Old Jacobs Cemetery

Cypress Creek/Piney Wood Community

between Piney Wood Road and Shiloh Road

This cemetery is lost.  The last person remembered to be buried there was Anguish Jacobs in 1935.   The site was said to be in the woods south of the Cypress Creek Community (Shiloh Road) and north of the Piney Wood Community (Piney Wood Road) in the Rhyne's Crossroad/New Hope Baptist Church area.

The elders remembered that the plot did not belong to the Jacobs family.  (However, as Jacobs historically owned many acres in Cypress Creek, this researcher suspects that the land did belong to family when the first graves were dug.) 

The plot must have been abandoned shortly after Anguish' death.   His children could not find the grave when they reached adulthoood.

Anguish and wife, Hattie Merritt Jacobs, lost two infant daughters and a young adult son in the mid-1920s.  It is certain that they were interred in the cemetery that would hold their father in ten years.

Anguish' father, Taylor Jacobs was remembered as the 'Big Man' over the Pender County Jacobs.  Of his generation, only Melvin Jacobs and James Owen Jacobs remained in Pender.  His other close kin had either moved to affiliate with the forming tribes, or moved into freed slave Black communities. 

The PenderROCK people were still clannish in this timeframe and Taylor appears to have been similar to the tribal notion of chief.  (In the other Jacobs counties of Sampson, Columbus, and Robeson this role formally declared themselves as chief and gained tribal designation for their people.  See "Divergent Paths - Your Freedom Cost Me" for an explanation of this era and Taylor's role in shaping Pender people)  As the head of the Pender County Jacobs, living on the Cypress Creek land his entire life, being cared for by Anguish in his older years, Taylor Jacobs is certain to have been buried in Old Jacobs Cemetery when he died in 1925.

The Jacobs have been on Cypress Creek since the 1700s.  One may speculate many many more graves in Old Jacobs Cemetery.  Perhaps the next most logical is Taylor's father, Matthew Jacobs who died in 1856.  However this research will stop speculation at the early 1900s.  Only archeological assistance can provide additional data.

TokenBurial YearSorted By Burial Year In Ascending OrderNameBirth-DeathRelation
 1856Matthew Jacobs1790-1856Son of Primus Jacobs II. Father of Taylor, John, Dave, Mary, Robert, Isaac, Lewis, ....
 1900Eliza Jane Manuel Jacobs Williams1817-1900Wife of Matthew Jacobs and of Wm H. Williams
 1920Ollie Morn Jacobs1917-1920Toddler daughter of Anguish & Hattie Jacobs
 1923Mary Lou Jacobs1923-1925Toddler daughter of Anguish & Hattie Jacobs
 1924Luke Luther Jacobs1870-1924Son of John Jacobs & Abby Jacobs
 1925Taylor Jacobs1846-1925Son of Matthew Jacobs. Father of Anguish, John, Major, Minnie, Callie, ....
 1926Joe Jacobs1904-1926Oldest child of Anguish & Hattie Jacobs
 1931Mary Elizabeth 'Pete' Jacobs1893-1931Daughter of James Owen Jacobs & Octavia Williams
 1935Anguish Jacobs1866-1935Son of Taylor Jacobs. Brother of John, Major, Callie, .... Lived on Cypress