Connecting With the Past

I first learned of the Askew cemetery in 2016 while conducting research in Union, SC. I had begun an in depth investigation for a book about my great-grandfather’s artillery unit in the American Civil War. In Union I went to the Public Library and the Union County Museum, spending hours taking notes and photo-copying material. I also went to several church cemeteries to get pictures of the graves of soldiers who had served in the Macbeth Light Artillery. Genealogies I’d found listed numerous family gravesites in the area including the Askew Cemetery, said to be on Peter Hawk Road.

Finally in 2020 when my book “War in the Mountains” was nearing publication, I came back to Union and began looking for the Askew Cemetery. I came in a new Ford Fusion, going to Peter Hawk Road, driving from end-to-end, finding the winding lane hardly more than a cattle path in places but there were no signs of a cemetery in the thick underbrush of the  pine forest.

By 2025 through communication with the Union County Museum I’d learned more about the Askew Cemetery. I went there on October 14^th and was given several documents including the exact GPS coordinates. Once again, I was directed to Peter Hawk Road. Now in a Ford Bronco, I had no worries about the rough road and it was now completely paved but it still followed a narrow and torturous path through dark hollows formed in the trees. Arriving at the coordinates, I pulled off the road as much as possible and left the signals flashing.

Over the next hour I scoured both sides of the road through briers, brambles and thick brush but there were no signs of grave stones. Indeed, the area was completely unsuitable for a burial site, the ground uneven and slashed with ravines.

I returned to my hotel and sent a message to one of the names in my sheaf of documents. Although the last email exchange had been in 2020, the man replied immediately, citing a new location.

The next day I went to an address on Gault Creek Road, several miles from the previous searches. The property was cluttered with worn out weather beaten vehicles and looked abandoned. The only sign of life was a half dozen chickens wandering about and a barking dog somewhere behind the house.

I spent a half hour trespassing on the property and tramping through the nearby woods. My shoes were wet from dew and the ends of my jeans stuck with parts of weeds. I went across the road, continuing my search. It was the same as yesterday. The land was too irregular and uneven for a burial ground.

At last I got into my car and sat for a moment, exhausted, preparing to leave. I was surprised by a man suddenly appearing in the road just outside my car. He was rough looking in threadbare clothes and I immediately got out and explained why I was there. It was the land owner identified in my documents. We talked for a time. He said there was no cemetery on his property but a mile or two toward town there was an old family plot. And there was another one, closer, just down the road behind a cattle gate, up on a hill. He said it was in a bad state, trampled by cows, etc. I thanked him and went to the closer one, about 1/5 mile east and found a two-sided cattle gate chain-locked across a washed out dirt drive. The land was mostly pasture and I saw cows in the distance but just up the hill there was a clump of trees with a tombstone visible. I climbed over the gate and started walking, having doubts that this was the Askew grave site.

But at the edge of the trees, I found a piece of stone with writing on it.  I brushed away dirt with my hand and my pulse quickened when I made out the name “Askew”. Another fragment had a date. I continued looking, finding a few complete grave markers, one standing nearly upright. The grave stones were in the midst of a dozen trees on ground scattered with cow dung. The inscriptions were worn away but could still be made out. I saw names that matched my documents. At last I’d found the ancestral Askew Cemetery.