Brown's Chapel was a Methodist Church, of log construction, built sometime in the 19th century and discontinued sometime in the early 20th century. A subscription School was operated in the Chapel. Later a building was erected close by the Church, for the School. [From cemeterycensus.com]

Much of the names and dates gathered are from the survey done by Mr & Mrs W. C. Osborne, Jr in 1961.

The cemetery is now in the middle of a neighborhood, occupying a large lot between houses. It is no longer in use.

Although few people are familiar with Brown's Chapel, it was once a Methodist church, founded Jan. 3, 1834. It received its name because James D. Brown donated the 3 acres of land on which it sat, but quite a few people called it "Boon's Chapel" because so many members of that family were in the congregation.

The church was housed originally in a simple, crude log hut on the Granville Street side of the lot, and a larger, more substantial building was never erected on the site. That was probably because the congregation split over Secession and the church never really regained its membership. Moreover, once Company Shops began to grow as a town in the years after the Civil War, the majority of Brown's Chapel's remaining members started attending Front Street Methodist Church.

There was once a school at Brown's Chapel, which met initially in the church's sanctuary. Little is known about its early years except that one teacher was the Rev. Thomas Truitt (1813-1874), who was well known for not "sparing the rod." According to Superintendent of Public Instruction Charles H. Mebane, a bench "ran across the middle of the room, on which were segregated the bad boys. [Truitt's] custom was to walk down the front, whipping as he went, then get behind and whip the backs of the offenders, like threshing out peas."

The Rev. Moses Jackson Hunt, great-grandfather of future North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, came to Burlington about 1890 to take over Brown's Chapel, but by that time the church was already on its last legs. It was officially disbanded in 1892. A few years later, ownership of Brown's Chapel was transferred to Front Street Methodist Church. A half-acre lot was sold to the Burlington School Committee in 1899, and a two-room frame school building was erected next to the church, which continued in operation until 1911. The Front Street congregation then sold everything but the cemetery in 1915. The school building was moved to Glen Raven in 1920 to serve as the all-black Della Plane School.

All that's left of Brown's Chapel today is its cemetery. At least 100 to 150 people are estimated to have been buried there during the approximately 80 years it was in use, although because of time, neglect and vandalism, only about 40 to 50 graves are still marked today. Most buried there were church members, but since the N.C. Railroad did not allow burials within the city limits of Company Shops until 1882, and since Pine Hill Cemetery was not opened until 1888, several non-members were interred there. One of these was Alonzo G. Rauhut, the 7-year-old son of Charles and Eliza Rauhut, who died Oct. 25, 1877, during a diphtheria epidemic. Family members later marked his grave with an iron fence.