New sign part of Onslow cemetery’s survival

A small patch of land northeast of Onslow has a special meaning to Jule Frankfurt and Nancy Keith. 

Buffered by trees to the north and featuring a scenic westward view of the rolling Jones County countryside, South Mineral Cemetery has for generations served as the final resting place for many, including Frankfurt and Keith’s parents. 

They hope a recent addition to the cemetery will help the relatives of those buried there find it and possibly come to visit the scenic views they often take in. 

For years, the cemetery’s entrance along Dove Road was punctuated with a metal arched sign that read the cemetery’s name. However, the Aug. 20, 2020, derecho took its toll on the property and blew down the sign and claimed multiple large, old shade trees. 

While the trees are long gone, the sign has been replaced with one that Keith and Frankfurt -- who grew up in Onslow -- hope is there for decades to come. The cemetery’s upkeep was especially important to the sisters’ dad, Tom Gutzeit, who was buried there in 2023 next to their mom, Wilma.

     “This was important to him,” Frankfurt said. “And the sign is connected. Mom’s family wasn’t from here … (so without a sign) how would they know if they got (to the correct cemetery and that they were in the right place? It needed a label.”

     The new sign created by K & S Machining, of Monticello, and donated by the Gutzeit family was recently erected near the entrance to help label the cemetery. Frankfurt and Keith are proud of it and say adding elements like signs to these old rural cemeteries helps them remain viable. 

     “There’s a lot of them that are abandoned now,” Keith said. 

     While Frankfurt, of Canton, admits the new sign isn’t a 1:1 replacement of the older iron arch, it helps show people still care about South Mineral Cemetery. 

     “It’s more about who we represent as a community,” Frankfurt said. “My husband (Rick) did cemetery restoration for a while and he’d go into some of these cemeteries where there hasn’t been upkeep, and it really is a reflection of the community.” 

     Incorporated on May 29, 1855, the cemetery’s first burial was recorded shortly thereafter when one-year-old Isaiah S. Holt died in September of that year. 

     When their parents chose South Mineral as their final resting place, the Onslow water tower could be seen from the top of the hill. Trees have since grown in to block that view, but Frankfurt said the cemetery still serves as a community burial place for many Onslow residents. 

     This community was evident after the 2020 derecho swept through the area. Folks showed up and worked for a day, clearing trees and fixing gravestones.

     “Families of people buried here all came in to help, and those who couldn’t help had an area where they sat and watched and cheered us on,” Frankfurt said. “There were some stones that got toppled. There wasn’t any damage to the stones, per se, but they moved around and were twisted a little bit.”

     The cemetery is managed by a board that hasn’t met in a couple years, Frankfurt said. Rick Frankfurt is the treasurer. He marks the graves and arranges fresh gravedigging. Resources are limited, but volunteers with connection to the land maintain the property. The sign was the next stop in returning the space to what it once was. 

     “Initially we wanted to repair the one that was here,” Frankfurt said. “But circumstances made that impossible.”

     Their motivation to help keep the cemetery maintained is rooted in legacy.

     “It was always important to dad to keep it up and have it looking nice,” Keith said.