WORTHINGTON CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1855

ADDITONAL NAMES: Archibald Worthington

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Archibald Worthington (1818-1895) was a farmer that owned land in Highland Township, Defiance County Ohio. He migrated to Ohio upon gaining his freedom from slavery in Virginia. He and his wife raised their children on his land in Section 7 of Highland Township. He designated part of his land to be a cemetery that "was built by him, on his land, for 'his' people, no one but colored persons were ever buried there" according to the 1936 WPA Cemetery record for Worthington Cemetery. The cemetery was used until about 1890 when he moved from the area. He moved with his third wife to Wilmington, Ohio where he ran a business until his death in 1895. He is buried in Sugar Grove Cemetery in Wilmington. The land was given to his living children James and Matilda. His oldest son Henry Worthington joined the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and saw battle, eventually taken as a Prisoner of War. Before he could be freed, he developed typhoid fever and passed away on January 8, 1865. He is buried in Salisbury National Cemetery in Salisbury, North Carolina. James and Matilda sold the land when they moved out of the area. The cemetery was considered abandoned and the land was bought and sold many times. The stones were moved in the early 1900's to make farming the land easier. It is currently owned by Ayersville Water and Sewer Co. who lease it for farming.

BCN Contact Information:

Defiance Public Library

smarshall@defiancepubliclibrary.org

https://www.defiancelibrary.org/

MOUNT MOOR CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1849

ADDITONAL NAMES: Mount Moor African-American Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Mount Moor Cemetery is a “burying ground for colored people” that was deeded on July 7, 1849 by James and Jane Benson to three African Americans, William H. Moore, Stephen Samuels and Isaac Williams, trustees. Spanning more than a century of active use (1849-ca. 1957), the cemetery is a rare surviving example of a burying ground established for the area’s African American population by African Americans. The last interment in the cemetery occurred in 1986. The cemetery has provided burial space for colored people, including veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, and the Korean War. In 1940, the cemetery was formally incorporated as the Mount Moor Cemetery Association, Inc.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the cemetery fell into disrepair. A major refurbishment of the grounds was undertaken in 1977 and again in the 1980s. Although surrounded today by modern commercial development, this once isolated burying ground retains an outstanding degree of integrity. On September 15, 1988, the Clarkstown Town Board voted unanimously to designate Mount Moor Cemetery as a local historical site. Friends of Mount Moor Cemetery was founded in 2021 to protect and preserve this sacred burial ground.

BCN Contact Information:

Friends of Mounty Moor Cemetery

friendsofmountmoorcemetery@gmail.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

CEDAR LAWN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1940

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

This cemetery was given to the community by ALCOA Inc, an aluminum company. Most African American men, in Alcoa, worked at the Alcoa Aluminum Company because World War 1 brought about a spike in the demand for aluminum. The men were brought in to work in the smelting operations. The company quickly expanded its North Maryville operations. In 1919, a rolling mill (now West Plant) was completed, and the company purchased the Knoxville Power Company for its Little Tennessee Valley holdings.

Dr. Ben Washington, who was a community leader and Doctor, lays at this cemetery. This cemetery is the final resting place to veterans from World War I and beyond.

BCN Contact Information:

United Citizen Community Organization

Bonesjrw@gmail.com

SHARSWOOD PLANTATION CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1850s

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Fred Miller Purchased property in southern Virginia. He did not know it at the time, but his new property was once a plantation. Named Sharswood, it was built in the 1850s by a slave-owning uncle and nephew who shared his last name. Miller and his family were surprised to find that their ancestors were once enslaved at Sharswood.

Fred Miller plans to clean up the cemetery and is in the process of creating a non-profit foundation to also restore the slave quarters on the property to help educate people interested in the history of slavery. Miller talks more about his experience and story on 60 minutes.

BCN Contact Information:

Fredrick Miller

sharswoodmanorestate@gmail.com

EVERGREEN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1891

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Founded in 1891 by a private African American association, Evergreen Cemetery is the final resting place of an estimated 50,000 people—complete records are not available for the site—among them some of Richmond’s most prominent residents. Maggie L. Walker, a pioneering banker, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, was buried there in 1934. Yards from her lies John Mitchell Jr., outspoken editor of the Richmond Planet newspaper and member of the city’s Common Council from 1888 to 1898. Other luminaries interred at Evergreen include Dr. Sarah Garland Jones, the first African American and first woman licensed to practice medicine in Virginia, and the Reverend J. Andrew Bowler, who helped organize the first school for Black students in Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood and then served on its faculty for more than fifty years.

For a time in the early 20th century, Evergreen was a preeminent burial site for Black Richmond. But the community it served was increasingly burdened by Virginia’s system of legal discrimination. The weight of Jim Crow placed inordinate pressures on families and organizations, drastically limited economic opportunity, and posed a daily threat to Black people’s health, safety, and dignity. Many African Americans left the area. Others could not afford to continue maintaining family plots, though many families tried.

 The 59-acre cemetery began to decline in the mid-20th century, even as the all-white Virginia General Assembly funded upkeep at many Confederate cemeteries. Successive owners have tried and failed to maintain the cemetery, including a series of initiatives led by funeral directors in the 1970s. Newspaper articles from the 1960s and 1970s report on the rampant overgrowth at Evergreen, as well as chronic vandalism. Over the years, volunteer efforts have made some progress at clearing the cemetery, particularly its center section, but have not been able to hold back nature. The cemetery’s last owner, the Enrichmond Foundation, collapsed in 2022. The fate of Evergreen remains unclear as of this writing in February 2023.

BCN Contact Information:

Erin Hollaway Palmer

ehollaway@gmail.com

KEYSTONE/CITRUS PARK CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Between 1870-1900

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

This cemetery sits on a property that was once owned by my enslaved great-great-great grandfather Harry Lewis and his son Tony Lewis, who was born free. It was the site of the original Mt. Pleasant A.M.E Church which burned down under a suspicious fire. The church also served as a school for the freed children and the cemetery was operated on the same grounds. Official marriage certificates show related nuptials were held there the same year the Mt. Pleasant AME Church was founded in 1901. The burial grounds are adjacent to the current Mt Pleasant AME Church which was built in the early 1950’s. The burial grounds also stretch to the back of the historical Citrus Park Colored School which rest on land donated by my late great-great grandmother, Barbara Hamilton Allen. Barbara was a widow, mother, grandmother, businesswoman, citrus grower and matriarch of the black community in the Odessa/Keystone Park and Citrus Park area.

BCN Contact Information:

Michele Houston Hicks

gmhoustonhicks2021@gmail.com

UNITED COLORED AMERICAN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1883

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• The Union Foundation

HISTORY:

United Colored American Cemetery was founded by the United Colored American Association. It is one of the oldest and most important African American Cemeteries in Ohio. The cemetery incorporated graves that had been previously located in Avondale which had been established in 1848. Many citizens of Avondale were unhappy about having a "Negro cemetery in their mist. In 1870's Avondale petitioned the Ohio Legislature and got a bill passed giving the local Board of Health power to declare the cemetery a public nuisance and had it closed. Abolitionist Martin Delany was at the original dedication and writes, "This is a most praiseworthy undertaking on the part of the colored citizens; and how shameful the necessity of a separate burial-place for the dead!" The cemetery became increasely neglected over the years. Council Charles P. Taft, Trustee of Spring Grove Cemetery was appointed to operate the cemetery. In 1968 he transferred the cemetery to Union Baptist Church.

United Colored American Cemetery is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At least 45 African American veterans from the Civil War are buried here. Other prominent citizens buried here are abolition John Isom Gains (1821-1859). The United American Cemetery is in disrepair and restoration is urgently needed. Invasive plant species have overtaken large areas of the cemetery. Erosion and vandalism also have contributed to condition concerns. Headstones and monuments have tilted and fallen over. Improvements are needed to the roadway and the burial vault. In the last 5+ years large runoff of water and waste materials have been found. This had caused enormous additional deterioration. United Colored Cemetery was closed by the health department unsafe for families to visit their loved ones. We are actively looking for the cause and financial resources to restore this sacred burial ground.

BCN Contact Information:

Louise Stevenson

lstevenson@fuse.net

TheUnionFoundation.org

SHELTON FAMILY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Pre- 1850 (Possibly as early as 1830)

ADDITONAL NAMES: Possum Trot Cemetery and Church

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

In 1874, my formerly enslaved third great-grandparents on my maternal ancestral line, Hardy and Mary Bearden Shelton, relocated to the Flatwoods District of Floyd County, Rome, Georgia, from nearby Coosa. Hardy was a farmer and Mary a healer. Hardy purchased 120 acres of land, which was the beginning of the Shelton Family Settlement, and it was on this land that his family grew to 12 children. Through hard work and family and community loyalty, the adult children and their spouses, purchased additional acreage and expanded the Settlement to nearly 700 acres. While at some points in time the families were prosperous, few could read and write, which lead to loss, theft, or appropriation of their land. By the mid-1920's much of the land was no longer in the possession of Shelton family members. The families migrated to other parts of the country, with a few remaining in the Rome area. Today, only the Shelton Family cemetery remains, which holds 60+ graves, 13 with a marker identifying the family member at eternal rest, but most are marked with fieldstones. A few yards from the Cemetery is the Possum Trot Church, which had many other names prior to 1902. In 1902 or so, the area became known as Possum Trot when Martha McChesney Berry, the founder of Berry College, came on the scene from her nearby home, known as Oak Hill.

Some members of the Shelton Family Settlement married members of the Freemantown Settlement of formerly enslaved blacks, located a few miles away. Both of these Settlements are now on land claimed to be owned by Berry College, a private institution, the largest land mass college in the world. While we, the descendants of the Shelton, Spruce, Shropshire, and other families, have forged a relationship with Berry College, it has been a slow slog to get them to acknowledge our ancestors. It seems there is resistance to letting the Berry community and the surrounding community know that indeed there is a cemetery full of black people directly behind the Possum Trot Church that is dubbed as the "Cradle of the College", where it all began for Martha Berry and her teaching to the "mountain children" (all white).

We are currently working with Berry College to ensure its students, faculty and the community near and far are aware of the stewards (including the Cherokee Nation) of the land that Berry College now claims and sits upon.

BCN Contact Information:

Angela R. James

angelarjames.sdhs.org@gmail.com

HISTORIC OAKLYNN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1926

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Oaklynn Cemetery, in Edgewater, is a place that comes in and out of the news every decade or so.  It is the resting place of many early to mid-20th century African Americans in this southern Volusia County city. The records for the cemetery are lost, so the exact number of those interred is impossible to know. The cemetery measures about 6 acres, but only one acre is accessible thanks to the cleanup efforts of the descendants and volunteers who have come forward. 

The last burial was in 1969. At that time, the owner closed the cemetery with barbed wire and turned cattle loose among the graves. Those who had family buried there were not aware that by law they were entitled to maintain their family plots. And so the graves fell victim to robbers, vandals and the harsh Florida weather. And those who owned lots were unable to use them for any further burials.

BCN Contact Information:

Gwen Tobler

humblegwen@gmail.com

UNION BAPTIST CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1864

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• The Union Foundation

HISTORY:

Union Baptist Cemetery is the oldest African American burial ground in Hamilton County at its original location, purchased, maintained, and still used by Union Baptist Church, the second oldest black congregation in Cincinnati. Union Baptist Cemetery is on the National Register of Historic places in America. This cemetery is the resting place of Underground Railroad conductors, artists, writers, musicians, physicians, business leaders, politicians, Civil Right workers, and many veterans, including approximately 150 veterans of the Civil War. Union Baptist Cemetery one of two historical cemeteries owned by Union Baptist Church.

BCN Contact Information:

Louise Stevenson

lstevenson@fuse.net

TheUnionFoundation.org

ENSLAVED CEMETERY, MAHWAH

FOUNDED: unknown, late 1700's/early 1800's

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• Mahwah Museum

HISTORY:

Nestled among the trees along the Ramapo River, this cemetery is a roughly 40 x 100 foot swath of sacred ground, bordered with a low wall of stones, abandoned, yet still "tended." Local tradition states that this land was used as an enslaved cemetery. Bischoff and Kahn's 1979 book "History of Mahwah" (p. 413) lists these among the enslaver families in the area: Bogert, Bartholf, Cough, Terhune, Van Allen, Hopper, Maysinger, Boggs, Lydecker, Ackerman, Vanderbeek, Fell, Garrison, Smith, Westervelt, Haring, and Ryerson.

We seek to honor those whose names and stories have been lost. Buried here are those who were black enslaved, freedmen, and workers of the 1700s-1800s. The back area is assumed to be the burial site of enslaved or freedmen buried without markers. Those buried here were most likely of Afro-Dutch and possibly Ramapough Indian descent.

The marked graves include:

- Joseph Harrison,1850

- 3 children, ages 2, 3, 10 of York & Jane Harrison, a known freed family of the 1800’s

- Samuel Jennings, who worked for the Havemeyer family as a freedman in the 1800s. (Bischoff and Kahn (p.144) states: "The Jennings and some mountain people worked for Mountain Side (Farm)." The Jennings stone has a 20th century appearance and could possibly be a replacement.)

BCN Contact Information:

Mahwah Historic Preservation Commission

historic@mahwahtwp.org

mahwahmuseum.org

FISHER ROAD CEMETERY

FOUNDED: early 1800's

ADDITONAL NAMES: Cynthia Hesdra burial site

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

This small family burial about 40 ft x 80ft is hidden in a wooded lot in a gated townhouse community in Mahwah, NJ. The site includes the final resting place of Cynthia Hesdra (March 6, 1808-Feb. 9, 1879). Ms. Hesdra was enslaved for some period of her life, went on to become a successful entrepreneur who died with a fortune of over $100,000 ($2.4 million in today's money), and has been honored by the Toni Morrison Foundation for her role as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. A large handsome granite gravestone marked the site, but sadly it has been severed from its base and neighbors do not want it reset. It is not known for certain who else is buried here, though likely her parents, John and Jane Moore are there.

BCN Contact Information:

Mahwah Historic Preservation Commission

Historic@MahwahTwp.org

https://www.mahwahtwp.org/225/Historic-Preservation-Commission

MT CARMEL CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1847

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Mt Carmel Cemetery is located at the northwest corner of Elvis Presley Blvd. and Elliston Rd. Over the years, the cemetery has been neglected, records lost due to fire, then abandoned. Negligence continues at present.

History of some influential people at Mt Carmel

-Tom Lee, African American, final resting place is at Mt Carmel. He became a Memphis hero on May 8, 1925, when he saved the lives of 32 white people from a capsized riverboat on the Mississippi River even though he could not swim. Tom Lee Park was established in 1954 and a monument erected on thirty acres of the riverfront in downtown Memphis.

-Sam Qualls, another prominent African American, final resting place is at Mt Carmel. He founded a funeral home in 1932. S.W. Qualls was one of the oldest mortuaries in the city.

-Lelia Mason, the wife of Mason Temple and Church of God in Christ (denomination) founder Charles Harrison Mason, final resting place is at Mt Carmel. Mason Temple is where Dr. Martin Luther King proclaimed in his last speech titled “Mountain Top”, on 4/3/1968, proclaimed “something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our World!”

BCN Contact Information:

Samuel Oldham

MtCarmelAlly@gmail.com

MCWORTER CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1836

ADDITONAL NAMES: Old Philadelphia African American Cemetery / New Philadelphia African American Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The McWorter Cemetery, also referred to as Old Philadelphia Cemetery and New Philadelphia African American Burial Ground is located in rural Pike County, Western Illinois. According to cemetery records, the earliest burial occurred in 1851 with the death of Francis McWorter. The McWorter family owned the land on which the cemetery was established. Mr. James Washington who died in 1950 is believed to be the last known burial in the cemetery.

The McWorter African American Cemetery is historically significant as the final resting place of Free Frank McWorter, founder of the first known town in the United States to be platted and legally registered by a freed African American prior to the civil war. Free Frank's wife, Lucy, seven of their adult children, and grandchildren. Members of the African American community of New Philadelphia and Hadley Township, Illinois are interred in the cemetery. There are several star-shaped metal Grand Army of the Republic Civil War Veterans grave markers in the cemetery. In 1988, Free Frank's gravesite was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

BCN Contact Information:

Lonie M. Wilson

loniewilson@yahoo.com

BETTON HILLS PLANTATION CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1930’s

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The site is all that remains of a much larger cemetery for African Americans dating from the pre-Civil War era through the 1940s. It was the main burial ground for black slaves and servants from the Betton Plantation as well as other surrounding plantations. The plantation system grew in North Florida as cotton plantations to the north depleted their soil from overuse. Prominent early plantations in this region included Goodwood, Waverly, and Live Oak. Turbett Betton was a prominent Tallahassee merchant who purchased roughly 1,200 acres from the Lafayette estate, lying between Thomasville and Centerville Roads. Shortly after Betton’s death in 1863, the land was purchased by Guy Winthrop. The emancipation of the slaves ruined the cotton industry, and many planters turned their land into quail hunting plantations. In 1945, the Winthrop family began subdividing the property for a new housing community called Betton Hills. Henry Watson, buried at the back of the lot with his wife, was one of Winthrop’s servants. However, most of the burials were marked with a simple wooden cross or flowers, and so no longer remain. Evidence of a burial site is marked by elongated depressions in the earth covered with altered vegetation.

BCN Contact Information:

Remus March II

remy663@gmail.com

ELLSWORTH CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1876

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• Coalition to Protect Maryland Burial Sites

HISTORY:

The Ellsworth Cemetery Corporation was created on December 21, 1876. Leaders of the African American community of Westminster, including USCT Union Army Veterans, filed Maryland Articles of Incorporation to provide a burial place "for the Colored residents of Westminster, Maryland".

Through the years, Ellsworth Cemetery has been the final resting place of many African Americans of Westminster families. Black residents of the Carroll County Alms House and residents of today's Westminster Rescue Mission of all races are buried there. Strangers' Row accepts those who die Carroll County without known family.

BCN Contact Information:

Diane Boettcher

admin@ellsworthcemetery.org

https://cpmbs.org/

MOTHER ARCHIE’S CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1891

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Mother Archie’s cemetery is located in Chadds Ford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The cemetery sits just next to the remains of what was formerly the Bullock Octagonal School (1838). In 1891, Lydia A. Archie, a Black woman and oldest ordained female Preacher in the African Union M.P. Church, purchased the property. Lydia Archie, or Mother Archie as she was often referred as, used the building as a church and the adjacent ground as a cemetery. Her congregation met regularly in the old schoolhouse until her death in 1932.

The cemetery is the final resting place of seventy-nine members of the church, including Mother Archie herself. While less than half of the gravestones remain, it is the hope of Chadds Ford Township, who obtained the property in 1954, that the remaining gravestones can be cleaned and preserved. Mother Archie, who also built and lived in a home on the same property as her church and cemetery, was a pillar of Chadds Ford’s black community from 1891-1932. After her death, the church and cemetery became inactive as Mother Archie’s children and congregation moved on and passed away.

However, both the cemetery and remains of the church continue to captivate and inspire. Andrew Wyeth was a frequent visitor of Mother Archie’s in the 1950s and painted several images of the ruins. Although Mother Archie and her congregation have left, it is the hope of the Township to preserve what Mother Archie created and celebrate the lives of those buried there.

BCN Contact Information:

Chadds Ford Township

info@chaddsfordpa.gov

FERREE’S CHAPEL CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Early 1900’s

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• Randolph County Library’s Randolph Room

HISTORY:

Ferree’s Chapel Cemetery is located in Randleman, North Carolina.  It is behind what is now the Academy Street Baptist Church.  It was sold to them in 1959 after the death of Tamer Allred. The administrator of her will had a commissioner appointed and the land was sold.  We have not been able to find any records of where the land originally came from. Tamer was a Quaker, and we believe she inherited the land from her father.  There are no records indicating that there was a church called Ferree’s Chapel in this spot. There is a Ferree’s Chapel in Randleman, but it is across town. The Baptist church and its forbearers do not have a cemetery with this church. 

BCN Contact Information:

Kendra Lyons

Genealogist, Randolph Room

Randolph County Public Library

JOHNSONVILLE CEMETERY

FOUNDED: N/A

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Where Dobbins Air reserve base and Lockheed Martin currently reside, a community called Johnsonville was established, founded, and built by freed enslaved peoples. In 1942 during WWII, the government acquired the Sibley Family Plantation land, where Mount Sinai Church and the Johnsonville community resided, in order to build an aircraft factory and Air Base. The Johnsonville community were forced to move to another location and the Mt. Sinai Church moved to Marietta. While the church was moved off the base, the Johnsonville Cemetery, which is the resting place of the freed enslaved and their families, still remains on what is now called the Dobbins Air reserve Base.

BCN Contact Information:

22nd Air Force public affairs

yesenia.castro_vazquez@is.af.mil