The Rockdale water works standpipe collapsed under pressure of a full head of water about 9:00 o'clock Tuesday night. The standpipe was 110 feet high, and consisted of 22 sections of 5 feet each. The break occurred on the 9th section, and the thirteen top sections fell with a crash that was heard all over town. In falling the tower pointed north and partially wrecked the W.E. Gaither warehouse, formerly occupied by the old Rockdale Commission Company. . . . Some damage also resulted to the old City Cemetery, a number of monuments and gravestones being displaced and broken, shrubbery uprooted, etc. . . . Cameron Herald, October 20, 1921
There was also a trail in the Old City Cemetery used as a short cut for children attending the nearby Aycock school. They didn’t mind using it during the day but would not venture into the cemetery at night. “We see ghosts walking around the cemetery,” the children would say.
At the main entrance to the cemetery a water tower once stood. Its foundation is still there. Children were afraid to venture near this tower because they thought it was leaning and would fall on them.
The tower was a source of water for the community. Most families had barrels and would haul their water from the tower, as water lines did not yet exist, or kept a barrel at a corner of the house to catch rain water.
A grist mill once stood in the center of the street near the water tower. People took dried corn ears and would have the corn ground into meal for cornbread.
Many early black Rockdale settlers are buried in the southern end of the cemetery. . . . by Susie Sansom-Piper in the Rockdale Reporter, February 5, 2009
