Munree Cemetery

Aug 14

Written By Sarajane Smith

Site Brief:

Founded: early 1900s

Location: Tallahassee, FL

Additional name(s): Munree (Fleischmann) Cemetery of Welaunee Plantation

Affiliate group(s):

Munree Cemetery Foundation
John Gilmore Riley Museum
20th of MAY Group

History:

Munree Cemetery is a historical cemetery of 5 acres located on Edenfield Road miles north of U.S. 90 in Leon County, Tallahassee, Florida. It contains over 250 rediscovered burials of African Americans and calls attention to the import of focusing on lost and erased Black cemeteries and the histories they contain. The cemetery was created during the early 1900s for African Americans who lived and worked as sharecroppers and tenant farmers on the land and plantations named Welaunee. In 1912, a New York businessman, Udo Fleischmann, acquired the Welaunee Plantation property and converted it into a bird-hunting preserve. As part of the purchase, Fleischmann also acquired the land used for Munree cemetery. The last recorded burial is dated 1946, and in 1948, Fleischmann no longer allowed the land to be used as a cemetery. Over the years following the closure of Munree cemetery it became overgrown, covered up, and eventually lost through the years of neglect and unclear boundaries marking its location on the landscape.

Munree cemetery was a lost and found cemetery, rediscovered during road construction in 2009. In 2009, concerned members of the local African American community formed the Munree Cemetery Foundation to purchase the property. They partnered with Leon County officials to survey and restore the cemetery. In 2012, community volunteers worked to help clear the land of overgrown bush to allow archaeological investigations to be conducted. These investigations revealed at least 250 burials. Many of these graves are unmarked and less than 50 burials still have visible headstones. The Munree Cemetery Foundation is moving forward and working year-round to maintain the cemetery grounds. One goal is to open the Welaunee Memorial Museum. The museum will showcase community involvement and display research findings and the history and happening at Munree cemetery. The overall goal of the Munree Cemetery Foundation is to welcome and embrace volunteers interested to be a part of the ongoing mission of maintaining and caring for the cemetery grounds and helping to keep the history of the those buried there alive for future generations.