Old Haas Cemetery in Maiden, North Carolina (circa 1776–1946)

Haas — a “Dutch, German, and Jewish surname, from Middle Dutch and Middle High German hase, from Old High German hase (‘hare’)” or jackrabbit.

“The Haas Cemetery is a forgotten piece of [Catawba County] history.” — Cody Call

Thanks to recent improvements and preservation efforts by the Town of Maiden, the Catawba County Historical Association, St. James Lutheran Church, Cody Call, and others the long threatened Old Haas Cemetery in Catawba County is once again accessible — by a gravel and then grass road through the corn or soy bean field behind a new housing development near the old Sigmon Dairy Farm off of Prison Camp Road between Maiden and Newton.

The cemetery is believed to date back to 1776 when Isaac Wise, the seventeen year old son of a local Tory, is said to have declared his allegiance to the Whig cause and was hanged by “a band of Tories” — led by Johann Martin “Crooked Nose” Shuford according to some versions of the legend. The Catawba County Historical Association erected an historical marker to this effect in 1951. Notwithstanding the marker and some discussion of the story in both our official county historical narratives (published in 1956 and 1995), I’ve yet to see any actual evidence to support this entirely plausible claim.

Historical marker erected in 1951 describes the origins of the Haas Cemetery. Photo by Wilhelm Kühner (2016)

In addition to the cemetery, a church (Hass Church) was created on the property sometime after it was granted to George A. Ikerd and David Haas by George Haas in 1834. The deed stipulates that the property was “to be used to provide the interest of the Gospel and to encourage the building of [a] house of public worship, that the Gospel might be preached by all and every minister of every denomination whose standing is good in their respective churches, also for a school house and burial ground.” The Haas (Union) church is the home church of St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church (1880) and at least one other church in Catawba County.

“Remember…as you pass by, As you are now so once was I, As I am now you soon shall be, Therefore prepare to follow me.” — an old verse popular on old American headstones

Zweite Urgroßvater (second great grandfather): John E. Keener (III)

Some of my own direct ancestors are interred here. According to the Congregational Register at St. James, John Keener was born on February 5, 1811 in Lincoln County. He was the son of John Keener (Jr) and Hannah Ingle Keener, and on January 2, 1840 he married Fannie Ingle, the daughter of Andrew Ingle and Barbara Shrum Ingle. The Keener’s had eight children: Barbara Elizabeth, Sarah Adline, Ephriam, John Franklin, Michael, David, Laura Frances, and George Washington (“a real curiosity”). John and Fannie are both buried at Haas, alongside several other members of the Keener family.

The Tuesday (January 30, 1906) edition of the Catawba County News announced John’s impending death saying “those best informed of his condition…do not expect to see him alive tonight.” In fact, he had already died on Monday night (January 29) and was buried on Tuesday. “Rev. Arndt” — probably James Allen Arndt, a likely descendant of Rev. Johann Gottfried Arends and “a very promising young Lutheran minister [who] died young” less two years later — conducted John’s funeral at Haas Church (Catawba County News, February 2, 1906).

While “small in stature and never of a very robust appearance” (Newton Enterprise; February 8, 1906), John Keener was “for years one of, if not the oldest citizen of Catawba County” and died just shy of his 95th birthday ending a “life [that] was an exemplary one to his six living children, forty two grand children and forty three great grand children” (Catawba County News; February 2, 1906). Fannie (mostly likely a familiar form of Francis) died in 1918 almost two months after her 100th birthday — about the same time the “Spanish flu” first appeared in public health reports in the United States.

Zweite Urgroßmutter (second great grandfather): Francis (“Fannie”) Ingle Keener (1818–1918)

Fifty years old when the American Civil War erupted, John apparently did not participate in the “insurrection to preserve slavery and destroy the American experiment” (David Blight). However, I’m sure I have other relatives buried in this cemetery who did. A few notables in the history of Catawba County are also interred here— such as Nathaniel Wilson, who introduced the bill in the state legislature to create Catawba County in 1842 — as well as members of the Barringer, Bost, Bolch, Carpenter, Cloninger, England, Finger, Fry, Ikerd, Haas, Linebarger, Mauney, Thornton, Shell, Sigmon, Smyre, Strutt, Parker, Rabb, Wilson, and other local families. A full list of interments is available in this 1980 NCGenWeb survey, with photos and genelogy connections on FindAGrave.

Epitaph for “our Southern dead” on an headstone in Haas Cemetery.