I’ve been on hiatus for the last few months as I finished up a very challenging teaching semester and also traveled to the west coast. Today’s article and several of the upcoming articles will be updates on some of the work that I did with CCASM and other volunteers between classes and traveling.
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Linda and Elsie marking a grave in Mount Zion Cemetery |
In October 2023, I was able to revisit the Mount Zion Colored Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery with Kathleen Seay from my office and a small crew of volunteers from CCASM. I first visited the cemetery in September 2021 and wrote a blog about the cemetery in June 2023.
Link to the first article about Mount Zion
In early October, we spent the day marking grave fosse in anticipation of mapping their locations with surveying equipment. Grave fosse are divots in the ground that form when a wood coffin lid rots and collapses. The soil in the grave shaft also collapses. This in turn forms a shallow divot about the length and width of the hole dug for the coffin. In older cemeteries that still have a grounds keeper, soil is added to the top of the grave so that there is a level landscape. But in little used or abandoned cemeteries, this is not the case. We identified 70 of these fosse at Mount Zion, as well as five other marked graves, and two areas of plants that are frequently found in old grave yards – yucca and periwinkle. The crew and I placed pin flags at the head and foot of each grave and recorded the length and width of the graves.
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Two of the five marked graves in the cemetery |
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Stone marked with an "H" |
My earlier research indicates that the cemetery and the church probably stopped being used in the 1940s or 1950s. It appears on an aerial photograph in 1935. There is a mention of it in a 1952 deed, but nothing after that until 1998 when the single grave with the commerically produced stone was included on a plat of the property.
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Grave of Robert Chambers who worked for the Sutton Family over four decades. The Sutton Family owned the propery in 1968. It's possible that Chambers, who was African American was affilated with the church or at least friends with members of the church. |
In November, Ned Edelen spent a day clearing brush in anticipation of the arrival of Jim Gibb and his survey equipment. Later in the month Ned, Jim, and I spent a day mapping the graves with the surveying equipment. We also located the probable remnants of the church and a filled in well. To date, we’ve mapped 75 graves that date to the period 1890 (when the cemetery was founded) to 1968 at the latest. The latter date is based on the date on the Robert Chambers grave stone. While we were successful in documenting the location of graves in this early African American Methodist Episcopal Church’s cemetery, we only know who five of the individuals buried in the cemetery were:
- Washington Willis, circa 1830 - 1 November 1892 (obituary in Maryland Independent). First wife Flora died in 1881 (place of burial unknown). 2nd wife Mary F. Skinner.
- Jane Hawkins, circa 1841 - 1893 (obituary in Maryland Independent).
- Mary F. (Skinner) Frazier circa 1858 - 29 January 1915 (obituary in Maryland Independent). Widow of Washington Willis, 2nd husband was Edward Frazier.
- Harry Smallwood 1889 - 13 April 1930 (obituary in the Evening Star, Washington D.C.). There is also a stone for Harry in the Smallwood family plot in Alexandria Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery in Chickamuxen, with a 1931 death date.
- Robert Hayes Wheeler Chambers, 1867-1968 (marked grave).
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Draft Map of Mount Zion Cemetery Produced by James Gibb of Gibb Archaeology Consultants |
If you have any information about this cemetery
please contact me.
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