Maplewood Cemetery is a remarkable and strangely neglected
place. The stones read like the pages from
Jean Anderson's authoritative history of Durham, and, as the
pictures here indicate, the stonework is a wonder to behold. Below
we give the coordinates for eight graves, where you will find the
numbers you need to determine the location of the physical
cache.
Stage 1: N 35
59.569 W 78 55.121: Julian S. Carr – The foremost
figure of early Durham, Julian Shakespeare Carr was a colorful
character, known as a Beau Brummell with his penchant for cutaway
coats, striped trousers, and flowered lapels. As a partner in W.T.
Blackwell & Company, makers of Bull Durham tobacco, he was an
early rival of Washington Duke and his sons, who established an
eventual monopoly with their American Tobacco trust. Before losing
out to the Dukes, Carr was a tireless promoter of the Bull Durham
brand, even (it is said) painting the Bull logo on one of the
Egyptian pyramids. Carr had other irons in the fire, as well,
particularly in the textile industry, leading to Carr Mill and the
town of Carrboro being named for him. He supported Trinity College
well before the Dukes did, even before it moved to Durham, and he
donated the land they moved to when they did: It was his old
racetrack (you can still tell East Campus used to be a racetrack,
to look at it).
One must regret what Endangered Durham has
termed the "Carr-washing" of Durham history, as the victorious
Dukes attempted to knock Carr off his first-place position among
founding fathers. However, Jean Anderson reminds us that Carr was a
white supremacist, while the Dukes supported the higher education
of African Americans (and women). And he certainly had that
post-war Southern penchant for re-inventing the past: Though a
19-year-old private at the end of the Civil War, he liked to be
known as "the General," for the honorary title accorded him by his
Confederate veterans association. He was even buried in a
Confederate general's uniform.
That uniform lies a-moldering in the grave at the first stage
coordinates of this cache. The Carr family plot is quite extensive,
stretching from the creepy family scene at the south end to the
even creepier stone angels at the north. Just across the drive, to
the east, you'll find a far less elaborate family plot, that of the
Skinners. There's a line of four low stones fronting this plot.
Reading from the left, stop at the third stone. The very last line
of writing on this stone is a single, unusual word. How many
letters long is this word? The answer to that question is 'A.'
Stage 2: N 35 59.563 W 78 55.138: Edward J. Parrish
– Parrish was a neighbor of Carr's in life, as well
as in death (he was also the "General's" brother-in-law), but he
chose to work for the Dukes. A former tobacco auctioneer who had
his own warehouse, Parrish spent many years living and working in
Japan, as an agent of the American Tobacco trust. His home in
Durham was once one of the finest in the city, back when Durham's
wealthiest citizens still lived downtown. Alas, it no longer
stands. However, his final resting place remains standing and is
well worth a visit. Take a step back to appreciate it. Take a few
more steps back, to the south, just across the drive, and you'll
enter a section demarcated by a low stone border and dominated by a
big central marker reading: "Walker." The first grave stone you'll
come to, just south of the drive, is for a man named Albert. B =
his age, in years, at his death.
Stage 3: N 35 59.535 W 78 55.160 Eugene Morehead
– The son of Governor John Morehead, Eugene attended
UNC with Julian Carr, who encouraged him to move to Durham, where
he founded the town's first bank. In 1880, Eugene and his friend
George Watts (also buried in Maplewood) spearheaded the move of
Durham's wealthiest citizens away from downtown, a short distance
to the southwest, to an area that came to be known as Morehead Hill
(where The Alethiometrists now live). Stage 3 takes you to his
obelisk. Just east you'll find a smaller upright stone, marking the
Wily family plot, which is fronted by four markers: two on the
left, two on the right, with a gap in between. Take a look at the
two gravestones bordering this gap. C = the number of years
separating the death dates of the two men.
Stage 4: N 35
59.667 W 78 55.108: John Sprunt Hill – Hill was
George Watts' son-in-law and another early Durham banker. He built
the 17-story Hill Building downtown to house his banking and other
business interests. It's the one that sports the "SunTrust" sign on
its roof today. If you think it looks a bit like a tiny Empire
State Building, there's a reason for that: It was designed by the
same architectural firm (Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon). Like Morehead,
Hill located his home in Morehead Hill (though the neighborhood
isn't half-named for him; it's a geologic hill). The impressive
Spanish Colonial Hill House still stands at the corner of Duke and
Cobb Streets (Cobb is also buried in this cemetery, by the way).
JKLGoDuke has
a cache honoring this remarkable old mansion. Just south of
Hill's family plot you'll find that of his in-laws, the Watts,
where a single step on the east end leads down to another family
plot. The first stone you'll come to there is for a woman with the
middle name "Virginia." D = the last digit of the year of her
death.
Stage 5: N 35 59.558 W 78 55.169: William G. Vickers
– Before it became Morehead Hill, the neighborhood
where all these old Durham swells lived was known as Vickers'
Woods, for landowner William Gaston Vickers. Though he was lucky
with real estate in life, he has not proved so fortunate in death,
considering the inauspicious location of his grave, by the
roadside, hard against the chain link fence. This fence played hell
with our GPS reception, so we'll add the note that this plot lies
just south of the southernmost gate leading out onto Kent Street.
Both William and his wife Genora are buried here. Just to the
south, also along the fence, you'll find another couple. The
husband was a Mason (the Masonic symbol appears on his stone). The
wife has the middle initial 'O.' Both husband and wife died in
February, but in different years. E = how many years the wife
survived her husband.
Stage 6: N 35
59.564 W 78 55.195: William T. Blackwell – If anyone
could lay claim to being Durham's foremost early citizen, other
than Julian Carr, that person would be William T. Blackwell, who
bought the nascent Bull Durham tobacco brand and ran with it. John
R. Green created the brand, whose identity he took from a Colman's
Mustard jar, which featured a bull's head (Green, of course, went
with a full-body profile). Colman's was known as "Durham-style"
mustard, since the type of mustard originated in Durham, England,
though it was promoted internationally as "English-style" –
hence the bull, in honor of John Bull, a popular symbol of England
at the time. Anyway, W.T. Blackwell partnered with Green, and after
Green died, he bought out Green's remaining half share of the Bull
Durham business. Though W.T. Blackwell & Company would
eventually be absorbed into the Dukes' tobacco trust, it was
Blackwell who first established Durham as a center for the tobacco
industry. Just south of his grave, across the drive and under an
old cedar tree, you'll find the shared gravestone of a married
couple whose last name begins with the letter 'R'. Bearing in mind
the exact dates engraved on her tombstone, showing that Mrs. R was
born in July and died in April, three months shy of her birthday
(so her age was one less than what you'd get just looking at the
years of her death and birth), how many years old was she at her
death? The answer = F.
Stage 7: N 35 59.555 W 78
55.210 Washington Duke – Who's buried in Washington
Duke's tomb? Not Washington Duke, who was removed to the Duke
Chapel mausoleum. His eldest son Brodie and granddaughter Mary Duke
Biddle remain here, however.
For all that we have celebrated other early leaders of Durham on
this cache page, we would be remiss if we downplayed Washington
Duke and his offspring, who not only financed Trinity's move to
Durham and endowed its rebirth as Duke University, but who insisted
on equal opportunity for women in higher education and also gave
strong financial support for African-American higher education.
Though most of the Dukes moved away from Durham as fast as they
could, they retained strong philanthropic ties to the community,
especially to the university. And, let's face it, nothing has been
as transformative for this city, over its short history, as Duke
University.
As you walk west down the
drive from the Duke mausoleum, the first grave you'll come to,
closest to the drive and on the same side of the drive as the
mausoleum, is of a man named John. Next to him is his wife Bettie.
Look at her birthday. Don't bother with the month or the year, but
what is the day of the month she was born? That number = G.
Stage 8: N 35 59.761 W 78 55.508 Bartlett Durham
– It may seem strange that among the contenders for
"founding father" of Durham, one name that is unlikely to be put
forward is that of the city's namesake: Dr. Barlett Durham. A
hard-drinking, fun-loving man who called his home "Pandora's Box,"
Durham lived fast and died young, at age 34, though not before
donating some land for a railroad station that was named in his
honor – Durham's Station – an appellation that was
eventually applied to the town that grew up around it. He never
married and had no children, so the other Durhams you'll find in
Maplewood are not his descendents. In fact, Bart Durham was not
even buried here, initially, which is why this original Durhamite
is to be found in the new part of Maplewood, at its western end.
While Julian Carr had advocated for Durham's re-interment in his
eponymous town, it wasn't until nine years after Carr's death that
this was actually arranged. Durham had been buried in a family plot
several miles west of Chapel Hill. The location of his original
grave was a bit uncertain, but it was known that his coffin was
made of iron, so those who came to get him just kept poking into
the ground with crowbars until one of them returned a good metallic
thunk. He was easily identified because he had a window at eye
level in his coffin, and they say his face was wonderfully
preserved (his round wire-rim glasses further helped with the ID).
It's a good thing the crowbar didn't strike glass instead of metal,
I reckon.
Approximately 50 feet west of Bartlett Durham's marker, you'll
find a cross marking a family plot. One of the individual graves in
that plot belongs to a William J., who died in 1960. H = The last
digit of his birth year.
Those who moved his body actually got his dates wrong. Bart
Durham's correct birth and death years are 1824 - 1859.
Stage 9. FINAL = N 35 59.X W 78 55.Y –
You should now have eight whole numbers, A-H, which you'll use,
doing some simple math, to find X and Y (the three-digit numbers
that appear to the right of the decimal point for latitude and
longitude, respectively). X and Y will also be whole numbers, which
you'll stick a decimal point in front of (i.e., divide by a
thousand) to get the decimal minutes.
X =(3A+2B+5C+4D+E+F+10G+2H)*(C-1)
Y = (A+F+H-B-C-D)*(C+D+G)
This cache is located in the woods that lie to the west of the
cemetery. You're looking for an ammo can, initially stocked with
nine copies of The Alethiometrists' Mix CD V. 11.0, "Home" –
in honor of the move to our new old home here in Durham.
Finally, be sure to do this cache in tandem with StumpWater's
"Ashes to Ashes," which provides a poetic alternative to this
prosaic tour of Maplewood Cemetery.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
GeoChecker.com.