STRIEBY CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1880

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Strieby was founded by the Rev Islay Walden, who was visually impaired, grew up enslaved in the community. After emancipation, he received his teaching degree from Howard University in 1876, during which time he wrote his fist book of poems, “Miscellaneous Poems, Which the Author Desires to Dedicate to the Cause of Education and Humanity” and founded a Sabbath School. Subsequently he attended and graduated from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, where he wrote a second book of poems, “Walden’s Sacred Poems with a Sketch of His Life,” and established another school called the Student Mission. He was ordained in 1879 and returned to Randolph County, NC, under the auspices of the American Missionary Association. He purchased 6 acres in southwestern Randolph on which he built both a church and a school and the cemetery, first called Promised Land Church and Academy. The school and church became important centers of African American life. In 1883, Walden petitioned for and was appointed postmaster of a community post office, named Strieby. The church, school, and cemetery were subsequently renamed Strieby. The school continued until the late 1920s when it was merged with another county African American school. A new church building was built in 1972 after the original was condemned. Descendants of the founders continue to bury family members in the cemetery. Rev. Islay Walden died in 1884 and is buried in the cemetery. Vella Lassiter, a community member, graduate of the school, teacher, and trustee, who won a landmark civil rights case in 1937 and affirmed by the state Supreme Court in 1939, is also buried in the cemetery.

In 2014, the site was named a Randolph County Cultural Heritage Site, by the county Historic Preservation and Landmark Commission. In 2021, the site was named a Literary Landmark by United for Libraries, in honor of the the Rev. Islay Walden, “Blind Poet of North Carolina.”

BCN Contact Information:

Margo Lee Williams

margolw@gmail.com

ALLEN’S TEMPLE AME CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1895

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

According to land records the land was originally purchased on 5 November 1895 by the trustees of Allen Temple AME Church. According to the corner stone, the wooden church structure was Dedicated 27 September 1947. The church property was sold 9 April 1970. The cemetery was not included in this sale and as far as I can tell is still owned by the AME Church. There are many unmarked graves, and I am sure there are some we don’t know about and except for one or two upright stones, this cemetery appears to be an abandoned lot.

When they built the 220 bypass in the 1960’s, it split the local neighborhood. That meant that if you didn’t have a car, it was very hard to get to the church. That along with some threats to fire bomb the church, during the civil rights movement, meant that fewer and fewer people attended. It seems that the church was not closed so much as just slowly died. Genealogies, land records, newspaper articles and maps can be found in the Randolph Room in the Randolph County North Carolina Library.

BCN Contact Information:

Kendra Lyons

klyons@randolphlibrary.org

www.randolphlibrary.org