Smith Family Cemetery (Hycotee, Caswell County, North Carolina)

Smith Family Cemetery
Hycotee Farm

NC Highway 119,Caswell County,North Carolina

This family cemetery is located on the farm of William Osmond Smith III and Yancey Moorefield Smith, NC Highway 119 N, Caswell County, North Carolina. This is private property, and permission must be obtained before visiting the cemetery.

The graves are oriented to the east and are laid out as follows (from north to south):

Gravestone Inscription

Row One:

Rebecca Cameron

Daughter of

Richard Ivy and Mary

Amiss Smith

Born June day="21" year="1840" (June 21, 1840)

Died Jan. 5, 1888
_______________

Pensie S.¹

Beloved wife of

Thos. W. Long

Born July 11, 1853

Died October 14, 1887

“He gaveth his beloved sleep”
_______________

Annie²

Beloved wife of J. P. Rainey

Died November 4, 1882

“Asleep In Jesus Blessed Sleep”
_______________

MOTHER³

Mary Amiss Goodwin

Daughter of

Maurice and Frances

Goodwin Smith

Born May 9, 1815

Died Apr. 24, 1889
_______________

FATHER⁴

Richard Ivy

Son of Samuel & Elizabeth

Harrison Smith

Born Feb.16, 1800

Died July 28, 1871
_______________

James Richard

Son of

Richard Ivy and Mary

Amiss Smith

Born Aug. 5, 1858

Died May 5 1887
_______________

Maggie Berringer⁵

Daughter of

J.B. and A.L. Smith

Born Dec. 7, 1879

Died June 7, 1880
_______________

Row Two:

Samuel Maurice Smith⁶

Born July 30, 1838

Died June 25, 1839

_______________

Amy Webb Smith⁷

Born Sep’t 15, 1847

Died July 6, 1848
_______________

Mildred I. Smith⁸

Born Nov. 15, 1848

Died June 10, 1849
_______________

Richard I. Smith⁹

Born Feb 9, 1857

Died July 1 1859
_______________

Row Three (eight field stone markers (head and foot)):
_______________

Row Four:

“My Mother”¹⁰

Anne S.

Wife of

John Wilson

Died

in Milton, N.C.

Sept. 21, 1838:

Aged 35 years
_______________

Samuel S.

Aged 4 years
_______________

William A.

Aged 1 year

“Children of the above

rest by her side.”¹¹
_______________

Comments:

This graveyard stands to the left of the old farm road leading from present NC Highway119 to the old house at Hycotee.

Family tradition holds that Samuel Smith (September 29, 1765 - June 4, 1816) and his wife, Elizabeth Harrison (February 28, 1772 - December 17, 1838) are buried here. They were the first of this branch of Smith’s to settle in Caswell County, Samuel having come from Granville County, North Carolina. It seems logical that their infant children, Jane, James Webb, and Henry Pattillo, are also buried here, as well as a daughter, Mary Kennon, who died at age eleven. Samuel Smith and Elizabeth Harrison are the parents of Richard Ivy Smith (in first row above).

Another grave may belong to Frances Elizabeth Smith (July 30, 1836 - May 11, 1873), who died at age thirty-six, daughter of Richard Ivy Smith and Mary Amiss Goodwin (Smith) Smith. They had thirteen children, eight of whom are shown above. Four others are in marked graves at Red House Presbyterian Church, just up the road to Semora. I know of no record of Frances's burial and find this puzzling as I believe all the "squarish" stones in this cemetery were erected at one time by her surviving sister and brothers, Mary Ivy Smith, John Baptist Smith, William Goodwin Smith, and Robert Kennon Smith.

That leaves at least nine graves unaccounted for. There are no other likely candidates in the six generations who have lived here.

One other burial of interest was that of "Buff," the beloved pet dog of Lilly Webb Smith, daughter of John Baptist and Sabra Annie Smith. For many years a small monument in the shape of a dog stood above Buff's grave which was to the right of Anne Smith Wilson in row four above. Unfortunately the statue was stolen sometime in the past twenty years.

_______________

Cemetery surveyed by John Douglas Storey 21 November 2007.

¹Penelope Campbell (Smith) Long, married Thomas Webb Long 1 October 1885. He was born 21 September 1851 in Hillsboro, Orange County, North Carolina, and died 1 November 1926 at Fairview, Buncombe County, North Carolina.

²Anne Wilson (Smith) Rainey, daughter of Richard Ivey Smith and Mary Amiss Smith, married John Parish Rainey II on 3 November 1882. He was born 18 August 1842 in Caswell County, North Carolina, and died 14 March 1903 (buried at Red House Presbyterian Church).

³Mary Amiss Goodwin (Smith) Smith was born in Granville County, North Carolina. She and her husband, Richard Ivy Smith, were first cousins. Their fathers, Samuel Smth and Maurice Smith, were sons of Samuel Smith and Mary Edmondson Webb Smith of "Abram's Plains" in Granville County, North Carolina.

⁴Born and died at Hycotee.

⁵Daughter of John Baptist Smith and his wife Sabra Annie Long. John Baptist Smith was a son of Richard Ivy Smith and Mary Amiss Goodwin (Smith) Smith. The spelling of her second name on the gravestone is probably an error as she was named for her uncle, Rufus Barringer.

⁶Son of Richard Ivy Smith and Mary Amiss Goodwin (Smith) Smith

⁷Daughter of Richard Ivy Smith and Mary Amiss Goodwin (Smith) Smith

⁸Mildred Isabella Smith, daughter of Richard Ivy Smith and Mary Amiss Goodwin (Smith) Smith

⁹Richard Ivy Smith, son of Richard Ivy Smith and Mary Amiss Goodwin (Smith) Smith

¹⁰Anne (Smith) Wilson was born 28 October 1802 and died 21 September 1838. On 6 December 1821 she married John Wilson. He was born 10 October 1796 in Norfolk, Virginia, and died 21 October 1875 at Melville, Milton, North Carolina (buried at Cedars Cemetery, Milton, North Carolina).

¹¹Query whether her sons are two of the unidentified gravestones in this row.