This story ran in The Cleveland Times January 17, 1967.

Neglected Graveyard At City Park
Holds Remains of William Forbis
 The passage of more than 100 years of time and quirks of fate stranger than fiction have not dealt kindly with the memory of William Fobis, benefactor who made first grant  or deed of land to establish a county seat for Cleveland when it was formed as a new N.C. county in 1841.

Today the fallen headstone of his grave is almost covered with tendrils of periwinkle and drifts of oak leaves under tall trees that stand at the southern edge of Royster Memorial Golf Course's Number 6 green and Number 7 tee.

Golfers who pass the spot each day probably never notice and could care less that three headstones remain from what must have once been the Wilson-Forbis family cemetery. A number of field rocks mark other graves less easily distinguished than the three now identified with cut stone markers.

Variously spelled in local records as Forbus, Forbes, Forbiss, and perhaps Forbush, the Forbis family name is clearly identified on two grave markers–that of Margaret Forbis who died in 1841 and that of William Forbis who died in 1851

Other than the lonely sentinel marking his burial place in the neglected cemetery, the most accurate record of William Forbis is found in the Register of Deeds office in Cleveland Courthouse. There in Book A, Page 18 is the deed drawn on June 18, 1841 when William and Elizabeth Forbes gave 40 acres of land to the "commissioners appointed by act of assembly to locate the town of Shelby in the aforesaid county of Cleveland". The deed was drawn by the donors in "consideration of the goodwill and attachment entertained toward the new county measures lately adopted by the legislature of our state".

Local tradition, and a careful comparison of the points of reference in the William Forbis and James Love deeds to the John R. Logan 1850 map of Shelby, indicates the 4o F orbis acres included the oldest portion of Sunset cemetery, running southward through Marion and Warren streets, a tract lying almost directly west of the courtsquare.

Exact identification of the parcel of land would be difficult today since the deed records the poles of boundary lines with red oaks, a persimmon tree and a post as points of reference. But the best local historians believe that the Forbis grant, combined with a 147 acre grant by James Love, were the original tracts forming the city of Shelby. Love's gift has been of more interest through since the courtsquare and courthouse are thought to be located on his parcel deeded to Shelby.

When Royster Memorial Golf Course was being carved out by bulldozers in the spring of 1949, the Wilson-Forbis family cemetery came to light. The Cleveland Times on March 15, 1949 carried a series of pictures of the little graveyard. In a news story The Times reported that the cemetery was in a "jungle-like holly thicket". It was thought that the cemetery had long been forgotten since no path led to the spot and undergrowth where it was located was almost impenetrable when golf course construction began.

And in 1949 began a curious and intriguing story of the Wilson and Forbis families to which The Times today can add only a few additional chapters  – but little information to shed light on William Forbis as a man.

At the same time the family graveyard was discovered in 1949 local interest was spurred in the sole house on the property given by the late Dr. S. S. Royster for a municipal golf course. This old log house had been purchased by Newton Ferree to be dismantled and reconstructed in Ashville as a typical  example of a pioneer two-story log cabin.

Old timers living in Shelby in 1949 identified the log house–standing on the dogleg of pioneer John Wilson and thought to have been built by his father, one of the first settlers of this area. With The Times describing the log house as oldest in this section of the state, a public subscription campaign was conducted to purchase the 20 by 26-foot historic structure from Feree in 1949 ad re-erect the estimated 150-year-old house on Park property as a museum.

It was proposed at that time that both the pioneer house and the little cemetery be made into permanent historic landsites.

Fate took a hand in this civic project when about one year later (1950) a grass fire at the Park swept out of control--burning the dismantled logs that were to have been used to build the museum.

"Because of its age and its condition it was a beautiful thing--a real jewel," says Newton Feree of the old log house. Feree today is pharmacist at Webb Drug Co.

After hot flames destroyed the heart and core of the civic project, interest in the grave of William Forbis flagged. The tombstone in 1949 clearly read: "Sacred to the Memory of Wm. Forbis Who Died Dec. 18, 1851, age 52 years & 27 days". Today the stone is worn to the point that a portion of the lettering is entirely gone or too faint to be deciphered.

In 1949 The Times reported four lettered gravestones in the little cemetery. First, that of William Forbis; one for Anny or Amy Wilson (uncertain lettering) who died in 1814 at age two years and 10 months; a third for Mary Walker who died August 28, 1836 at age 53; and a fourth stone for Margaret Forbis. The Mary Walker gravestone today appears to be missing at the solitary site.

Only clearly lettered headstone today is that of Margaret Forbis worded:

Neither Dr. Joe Walker, who was on The Times staff in 1949, nor Ferree, nor Hal Dedmon at City park remember any clear relationship being established being established in 1949 between the Wilson and Forbis families who shared a common graveyard on a high point of land looking out toward the distant south mountains.

If the Forbis family lived nearby, where was the home located? Even today no one knows for sure.