New Golden Grove Methodist Cemetery

Sep 18

Written By alanah cooper

Site Brief:

Founded: 1875

Location: Piedmont, SC

Additional name(s): Golden Grove Chapel

Affiliate group(s):

Friends of African American Cemeteries
Churches Upstate SC

History:

A historically Black neighborhood on the outskirts of the Piedmont Mill village, can be found nestled in rolling hills near the Saluda River. It is located to the northeast from the former site of the Piedmont Manufacturing Co., across the train tracks. Golden Grove Chapel cemetery is the only extant site of a late 19th century through early 20th century, Black community located near the Piedmont Mill Village community. Many of the people who belonged to the church and are buried in the cemetery, had been associated with Piedmont Manufacturing Co. The parcel is associated with African American ethnic heritage and social history. It provides a glimpse of a community that contributed significantly to the development of the Piedmont Manufacturing Co. and mill village community yet has never been included in any historical survey or narrative. The distinct cultural line is literally separated by railroad tracks. While many of the burials include former mill laborers who contributed significantly to the construction and daily operations of the Piedmont Manufacturing Co., other burials provide extant information of people who moved here to work for the railroad and the mill.

By 1880 the population of African Americans. Piedmont Manufacturing Co. laid its 1st stone in 1874 which was the lynchpin to a population boom in Piedmont. While New Golden Grove cemetery was not the only burial place for Black people in Piedmont, it has always allowed people to be buried here who could not afford burial elsewhere or did not have a church home. This was a mission church at heart. This site retains much of its historical integrity as it has retained much of the material, feeling, and association common in African American cemeteries. The cemetery has a wide variety of funerary art and landscape features traditional to African American burials. Vegetation such as periwinkle, daffodils, and large cedar trees are used as grave markers, along with the traditional headstones and field stones. The grave markers are as diverse as the people buried here. They include old and new funeral home cards, field stones, ledgers, pedestal tomb-vaulted roof, and many governments issued headstones. The burials are clustered in some areas, yet uniform rows can be found, indicating they adopted some of European American burial practices. The property was deeded to the trustees, of Golden Grove Chapel of the Methodist Episcopal Church on December 21st, 1875, by Mrs. Henrietta Shockley after paying twenty dollars. The trustees were Henry Kirksey, Sawney Westfield, and David Richardson. The deed stated the property can only be used for school and church purposes