Smithfield Baptist Church Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina

About

Get directions 3420 Smithfield Church Rd
Charlotte, North Carolina 28270 United States

Coordinates: 35.10798, -80.84870
704-522-9439
Cemetery ID:

Members have Contributed

About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

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Smithfield Baptist Church was abandoned in the early 1960's because the well went dry. The church borrowed water from the Stewart family to be able to baptize the members. The church was burned down by vandals between 1974 and 1975. All that remains if the church is some crumbling brick, footings, charred beams and a few rusty nails.

The church was located in what was known at the time as the Sharon Township. The Sharon Township was part of Mecklenburg County, and the area was later annexed into the Charlotte city limits.

The Church served black tenant farmers that lived in the area.

Smithfield Baptist Church was organized in 1881. Known Pastors were:
-Rev. S.N. Davidson
-Rev. Harris
-Rev. Washington

People were buried ‘East to West,' the reason was:
-they would be facing toward the rising sun
-they would be facing the star that shined above the manger
-they would be facing Africa
-they would be facing Jerusalem

Ruth Stewart (see above) wrote, ‘We (her family) would sit on our front porch and listen to the music coming from the little ol' church. The Deacon, or maybe it was an Elder, would say a verse, then the entire congregation would sing that verse. It was the prettiest sound you ever heard.'