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Boon Family Graveyard
Black Ankle, Randolph County, North Carolina

Lat: 35° 31' 13"N, Lon: 79° 48' 41"W

Contributed by Jane Greene, Jan 03, 2003 [jkgreene@nc.rr.com]. Total records = 8.

From Asheboro, travel south on Hwy 220 until you reach the Seagrove exit. Get off there. Turn right at top of exit (you are now on Little River Road), take the second left (about .5 miles) which is Boone Farm Road. This is a dirt road. At the end of that road, you will need to get out and walk, which may be rougher.

You will need to get permission, the land is posted. Go through the farthest most field, over the hill, to the path in the woods, walk that for about 30 minutes and when you hear the river you will round a bend. Little River is on your right, the graveyard is on your left.

It has been unmaintained for almost 70 years, the tress have grown up through it and the forest reclaimed the land. Be careful, the leaf carpet is thick and you might trip on the marker stones. (Before the state put in paved roads and thus bridges, this was the place to ford Little River, thus everyone passed by the graveyard. When the bridges went in north and south of here, the old wagon track was abandon, and the cemetery forgotten.)

This is a full transcription of the cemetery. Though there are only 7 transcribed head stones, there are close to 100 graves in this cemetery. Most are either so old that nature wore the engravings away or the only markers are simple stones at the head and foot of the graves.

The road through Black Ankle (back before roads were paved) used to ford the river at this point. If you look in the trees to the left of the cemetery you can still see the old wagon trail, now filled with large trees. The community of Black Ankle was hardworking and never 'rich'. There wasn't much to carve grave stones in, and buying them was out of the question. Many of the graves have simple stone head and foot markers, with no cut grave stone. One family made the attempt to use slate markers for their kin, and etched the names into the slate.

Unfortunately slate flakes, and only three of the stones retain the layer that had the etching, those were protected by trees. The rest have long since had the written layer flaked off by the elements. There are at least five rows with 20 graves each here. The extend of vegetation overgrowth is such that in one spot a tree about 30 inches in diameter had grown up through a grave, fallen down, and it's stump had all but rotted away. Don't go here in summer, the chiggers, ticks and snakes are not something you want to deal with. And sadly, given the vegetation, in about 20 years this graveyard will be but a memory. I doubt there will be much more standing than two most recent graves to tell it was a graveyard at all, which are granite.

I surveyed this cemetery on May 12, 2002.

- Jane Greene

Boon, Amy, bur. 15 Jun 1875, "slate stone, hand etched, fading fast, second row, at Louise feet, near Caroline"
Boon, Louise, no dates, "slate stone, hand etched, so faded needed a flashlight to sidelight to read, third row, near Caroline"
Boone, Mahaley Beane, b. 1859, d. 1881, wife of Willard, "new stone, granite, buried beside husband, fifth row"
Boone, Rebecca, b. 6 Nov 1838, d. 4 Jun 1887, wife of Daniel Boone, "third row near Louise, granite marker, on back, erected by her son J.W. Boone"
Boone, Willard W., b. 1858, d. 1945, "newest stone, granite, buried beside wife, fifth row"
Harper, Johnnie, d. 21 Feb 1826, son of J.E. and G. Harper, "Age 3m 27 days, modern granite stone, fifth row"
Harper, Mary, b. 3 Jan 1809, d. 22 Nov 1874, wife of William Harper, "Age 65 yrs 10 m 9 days, fifth rown, buried beside Johnnie"
Latham, Caroline Boon, no dates, wife of J.I. Latham, "slate stone, hand etched, dates long since worn away, first row"