222 Walnut Street – Swansboro’s Ward Cemetery

The area from Broad Street West to Hawkins Creek and Northerly along much of Walnut including the area Northward known as “New Town” was owned by the Wards from about the mid-1800’s and was part of the Cyrus Glover estate. Cyrus Glover and his wife Jane Hawkins Glover were buried in the area of the westerly end of Elm Street, probably now covered over with construction.

A few tomb stones can be seen from Elm Street.  Many earlier residents of Swansboro are buried in cemeteries in the surrounding area because of family relationships or church affiliations, for example Piney Grove Baptist Church on Swansboro-Belgrade Road. The old cemetery of the “All Faiths” church, approximately where Highway 24 crosses Main Street, moved eastward behind Century 21 Waterway Realty. Others were buried in family plots or other churches in Hubert, Queens Creek, Bear Creek and even in Carteret County.

However, the Swansboro Cemetery is representative of the Swansboro population from the mid-1800’s to the mid-1900’s, in a period where the population was less mobile than the prior period when there was shipping and the later period when the military base brought in new people.  Many families had been in Swansboro for multi-generations and most of the people buried in this cemetery have many relatives of different names.