History of Stoner's Cemetery
Alamance County, North Carolina
According to a paper titled,"Stoner's (Steiner's) Church Alamance County, N.C. (Taken largely from Colonial Records, "The second Reformed church in respect to age in the old Guilford Charge was the Stoner Church. Rev. Samuel Weyberg was the first pastor, and possibly organized the congregation. However, he was preceded by one Leinbach, a foreign German. The founders of the church were the Albrights (Albrechts), Fousts, Basons, Ephlands, Gerhards, Loys, Shaddies (Schades), Steiners, Neases, Trollingers, Sharps (Scherbs), and others whose descendants still people that fertile region on the waters of the Haw River, Alamance and Stinking Quarter Creeks. Those immigrants were mostly from the counties of Schuykill and Berks in Pennsylvania, and from Maryland. Their house of worship, in order to be central to the widely scattered settlements, was constructed on the point of land formed by the confluence of Alamance and Stinking Quarter streams. The place was very inconvenient of access, and this may account largely for its decadence. In its earliest days Jacob Albright, Peter Sharp, and John Foust were the Elders; Philip Snotherly and David Ephland the Deacons. This congregation fared as the other Reformed Churches in the colony for want of stated ministerial services, and was dependant on the occasional visits of Loretz, Hauck and others until 1821, when Rev. John Rudy became the pastor of the charge, and was succeeded three years after his dismission by Rev. J. H. Crawford, who in turn was succeeded in 1841 by Rev. G. W. Welker. Owing to various causes the congregation for several years without pastoral ministrations, and the house of worship became dilapidated, was allowed to go down and finally passed off the roll."
According to information by e-mail to this webmaster on 22 September 2001 by Mary Ellis (another Sharp/Albright descendent), "Stoner's Church became an active congregation about 1801. The church was dissolved about 1886. The cemetery is presently located in a pasture near the village of Belmont (near Graham) in Alamance County. It is thought that before they organized as Stoner's they were associated with the Lutherans who later formed St. Paul's Lutheran Church."
"The Church book of Stoner's was translated from the original German by Reverend D. I. Offman. A copy was type[d] from Rev. Offman's translation by Calvin Hinshaw in 1959. It is my understanding that a copy of the typed records is at Guilford College. I have also been told that the original records are in the Library at Catawba College, Salisbury, N. C. My information is that these records are in such a fragile condition that the public is no longer allowed to view them."
On March 13, 2023, a copy of Offman's recording titled "Data Taken from Tomb rocks at Stoner's Old Meeting House" was sent to all members of the Stoner's Preservation Committee by Lisa Lobrin, Reference Librarian, May Memorial Library, Burlington, NC. Click here to see the document.
The Stoner's church records are presently (2018) located at The Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society II at 555 West James Street, Lancaster PA 17603. The Stoner's (Steiner's) Church collection consists of one box containing:
1) Cemetery Records: Burial Records; Plot Maps; Tombstone Inscriptions
2) Church Records (original): Baptisms, 1800-1882; Confirmations, 1802-1886; Deaths, 1801-1802; Communicants, 1802-1881; Membership (contains Church History)
3) Church Records (transcription): Baptisms, 1800-1882; Confirmations, 1802-1886; Deaths, 1781-1855; Communicants,1802-1881; Membership (contains Church History)As noted on the historical society website, the society was "Founded in 1863 as the Historical Society of the German Reformed Church, the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society was formed in 1934 when the Reformed Church in the United States merged with the Evangelical Synod of North America". Current hours (2018) are Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, 9:00 - 4:00. "Please call or e-mail (www.erhs.info) to confirm a visit."
717-290-8734. [Note: Many of the documents referred to above are linked on this web page below.] This historic cemetery is located in a farmer's field near the village of Bellemont (near Graham), just off highway 49 at 3360 Bellemont Mount Herm Burlington, N. C. 27215. [The property belongs to Russell Dale. Russell's phone number is (336) 214-5621. Russell's sister, Janice Pope, is also a contact person if you want to visit the cemetery. Her number is (919-624-7017). Please text or call Mr. Dale or Ms. Pope before you visit the cemetery.)
Below is a brief history of Stoner's Church and a listing of the cemetery burials. A duplicate copy with some notes in the margin appears in the information copied from the documents collected by Mary Dale and linked above.
**In 1999, with funds from the Stoner's Cemetery Preservation Fund Board, Dr. Linda Stine with her collage students mapped tombstones they could locate. You can view the map and other information at ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY/"INVESTIGATIONS AT HISTORIC STONER'S CEMETERY. The cemetery is being restored by descendants and other interested volunteers. For information about the restoration, click cemetery clean-up.
**On October 15, 2022, there was a placque dedication ceremony conducted at the cemetery by the Stoner's Preservation Committee. For details and photographs of that day, click on this link.
**Ongoing maintenance of the cemetery and research are both being conducted at the cemetery. New discoveries are documented. For information, click to this link.
**Seven veterans of the Revolutionary War and two veterans of the Civil War are buried in Stoner's Cemetery. A link to details of their service can be found at this link.
**Circa 2017, Mark Chilton, Darrell Clapp, Stewart Dunaway and William Moran conducted research to locate 1771 land deeds on the Alamance. In 2017, Mark Chilton, Orange County Register of Deeds, published a map showing the location of the properties based on the research. The map is titled, "Calvinists on the Alamance 1771". Many of the deed owners are buried in Stoners Cemetery. Chilton's map is color coded showing deeded properties belonging to persons who 1) were Lutheran, 2) were Reformed, 3) were of unknown faith, 4) signed Regulator Advertisement No. 9. The 1768 Regulators' Advertisement No. 9 was a petition from the people of Orange County concerning their having to pay larger fees, including those for recording deeds, than people in adjacent counties. The petition was written to the Royal Governor of North Carolina. To see the Chilton map, click this link. To read more about the Regulator Ad, click on this link.
If you are not a member of the Stoner's Preservation Committee, but are interested in joining to help preserve Stoner's cemetery, please contact the webmaster or James (<james.andrews@triad.rr.com>).
Contact person for this website is Susan Snyder: susanleachsnyder@gmail.com