Graves hidden in a parking lot in downtown Cary
It's not often you find a grave in the middle of a parking lot in downtown – much less the remnants of an old family cemetery dating back to the 1800s.
As cars whiz past, curving through the round-about and weaving through downtown Cary, most have no idea they are driving past the only remaining piece of a historic family cemetery – which once rested on the homeplace of one of the town's founding families.
The homeplace, which is long-gone, belonged to Carlos Yates – son of Eli Yates, whose family owned the renowned Yates Mill. One of the town's earliest families, Eli Yates bought 706 acres of land in what would eventually become Cary.
Carlos Yates was also the father of Helen Yates Walker, whose name is deeply entwined with the historic Page-Walker Hotel, owned by the father of Cary himself: Frank Page.
So how did such a historic family's cemetery become surrounded by concrete?
The only remnant of Cary's founding families' homestead
Carla Michaels, historian for the Friends of Page-Walker and great-great-granddaughter of Carlos Yates, has uncovered the story of the family cemetery and homestead through her research.
"The cemetery is the only remaining vestige of the Carlos Yates Family Cemetery that was on the Carlos Yates Home place," explains Michaels. "He was my great-great-grandfather, and the father of Helen Yates Walker of the Page Walker Hotel, among others."
"Eli Yates' land, which would later become Cary, extended from just south of Chatham Street to north of NW Maynard Road," she said. "And from round-about to round-about on Chatham Street."
In the early 1840s, three of Eli Yates' sons – Pharis, Carlos and Alvis – bought the land from their father.
Pharis owned the 300 acres that Frank Page, Cary's founder, bought and used to develop downtown Cary.
"Carlos continued to buy land to extend his holdings and built his large homeplace near the site of the family cemetery. He and his wife Mary Ann Marcom Yates lived there until their deaths," said Michaels.
The grave site is very close to the train tracks that run past the Page-Walker Hotel. The railroad and train stations played a large role in Cary's growth. It makes sense that one of the town's founding families would have had land near the railroad, and even sold land to the railroad.
The grave marker in the parking lot belongs to his daughter Glendora "Dora" Yates Edwards, who died young.
Michaels found written documentation that Dora was laid to rest near her father, Carlos.
"So the family's sad 'joke' has been that Carlos Yates is buried somewhere under the parking lot. His marker is long gone, although my father remembers an impressive obelisk that marked his grave," said Michaels.
She also believes there could be at least one other grave interred in the parking lot – while other family members were buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Cary.
Is it possible, then, that the remains of one of Cary's early settlers and founding fathers is buried, with no grave marker, beneath the asphalt of a downtown parking lot?
Graves and cemeteries are hidden all over Cary
Many cities and towns around the Triangle have hidden graveyards. They're often tucked away in overgrown spaces, sometimes hidden behind decades of foliage and overgrowth.
In Durham, for example, a very old segregated cemetery was hidden behind curtains of ivy so deep that neighbors living across the street didn't even realize it was there.
Cary, specifically, seems to have an abundance of family cemeteries hidden in unusual locations.
The grave of a Revolutionary War veteran and prominent Cary leader was discovered overgrown in a major neighborhood development.
Historians, likewise, searched for years to find the family graveyard for the original High House – which turned out to also be hidden in the middle of a neighborhood of residents who didn't realize the lost history in their backyards.
Each of these lost graveyards, however, were discovered in overgrown suburban spaces. It's far more rare that an old family cemetery be found surrounded in asphalt, with headstones sticking out from the center of parking spaces.
Many of the "lost family cemeteries" in Cary neighborhoods are remnants from before Cary's rapid growth in the 1960s and 70s. Long before Cary grew into bustling neighborhoods and developments, the area was broken down into homesteads and farms. Many of Cary's "original families" buried their loved ones on the family land – and then the town grew around those graves, often carving out small spots for the graves, and then building around them.
Over the decades, with the family no longer there to care for the graves, the plots become overgrown and harder to notice. As a carousel of new families move in and out of the neighborhood homes, the historic graves simply fade from public memory.
"It was customary in many rural locations to have a family cemetery located at the 'homeplace,'" said Michaels.
In the case of Carlos Yates' homeplace, Michaels believes the family home originally stood to the east of the cemetery, which would have been near the eastern boundary of the large property.
When Carlos and his wife Mary Ann passed away, the home passed to their youngest child, Lula Yates Holleman. She married a man, and raised a family in the house. However, at a later date, the property eventually passed from the family, and the Taylor Biscuit Factory was built on the land. It later became Austin Foods, and now belongs to a private company.
Want more hidden cemeteries?
To explore more Cary history, take a look at the Friends of Page-Walker website – a non-profit that works to preserve Cary's history and tell Cary's stories.
If you're interested in more stories of lost cemeteries around the Triangle, here is the tale of the Revolutionary War veteran's grave, lost in a Cary neighborhood.
WRAL's Hidden Historian also explored a family cemetery from the 1800s that was concealed in a major Cary development.
Here's a story exploring the Geer Cemetery in Durham, a segregated cemetery that was so overgrown that many people didn't even realize it was there.
