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The directions to Trinity Cemetery were exact.

From South Main Street (aka U.S. 311) in Archdale, “get on 62 and turn right at the first road after you cross the railroad tracks. And it comes up pretty quick.”

It did come up pretty quick, but there was a sign that helped. It said “Trinity Cemetery. Here lie Braxton Craven and other builders of churches and colleges in the south, notably Duke University.”

This sign was put up some years ago by the Sunshine Garden Club, sometime soon after 1940, when the group took on the upkeep of the old burial ground.

The cemetery and Trinity community are named for Trinity College, at one time an influential center of higher learning that was home to a first-class faculty that gave a classical education to many young men.

There are some Jamestown connections here, as we will see.

The college was the life’s work of Craven (1822-1882), who in 1842, at age 19, was at New Garden Boarding School, and was hired to assist Brantley York at Union Institute in upper Randolph County.

York soon left, and under Craven’s guidance the Institute became, first, Normal College in 1851 with a state charter to train teachers, and then Trinity College under the sponsorship of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1859.

In 1897, after Craven’s death and a long struggle to maintain its presence, the college moved to Durham and later became Duke University.

A pleasant community of two-story homes, most of wooden frames, had grown around the school. They were occupied by an eclectic mix of faculty members and large local families, some of whom, notably the Leaches, had been actively involved with the college as trustees, boosters and financial supporters.

Many families took students as boarders because there were no dormitories. There was no great wealth here, but a zeal for improvement and high standards of conduct.

There were ice cream socials, and everyone was urged to attend religious services in the college auditorium.

There was a post office and a store, perhaps two. There was a railroad and a depot.

And, there was a town cemetery.

The first burial, in 1859, was of a student, 20-year-old John Gaylord. It is said he died of typhoid and needed immediate burial and had no immediate family to call upon. He was buried on land donated to the town by Wiley Andrews. That land was the earliest part of the cemetery.

It has now grown to about two acres in size, and is still an active cemetery.

It’s a quiet and modest sort of place. There is no elaborate stone wall or arched entrance. A chain-link fence surrounds the entire graveyard, and one central drive runs down its length. Its distinction comes from the large number of prominent persons who are buried here. Some of their tombstones rise well above the ground and are the only ostentatious notes to be found here.

There is most prominently that of Craven, whose tall monument dominates the place, though the style is repeated by many others. Members of his family — wife, Irene Leach, son James Lucius Melville Craven, a Trinity physician, and grandchildren, also are there.

Facing, on the other side of the central drive, near an old cedar tree, are the Gannaways — William T. Gannaway (1826-1910) and his family. Gannaway was professor of Latin and history at the college from 1857 until the college moved to Durham.

Jamestown has a Gannaway Street and has had several generations of Ragsdales with the first and middle names William Gannaway. The first of them was named by Joseph S. Ragsdale, known to have been an 1861 graduate of Trinity College, so we may draw our own conclusions about that.

Obed William Carr (1833-1905), an influential insurance executive, is buried here. Before entering the lucrative world of insurance, he graduated from Trinity College and then taught Greek and German there. His wife, Roxanna Leach, was a sister of Braxton Craven’s wife. At his death, a special train ran from Greensboro to Trinity to carry people to his funeral, which was said to be attended by 2,000 people.

William H. Pegram (1846-1928) entered Trinity College after serving in the Civil War, and joined the faculty after graduating. He was associated with the college for more than 50 years, married Craven’s daughter, Emma Leonora, and moved with the college to Durham in 1892. He, his wife and other family members are buried at Trinity.

One of their children, George H. Pegram (1876-1958) who also is buried at Trinity, had a notable career with Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratories and Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. Pegram was instrumental in persuading Columbia University to build a small atom-smasher in its physics building. His tombstone notes that “his supervision and investigation led to the capture of the atom.”

John F. Heitman (1840-1904) was another Trinity graduate who gained distinction. He was a member of the faculty but opposed moving the college to Durham. He remained in Trinity, where he served as headmaster of the preparatory school that was set up on the old college campus.

Dougan Clark Johnson (1825-1878), longtime teacher of mathematics at Trinity College, and a popular favorite among his students, also lies in Trinity Cemetery, with many family members.

One more Jamestown connection needs to be included here. A biography of Braxton Craven written by Jerome Dowd tells of Craven and his wife traveling to New York to purchase supplies. The first stop on this trip was at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Coffin in Jamestown where they collected Mrs. Laura Coffin, who was going to Philadelphia to visit her daughter. The party continued on to Greensboro and took the stage there for Danville and Keysville, where they boarded the train for Washington.

Many thanks to Betty Leach Brown of Archdale for sharing so much of what she has collected over many years. Every single bit of the foregoing came from her, and I hope I got it all right. Thanks again, Betty.

Mary Browning is a longtime resident of Jamestown. Contact her at maryab30@triad.rr.com.