The Tabor Obelisks

The Tabor obelisk grave markers mentioned in my last posting have a unique history. I've described that in one of the stories on my web site, but since it is fresh of mind, I'll repeat it here. These obelisk shaped marble stones mark the graves of Nathan Tabor (b. 1784; d.1851) and his wife Elizabeth (Condra)(b. 1791; d. 1860). Upon their mother's death, the stones were ordered by their sons from the Tate Marble Company near Tate City, Georgia. By the time they were shaped and engraved, the Civil War had disrupted most transportation facilities in the South. Unable to arrange shipment the company placed then in a storage barn. When Sherman made his infamous march through Georgia toward the end of the war everything in his path was burned, including this barn and all records, and the residents of the area were scattered. With the disruption and upheaval throughout the South after the war, I guess delivery of the markers were not the highest priority. They remained buried in all the rubble until 1928 when they were discovered. Noting the name Tabor, a local resident named Hattie Tabor was asked if she knew anything about where they belonged. She contacted her cousins in Brush Creek, North Carolina and arrangements were made to ship them to the mountains and place them in their rightful place - on the graves of Nathan and Elizabeth. Shipment had been delayed for 68 years!

This unique story may yet have been lost to history but for the efforts of Verlin Tabor, who in 1965, told it to a free lance newspaper reporter named John Wikle who had it published in both the Asheville Citizen-Times and the Atlanta Journal. Now 146 years old, the markers show signs of erosion, but can still be read. They stand at the highest point on the hill of the Tabor Cemetery in the Brush Creek area of Swain County, North Carolina - a spot near the site of Nathan Tabor's long gone pioneer cabin.

The men in the picture are William Lewis, Barry Creighton, and Alex Creighton. William is a third great grandson of Nathan and Elizabeth. Alex is a fourth great grandson. You can just barely see the legs of Anna Knowlton, also a fourth great grand child of Nathan and Elizabeth.

If anyone would like to have a legible copy of the newspaper story, send me an email - whberg@hughes.net. I'll send it as a .pdf file attachment to my reply.