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Now to kick off the spooky season, let’s talk about some gravestones.
Annie Bell Carter was the only beloved daughter of Union Army Colonel Richard Carter. Col. Carter purchased the circa 1732 homestead Willson’s Chance just before the Civil War. He remodeled the large Victorian farmhouse in 1860. His daughter, Annie, was born a few years later. She left for Europe in her teenage years to pursue an education in art. In 1882 she returned to her home, unfortunately for her.
While sources claim she was feeling ill, I would imagine that late 19th-century women’s dress and the summer heat did not help the situation. Annie leaned over the second-story balcony, suffered an incredibly poorly timed fainting episode, and fell directly on top of a recently cut tree stump. She suffered for days before finally succumbing to her injuries at just 17 years old. Col. Carter was coincidentally one of the main organizers of the Denton Cemetery (the same Denton Cemetery we’re still burying people in). Annie became one of the first people laid to rest there.
Her gravestone, rather than your normal slab of marble or concrete, is a delicately carved stone tree stump with a cross leaning against it. Col. Carter buried Annie in an East-West direction with her feet facing the East- even though the plots were designed to be North-South. This was so that on judgment day she would rise to face God in the rising sun.
Unlike Annie Bell Carter, Marshall Price deserved what was coming for him. Fast forward to 1895; a local fourteen-year-old girl named Sallie Dean was found dead along the roadside with a slashed throat and torn clothing. Marshall Price of Harmony joined a jury of community members to investigate the crime. Price immediately began pointing his finger at multiple innocent African Americans and quite vocally pushing the narrative that a white man could have never committed this atrocity. Price’s defensiveness (and the fact that he kept revealing details only the murderer would know and then claiming the information came to him in a dream) quickly gave him away.
From the very beginning, local newspapers claimed that outrage was sure to ensue once a culprit was named- and they weren’t kidding. Price was moved to Baltimore and held there until his trial due to the threats of mob violence. He argued until the bitter end, constantly changing his claims even after he’d confessed. He was sentenced to hang and moved back to the Denton jail to await death. His execution date was set for July 5th, 1895.
But the aforementioned angry mob got to him first. With the sheriff held at gunpoint, the mob was able to break into the Denton jail, find Price, and carry him to a tree where they took the law into their own hands on the night of July 2nd. Pieces of the rope used to hang Price were taken as souvenirs, and what was left of Price’s body was buried in the far-back plot of the Denton Cemetery. He too was buried East to West, except his feet faced West, so that instead of seeing God with the rising sun on judgment day, he would be facing backward.
Now I’ll offer you a more positive tale. Back in August, a Facebook post about a gravestone simply labeled “Brownie: The Towns Pet” triggered an avalanche of questions from curious Denton residents. This gravestone sits by the fence surrounding the Denton water tower. Some helpful commenters offered their wisdom in solving the mystery of Brownie, which led me down a semi-successful research rabbit hole.
Brownie was a dog known to follow the mailman, a Mr. Steve Brown, through the streets of Denton. Steve Brown was born in 1907 in Caroline County and was working as a mail carrier in Denton as of the 1940 census. Brown was still working as a mail carrier in 1950, but his paper trail (that I’ve found so far) ends up until his death in 1995. Brownie was apparently originally buried in front of the old location of the Post Office- across the street from the Caroline County Courthouse. The Post Office that exists today was built between 1960 and 1961. So, one has to assume that Brownie lived and died sometime between 1940 and 1960, give or take. The stone was moved after the post office’s relocation, but whether Brownie’s remains were also moved is questionable.
