Cresmont Cemetery / Cresmont Memorial Park

Cresmont Cemetery, aka Cresmont Memorial Park, aka Mars Hill Cemetery, is a historic African-American cemetery, and many well-known Hillsborough residents are buried here. A historic, disused road (variously known as the Mars Hill Road, the Road to Roxboro, the New Danville Road, etc.) marks its eastern boundary, its western boundary is Highway 86, its southern boundary is Highway 70 Bypass, and its northern boundary is a housing development. The property is privately owned and consists of almost two (2) acres; its PIN is 9865908634. When NC Highway 14 (present-day Highway 86) was rerouted in 1924, it cut through the cemetery property and may have disturbed graves.

This cemetery was surveyed in 1937, and again on November 13, 1973, when most of the graves were identified only by metal funeral markers and few of the earlier ones were readable. This unfenced cemetery was then in the care of owner-trustee Ransom Whitted, who had inherited the corner property. The rear or northern portion of the cemetery was covered with undergrowth and was crisscrossed by paths and tracks that caused damage to graves, and vandals had toppled several stones (from NC Cemetery Census).

The earliest marked grave appears to be that of Annie Webb Morrow (d. 1907). There are approximately 191 known graves in this cemetery, with 70 of them currently unmarked.

For additional information, see:

cemeterycensus.com/nc/orng/cem082.htm
cemeterycensus.com/nc/orng/cem228.htm

findagrave.com/cemetery/2320432/cresmont-memorial-park