Near Linville in Burke County, North Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)

Community Symbols: Schools and Churches

Photographed by Mark Parker, October 3, 2025

1. Community Symbols: Schools and Churches Marker

Inscription. Following the Civil War, previously enslaved Black men and women joined Fonta Flora's already free persons of color in building communities here. Some sharecropped while others worked for railroads and sawmills to raise money to buy land and to pay for their childrens' education.

Black families established new farms and homes, buying the hardscrabble land available to them on narrow ridges. They added schools to the burgeoning communities. On the old Johns River Road connecting the two Black communities of Hayden Ridge and Rock Hill, local resident William Fullwood donated two acres for the Rock Hill African Methodist Church. Decades after the lake divided those communities, people celebrated life at the church with homecomings and funerals. The church has been lost to time, but its cemetery is just a short walk from here.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Education • Religion & Religious Structures.

Location. 35° 45.726′ N, 81° 52.673′ W. Marker is near Linville, North Carolina,

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in Burke County. It is on Lake James State Park Road 0.4 miles east of Rock Hill Burke Street, on the left when traveling east. The marker is at an overlook balcony behind the Lake James State Park Visitor Center. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Nebo NC 28761, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in North Carolina’s Mountains. It is also in the American South,

specifically in the Upper South,

in Appalachia,

and specifically in Southern Appalachia. Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

one of the original Thirteen Colonies,

one of the Confederate States of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 6 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Roadbeds and Ruins (here, next to this marker); Joara and Fort San Juan (here, next to this marker); Lawrence (Lorentz) Unger (approx. 0.3 miles away); John Gibbs (approx. 0.3 miles away); William Fullwood, Jr. (approx.

Community Symbols: Schools and Churches Marker in the center at an overlook behind Visitor's Center image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Parker, October 3, 2025

2. Community Symbols: Schools and Churches Marker in the center at an overlook behind Visitor's Center

0.3 miles away); Obeth Cemetery (approx. 0.4 miles away); In Honor of Our Veterans / The Old School Bell (approx. 6 miles away); Glen Alpine Veterans Memorial (approx. 6 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Linville.

Lake James Visitor's Center. Community Symbols: Schools and Churches Marker around the back image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Parker, October 3, 2025

3. Lake James Visitor's Center. Community Symbols: Schools and Churches Marker around the back

Credits. This page was last revised on October 9, 2025. It was originally submitted on October 8, 2025, by Mark Parker of Hickory, North Carolina. This page has been viewed 52 times since then and 15 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on October 8, 2025, by Mark Parker of Hickory, North Carolina. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.