By Betsy Finklea
On Monday, The Herald received a report that Dillon County was cleaning the Hamilton Cemetery that is not abandoned.
An order by Judge Paul Burch instructed the county that they were not to clean cemeteries unless they had been abandoned for 10 years.
Upon investigation, The Herald found several graves in this cemetery that had dates of burial within the last ten years, some as late as 2010. A Herald employee witnessed the cleaning of the cemetery and photographed it. While the cemetery was overgrown, this did not meet the test set out by Judge Paul Burch in his order.
The Herald called County Administrator Clay Young. He said that he was looking into it.
Young said that the cemetery that was being cleaned, which is located on West Main Street in Dillon, was on the county’s abandoned cemeteries list. He said that now that the county has found out that the cemetery was not abandoned, they will no longer cut it and will remove it from the list.
When asked who directed that the cemetery be cut, Young said the cutting was done as part of the county’s routine work since it was on the list.
Young said they will be revisiting the list to see if any graves have been placed there in the last 10 years. He said if this is the case, he will no longer be working these cemeteries.
The list of the cemeteries that the county has declared as abandoned and not maintained is as follows:
Riverside Cemetery
St. Mary’s Cemetery
Spring Hill Cemetery
Hulon Cemetery
Red Hill Cemetery
Bethea Cemetery
Lock Cemetery
McDuffie Cemetery
Miller-Wiggins Cemetery
Stackhouse Cemetery
Mt. Holly Cemetery
Hamilton Cemetery**to be removed since our report**
Bethel Cemetery
Sinclair Cemetery
Hayes Cemetery
Tarte Cemetery
Sweat Swamp Cemetery
Holly’s Cemetery
Ford Cemetery
New Zion AME
Bennett Cemetery
Judson Cemetery
Magnolia Cemetery
(Old) New Pres. Bethel
Cemetery
Schafer Cemetery
Hazy Grove Cemetery
Carolina Church Cemetery
Roberts Cemetery
McNeil Cemetery
Slave Section-Catfish Church
McInnis
Oaky Point Cemetery
State Line Rd. near Wallace Rd.
State Line Rd. near Wallace Rd. on Farm
Huggins Cemetery
