The Hammocks at Southport

The Hammocks at Southport August 2026

At the corner of Nash and Rhett Streets in Southport, tucked beneath a canopy of giant oak trees, lies one of the most quietly remarkable places in Brunswick County. Two acres. 1,093 souls. More than two centuries of stories pressed into stone.

The Old Smithville Burying Ground doesn't announce itself. There are no grand gates, no tour buses. You simply walk in, and history surrounds you.

How It Began

The story of this cemetery is the story of Southport itself.

In 1745, the English began constructing Fort Johnston at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. A small community grew up around it — harbor pilots who needed a safe place to settle, traders, and families who saw opportunity where the river met the sea. And as communities do, they needed a place to bury their dead.

The first graves at what would become the Old Smithville Burying Ground were prepared sometime in the mid-1700s, before the town even had a name. When the State Assembly officially established the Town of Smithville on December 31, 1792, four of the designated town lots — numbers 54, 55, 56, and 57 — were set aside for the cemetery. By then, it had already been in use for years. Some of the oldest wooden markers have been lost to time.

The Man Who Named the Town

Among the most notable monuments in the cemetery stands one honoring Colonel Benjamin Smith — the man for whom Smithville was named.

Smith was born on January 10, 1756, in Charles Town, South Carolina, and came to Brunswick County, North Carolina, as a young man. When the Revolution came, he answered the call without hesitation, serving as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington and rising to the rank of Colonel in the Continental Army.

After the war, Smith's service to his state was just as distinguished. He sat in the North Carolina Senate for 25 years and was elected the 16th Governor of North Carolina in 1810. He donated 20,000 acres of land to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for its endowment. And he returned, in the end, to the community that bore his name — dying in Smithville on January 26, 1826.

There is some historical debate about the precise location of Smith's remains, but a stone marker honoring him stands in the cemetery, and local historians believe he lies here among the people he served.

A General of the Revolution

Another monument honors General Robert Howe, a celebrated officer of the American Revolution who served in both the Deep South and alongside General Washington in New York and New Jersey. His name is woven into the founding years of this country, and his memorial stands quietly in the shade of the oaks.

Friday the 13th, 1877

Not all of the stories here are of battles and statehouses. Some are of the sea — and the sea's terrible capacity for loss.

On Friday, April 13, 1877, the pilot boat Mary K. Sprunt vanished into a severe storm off Cape Fear and was never seen again. Five men were lost, three of them related by marriage. The Revenue cutter Seward and the tug Alpha searched the waters where she was last spotted. They found nothing. Wreckage that may have been the boat's dory eventually washed ashore near Little River. Two months after the disaster, the body of Thomas Brinkman was found near Battery Island. The others were never recovered.

Monuments stand to their memory in the Old Smithville Burying Ground — harbor pilots who went out on a Friday the 13th and did not come home.

Ship captains, soldiers, Confederate veterans, families of the founding era. Their stones mark a community's whole arc of life along the Cape Fear River.

Living Voices of the Past

Every year, in the days before Halloween, the Southport Historical Society brings the cemetery back to life in a remarkable way. During their "Living Voices of the Past" events, local volunteers portray historic Southport figures — Kate Stuart, Mayor Leonard T. Yaskell, Sarah Curtis, Jessie Stevens Taylor, and others — speaking in character about their lives and their times. It is storytelling at its most vivid, and it draws visitors from across the region.

If you have a chance to attend, go. There is nothing quite like hearing history spoken aloud in the place where it is buried.

Finding Your Way There

The Old Smithville Burying Ground is located at the corner of Nash and Rhett Streets in historic downtown Southport, directly across from the Old Brunswick County Jail. It is open to visitors and free to explore.

The next time you stroll through downtown Southport — past the waterfront, along Bay Street, through the streets that have been here since before the United States was a country — find your way to Nash and Rhett. Walk in. Read the stones.

The oaks are old, and so are the stories. Both are worth your time.