Odd Fellows Cemetery

Just off Shorefair Drive, behind a wide expanse of pavement and surrounded by apartments and businesses, sits an unobtrusive ten‑acre patch of quiet woodland that holds one of Winston‑Salem’s most important — and most overlooked — historic sites. Step into the trees and you’ll find granite headstones leaning at odd angles, brick and concrete plot borders swallowed by roots, and, here and there, a name still legible after more than a century. This is Odd Fellows Cemetery, the final resting place of as many as 10,000 people — a place that, until 1997, had largely been forgotten.

Location of the cemetery on Google Maps 

Older Than the City Itself

Odd Fellows Cemetery predates the modern city of Winston‑Salem; the City of Winston and the Town of Salem did not merge until 1913, yet burials here began years earlier. Records show that Phorest Hampton was interred here in 1903, well before the cemetery was formally organized.

Who Are Odd Fellows?

Odd Fellows belong to one of the world’s oldest fraternal organizations, historically comparable in size and influence to the Freemasons.

Origins

The name traces to 18th‑century England, where tradesmen who banded together for mutual aid outside traditional craft guilds were seen as an “odd” assortment — hence “Odd Fellows.” The movement reached the United States in 1819, when Thomas Wildey founded the first American lodge in Baltimore, MD, eventually forming the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF).

What They Did

Like the Freemasons, the Odd Fellows built lodges around ritual, secrecy, and fraternity. But their core mission was practical: mutual aid. Before pensions, health insurance, or Social Security existed, lodge dues funded sick benefits, widow and orphan support, and burial plots for members. Their motto — Friendship, Love, and Truth — and their three‑link chain symbol reflected that mission.

The Black Odd Fellows

Because the IOOF barred Black members, Blacks formed a parallel organization in 1843: the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows (GUOOF), chartered through the British order to bypass U.S. exclusion. GUOOF lodges spread rapidly across Black communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, providing sick benefits, insurance, and burial grounds for members who were often excluded from White cemeteries.

Winston‑Salem’s Odd Fellows Cemetery grew directly from this tradition. Local GUOOF lodges founded it to ensure the Black community had a dignified place to bury their dead. Membership — not wealth or status — secured a plot, which is why the cemetery reflects such a broad cross‑section of the community.

Founding the Cemetery

Around 1911, two Black fraternal lodges, commonly identified as the Twin City Lodge and the Winston Star Lodge, purchased the land and formally established the cemetery. Sources differ on the exact founding date and lodge names, likely because burials began informally years before the official purchase.

Odd Fellows quickly became the largest Black burial ground in Winston‑Salem and remains the largest dating to the early twentieth century. The cemetery also preserves traditional African American burial customs: graves arranged without strict symmetry, marked with plants, shells, quartz, colored glass, pottery, marbles, and other “offerings” placed to honor the dead.

Who Rests There

Because burials spanned decades, Odd Fellows Cemetery holds an extraordinary cross‑section of Winston‑Salem life. Many buried there were born during the Civil War era, meaning some had lived through slavery. Others were business leaders, ministers, and roughly 100 military veterans whose service ranges from the Spanish‑American War through Vietnam. Many of these headstones have been reset and restored by volunteers.

Notable Burials

• George Hill, founder of Winston Mutual Life Insurance Company

• Rev. R.L. File, longtime pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church and namesake of File Street

• Lt. Spurgeon Ellington, Tuskegee Airman

• Thomas C. Glenn, World War II veteran

Decline

Odd Fellows Cemetery served the community faithfully for decades. But in 1944, the opening of New Evergreen Cemetery for Blacks drew new burials elsewhere. Without income from plot sales, maintenance declined.

By the 1950s, conditions had deteriorated so badly that the site became a public‑health concern: dogs reportedly dragged bones from graves exposed by erosion. Overgrowth swallowed headstones, and families lost track of burial locations. Some never knew their relatives rested there; others were unable to reach the graves through the dense woods.

Reclaiming the Ground

The turning point came in 1997, when volunteers formed the Odd Fellows Reclamation Project. Their work evolved into the Friends of Odd Fellows Cemetery, which continues restoration efforts today.

Volunteers, university partners, and organizations such as Preservation Forsyth have cleared roughly two‑thirds of the grounds. Many headstones remain hidden in the wooded sections still awaiting discovery. Restoration leaders have explored ground‑penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves, rebuilt walking paths, and repaired deteriorated plot borders.

For families, the restoration has been deeply emotional. Deltra Bonner, whose Aunt Helen was buried there, visited annually until the 1970s, when the cemetery became impassable. Her aunt’s grave was rediscovered only in 2013 during a volunteer cleanup.

Monthly volunteer days continue on the third Saturday, inviting residents to help preserve this vital piece of Winston‑Salem’s heritage.

Recognition

Odd Fellows Cemetery has received significant historic recognition:

• 2000: Designated a Forsyth County Local Historic Landmark (Designation #120)

• 2008: Added to the North Carolina National Register of Historic Places Study List

• 2010: A Winston‑Salem Historic Marker was placed at the Shorefair Drive entrance

These honors underscore the cemetery’s archaeological and cultural importance — not only as a burial ground but as a record of Black life, tradition, and resilience.

Then and Now

From the 1950s onward, Odd Fellows Cemetery was a place people avoided — overgrown, forgotten, and hazardous. Today, after nearly three decades of volunteer work, it is once again recognizable as sacred ground. Clear paths lead visitors back to family plots lost for generations, and the historical marker helps interpret the site’s significance.

The cemetery still holds far more history than has been uncovered — an estimated 10,000 burials, many unmarked or unfound. But where the site once seemed destined to vanish, it now stands protected and honored as one of Winston‑Salem’s most significant Black historic places, restored one headstone at a time.