Medlock, Puckett, Knight, Cemetery
Ware Shoals, SC
Excerpts From Laurens County History Book
The Medlock Cemetery
By Charles and Christine Schneider
Traveling south on Hwy. US 25 from Princeston, SC on Johnny Knight road.
History of the Medlock Cemetery according to Laurens County Records:
William Rutledge, stepson of John Knight, Revolutionary War Soldier b 1780 d 1822, is the first marked grave in this graveyard, the land being owned at that time by John Knight, certified the 9th of November 1772, as a Grant. On or about the 5th of January 1823, this land was sold at Publick Auction by John Knight to James Medlock, 188 acres for $303.00. This plat was used as a family burying fround for the Medlocks and descendants for many years. About 1898 approximately 400acres was bought by Dr. Willie J. Balentine. In 1908 Dr. Willie set aside in a survey one and one tenth acres as a graveyard, recorded in a plat and deed to John A. Puckett. This graveyard was used for many years as the final resting place for: Balentines, Clucks, Crawfords, Douglases, Johnsons, Jones, Jordans, Killingsworths, Knights, Medlocks, Murffs, Pucketts, Reeves, Rutledges, Taylores, Souths, and others. There are many graves marked only with river rock, from nearby Saluda River. The last marked grave is that of Mrs. Mary Knight Crawford, 1928.
When this cemetery was started in 1822 there were no churches nearby. In October 1839 Harmony Methodist Church was established, located on US 25 near by. Many charter members of Harmony Church are buried in Medlock Cemetery.
On the date of June 7, 1981, the Sullivan-Dunklin Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revoluation dedicated a marker in memory of John Knight, Revolutionary War Solider, who once owned the land where the cemetery is located and died at the nearby home of his daughter, Delilah Knight and her husband William Smith Puckett. As mentioned previously the first marked grave is that of William Rutledge, stepson of the above mentioned John Knight, who died March 22, 1822. John Knight was born in 1747 and died about 1841. In spite of the drizzling rain when the ceremony started there was a large crowd in attendance.