Jarratt Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Way back in 1850, a man named Devereux Jarratt and his wife Polly Ann packed up their lives in Virginia and settled out here in Cherokee County. They put down roots, raised a family, and in time this land would hold something far more lasting than any farmhouse or fence line.

It was 1858 when two of their sons, Henry Morris Jarratt and Wade Jarratt, set aside the original plot of ground for cemetery use. Family burial, yes, but also public. Open to anyone who needed a place to rest.

Now, that first burial, it wasn't a neighbor they'd known for years. It was a transient worker, a man named Mr. Watts, in that same year of 1858.

A stranger to this county, maybe a stranger to most everyone around, and yet the Jarratt boys had made a promise with that plot of land, and they kept it. That's the kind of thing worth noting. Over the years, more land was acquired, not from one generous hand but from the contributions of many, neighbors and friends chipping in, little by little, until the ground grew to hold what the community needed it to hold.

Then in 1961, an association was formally organized, and in 1963, a permanent foundation fund was incorporated to keep it all standing on solid footing. The original members of both those boards read like a roll call of the county itself: Dave Cole, Troy D. Haws, Gordon Sharp, J.

J. Cole, Bruce Bounds, Dave Josey, John Ousley, Fred Thompson, A. C.

Jenkins, Buck Fling, Earl Morton, and M. D. Arrington.

Twelve names on a list, but behind each one, a real investment in something that started with a Virginia couple and two sons who understood that a community's character shows up clearest in how it cares for its dead. Descendants, friends, neighbors, and the public have all joined together over the years to make this, as the marker puts it, a hallowed resting place for loved ones. Started with one man, Mr.

Watts, nobody's kin, and it grew into everyone's ground. That's the whole story, and it lands exactly where it ought to.

What the marker says

In 1850 Devereux and Polly Ann Jarratt of Virginia settled in this area. In 1858 their sons Henry Morris Jarratt and Wade Jarratt set aside the original cemetery plot for family and public burial. The first burial was a transient worker, Mr. Watts, in 1858. Additional land was acquired later from contributions of many. An association was formed in 1961 and a permanent foundation fund incorporated in 1963. Original members of both boards: Dave Cole, Troy D. Haws, Gordon Sharp, J. J. Cole, Bruce Bounds, Dave Josey, John Ousley, Fred Thompson, A. C. Jenkins, Buck Fling, Earl Morton, and M. D. Arrington. Descendants, friends, neighbors and the public have joined to make this a hallowed resting place for loved ones.