Documenting the American South

Monument Name

Confederate Women’s Home and Cemetery, Fayetteville

Type

Marker

Subjects

Women Monuments

Civil War, 1861-1865

City

Fayetteville

County

Cumberland

Description

The Confederate Woman’s Home and Cemetery memorial is a large tombstone with incised inscription. It faces small headstones that mark the burial spaces of former residents of the home. Near the marker is a modern plaque that plots out the headstones and lists the names of the 65 former residents buried there. The home was demolished in 1982 but two brick columns connected with an ironwork arch spelling out CONFEDERATE WOMAN’S HOME still stands. Attached to each of the columns are eight stone memorial plaques. An old photograph of this arch does not show any of the stone plaques. Instead, there are what appear to be two bronze plaques attached to the left column. This arch does not appear in a photo of the building dedication in 1915.

Images: Entry with an ironwork arch | Left column | Right column | Cemetery | Rear view of the marker

Inscription

Women’s home marker: IN MEMORY OF / THE WOMEN WHO HAVE PASSED / AWAY WHILE RESIDING IN THE / CONFEDERATE WOMAN’S HOME / ERECTED BY THE / NORTH CAROLINA DIVISION / UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE / CONFEDERACY / NOVEMBER 6, 1938

Left Entry Column front four plaques: IN MEMORIAM / FATHER AND MOTHER / BENJAMIN CHURCHILL GORHAM / AND HIS WIFE / LAURA MCDANIEL / MRS. HUNTER SMITH / FOUNDER OF HOME GIVEN BY / RUTH HANES CRAIG / IN MEMORY OF HER DEVOTED MOTHER / LIZORA FORTUNE HANES / WIFE OF / P.H. HANES / CO. C 16TH. NORTH CAROLINA / BATTALION.

IN MEMORY OF / HENRY T. BAHNSON, M.D. / COMPANY B, 1 ST . BATTALLION / NORTH CAROLINA SHARP SHOOTERS

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. MARY ANN HUNT SAPP / 1827-1872

Left Entry Column side four plaques: IN MEMORIAM / MRS. SARAH SANDERS HADLEY / 1847- 1905

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. JOSEPH CATHERINE MILLER REED / 1818-1927

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. SYMTHIA JANE PRESON VAIL / 1826-1911

IN MEMORIAM / SALENA CORPENING / WIFE OF / COL. PHILETUS WALCOTT ROBERTS / 14 TH . N.C. REGIMENT / 1832-1911 / HER LIFE WAS SPENT FOR OTHERS

Right Entry Column front four plaques: IN MEMORIAM / ELIZA HALL NUTT / WIFE OF / COL. WILLIAM MURDOCK PARSLEY / 1842-1920 / MOTHER AND FOUNDER OF THE N.C. DIVISION / U.D.C. / APRIL 28TH. 1895

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. MARTHA STROUPE KING / 1843-1926

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. JULIA W. BELL / 1853-1927

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. LUCY ANN GLOSS PARKER / 1854-1927 / ELECTED PRESIDENT N.C. DIVISION U.D.C. / OCTOBER 1906

Right Entry Column side four plaques: IN MEMORIAM / MRS. W.L. HILL / 1964-1927

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. EUGENIA WATSON EARLY / 1845-1928

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. KATHRINE BUTLER / 1849-1928

IN MEMORIAM / MRS. HANNAH JANE TATUM / 1856-1928

Dedication Date

November 6, 1938

Decade

1930s

Geographic Coordinates

35.064240 , -78.912700 View in Geobrowse

Supporting Sources

Hill, Michael. Confederate Women’s Home, NCPedia.org, (accessed June 7, 2016) Link

Smith, Blanche Lucas. North Carolina's Confederate Monuments and Memorials, (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1941)

“Confederate Women’s Home Cemetery,” NCGenWeb Project, www.ncgenweb.us, (accessed July 8, 2016) Link

“Confederate Women’s Home, Fayetteville, N.C.,” in North Carolina Postcard Collection (P052), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill Link

“The Formal Opening Of The Confederate Woman’s Home,” Fayetteville Weekly Observer (Fayetteville, NC), November 24, 1915

“U.D.C. Memorial Honors 42 Women,” Rockingham Post-Dispatch (Rockingham, NC), November 10, 1938

Public Site

Yes

Materials & Techniques

Granite

Sponsors

North Carolina Division United Daughters of the Confederacy

Monument Dedication and Unveiling

Mrs. John H. Anderson president of the North Carolina Division United Daughters of the Confederacy presided over the dedication. Anderson presented the memorial to the Fayetteville committee chair Mrs. E.R. MacKethan who in turn presented it to Charles G. Rose, chairman of the home’s board of directors. Rose then gave an address on the home’s history before it was unveiled by Miss Marquerite Grady and Thomas Watson, Jr.

Subject Notes

The home opened 1915 with support from the state legislature for the benefit of widows and daughters of North Carolina’s Confederate veterans. By 1981 only seven women lived in the home and it was not practical to keep it in operation. In 1982 the two-story brick building was razed and the land used as a parking lot for Terry Sanford High School. Sixty-five women are buried in a cemetery that remains.

Location

The memorial can be found behind Terry Sanford High School located at 2301 Ft. Bragg Road in Fayetteville, NC. To the left of the school building there is a parking lot in front of the tennis courts. From the parking lot to the left of the tennis courts is an unpaved road with a locked gate that leads behind a ball field. Behind the baseball field there are two graveyards. The one surrounded by a brick wall is for the Gee family. The Confederate Women’s cemetery is marked by a brick and iron archway.

Landscape

The area is partially wooded and somewhat overgrown. It is bordered on two sides by walls and fences that separate it from single family houses. One side is bordered by the football field end zone and one by the baseball field backstop and dugouts.

Death Space

Yes