ISLAND POND TWO CEMETERY

FOUNDED: UNKNOWN

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Property Alt Key: 2582529. The land where this cemetery is located was part of an original land grant from 1884 belonging to Burrell Reese. Burrell and his family were enslaved in the Apopka area before the Civil War. Burrell's land was adjacent to his son-in-law, Jackson Knight's land. Both Burrell and Jackson have cemeteries located in the southwest corners of their original land grants. According to some death certificates, the cemetery on Jackson's land was named Island Pond Cemetery. In 2009 when Margaret Reese-Williams began searching for her family history and located both cemeteries, she registered them on the Florida Master Site File. She heard that Island Pond One was no longer used when it became full. That is when more burials occurred at the other site. Margaret gave the official name of Island Pond 2 to the cemetery on Burrell Reese's land. Property records show that the Island Pond 2 site, which is 5 acres, was owned in the 1940s by the Sorrento Burial Society. Today it is held by a private landowner who has applied for a family lot split so that homes may be built on the two plots. This site has had grave markers removed over the years and heavy equipment was brought on to do clearing as recently as 2023. The current property owner is not cooperating with efforts to preserve and protect the cemetery.

BCN Contact Information:

Katherine de Jongh & Margaret Reese-Williams

ELMWMP@COMCAST.NET

ISLAND POND ONE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: early 1880s

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Island Pond One was formed out of land owned by Jackson Knight, through the Homestead Act. Jack or Jackson Knight, along with a group of former slaves from the William Shelton Delk "plantation" from Apopka, Florida settled in this area after the end of the Civil War. They named this area Island Pond. Property records show two cemeteries and a church, the Island Pond Primitive Baptist Church, existed on adjacent parcels. Over time the lands were sold off piece by piece. These early residents contributed significantly to the creation of and the economy of nearby communities of Mount Dora, Sorrento, and Eustis. In 2009, two women from Fort Pierce came to Lake County, Florida, researching their family history. Their persistence paid off and they registered two cemeteries on the Florida Master Site File, Island Pond One and Island Pond Two. In 2023 a nonprofit was formed to aid in the research, restoration, and preservation of the two cemeteries. In January of 2024, a committee working on behalf of the Division of Historical Resources selected our grant application for funding from the Abandoned African American Cemeteries Grant Program. We are awaiting the legislature's approval for the requested funding for the project.

BCN Contact Information:

Katherine de Jongh

katherine.dejongh@aol.com

OAK TREE UNION COLORED CEMETERY OF TAYLORVILLE (AKA OLD GROVELAND CEMETERY)

FOUNDED: Between 1895-1900

ADDITONAL NAMES: Old Groveland Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

This African American Cemetery is believed to have been established between 1895 and 1900, which is around the time the first African Americans came to the Groveland (Taylorville) area to work the citrus groves, turpentine stills, lumber industry and has been abandoned for approximately 70 years. The original name of the cemetery is “Oak Tree Union Colored Cemetery of Taylorville” and is also known locally as “Old Groveland Cemetery”, as the City of Taylorville changed its name to Groveland in 1922. Burials are believed to have stopped sometime in 1951 and it is also believed that there may be 70 or more black residents interred in this 1 ¼ acre site. Several of the headstones that could be found our WWI Veterans who were buried here in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Several of those interred were also members of the Knights of Pythias, an organization dedicated to peace and the belief that any two men who believe in a Supreme Being, can live together in peace and harmony.

Prior to 1922, when Groveland was known as Taylorville, African Americans contributed to the area’s economic wealth by harvesting citrus and turpentine. During this time, the turpentine and lumber industries grew extensively thanks to the arduous work of many African Americans who were unable to find work in surrounding areas due to racial discrimination. Around 1899, Groveland business icon, Elliot Edge brought African American families to the City, who heavily supported Groveland’s economy through their labor in these industries and whose resilience would help them uphold Groveland’s economy during the Great Depression in the 1920s. Among Edge’s notable African American workers are the Gadsden’s, Blue’s, and Hart families, whose contributions to Taylorville (Groveland) have been memorialized in the form of city streets named after them. Our cemetery project team has found grave markers that lead us to believe these historical individuals and possibly their descendants may have been interred there. Former Groveland Councilman John Griffin’s uncle, Samuel Griffin, a World War I veteran, is buried in this cemetery.

BCN Contact Information:

Kevin Carroll

kevin.carroll@groveland-fl.gov