OAK GROVE COLORED CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1921

ADDITONAL NAMES: William P. Johnston Memorial Cemetery, Graham Colored Cemetery, Johnston Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Oak Grove Colored Cemetery is located on the US 380 Bypass and Texas 16 in Graham, Texas. The land for the cemetery was donated by Addie Graham on May 7, 1921. It was deed by Addie Graham for the specific purpose of burying colored people. It was known to be the colored section of Oak Grove Cemetery ( a public cemetery owned by the city of Graham) within the city of Graham, Texas. The first known burial was in 1929. The most recent and the last burial was 1971. The name of the cemetery was unofficially changed to separate it from the predominately white cemetery.

In July 2023, Rev. Vanessa A. Sims, began looking for her sister's grave. During her search for her sister, she found the cemetery to be overgrown, city and county officials denied ownership of cemetery land, no survey existed, a drainage easement had been placed on cemetery grounds, cemetery land had been taken to install 3 lanes of the US 380 bypass, a fence had been installed to shorten the cemetery, and sections of the cemetery had been sold to 2 private individuals. The African Americans buried in this sacred space had been devalued and neglected by city and county officials. The Texas Historic Commission has approved a Historic Marker/Medallion for the cemetery.

To protect and preserve the cemetery, community member, Rev. Vanessa A. Sims, applied for and was able to obtain a Texas Historic Cemetery designation from the Texas Historic Commission in May 2024.

Dr. Walter and the Texas Tech Archeology team will continue the archaeological investigation of the cemetery on October 12, 2024. In her July 2024 archaeology investigation report entitled "A Place Among the Saints" she writes "Extensive mapping efforts also indicates possible disturbances and encroachments that have negatively impacted the cemetery. Based on multiple oral accounts and a review of historic maps including the right of way map (discussed in an early section of this report), it is highly likely that the construction of Highway 380 and the associated drainage infringed upon the OGC-WPJ Cemetery. Most distressing about this realization, is the real possibility that burials are under the actual roadway."

BCN Contact Information:

Rev. Vanessa Sims

vanessaannsims@gmail.com

ST. MARY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1855

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

St. Mary Cemetery (established circa 1855), located in what was once a Texas Freedom Community bearing the same name in South Ellis County, Texas, is the burial place of those enslaved by General Edward H. Tarrant and their descendants. In addition to Tarrant graves, burials include the surnames: Graves, Hardeman, Hawkins, Herron, Hines, Myers, Payne, Rankin, Richardson, Sims, Standifer, Sweatt and Watson, formerly enslaved individuals and their descendants from nearby smaller plantations and farms whose descriptions can be found on both the Texas Slave Schedules of 1850 and 1860, and the United States Census in Ellis County, Texas, 1870 through 1940.

Willoughby Rankin can be traced to Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 Texas Colonists. He entered Texas from the state of Alabama as the property of Frederick Harrison Rankin. For 120 years, St. Mary Cemetery was the usual burial place for African Americans who lived in nearby communities in South Ellis County including, Italy, Avalon, and Forreston, Texas. The last burial (cremated) was interred in 2000.

BCN Contact Information:

Elmerine Allen Bell

elmerinebell@yahoo.com

ENSLAVED BURIAL GROUND CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1850s

ADDITONAL NAMES: Slave Burial Ground in Old Round Rock Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Old Round Rock Cemetery was founded through land purchases in the mid-1850s with one-half acre to reserve for a the enslaved and freedmen of Round Rock, TX. In 1979 the Texas Historical Commission designated (with a historical marker) the half-acre portion of the cemetery known as the "Slave Burial Ground in Old Round Rock Cemetery”.

Text on the marker

Near the gravesite of outlaw Sam Bass, one-half acre of Old Round Rock Cemetery was set aside for slave burials. Enclosed by cedar posts and barbed wire, sites are marked head and foot with large limestone rocks. Some rocks are hand-grooved with names and dates. White graves here are dated as early as 1851. The first marked grave of a freed slave is dated 1880. Although there are 40 to 50 known burial sites of freedmen and the burial ground is still in use, no interments of former slaves occurred after the turn of the century. (1979)

BCN Contact Information:

Richard Southwick

richard.southwick@gmail.com

OLD CANAAN FREEDOM COLONY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Pre-1865

ADDITONAL NAMES: Canaan Missionary Baptist Church

AFFILIATION(S):

• Canaan Baptist Church Cemetery Association

HISTORY:

The Old Canaan cemetery site was one of the original burial sites for the Texas Freedom Colony established immediately after slavery ended in 1865. The cemetery along with a church and school were established in 1870 and included a thriving, self-sufficient farming and ranching community.

In about 1935 nightriders, also known as Klansmen, burned the Canaan-Rosenwald Elementary School and threatened to burn the Canaan Church down if they would not move. Due to these threats and pressure, the church and school were relocated about a half mile south of the original location.

The cemetery is now on private property, and we have been working for several years to reclaim the site.

BCN Contact Information:

Earnol Brewster

ebrewster1906@gmail.com

PLUMMERS CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Prior to 1898

ADDITONAL NAMES: Mount Calvary

AFFILIATION(S):

• Save Austin's Cemeteries

HISTORY:

Plummers Cemetery is a historically African American, Upper South folk cemetery, containing family plots, handmade markers, and examples of art and craft. Plummers Cemetery was likely established prior to 1898, the death year of Jack Jones, possibly the first person interred in the cemetery with a marker.128 The cemetery may have been known as Mount Calvary Cemetery. No map of grave lots has been located for Plummers, and early twentieth century burial dates appear to be located throughout the site. Some family plots were clearly purchased as a unit and occupied over time, as in the other city cemeteries, but the condition or lack of grave markers makes the development of the cemetery difficult to determine today.

The cemetery is relatively small—only about eight acres in size—and burials have taken place fairly continuously throughout the 20th century and into the present day. Plummers Cemetery contains a variety of handmade, craftsman carved, machine carved, and military grave markers. Many of the handmade markers are poured concrete with inset letters and are notable for the content of the aggregate, which in many cases features large pieces of mica, a stone with high reflectivity, mixed into or pressed into the surface of the concrete.

BCN Contact Information:

Save Austin's Cemeteries

President@SAChome.org

sachome.org

EVERGREEN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1926 (early cemetery founded in 1891)

ADDITONAL NAMES: Highland Park Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• Save Austin's Cemeteries

HISTORY:

Evergreen Cemetery was established in 1926 by Austin’s City Council for the exclusive use of African-Americans. It includes a portion of an earlier municipal cemetery called Highland Park Cemetery. Today, there are over 12,000 burials at Evergreen.

When you step into Evergreen and walk among the markers, you are surrounded by the people who helped build the community of Austin. Politicians, educators, businesspeople, artists, musicians, veterans, and laborers. The history of our city can be told by learning about the stories of people buried here.

BCN Contact Information:

Save Austin's Cemeteries

President@SAChome.org

sachome.org

FOX-HEMBRY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1831

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

This Historic African American cemetery dates back to 1845, however the Fox Family took over the ownership in 1895 when the men of the family purchased one acre of land to be used “as a burying place for the colored people,” according to deed records. Deed records (Vol. 57, p 345) at the Denton County Clerk's office in Denton show the land was deeded on June 17, 1895, to A. Anthony, Will Nichols, Scott Fox, Word Watkins and Muice Craft. The one acre, measuring 208 and 3/4 feet on east, west, north and south boundaries was bought from Geo M. Hardy for $50.00.

The first recorded use of the site as a family cemetery was in 1873 when Joseph L. Lusk who was born March 16, 1835, was buried there. His grave is not readily identifiable, but members of the Fox family have pointed out a partial marker that they think is his grave. His burial is listed on the Denton County Historical Commission's survey located at the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square. The next DCHC record of burials on the site were those of Jessie Fox, who was buried in 1880 at the age of three years old, and Frank Fox, who was buried in 1881 at the age of three months. Both were children of Scott and Lucy Ann (McKenzie) Fox. A survey of the cemetery made in 1978 and updated in 1990 estimates that there were as many as 24 unmarked graves and 21 markers that were illegible with 62 that were legible.

The family members have continued to address concerns and needs of the cemetery.

BCN Contact Information:

Fox-Hembry Cemetery

foxhembrycemetery@gmail.com

Contact — Historic Fox-Hembry Cemetery

WILLIAMSON CREEK CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1863

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Williamson Creek Cemetery is one of the oldest historic enslaved cemeteries in Austin, TX. The cemetery was neglected for years with a few volunteers making an effort to maintain the cemetery. The Williamson Creek Cemetery Care Association (WCCCA), since its first organized cleaning in 2020, has taken up the responsibility to care and maintain this cemetery. The WCCA non-profit organization goals are to actively promote, educate, and create awareness about the cemetery's historical significance. They plan to provide resources, workshops, and opportunities for individuals to learn about best practices for cemetery maintenance, historic preservation, and enslave genealogical research. They are dedicated to the preservation, beautification, and respectful upkeep of this cemetery honoring the memories and heritage of those who have passed away.

BCN Contact Information:

Cheryl B Johnson

williamsoncreekcemeterycareass@gmail.com

BETHANY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1893

ADDITONAL NAMES: BETHANY CEMETERY OF TRAVIS COUNTY, BETHANY CEMETERY OF AUSTIN

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Bethany Cemetery is located in east Austin on the 1300 block of Springdale Road across from Sims Elementary School. Other than the headstones that bear witness to the people who lived in the Austin community, the land has remained unchanged since the time in 1892; C.W. Jones paid $432.60 for the property that would become Bethany Cemetery.

Whether Mr. Jones had the intent to begin a cemetery for African Americans is unclear. However, during the time of his purchase, two graves of young children were already present on the property. Hellen Moore, an infant, was buried in 1879. Alice Maud Miller, 9 months old, was buried in 1886. Little is known about these two children. Other sources indicate that more burials may be present. The area where the property is located it was known as Hungry Hill.

In 1893, Mr. Jones and his wife, Emma, sold a 4/5ths undivided interest to John M. Holland, William M. Tears, Henderson Rollins and Allen Bradley. These five men formed the Bethany Cemetery Company. Jones was Superintendent; Holland was President; Tears was Secretary; Rollins was Treasurer; and Bradley was Assistant Secretary. These five men responded to a community need. When the Austin cemetery named Oakwood was laid out in 1856, q small section in the northeast corner was designated "for colored."

When the space was filled, as was the section for whites, the cemetery was expanded across Comal Street to the east, but did not include a section for blacks." Like many of the people who would find eternal rest in Bethany Cemetery, Henderson Rollins, C.W. Jones, Allen Bradley, and John Holland were ordinary folks who did extraordinary things. Mr. Rollins was listed in the City Directory as a laborer. C.W. Jones was a plumber. Allen Bradley was proprietor of a meat market on 1108 East 11th Street. John M. Holland was a real estate agent. Only two men, William H. Holland and William M. Tears reached prominence in Texas history.

In 1849, William H. Holland was born in bondage. Being enslaved, he received a college education in Oberlin College. After freedom, William Holland returned to Texas. He worked in Austin's post office, taught school and was elected as a Wharton County representative in the Texas House. There, he wrote and presented the bill for the establishment of Prairie View University. Through his efforts, the bill was eventually passed and today, William M. Holland is recognized as "the Father of Prairie View." Throughout his life, he supported education. During the time he served as president of the Bethany Cemetery Company, William H. Holland helped found the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Colored Youth in Austin.

For thirteen years, he served as its president. Later, he began the Friends in Need, an organization that supported African Americans. Two years after founding the Bethany Cemetery Company, William M. Tears became one of Austin's first African American policemen. He served for six years. Then in 1901, he founded the Tears Mortuary, known as the oldest established business in Central Texas. In 1893, Bethany Cemetery was subdivided into burial plots. The Bethany Cemetery officers granted William Tears power of attorney to conduct all sales of burial plots.

The Bethany Cemetery Association is working to save and preserve this historical African American cemetery. Bethany is the first African American cemetery in Austin, Texas. It has many former slaves and at least two known Civil War Soldiers and many early East Austin residents. Presently, the encroachment of development is threatening the cemetery as it is in an area heavy with gentrification and developers.

BCN Contact Information:

Sue Spears

suesprs@yahoo.com

CONROE COMMUNITY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Before 1892

ADDITONAL NAMES: Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration Project (CCCRP)

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

On the near east side of Conroe, Texas, is a small cemetery that has been lost to human memory, but it has not been forgotten by nature. Located on Tenth Street in Conroe, Texas, just north of Highway 105, between Oakwood Cemetery and the old Conroe Normal & Industrial College is a African-American cemetery that had no name, but the African-American residents of old would refer to it as the Community Cemetery, or simply the Conroe Cemetery. This historic cemetery has graves dating back to the 1890s and include emancipated slaves, railroad workers, sawmill workers, the only confirmed Buffalo Soldier buried in Montgomery County, members of the fraternal organization called the Knights and Daughters of Tabor, International Order of 12, three early African American educators and over 200 graves for whom their names will remain a mystery but for whom we are placing a marker with Unknown on it.

Unfortunately, this cemetery had become so overgrown that hundreds of people drove past it daily and had no idea it was there. That has now changed!

The Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration Project is dedicated to seeing this forgotten piece of history restored and preserved so those who are interred there may once again be honored, and future generations can learn about this lost history of Conroe. It is also our desire to locate and work with the descendants of those buried in this cemetery so they may again have a connection with their past.

BCN Contact Information:

John Meredith

txgeoman@gmail.com

OAKWOOD CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1839

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• Save Austin's Cemeteries

HISTORY:

Founded in 1839, and containing over 23,000 burials within 40 acres, Oakwood Cemetery is Austin's oldest municipal burial ground. The first interment was that of an enslaved African American man who was killed while being brought into Texas by enslavers. Early burials were in the western section of the cemetery, near the Navasota gate. When the cemetery was platted in 1866, it included the area segregated by race and socioeconomic status. The Historic Colored Grounds lie on the north side of the cemetery’s main road, appearing as a flat green space with a sparse scattering of 300 gravestones. The monuments exist in various states of disrepair, some slightly visible above the grass line, many face down, and others sinking beneath the topsoil. Records indicate that thousands of named individuals are buried within this area and subsections, but no map exists as to the exact location of the burials. Additionally, early sexton’s ledgers reveal entries of hundreds of unnamed individuals, noting only their race or enslaver’s name, further denying the opportunity for descendants to trace ancestry or burial information.

The Historic Colored Grounds hold the remains of most of the cemetery’s African American burials, both free and enslaved peoples, many of whom settled in Austin’s renowned freedom colonies after the Civil War. Among them are civil rights leaders, educators, cultural icons and religious figures influential on local, state and national scales. Some of these individuals have monuments, but most do not. The City of Austin believes that Austin’s historic cemeteries remain vital for the community to remember its segregated past and how the city has changed since its founding. The segregated grounds of Oakwood Cemetery serve as a site of, and memorial to, the ongoing advancement of civil rights, in recognition of the struggle for Black equity over the past two centuries. The individuals buried in the Historic Colored Grounds were subject to segregation and institutional racism in life and death. This is evident in the poor keeping and absence of historical records compared to the rest of the cemeteries’ burials.

BCN Contact Information:

Jennifer Chenoweth

jennifer.chenoweth@austintexas.gov

https://www.austintexas.gov/department/oakwood-cemetery-chapel

WEBBER CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1856

ADDITONAL NAMES: Webber Family Preservation Project

AFFILIATION(S):

• Webber Family Preservation Project

HISTORY:

John Webber & Silvia Hector-Webber were Texas settlers who established current day Webberville in Travis County Texas. John was an Anglo from Vermont and Silvia was born enslaved in Spanish territory Florida current day Louisiana. John Webber met Silvia while she was enslaved by another Anglo Texas settler John Crier. John Webber began a relationship with Silvia, and they conceived 3 children before being able to obtain their freedom from John Crier in 1834. John and Silvia were married by Father Michael Muldoon and established a home together on the Colorado River. They raised 10 children in their settlement before being forced to flee due to threats by intolerant new settlers.

They purchased land on the Rio Grande River border in Hidalgo County Texas and on the Mexico side in current day Tamaulipas in 1854. At their ranch “Webber Rancho Veijo” they owned and operated a ferry which they used to aid enslaved peoples in their fight for freedom into Mexico where slavery had been abolished. During the civil war John and 3 of their sons were arrested by the confederate army as Union sympathizers. After the Civil war they resided in Mexico until 1880 before returning to their Ranch in Texas. John Webber died on July 19, 1882 and Silvia remained on the Webber Ranch till her death on September 13, 1892. They are buried in the cemetery still present and open where their ranch once stood. It was recently approved for an undertold history marker through the Texas Historical Commission, for their part in the Underground Railroad into Mexico.

BCN Contact Information:

Leslie Trevino

wfpptx@gmail.com

http://webbefamilypreservation.org/index.html

CAMPTOWN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1870

ADDITONAL NAMES: None

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

Camptown Cemetery was the earliest black cemetery in Brenham, Texas. Although nearly lapsed into obscurity in the early years of the 21st century, it has been restored and received State Historic Cemetery status. Drawing on the names found there, it has become possible to reconstruct a greater understanding of the influence and reach of the surrounding black community post reconstruction of the community of Camptown.

BCN Contact Information:

Charles Swenson

Sahicurn@gmail.com

MOSIER VALLEY COMMUNITY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1865

ADDITONAL NAMES: Moses Valley, Moshier Valley

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

What was at one time the Lee Family farm is a 4 acres tract of land donated to the Mosier Valley community to the now freed slaves. The Lee Family didn't have enough slaves to be called a plantation. So the farm where over 50 slaves worked, the Family donated the land after they received the word in Texas that slavery had been abolished.

The community had come together to this high spot in the county after so many freed slaves had lost their land due to flooding. Many of them from the Mosier Plantation. The community remained the oldest black community in the state up until the 90s. Today most of the land has become encroached with industrial. The last stronghold is the community cemetery that only allow descendants through 4 generations to be buried there.

BCN Contact Information:

Benny Tucker

Anobletucker@gmail.com

MT. OLIVE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1922

ADDITONAL NAMES: Colored Burial Association

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

This historic African American Cemetery was established in 1922 when the Colored Burial Association purchased the site's acreage. Many of the first burials were relocated graves from the segregated West End cemetery, dating to 1856. The first burial at Mt. Olive was on May 5, 1922. The cemetery contains more than 250 known African Americans and 50+ unmarked graves. The Colored Burial Association maintained the cemetery until 1972.

BCN Contact Information:

Sherri Benn

benn@tarleton.edu

ELLIS CAMP

FOUNDED: 1878

ADDITONAL NAMES: Sugar Land 95 Burial Ground

AFFILIATION(S): Yes

• The Convict Leasing and Labor Project

HISTORY:

The Sugar Land 95 are the 95 African-American individuals unearthed during a construction in Sugar Land, Texas, 30 miles southwest of Houston. Archeologists found evidence that the 95 individuals were incarcerated under the state of Texas' convict leasing system and were buried in unmarked graves.

The first bone was found in February 2018, by a backhoe operator clawing through the dirt on land owned by the Fort Bend Independent School District. By the summer, the remains of 94 men and one woman, all African-American victims of convict leasing, had been recovered on the future site of a career and technical education center. Ranging in age from 14 to 70, the inmates had muscular builds but were malnourished, their bones misshapen from back-breaking, repetitive labor. They were buried in plain pine boxes sometime between 1878 and 1911.

BCN Contact Information:

Convict Leasing and Labor Project

cllptexas@gmail.com

https://www.cllptx.org