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11 <br /> congregation. The most recent known grave (photo 17), dated 1935, is marked by a US <br /> Army issued marble gravestone, for Private Eddie Haithcock of Hillsborough, who was <br /> drafted to serve in France in WW I as a cook in the 534 Engineering Service Battalion, <br /> 1918-19.1 . <br /> ARCHAEOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION <br /> The original site of Harvey's Chapel AME Church includes the visible foundation piers <br /> of the earlier frame church structure (Photos 20-22), and also was the site of the original <br /> log meeting house. It also contains numerous graves (100 or more marked and unmarked) <br /> associated with the first cemetery site. In addition, the site is located in an area where <br /> local native tribes were likely to have hunted and assembled, given its position on a high <br /> bluff overlooking Crabtree Creek near its confluence with Seven Mile Creek. <br /> HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: <br /> Harvey's Chapel AME Church was founded in the late 19"century by a group of <br /> African-American families who gathered to worship together in the woods as a"brush <br /> arbor" community outside of Hillsborough,NC. This founding coincided with the strong <br /> growth of the presence of the AME church in Orange County in the post-Civil War era- <br /> ---a time when at least six other AME churches were established here. In 1892,these <br /> families joined together to purchase land from a local white landowner and county <br /> commissioner, E.C. Thompson (1839-1925), where they wished to build a chapel.& The <br /> trustees named in the 1892 deed include Abraham Harvey, Zilman Carr, Harper Allison, <br /> Albert Riley, John Wesley Thompson, and Richard Poteat. 9 John Wesley Thompson, <br /> from whom many of the current church members are descended,was enslaved at the <br /> Poplar Hill plantation near Hillsborough where he met his wife Mariah. According to an <br /> interview with his great-grandson Harold Russell, Thompson taught himself to read with <br /> 6 Service Card for Eddie Haithcock, available online at <br /> https://www.blacksoldiersmattered.com/soldier?id=WW-1-Card World-War-I-Service- <br /> Card-2-i I I052.tif. Last viewed 11/22/22. <br /> 7 The presence of six AME Churches as of 1915 was documented by the Rev. Walter <br /> Patten in his UNC Master's Thesis, "Negro Churches and Sunday Schools in Orange <br /> County,North Carolina—A Field Study," May 15, 1916. This included a map that shows <br /> the location of the original church site, prior to the move to the present site. <br /> s.Russell, Harold. "Harvey's Chapel AME Church: About Us." Online, available <br /> htti)://www.harveys-chapel-ame.org/'About.htm accessed 1/31/2019 <br /> 9 Orange County Deed Book 53,Page 242. <br /> 5 <br />