Trinity Cemetery

Trinity Cemetery is a small rural burial ground on a slight rise south of NC 33, near present-day Chocowinity in Beaufort County. The land was deeded to the Trinity Chapel congregation in 1860 by Penelope and Apsley Grist, and the cemetery was laid out in a grid of sixteen squares divided by walks, with 352 gravemarkers in the original section. Most markers are marble or granite, with segmental-arched and other tympanum shapes, and three bear signatures of their stonecarvers. The cemetery is the largest surviving trace of the community of Godley's Crossroads, whose church was moved to modern Chocowinity in 1938. Its stones record a high rate of infant and child deaths in the late nineteenth century. The cenotaph of Major General Bryan Grimes, who was killed in 1880, is its most elaborate monument. Its grave markers and family groupings are regarded as reflecting the community's faith, social life and funerary art.