‘They’re still missing’: Family seeks closure, restoration after Helene washed graves away

By Justin Berger

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    RAMSEYTOWN, North Carolina (WLOS) — The first person was buried on the banks of the Cane River in Ramseytown 118 years ago; it’s called Whitson Cemetery.

The plot of land where it sits was in Terry Miller’s family for years. He buried his 90-year-old mother there in 2017, but seven years later, Helene took her away.

“This section of the graveyard, totally gone,” Miller said. “It washed the whole Adkins and Wilson part of the cemetery away.”

Thirteen bodies washed out of Whitson Cemetery when the Cane River rose. Two have since been identified, seven are in the process of being identified and six are still missing.

“My grandparents, W.D. Adkins and Hester Adkins, and also my mother, Glessie Adkins Miller, and my Aunt Eula Adkins – They’re still missing,” Miller said.

Video from the morning of Sept. 27, 2024, shows caskets bobbing in the torrent about a mile downriver of Whitson Cemetery. Miller identified a still photo of a white casket floating down the river that he is almost certain is his mother’s.

“It hit me hard,” Miller said. “I’ve got a 21-year-old daughter, and her and my mom – they were really close, and she was taking it hard, but I sat her down and explained – Mom’s in heaven. Here left on earth, there’s nothing of her except the coffin and what remains, but she’s there and we’ve learned now to accept that.”

Caskets were found as far as Unicoi and Hawkins County, Tennessee. Before the flood, the cemetery was the burial ground for well over 100 people, including a Civil War veteran. What’s left after the flood looks like it went through a blender.

Miller’s family is connected to the land; he grew up in a home just down the river, and his family ran the old general store, but restoring Whitson Cemetery is for more than just his family.

“The Wilsons, the Whitsons, the other people that are all growed up together[…] I’m doing it for me, myself, my mother, my grandparents and for their family,” he said.

Hope Mill, a nonprofit organization, is helping Miller on his quest to restore the cemetery and find his family, but it’s an expensive one. Remounting each headstone will cost $200, and nearly all of the headstones need remounting or repair work.

Hope Mill is collecting donations to help restore Whitson Cemetery; that information is available here.

In the meantime, Miller will keep looking for his mom.

“I just would like to have something of her back here,” he said.

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