Private Peter Bragg in Cedar Hill Cemetery

Shared Post from: I'm from Washington NC and nobody told me this! I'm from Washington NC and nobody told me this!
11:20 pm July 8, 2021

"Washington has some amazing history and I am so grateful I get to share some of it on this page.

This is the resting place of Private Peter Bragg in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Washington NC. Private Bragg born 1844, enlisted in March 1864 at New Bern NC with the 14th Heavy Artillery, Company D. He was born in Craven County NC and moved to Washington after the Civil War. His wife was named Sophia.

This location is Cedar Hill Cemetery. It began as a burial ground for Keysville A. M. E. Church members around 1902. The Church is located at Highland Drive and Keysville Road. The land was donated to the Church by the prominent Keys family. Many of the Keys (Keas, Kees, Keyes) were wealthy Black businessman and woman as far back as 1820.

Southy Keys brought much the land known today as Keysville in 1836. As free Black landowners, their farms and dairies provided refuge and jobs for freedom seekers as Keysville was a part of the underground railroad.

The Keys family added more land to the cemetery and the City of Washington became responsible for it's care in the early 1900's.

Wiley Keys (1846-1906) may be one of the first persons interred there. Benjamin Franklin Small, (1835-1916) possibly one of John Small's enslaved people from his Cedar Grove Plantation in what today is Washington park, was the oldest person buried the when the cemetery was first established."