Man followed his roots to a lost cemetery

SOUTHAMPTON

It wasn't until his father died that Jeff Hines wondered where he came from. He wondered whether his small family had existed primarily in New York and New Jersey, where he grew up.

When his sister - not even really a history buff - handed him a book about his roots, Hines started a journey.

It led him to a remote farm field on the Southampton/Sussex County line that held many of his ancestors, some ancestors of President John Tyler and other historic characters.

Now, Hines has helped to create an exhibit in the Rochelle-Prince House on Courtland's Main Street that talks of the legacy left by the Poplar Grove Cemetery. The white home, a museum, is across the street from the county courthouse. It's owned and operated by the Southampton Historical Society.

The old cemetery no longer even exists. It's been plowed over and turned back into farm fields. There's no record of any markers, b ut Hines has put together what he believes is a nearly complete list of the cemetery's occupants.

He plans to erect a monument in the yard next to the Rochelle-Prince House, and, by late October, to publish a book about the county and its people during the Revolutionary War era.

The exhibit will be open through the end of this month. Hines, retired from real estate and now a full-time researcher, will be there himself to greet visitors every Saturday.

The exhibit includes copies of documents related to the people buried in the cemetery, pages from a family Bible, letters and accounts of historic events during the county's history.

That history tells Hines that his long-ago ancestor, William Hines, was born in Virginia around 1690. He purchased 400 acres from the American Indians and began to build the family legacy. He was buried in what came to be known as the Poplar Grove Cemetery. It was named for the working plantation, about 15 miles north of Courtland, that the first Hines established on the Indian land.

William Hines' grandson, also named William, was one of the first sheriffs of Southampton. A rumor, which Hines has heard many times, tells of the man storing Patriot guns in his cellar during the American Revolution.

In later years, Samuel Blow Hines, William's son, experienced the Nat Turner insurrection of 1831. Samuel Hines sat in as a judge in the Nat Turner trial.

There are five Marthas in the cemetery, now a farm field: Martha "Mattie" Tyler, the first to bring the presidential connection to the area when she married the son of President John Tyler; Martha Rochelle Tyler; Martha Blow Hines; Martha "Fanny" Hines Grey Rochelle; and Martha Drew Hines.

The son of President Tyler is buried in the cemetery, as well as his wife and two of their children. First Lt. James Rochelle Tyler served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. His sister, "Miss Mattie" as she was called, became an influential post

mistress in Jerusalem, which is now Courtland. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She was legendary, Hines said, for the care she gave in nursing the wounded Confederate soldiers at a local church.

The original William Hines couldn't read or write, Jeff Hines said. Both he and his wife signed their names with a mark. But the family produced attorneys, magistrates, sheriffs and other law enforcement officials and one dedicated history researcher.

He now reckons that the family he started searching for after his father's death numbers about 90,000 - Hineses with Southampton County roots, according to Internet research.

The small cemetery that started it all is perhaps about 35 feet by 35 feet, on an obscure farm in the middle of nowhere. It was active until about 1760. The original plantation lands are down to only about 80 acres.

After his book release in late October, Hines has four more volumes planned.

"Four or five years ago, sitting in my living room, I didn't have a clue," Hines said. "And now, all of this."

Linda McNatt, (757) 222-5561, linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com