Simply stated: old cemeteries are fascinating places filled with both hope and despair. When visiting a cemetery to which you have a personal connection, feelings often range from hopes of reconnecting with the souls of departed loved ones – followed by the despair found in the reality that they’re no longer with us. One of the older cemeteries in North Carolina is an intriguing spot to visit – in more ways than one – and you may want to avoid going alone, after the sun begins to set, or soon after it rains…
It's located in historic New Bern and only several hundred feet from the picturesque Neuse River.
The centuries-old graveyard represents several eras of burial practices displayed most prominently in the variety of tombstones, headstones, monuments, and tombs.
Visitors also encounter table-like markers on top of graves. The table tops usually bear the name of the departed and a hauntingly descriptive note about the person buried beneath.
Cedar Grove Cemetery is the permanent home for many notable people that have passed through or were born in New Bern, including a long list of politicians elected to serve the great state of North Carolina.
It's also the final resting place of this notable man who, in 1890, dropped out of UNC Chapel Hill and moved to New Bern. Within 10 years he had opened a pharmacy and started selling a concoction he created for indigestion. He named it Brad's Drink, likely a shorted version of his own name: Caleb Davis Bradham, Sr.
The drink became so popular that by 1903 he'd opened a bottling company and registered the popular item as Pepsi Cola. Bradham has the most unexpected of monuments on his grave: a simple foot stone bearing his name and another immediately above noting he was the inventor of Pepsi Cola.
In all of the beauty found at Cedar Grove Cemetery in New Bern, there is one notorious spot that gives many people a creepy feeling. It's here, at the triple arch entrance on Queen Street — a spot commonly known as The Weeping Arch.
The arches are constructed from coquina shell and have a tendency to "bleed" a rust-colored liquid when they get wet or damp. Some people believe having one of the reddish drops fall on your person is an omen.
As the local legend goes, if a pallbearer passes underneath and is struck by even a single drop from The Weeping Arch, they will soon die.
Have you visited this lovely cemetery in New Bern – and more importantly, did you dare pass under the cursed entrance known as The Weeping Arch? We’d love to know.
For more stories about haunted places in North Carolina, keep reading here!
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