Miss Sallie, as she is affectionately known, has been a wonderful resource for the Cary community. She shares her deep knowledge of Cary’s history with anyone who asks and graciously provided a fascinating account of her early life in Cary when she was asked to participate in the Friends of Page-Walker’s oral history project. Over the years, she has served on several Town of Cary committees and advisory boards including the Historic Preservation Master Plan Advisory Committee, but, perhaps the advocacy role dearest to her heart has been as leader of the effort to document, restore and preserve the Cary First Christian Church Cemetery.
A member of Cary First Christian Church (CFCC) and a descendant of historic Cary African American families, Miss Sallie saw the need and made it her personal project to restore and preserve the Cary First Christian Church Cemetery. The African American cemetery was established as early as 1868 on Cornwall Road next to the site where the congregation first met. Initially, Miss Sallie formed a committee to address the poor conditions of the property and began the process of identifying the names of those buried there. This was an arduous task as the funeral home historically used by many of the African American community had few records to share. Undaunted, she turned to the Wake County Public Health Department to discover the names. Through her diligent research she was able to identify 144 names of the estimated 285 graves. She and her niece also hired an archaeologist, who documented 141 unmarked graves. Finally, a more formal survey and mapping of the cemetery was performed, and she saw to it that the burial ground was registered with the state archives.
In recognition of Miss Sallie’s original efforts, the Wake County Historic Preservation Commission recommended, and the Cary Town Council approved, the designation of the cemetery as a Cary Historic Landmark in 2013. Not one to rest on her laurels, through her tireless efforts and additional research by volunteers from the church and the Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel, 113 of the people buried in unmarked graves or graves with unreadable markers have since been identified leaving only 47 unknown persons remaining. Most recently, in 2021 Miss Sallie and the CFCC community partnered with the Town of Cary to complete additional restoration work, which included the stabilization of a rare wooden headstone. This partnership also included fresh landscaping and beautification of the cemetery. Miss Sallie, at age 96, was also a key contributor to the development of an educational brochure that helps to inform the community – through her knowledge and remarkable memory – of the people buried in the cemetery. The printed guide has been created and is now available for visitors to the site. On October 30, 2021, an official ribbon cutting celebrated the completion of the restoration and acknowledged the extraordinary work of Miss Sallie Jones.
The Board of Directors of Capital Area Preservation, Inc. is pleased to present a 2022 Anthemion Award to Sallie E. Jones for Preservation Advocacy.