Waughtown Cemetery, c.1816

Illustrating the stability of the Waughtown settlement by the late nineteenth century was the fact that many notable families chose to be buried in the community cemetery rather than in other Winston or Salem cemeteries, including plots for the Nissen, Vogler, Clodfelter, Spach, Leight, Phillips, Linville and Sink families. One of the most notable gravesites is that of the Nissen family, which features an ornate wrought iron fence that, along with the hilltop location of the family grave site, indicates the wealth of this family and its prominence in a growing community. The design of the cemetery is a grid layout, situated on a slight rise. There are a few examples of Victorian-era iron fences. It once included numerous cedar trees, which helped mark enslaved graves, but they were recently removed.

The oldest section of Waughtown Cemetery (southwest corner) includes several slave burials. Some of the enslaved individuals buried here are Betsy Ann (died 1859), the mother of Dr. James Francis Shober, the first African American physician with a medical degree to practice in North Carolina; Susannah (1775- 1858); and Mary Sophia who died in 1861 while a candidate for confirmation at the African Moravian Church in Salem. In addition to the slave burials in Waughtown Cemetery, tradition indicates that the cemetery located to the rear of 1027 Sprague Street is an African American cemetery as well. That site also includes cedar trees and unmarked graves. (Dr. Shober’s father was white UNC law school graduate, Francis Edwin Shober of Salem.)

African Americans were a significant part of the Waughtown community from at least the mid-nineteenth century. (See the online Belview historic district tour.) Just as a significant portion of the founding white families in Waughtown were of Moravian origin with ties to Salem and the Friedland community, the same was true of early black families. Many of these early families in Waughtown and Belview had familial connections with Happy Hill, the plantation where many Salem African Americans were enslaved and later came to own property. The first black school in the area was opened near Happy Hill (northwest of Waughtown) in 1867 as a joint effort between African American residents in Happy Hill and Waughtown.