I had the joy of meeting with Ed, the leader of the local Boy Scout troop, and his son yesterday to tromp around the Old Sharon Baptist Church Cemetery in hopes of finding the slave cemetery that I had read was somewhere. We found it! Ed went and knocked on the door of the couple who right next to the cemetery. The woman Mrs. Morgan took us out to the edge of their property where the stone wall from the cemetery runs and showed us the slave cemetery. She said that she had marked the spot years ago with an Azalea bush, and her husband had put posts in the ground to mark where it was also. Due to poor health they weren’t able to keep up with it as well as in the past. She was really happy to talk to us about it and show us the stones.
Today my husband and I went out to take photos of the stones. Mrs. Morgan and her husband came out and talked to us for a few minutes, reminding us to check for ticks when we returned home because the deer are out roaming around and she feeds them apples.
I’m excited for the find of this cemetery. The story is that there is also a Union soldier buried there. He apparently was killed in a battle that happened just across the street from the cemetery.
Mrs. Morgan is excited that someone is going to be cleaning it up and keeping it up. Once it’s cleaned up I hope to make a plaque of some sort to mark the area.
My husband and I counted 25 separate areas of stones, but I guarantee there are more people because when you walk around you step into depressions in the ground. Once the leaves are cleared away and it’s cleaned up we should be able to see other grave areas.
I will be posting photos of the Old Sharon Baptist Church Cemetery at some point. It’s pretty horrible and I really want to get it cleaned up and the stones repaired. Kids have been vandalizing it for years, and I can’t describe the condition it’s in accurately. My husband and I will be going through and doing a survey of it over several days (it’s that bad). Hopefully someone will help fund the Boy Scout troop in my area, as well as finding the descendants of the people buried in the cemetery to give the Boy Scouts permission so that the troop can go in and clean and repair all of the stones and fencing.
Anyway, photos of the stones we found in the Old Sharon Baptist Church Slave Cemetery!
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