{"nrhp_refnum":"84001982","name":"Abbott's Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"SR 1743","address_restricted":false,"city":"Thomasville","county":"Davidson County","state":"NC","lat":36.005579528000055,"lon":-80.08325777899995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural church cemetery of about 2 acres on the east side of SR 1743 near Thomasville, Davidson County, North Carolina, with roughly 450 gravestones, the earliest inscribed marker dated 1795. It belongs to a Baptist congregation organized about 1756.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the cemetery holds the largest collection of locally made gravestones in Davidson County, 351 of about 450 markers. It contains the county's largest and finest group of \"Pierced Style\" stones, a German design adapted for a mostly Scotch-Irish congregation. It also has the only signed Pierced stone, and these soapstone markers are presented as the height of folk art in the area.","narrative":"Abbott's Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery near Thomasville, Davidson County, holds about 450 gravestones on roughly two acres, the earliest inscribed marker dating to 1795. The church was organized about 1756 by Separatist, or New Light, Baptists and is among the oldest Baptist congregations in this part of the Piedmont. Of the markers, 351 were made locally, the largest such collection in the county. Sixty-seven belong to the Pierced Style attributed to the Swisegood School and its followers, with death dates from 1802 to the 1850s. The stone of Josiah Spurgin, who died in 1802, is the only signed Pierced example, marked as made by Joseph Clodfelter. Though many carvers were German, the inscriptions are in English, and verse epitaphs are common, reflecting the English and Scotch-Irish congregation. The decorative soapstone markers carry folk symbols of resurrection and eternity and are cited as the height of folk art among the area's Anglo-German farming communities.","period_of_significance":"Various (late eighteenth century to first half of the nineteenth century)","architect_builder":"Stonecutters: Joseph Clodfelter and unknown others","architectural_style":"Folk gravestone art: Pierced Style (Swisegood School and followers), early incised floral, and local Classical and urn-and-willow styles","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Condition marked as deteriorated, good and fair; unaltered and on its original site. Present use is a cemetery.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:49.041517-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/47/7176/47717647/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/84001982.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001982/1397d7e033-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001982/1397d7e033-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Cynthia L Jennings","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Abbott%27s_Creek_Primitive_Baptist_Cemetery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Cynthia L Jennings</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Abbott%27s_Creek_Primitive_Baptist_Cemetery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717647","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott%27s_Creek_Primitive_Baptist_Church_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4664333"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/davidson-county/abbotts-creek-primitive-baptist-church-cemetery-84001982/"}