State works to move Caswell Center graves from VA home site

The graves of about 12 Caswell Developmental Center residents who died during the early years of the facility’s existence will be moved to an alternate site as the start date for construction on a state veterans nursing home nears.

“We wanted to preserve the dignity ... and make sure it gets proper attention,” Danny Rice, director of specialized services at Caswell, said of the individuals.

Officials with Caswell Center and the state’s Division of Veterans Affairs said they expected the project to move the graves would begin in about two months as the state’s Construction Office seeks a contractor who specializes in such projects.

Rice and Caswell Center director Leon Owens said records have revealed the names of at least four people who were buried at the site between 1914 and 1928, and estimated there could be about eight more.

There are no grave markers on the site, which is surrounded by a fence and is marked by a stone memorial plaque placed there by community volunteers working with local Boy Scout Ethan Meadows of Troop 43.

The project was dedicated during September of 2008.

Rice said the site had fallen into disrepair after 1928, when another Caswell Center cemetery was established on the opposite side of the Hull Road field across from the campus.

That cemetery is still in use today, holding Caswell residents who had nowhere else to be buried, or whose families wanted them buried there because they considered the center their home, Owens said.

The first graves will be moved — along with the stone marker and the fence — to the current cemetery.

Little action was taken on the original cemetery until 2007, when the veterans nursing home project was approved and a ground-breaking ceremony took place.

“That gave us the impetus,” Rice said.

He explained that the initial designs for the nursing home left enough room to keep the cemetery where it is, but new plans showed that the outer walls would be too close.

“When we saw the footprint, we knew it was going to be too close to the building,” Rice said.

Caswell and state officials worked to find a way to place the facility so it would not intrude on the graves, but it simply was not workable.

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.

The following people are confirmed to have been buried in the Caswell Center’s first cemetery:

n Ella Queen, 24, died Nov. 21, 1921

n Juliues Ware, 21, died Sept. 1, 1922

n Jack Flinn, about 16

n Macie Lee Bolton, 8, died March 25, 1922