McAlpine Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. Now settle in, because this story starts before most of the gravestones were even a thought in anybody's mind. About 1851, a North Carolina native by the name of Dugald McAlpine, born in 1795, made his way out to a pioneer community called Wallace's Prairie and purchased himself a large tract of land.

He was a man who knew how to acquire property, and he wasn't done yet. Adjacent to what he'd already bought, right here at this very location, were four burial sites connected to his neighbor's farm. That farm had a name with some poetry to it.

Alta Vista. Spanish for Fair View. And it came with a farmhouse to match.

McAlpine, being the kind of man he was, eventually bought Alta Vista too. And once he did, this ground became McAlpine ground in more ways than one. In 1866, his relative Malcomb McAlpine became the first of many McAlpines to be buried here.

First, but far from last. The community itself had a name change coming. In 1873, what folks had been calling Wallace's Prairie was changed to Whitehall, named for George White, the postmaster at that time.

A postmaster leaving his name on a whole community. There's a kind of quiet power in that. Now before Dugald McAlpine himself was buried here in 1876, he did one last thing for this place.

He fenced an area around the grave sites, set it aside as a family graveyard. A man planning for his own end and making sure the ground was ready. Ten years after that, in 1886, descendants of McAlpine deeded three acres containing that graveyard for cemetery purposes.

The circle kept widening. Community burials began outside the fenced McAlpine section, on land donated by a Mr. Johnson.

Neighbor ground folding into neighbor ground. In 1949, descendants of people buried here organized and formed the Fairview Cemetery Association. Later, that name was changed to the Whitehall-Fairview Cemetery Association, carrying both the old Spanish poetry of Alta Vista and the postmaster's legacy in a single breath.

And who rests here now? Former slaves. McAlpine family members.

Area civic leaders. Veterans of wars ranging from the Civil War all the way to the Vietnam Conflict. Different lives, different times, different stories.

All of them finding their way to the same few acres that Dugald McAlpine fenced off and called his own, back when the prairie still had a different name.

What the marker says

About 1851 North Carolina native Dugald McAlpine (1795-1876) moved here to the pioneer community of Wallace's Prairie and purchased a large tract of land. Adjacent to his property and at this location were four burial sites associated with his neighbor's nearby "Alta Vista" (Spanish for Fair View) farm and farmhouse. McAlpine eventually bought Alta Vista and in 1866 his relative, Malcomb McAlpine, was the first of many McAlpines to be buried here. In 1873 the community's name was changed to Whitehall for George White, the postmaster at that time. Before his burial here in 1876, McAlpine fenced an area around the grave sites for use as a family graveyard. In 1886 descendants of McAlpine deeded three acres containing the graveyard for cemetery purposes. Eventually community burials began outside of the fenced McAlpine section on land donated by a Mr. Johnson. Descendants of people buried here organized and formed the Fairview Cemetery Association in 1949; the name of the association was later changed to the Whitehall-Fairview Cemetery Association. Burials here include former slaves, McAlpine family members, area civic leaders, and veterans of wars ranging from the Civil War to the Vietnam Conflict.