves, but it was difficult to know for certain because of the way the graves were laid out. There are most likely more grave sites that we missed in our walk-through. Following is a rough map of the graves. Stones 12/13, 11/14, and 10/15 may mark one grave instead of two.

Before visiting this cemetery, please gain permission from the land owner. The driveway is rough, so drive carefully. If you are interested in helping to preserve this or other Macon County cemeteries, please contact the Macon County Historical Society.

       [North Jones Creek Road]




                         01        d
                                   r
   05       04 03   02             i
                                   v
12 11 10 09       08  07 06        e
                                   w
13 14 15 16 17                     a
                                   y
    22      21 20   19   18



                                               [mobile home]