Greenwood in Greenwood County, South Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)
Old Greenwood Cemetery
Old Greenwood Cemetery
Erected 2002.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Cemeteries & Burial Sites.
Location. 34° 11.767′ N, 82° 9.174′ W. Marker is in Greenwood, South Carolina, in Greenwood County. Marker is on Cambridge Road, on the right when traveling east. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 503 Cambridge Road, Greenwood SC 29646, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 10 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church (approx. 0.3 miles away); Magnolia Cemetery (approx. 0.4 miles away); Greenwood SC Memorial Marker (approx. half a mile away); Dr. Benjamin James Sanders, Jr. (approx. 0.6 miles away); Marshal Ferdinand Foch (approx. 0.6 miles away); Textile Workers Monument (approx. 0.6 miles away); World War Memorial (approx. 0.6 miles away); Main Street (approx. 0.6 miles away); Municipal Fountain (approx. 0.7 miles away); In God We Trust (approx. Ύ mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Greenwood.
Also see . . .
1. Old Greenwood Cemetery. Established ca. 1860 by the Main Street Methodist Church, the Old Greenwood Cemetery is a mid-nineteenth to late-twentieth century cemetery. (Submitted on June 19, 2010, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)
2. Old Greenwood Cemetery. Old Greenwood Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Greenwood, South Carolina. (Submitted on June 20, 2010, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)
3. Find a Grave: Old Greenwood Cemetery. Location: Greenwood, Greenwood County, South Carolina. (Submitted on June 20, 2010, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.)
Additional commentary.
1. Old Greenwood Cemetery - National Register Nomination Form (2002)
The Old Greenwood Cemetery, established ca. 1860 as the cemetery for Main Street Methodist Church, is a mid-nineteenth to late-twentieth century cemetery in Greenwood, South Carolina.
The cemetery, located on East Cambridge Avenue at the original site of the church, is a one-and-one-half acre tract that contains approximately three hundred and fifty graves. Grave markers are primarily granite or marble obelisks, square stepped monuments capped with ums, and some twenty-six Confederate grave markers, many of which still feature the original Maltese crosses. Burials dated
from 1861 to the 1990s. Many stones are broken, toppled, or otherwise damaged, some of this due to vandalism; several graves have sunken or mounded. Burials still take place here, but not often, due to vandalism; several graves have sunken or mounded. Burials still take place here, but not often, due to modern perpetual care cemeteries in Greenwood.
The cemetery is laid out in a regular grid plan, with little discernible landscaping or other planned features other than a few deciduous trees shaded family plots. There is also a brick wall that has been erected around the cemetery. This wall enclosure, although erected less than fifty years ago, is a compatible addition. This wall is consistent with the establishment and development of cemeteries of this type. Part of the old iron fence is still in place that was erected many years ago to keep vandals out. Though the Greenwood Cemetery Association was established in 1906 to provide for maintenance of the cemetery plots, gravestones, and landscape, the cemetery was neglected and in disrepair by the 1980s, plagued by overgrown vegetation, vandalism, and litter. Some descendants of those buried here, aided by the citizens of Greenwood, have worked to maintain the cemetery in recent years.
Significance
The Old Greenwood Cemetery, established ca. 1860, is significant as the first cemetery in Greenwood and for its association with many prominent citizens of the town from the mid-nineteenth through the twentieth centuries. It is also an excellent intact example of a mid-nineteenth through mid-twentieth century cemetery reflecting typical burial customs and gravestone are during this period.
Soon after the first Methodist congregation in Greenwood organized as Main Street Methodist Church in 1858 and purchased a frame building on this site from the Fuller Institute for Girls for its sanctuary, it also established and laid out this cemetery. This was the only cemetery in the town until the Greenwood Cemetery (later Magnolia Cemetery) was established and laid out in 1871.
After the Methodists built a new sanctuary a short distance away in 1891, they kept and maintained the cemetery until 1906, when they deeded it to the newly-organized Greenwood Cemetery Association. In August 2001 the property was deeded over to the Greenwood Historical Society since the old board ceased to exist after the death of the last member. Among the prominent persons buried in the cemetery are:
Alfred P. Aldrich, Jr. (1862-1944), businessman, World War I veteran, and co-owner of Aldrich Machine Works, leading manufacturing of machinery and ball-bearing equipment for textile mills;
James A. Bailey (1835-1871), merchant and secretary-treasurer of Main Street Methodist Church;
R.S. Cobb (1834-1864), Confederate lieutenant in Co. C, 6th South Carolina Cavalry, killed in action near Armstrong Mills, Virginia in 1864;
Thomas Jones (1829-1895), Confederate veteran and the first white child born in what is now Greenwood;
Arthur St. Clair Lee (1850-1913), merchant, original board member of the Greenwood Cemetery Association, and one of the first commissioners of public works for the county;
Julia Lee (1878-1955), first librarian of the Greenwood County Public Library, established ca. 1905;
J.T. McKellar (1837-1921), Confederate veteran and original board member of the Greenwood Cemetery Association;
Thomas Franklin Riley (1845-1905), Confederate veteran, proprietor of the Riley Hotel, member of the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1895, one of seven original Greenwood County commissioners of public works, appointed to procure sites and buildings for a new courthouse, jail, and county offices when the county was created in 1897, and original board member of the Greenwood Cemetery Association; and
Cadmus Garlington Waller (1845-1901), Confederate veteran, merchant, and lay leader of the Main Street Methodist Church.
The Old Greenwood Cemetery is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A for being the first cemetery in the town and its association with prominent people of nineteenth and twentieth century Greenwood. It is also eligible under Criteria Consideration D because it derives its significance for its association with the early growth and development of Greenwood and from graves of persons important in the community.
— Submitted June 19, 2010, by Brian Scott of Anderson, South Carolina.
2.
National Register of Historic Places:
Old Greenwood Cemetery (added 2002 - Site - #02000115)
Also known as Methodist Cemetery
Period of Significance: 1850-1874, 1875-1899, 1900-1924, 1925-1949, 1950-1974
— Submitted June 20, 2010, by Mike Stroud of Bluffton, South Carolina.

Photographed By Brian Scott, May 6, 2010
25. Susan Arnold Tombstone
Susan Arnold
wife of
Francis Arnold
who fell asleep in Jesus
Oct. 7, 1874
Aged 58 years.
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"Blessed are the pure in heart:
for they shall see God."
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Beloved one thou hast left us,
Here they loss we openly feel
But 'tis God that hath bereft us.
He can all our sorrows heal.
----------center>

Photographed By Brian Scott, May 6, 2010
26. Willie B. Arnold Tombstone
of
Willie B.
Son of
Francis and Susan
Arnold
Taken in perfect
heath and after a
short illness, breathed
his last October 3rd
1870, in the 16 year of
his age.
--------------
"What I do thou knowest
not. Now: but thou shalt
know hereafter."
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