LANGFORD, GLADDEN, COLLINS AND BELL CEMETERY This cemetery is located in No. 4 Township, Cleveland County, N.C. 4 miles east of buffalo Creek on a rather high knoll some 300 yards on north side of Long Creek, on old home place of Drew Costner, now the old home place of Wm. W. Whisnant. Owner of Cemetery: W. W. Whisnant Approximate number of marked graves: 9 Unmarked graves: 20 Earliest marked grave: Child of Joseph & Nancy Gladen, d. Sept. 9, 1824 General condition of cemetery: Abandoned and in foul condition; grown up in bushes adjoining land in cultivation. Date of survey: Aug. 25, 1939 Workers: Forest Williams and Anson G. Melton Inscriptions: Langford, Sophia D. Oct. 28, 1837 Aged: 2 yrs., 4 mos., 8 ds Roberts, Jacob D. April 19, 1830 Age: 1 yr., 7 mos., 19 ds. Collins, Sarah D. May 12, 1844 Aged: 30 years Earl, still born [infant of] J. & S. [Earl] B. May 16, 1833 Earl, Infant daughter of J. & S. Earl Still born, June 15, 1837 Earle, Beaty G. "who was a soldier in defence of his country and died June 15, 1862. Age 27 years." Gladen, Moses D. Oct. 12, 1824 Age: 51 years Gladen, a child of Joseph and Nancy Gladen D. Sept. 9, 1824 Age: 3 mos., 1 d. ---------- Following data by P. Cleveland Gardner: Mary Langford, who was murdered by her husband, George P. Langford, between eight and nine o'clock, Sunday morning, September 10, 1852, was buried here, Sept. 15, 1852. Langford was indicted, tried, convicted for the murder of his wife. He appealed the case to the Supreme Court which sustained verdict of Superior Court. He was hanged below the old river bridge west of town of Lincolnton, on west side of river, in the bottom, and his body conveyed to his old home on east side of buffalo Creek, in No. 4 township, and buried north of his home near a small creek. It is said that George P. Langford was a polite sort of man, tasty in dress, manners, etc. He had his boots blacked, and paid a Negro ten dollars to guard his body after burial; but on the second night Dr. Bratton of York, South Carolina, had a Negro to remove the body, stripped clothing from body, and carry the body thrown across the back of a mule all the way to York, S.C. According to tradition in the community today the Negro is reported to have said that the naked body of Langford was a cold as a black snake? The skeleton of Langford is today to be found in York, S.C. The following data abstracted from the case of State Vs. George P. Langford, 44 N.C.436: Defendant was indicted, tried, and convicted for the murder of his wife, which was committed by means of choking, suffocation and strangling. A great many witnesses were examined for the state, but no witnesses were offered whatever by the defendant. The defendant's daughter, Susan, and a number of other children were produced by the state, who stated that her mother was jealous of her father, and that unkind feeling had existed between them for thirteen years, insomuch that the parties did not eat at the same table. Defendant did not introduce a single witness. Dr. Williams (of Shelby) stated that he attended upon a Post Mortem examination of the body; that he opened her body and found the internal organs healthy; that he opened her neck and found the windpipe compressed, and externally the impressions of a thumb and three fingers of a left hand; that he concluded she had been choked to death; that he cut away the jaw and the flesh, muscles, etc., to enable him to make an examination. The body was found in a sitting posture in the corner of a fence, and a rail was lying on her shoulder and against her neck, and across her legs. Mrs. Langford on the evening before her death went to visit her married daughter, and was killed while returning home on Sunday morning. Def. was at home of Mrs. Polly Gamble on Saturday evening before he killed his wife, made statements and threats of his intention to kill his wife the next morning, etc. Also, that the Defendant and Mrs. Gamble had been living in the state of adultery for three years. Minute docket of June Court, 1853, Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Cleveland County, Book 2, page 358, states that Rufus Roberts, Coroner, was paid $10.00 for interring the dead body of Mary Langford on the 15th day of September, 1852. The old home in which Langford lived, located as above stated, is now owned by Mr. Clyde Randall, and is now used as a dwelling house. The following is abstracted from "Annals of Lincoln County, N.C.", by Sherrill, pp. 157 and158: "George P. Langford, of Lincoln County, murdered his wife, Sept. 10, 1852, was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death. William Lander was the State's Attorney, who examined 150 witnesses, made no memorandum of evidence but argued the case before the jury for a full day without notes. Haywood W. Guion, an able lawyer, was counsel for the defendant, who appealed to Supreme Court for a new trail? The Supreme Courts in its opinion rendered by Judge Nash sustained the ruling of Judge Caldwell, the trial judge. Langford confessed the crime on the scaffold immediately before he paid the death penalty in 1854. Haywood W. Guion died in Oct. 1853, and in speaking of his life Sherrill states at page 357: He was counsel for Langford who in 1854 was tried for the murder of his wife. He made a strong argument before the jury, but Langford was convicted and confessed the crime on the scaffold." NOTE: Sherrill is mistaken as to Langford being a resident of Lincoln County. Prior to January 11, 1841 the home of Langford was in Lincoln County, but with the formation of Cleveland from Lincoln and Rutherford in 1841 the site fell into what is now Cleveland County. Langford secured the removal of his case from Cleveland County to Lincoln County as he had a right to do. However, Cleveland County had to pay all court costs which amounted to around five hundred dollars.