The winds of time erode memories, even if they’re set in stone.

Last spring, the Horry County Historical Society decided to stir up local heroes and bring the past to life, even if the people they honored were actually dead and buried.

Stories in Stone at Lakeside Cemetery in Conway was conducted as a guided tour through the historic graveyard, with ten headstone stops where docents told of the life and times of those who lay beneath.

From a riverboat captain to statesmen to founding fathers and mothers, this final resting place hosts some fascinating guests who lived to shape the county seat of Conway and its culture.

Here are a few of their stories.

Adeline Cooper Burroughs
September 3, 1846–July 7, 1919
Adeline Burroughs would return to Conway after pursuing further education at the Female Academy in Spartanburg. Practically a child when she wed, Adeline would emerge as a captain of industry, a community leader and a household manager extraordinaire.

Adeline also coined “Myrtle Beach” in a contest to name the seashore terminus of the Conway-to-New Town railroad service. In honor of the wax myrtles all along the coast, Myrtle Beach as we know it was born when Adeline won the challenge.

She married 32-year-old Franklin G. Burroughs at age 18 and would bear 11 children, with eight surviving to adulthood.

A widow at 51, “Miss Addie” took over the reins of her husband’s vast estate, which incorporated a giant portion of Horry County. She ran the family farm and oversaw the grist mill and cotton gin operations.

It was Adeline Burroughs who gave the remainder of the family burial grounds to the town for Lakeside Cemetery. Then, in 1903, when all church cemeteries were full, she gave Conway another six acres of her farm along Kingston Lake, including the Burroughs family burial plots.

Franklin Gorham Burroughs
December 28, 1834–February 25, 1897
A modest, big-hearted man from Williamston, N.C., Franklin Burroughs would leave his farming roots to become the largest land owner, business magnate and visionary that Horry County had ever seen.

After the Civil War, he established the Burroughs & Collins Company that spawned the Gully Store, with locations in Port Harrelson, Bayboro, Socastee, Grahamville, Pine Island, Myrtle Beach and Galivants Ferry. Later branching out with the Myrtle Beach Farms Company, Jerry Cox Company and Chapin Company, Burroughs would expand into sawmills, turpentine stills, commissary stores, farms, a steamboat line and a brickyard.

He became the chief landowner in the county, having the foresight to acquire the Myrtle Beach lands from Withers Swash to Singleton Swash, where the Dunes Club now stands.

In the 1890s, Burroughs and partner, Mr. Collins, began plans for a railroad to run from Conway to the seacoast. His primary objective was to get his products to market more efficiently, but he also told his daughter, “Effie, I won’t live to see it, and you may not, but someday this whole strand will be a resort.”

The building of the railway would employ scores of people, but Burroughs would die in 1897 before it was completed and its first locomotive, “Black Maria,” would run the line.

Having received minimal education himself, Burroughs believed that good schools were essential to a flourishing business community. He spearheaded the First Burroughs Graded School on Conway’s Main Street, nearby to Peggy Ludlam Spring so students would have good drinking water. Many of Conway’s most prominent citizens graduated from his namesake school.
    
Captain and Mrs. Coleman S. Causey
Capt. Coleman S. Causey:
April 11, 1852–August 22, 1924
Julia E. Skipper Causey:
September 5, 1852–November 22, 1933

An old brick mausoleum at Lakeside Cemetery marks the final resting place of Captain and Mrs. Causey, an industrious duo who married at the ripe old age of 42.

Coleman was a riverboat captain, operated a mercantile business and was innkeeper of the Kingston Hotel in downtown Conway. His wife, Julia E. Skipper, affectionately known as “Miss Julia,” was a talented milliner who designed, made and sold hats from her shop where the Main Street Theatre stands now.

Apparently it was Captain Causey’s wish not to be buried underground. The mausoleum was built to receive his remains and the undertaker followed the Captain’s instructions to the letter: After Miss Julia was laid to rest beside the Captain, he locked the door and threw the key inside.

John Asa Mayo
April 11, 1837–February 22, 1896
“Of a little, take a little, leave a little,” was the Mayo credo.

Not one to shun hard work or hard knocks, the tenacious Mayo served the Confederate Army in the 1860s and became a prisoner of war. He and his wife, Lucy Elizabeth Burroughs, would raise five daughters that survived infancy and the Mayo name would become synonymous with trade and the emerging entrepreneurial spirit of Conway.

Mayo invested in Conway’s budding downtown and ran his landmark Mayo’s Store on the corner of Third Avenue and Main Street for more than 25 years. A mercantile business known throughout the county, Mayo’s stocked a big assortment of general merchandise. It’s not at all surprising that he was an original board member who organized and brought into existence the Bank of Conway in 1893.

Mayo was also a charter member of Conway Baptist Church and a public-spirited citizen who engaged himself in all community movements to better civic life.

Lt. James Arthur Norton Jr. AND Lt. Edward Robertson Norton, “The Norton Twins”
August 18, 1920–May 17, 1943

Sadly, the Norton family plot at Lakeside features two cenotaphs, one on each side of the parents.

The cenotaphs represent the missing twin golden boys of Conway. James was buried in a military cemetery at Margraten, Holland when his body washed ashore there in July 1943. Edward’s body was never found.

Twin brothers born to Dr. and Mrs. James A. Norton, the boys were rarely seen separately and were known for their athletic abilities and love of airplanes. By the time the Norton twins graduated from high school, they already had 50 hours of flying time logged as student pilots.

Taking to the air to serve the country during World War II, the Nortons flew one of six bombers on a mission in May 1943 targeting IJmuiden, The Netherlands—Edward as pilot, and his brother as co-pilot.

Their B-26 met with heavy flack and was seriously damaged. They completed the mission and turned toward home base, but their plane went down in the North Sea.

Colonel Cephas Perry Quattlebaum
May 19, 1851–July 20, 1929
Quattlebaum’s commitment to the Conway community and making life better was most likely shaped from growing up during the trying time of Reconstruction.

Originally from the Lexington, S.C., area, he was tutored privately by older members of his family and studied law in the office of Major H.A. Metze. Quattlebaum was admitted to the bar in 1874 and would spend more than 50 years as a respected lawyer. He was the last survivor of General Wade Hampton’s staff with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Quattlebaum was named to Conway’s building committee and became a driving force in the building of the third courthouse square in 1906, surrounded by Third Avenue, Beaty Street, Second Avenue and Elm Street. To this day, the city of Conway bestows the coveted C.P. Quattlebaum Award to those who have exhibited outstanding craftsmanship and skill in construction and/or renovation.

Robert Bethea Scarborough
October 29, 1861–November 23, 1927
Born on a farm in Chesterfield County, Scarborough would always maintain humility and dirt-sense, but found his calling as a formidable statesman and eloquent orator of his time.

His formal education started at Mullins Academy. He “read for the law” under the tutelage of various attorneys and was admitted to the bar in 1884.
From an early career in criminal and civil law, Scarborough went on to serve the state as president of the South Carolina Senate, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and then as Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina.

A faithful member of the Methodist flock in Conway, Scarborough held many church posts during his lifetime. Besides his political clout and good moral character inside and outside of the courtroom, Scarborough also understood the laws of economics and was instrumental in developing early banking enterprises in Conwayborough.

Jeremiah Smith
August 11, 1840–February 17, 1927
The ever-popular and widely respected “Uncle Jerry” was a self-educated man who spent most of his life on a Socastee farm.

Smith kept abreast of current events through newspapers and periodicals and schooled himself reading the Holy Bible and South Carolina Code of Laws. He became a skilled public speaker and debater, which, coupled with his sharp wit and colorful persona, paved the way for a sterling career in politics.

Smith served as a magistrate, served in the South Carolina House of Representatives, was the last Confederate veteran in the state senate and served as mayor of Conway. He was also reported to be the best fisherman in the General Assembly.

An unwavering proponent of civil liberties and patriotism, Smith was also a big supporter of agricultural advancement and free range for cattle and an advocate for public schooling. He was a staunch conservative, especially when it came to controlling government expenditures.

While he served as a sub-commissioner of roads for the state, the Socastee community finally saw much-needed repairs to area roads and bridges. And in the midst of all that, he raised 11 children of his own and become stepfather to five more.