Lea's Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery

Location: 6415 Leasburg Road, Roxboro, North Carolina.
Directions: South side of Leasburg Road (US 158) west of the intersection with Gardner Road (SR 1305) and east of the intersection with Rolling Hills Road (SR 1166).

Topographic map. (Note that the road names shown on the topographic map are not current.)
Approximate GPS Coordinates: 36° 22' 59"N, 79° 05' 43"W (WGS84/NAD83)

History of Lea's Chapel

Two sources provide information about Lea's Chapel Church. Chapel on South Hyco: the story of Lea's Chapel United Methodist Church, Person County, North Carolina : 1750-2000 AD by Ben Lacy Rose (Richmond, Va. : B.L. Rose, 2000) was written and published for the 250th anniversary of the church. The first volume of Person County Heritage also includes an article about Lea's Chapel (#73).

Graves

The article in Person County Heritage provides this information about the cemetery:

The first burial at Lea's Chapel was that of an unknown person who happened to be traveling throught this part of the county. He suddenly became ill and stopped at Major Lea's home at Chapel Bridge near the church. He died before he could tell anyone his name. The lea family found on him no identification papers nor anything concerning his relatives. He was buried under an old oak tree on the Lea's Chapel church grounds, an unidentified stranger with no tombstone to mark his passing. The oldest tombstone that now stands at Lea's Chapel is that of James Cochran who died in 1807 after serving as a North Carolina Congressman.

The list of graves below is from the book Chapel on South Hyco: the story of Lea's Chapel United Methodist Church, Person County, North Carolina : 1750-2000 AD. The list was scanned and OCR converted but has not been proof read. If you find errors or if you are willing to do a field survey of this cemetery and add additional information for the dates, please contact  me.

Additional information:

The information below is from the sources indicated. These graves are also located at Lea's Chapel.

1. James COCHRAN, ca.1767-1813, (grandfather of James Cochrane Dobbin), a Representative from North Carolina; born near Mount Tirzah Township, Person County, N.C., about 1767; attended the public schools; engaged in agricultural pursuits near Helena, N.C.; member of the State house of commons 1802-1806; served in the State senate in 1807; elected as a Republican to the Eleventh and Twelfth Congresses (March 4, 1809-March 3, 1813); died in Roxboro, Person County, N.C., April 7, 1813; interment in the burial ground at Leas Chapel, five miles west of Roxboro, N.C. (Source: The Political Graveyard.) (Note that the dates here do not match the date of death given above; a field check is obviously needed!)

2. Joyce Woodall Lacks, died Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004. An obituary from the Courier-Times, 11 February 2004, is posted in the Person County Message Board.

3. James F. Winstead, died 04 February 1889. A memorial published in the 09 January 1890 issue of the Person County Courier is posted in the Person County Message Board.

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