There are 68 marked graves and 48 known unmarked graves in Strieby Cemetery.
Here are a few of our community’s founders and leaders. A complete list of names is HERE.
1. Rev. Islay Walden- Founding Minister, Teacher, Poet, and First Postmaster
The Rev. Islay Walden was born enslaved and visually impaired in Randolph County, gaining his freedom after the Civil War. He walked to Washington, DC where he learned to read and eventually earned a teaching degree at Howard University. He subsequently attended the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. While a student at Howard and the Seminary, he wrote and published two books of poetry, which earned him the name, “Blind Poet of North Carolina.” In 1879, after graduation and ordination, he returned to Randolph County, in what was known as Hill Town then. He established this Congregational Church and a school and another, Salem Church and School about eight miles away, with the help of the American Missionary Association. In 1883, he successfully petitioned for a post office and asked that it be called “Strieby,” after a prominent Congregational minister. Sadly, he died on February 2, 1884.
2. C. J. “Nettie” Hill – Granddaughter of Priscilla Hill
Claudia Janetta “Nettie” Hill was the daughter of Emsley and Sarah (Calicutt) Hill. Sarah was Rev. Islay Walden’s sister. Nettie was only 13 years old when she died. Her gravestone is the oldest extant in the cemetery.
3. Elinora Walden – Wife, Teacher, Principal, First Postmistress
Elinora Wilhelmina Farmer Walden was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She met Rev. Walden while he was a student at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. They married in 1881, two years after Rev. Walden had returned here. She became the principal teacher at Strieby and Salem, while Rev. Walden focused on ministerial duties. After Rev. Walden’s death, she stayed and continued as principal and teacher. In 1887, she married Rev. Walden’s cousin, Henry Ruffin Walden, who with his mother and sisters moved here from Moore County. Henry was educated here and went on to Hampton Institute to study to become a teacher. In 1891, Elinora became postmistress at Strieby post office which had been closed after Rev. Walden died. Unfortunately, she too died in 1892. Henry Ruffin Walden stayed on as a teacher, also becoming postmaster. He remarried and moved away in 1905,
4. Priscilla Hill – Matriarch of the Hill Family & Founding Member Priscilla Mahockley Hill was born to an indentured white mother and given to a trader. Exactly how she came to Randolph County is not known. She married Ned Hill, a free man of color, sometime in the 1820s. They had 12 children that survived, all born free. Ned died in the 1870s before Rev. Walden returned to Randolph County, thus he is not buried in the cemetery here but rather somewhere further up the mountain where the early homes were located. Priscilla would be a founding member of the church and was active in the wider church, accompanying Rev. Walden to church conferences elsewhere in North Carolina. She died in 1911, reportedly at age 116. Many of her descendants are also buried here. There are four descendants who still own properties in the immediate vicinity around the church, including one named a North Carolina Century Farm.
5. Arthur Hill- Last Hill Family and Full Time Resident of Strieby
Arthur Haze Hill was the great grandson of Ned and Priscilla Hill. He grew up in and later raised his own family in the house across the road facing the church entrance. This is the last intact home of any of the original Strieby community members. Arthur was born in 1887 and died in 1980. He was frequently interviewed by journalists about the history of Strieby. Arthur married Elizabeth Lassiter, daughter of Amos and Harriet Phillips Lassiter, and granddaughter of Kate Polk Lassiter, who are all buried in the cemetery. Several of Arthur and Elizabeth’s children are also buried here.
6. Julia Ritter Walden-Matriarch of the Walden Family and Midwife
Julia Ritter Walden was the widow of Anderson Walden of neighboring Moore County. Anderson died in 1880. Julia and Anderson also had twelve children. Anderson is believed to have been an uncle of Islay’s. About 1883, Julia and at least three of her children moved to Strieby, Tima Walden McLeod and husband and children, Margaret Walden Lilly and her husband and children, and Henry Ruffin Walden, her youngest who would himself study to become a teacher at Hampton Institute and come back to Strieby serving as teacher along with Elinora Walden, whom he would also marry. He would also serve as postmaster after Elinora’s death. It is notable that in 1900, Julia was listed as a “midwife.” Julia died in 1907.
7. Tima Walden McLeod – Daughter of Julia Walden & Last Postmaster of Color Tima and her husband, Jerry McLeod, moved from Moore County to Strieby about 1883 when Jerry bought property. They also had twelve children. At least three of their children, Eugenia (sometimes called Lougenia), Laura, and Julia, became teachers. Laura was a teacher at Peabody Academy in Troy, in neighboring Montgomery County, one of the premier NC secondary schools for African American children. Eugenia would eventually marry Rev. Zachariah Simmons, who was the pastor at Strieby during the 1880s and 90s. In December 1907, Tima was named postmistress of Strieby post office. Sadly, both Jerry and Tima died in 1908. After Tima’s death, Strieby post office never again had an African American postmaster.
8.Kate Polk Lassiter- Matriarch of Lassiter family
Kate Polk Lassiter was born in Montgomery County. She married Colier/Calier Lassiter, son of Miles Lassiter, the only African American Quaker in North Carolina when he died in 1850. Kate and Colier had 5 children. They did not live in the Strieby area, but lived on their ancestral land along what is today, Lassiter Mill Road. Descendants continue to own their property today, including two farms of descendants named North Carolina Century Farms.
9. Vella Lassiter- Teacher and Civil Rights Champion
Novella “Vella” Lassiter was the granddaughter of Colier and Kate Polk Lassiter. She grew up on family property on Lassiter Mill Road and attended church and school at Strieby. She attended Peabody Academy in Troy and went on to Bennett College in Greensboro. She then earned her Master’s degree at Miner Teachers College in Washington, DC. She came back to teach at Strieby, eventually moving to Reidsville in Rockingham County to teach. On Easter Monday in 1937 she got on a bus to return to Reidsville. The bus was crowded so she sat next to a white person, who did not register any objection. However, as additional white passengers got on, she was asked by the driver to move. She refused. Eventually, the driver summoned two policemen to take her off the bus. She sued the bus company essentially for breech of contract because she had bought a ticket and they failed to deliver her to her destination. She won here in Randolph County. The bus company took exception and filed an appeal with the State Supreme Court in 1939. The judge refused to hear the case saying he saw no legal irregularities. The judgment stood. Vella returned home after she retired and continued to be active in the community and at Strieby Church. She died in 1994, just a few months shy of her 100th birthday.
10. Kate Lassiter Jones- Teacher, Social Worker, Community Leader, “Rosa Parks of Randolph County”
Kate Lassiter Jones was the granddaughter of Kate Polk Lassiter and the sister of Vella Lassiter. Kate Lassiter (Jones) was educated first at Strieby. She attended Columbian Heights High School in Winston-Salem. After finishing high school, she attended Bricks Junior College, in Enfield, North Carolina, She earned her degree in Social Work from Schauffler College (now part of Oberlin University) in Cleveland, Ohio, and another bachelor’s degree in Curriculum and Teaching as well as an M. A. in Rehabilitation Counseling from Columbia University in New York. Kate’s career was illustrious. serving as: an elementary school teacher at the consolidated Strieby-Salem-Red House School in Randolph County, the first woman Director of the YWCA in Montclair, NJ; Dean of Women at North Carolina A & T University; Director of Special Services for the Third Army at Fort Benning, Georgia; and an Extension Social Worker for the US Army Southeast Region. Kate was President of the Randolph Black Leadership Conference; a Vice President of the Eastside Improvement Association; Treasurer of the George Washington Carver School Project; and a member of the Executive Committee of the State Democratic Party. She was a recipient of the Kate Hammer Award as North Carolina State Democratic Woman of the Year; the Randolph County Social Service Award, the Randolph County Mental Health Association Award, the Randolph County Commissioners’ Award, and the Randolph County NAACP Service Award being dubbed, “The Rosa Parks of Randolph County.” Kate died just three hours before her 100th birthday.
11. George Jones- husband of Kate Lassiter Jones and Benefactor
George “Ikie” Jones was married to Kate Lassiter Jones. He was not a native of Strieby or Randolph County. He was born in Norlina. He and Kate originally met at Bricks Junior College in Enfield, North Carolina. George graduated from Bricks and went on to Howard University where he graduated from the Dental school. However, the long distance took its toll on the relationship and George and Kate broke up. Many years later, when Kate was living in the New York area and George, a widower, was living in New Jersey, they became reacquainted and eventually married. Once retired, George and Kate returned to Randolph County, building a home on High Pine Church Rd, near Lassiter Mill Road. George is buried here and is memorialized in the George Jones Memorial Garden.
12. Mary Ann Hill Smitherman- Granddaughter of Priscilla Hill & Matriarch of the Smitherman Family
Mary Ann Hill Smitherman was the granddaughter of Ned and Priscilla Hill, who like other members of the Hill family was born free. She married Charlie Smitherman who was a freedman, formerly enslaved by Noah Smitherman. Charlie and Mary had six children. Roy died young, Harrison, a farmer, was a veteran of WWI. He never married. Neither Winston nor Sallie ever married. Sarah became a teacher. Bertis, also a farmer, was one of the last two permanent Strieby inhabitants. His father, Charlie, who died about 1900, is most likely buried here in an unmarked grave. The others are all buried here.
13. Sarah Smitherman Lassiter – Teacher
Sarah Smitherman Lassiter was the daughter of Charlie and Mary Hill Smitherman. She was married to George Ulysses “Grant” Lassiter, grandson of Colier and Kate Polk Lassiter. She graduated from Strieby School. She was a Sunday School teacher and a teacher at Strieby School, Both Sarah and Grant are buried in the cemetery.