Families Found, History Reclaimed
Carolyn Brooks, Emilie Amt, Lola Mosby, and Elizabeth Paul discuss the tombstone of Ellen Fowler, one of the earliest burials at Halfway African American Cemetery. Brooks and Mosby have family buried at the cemetery, while Amt, a local historian, and Paul, whose property adjoins the remains of the cemetery, have worked diligently to preserve it.
Individuals and organizations are working to rediscover and preserve local African American cemeteries
By Lisa Gregory
Ellen Fowler cared very much for how her final resting place would be tended to after she died.
One of the earliest burials in Halfway African American Cemetery in 1898, “she was a single woman who worked as a domestic servant in Hagerstown,” says Emilie Amt, a local historian.
She was also a savvy businesswoman and owned several properties. Fowler would leave those properties and the income they made to family. However, “In her will, she left instructions that the income from her houses be used to put up a monument on her grave and for her grave to be kept up,” says Amt. Or as it was stated in her will, “kept clean and sodded.”
And when that didn’t happen, the executor of her will, a white man she had worked for, “took one of her heirs to court,” says Amt. “And there was enforcement of this.”
But as years and decades went on her grave in Halfway was in many ways lost to time and decay as the property was sold and developed for houses. In fact, her grave with its impressive gravestone would end up being enclosed in a neighbor’s backyard, which was used as a dog run and fenced off from the rest of the remaining cemetery.
Carolyn Brooks inspects the tombstone of Ellen Fowler, one of the earliest burials in Halfway African American Cemetery. Brooks is a descendant of Perry Moxley, who is buried at the cemetery and was a founding member of Moxley’s Band, which joined the First Brigade of the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War.
Elizabeth Paul took notice. Her property adjoins the half-acre of what is left of the cemetery, which once covered seven acres with more than 400 graves. Working with Amt, the two women set about learning about the history of the cemetery, those buried there, and how to best preserve it.
“I wanted to protect it,” says Paul.
During the past few years volunteers have stepped up to clean up the overgrown area with its toppled-over, broken, and scattered gravestones. Businesses like Antietam Tree and Turf have even volunteered equipment and services.
Today, the cemetery has a proper fence surrounding it and a sign that identifies it. This past Veteran’s Day, the cemetery held a special ceremony to honor the veterans buried there, which include 14 Civil War veterans and one WWI veteran.
“Over time, meeting people, I get teary just thinking about it,” says Paul, “but meeting people whose family members are buried there and who have that direct connection after they thought it was lost and that piece of their history was totally gone and erased, has been so powerful to me.”
Halfway is just one of many such African American cemeteries throughout Washington County. Some have been more successfully preserved such as Halfway or the cemetery at Tolson’s Chapel and School in Sharpsburg, which is a National Historic Landmark. Many, though, are just on the cusp of rediscovery.
All of these cemeteries are important says Barbara Boward, who has done intensive research involving African American cemeteries in the area, including identifying and learning about those buried there.
“A cemetery is a sacred place and is in a way a
vessel,” says Boward, who grew up near the Halfway cemetery, often walking past it on her way to school without realizing it was a cemetery. “These places hold the stories of our ancestors. And maybe they are not my particular ancestors, but their story is the story of my country, my state, my county, my town.”
Lola Mosby is a descendant of two individuals buried at Halfway–her great-grandfather Jack French and her grandmother Jacqueline French Lewis. “She was only 28 when she died in childbirth,” says Mosby of her grandmother. “The baby, a little boy, died a day or two after.”
Now in many ways, Mosby has reclaimed her grandmother. Although her initial exposure to the cemetery was disturbing given the state it was in at the time.
“When I first went there, I was just so sad,” says Mosby. Despite living nearby, Mosby says she had no idea her relatives were buried there and did not even know a cemetery existed. “I’m about four blocks away from the cemetery,” she says. “I have lived out in this area for about 40 some years.”
Mosby has since become an active participant in the cemetery and serves on its board. Now she describes the once-unsightly cemetery as “just beautiful.”
Carolyn Brooks has family buried there as well. Perry Moxley was a founding member of Moxley’s Band. In 1863, the 11-member band joined the First Brigade of the U.S. Colored Troops in exchange for immediate emancipation. Several of the band members were enslaved at the time. Brooks’s great-great-grandfather, Robert, was Perry’s brother and a member of
the band.
Brooks also has other notable family members who are not necessarily tied to Halfway, but a different cemetery, albeit with a similar situation. Her great-great- grandfather, Nathan Williams, whose family owned Fort Frederick, a stone fort built in 1756-57 by the colony of Maryland during the French and Indian War. Today, Fort Frederick, which is located in Big Pool, is a historical site and state park.
Lola Mosby holds a photo of her grandmother, Jacqueline French Lewis, who is buried at Halfway African American Cemetery.
Brooks was unsure where Nathan Williams was buried. Then she came across someone who shared with her a photo of his grave. Brooks was beside herself.
“I asked him, where did you find it?” she says of the grave. The person wasn’t sure but told her that the grave was in a cemetery in the Clear Spring area. Brooks went looking for it herself.
“I remember on a cold day, tramping around the bushes,” she recalls. Then she noticed it. A gravestone. But not just any gravestone. It was the gravestone of Nathan Williams, her great-great-grandfather.
“It was the largest stone there,” she says.
Now found, she would like to preserve the cemetery and its connection to local history.
“I would like to see it given the dignity that it really deserves,” she says. “Make it a state site with a marker that gives respect to Nathan Williams.”
Adding, “He took such good care of the fort. When they bought it, they could have torn all the walls down and that would have been the end of it. It wouldn’t be a state park.”
When she visits the cemetery, she has mixed emotions.
“It warms my heart to know where they are, but it also hurts my heart to see the condition they are in,” says Brooks.
Organizations such as the nonprofit African American Historical Association of Western Maryland are also stepping up to do their part to help restore and preserve these cemeteries. The association has focused on Red Hill Cemetery, located outside of Keedysville, which through efforts of AAHA has been formally recognized by the town of Keedysville and Washington County.
“We tend to look outside of our backyard to see history,” says Richard Kline, AAHA president. “And it wasn’t until I really started spending more time on local history that I realized how rich our history is and how much we lack in protecting African American history.”
Red Hill Cemetery has a historical connection of its own, says Kline. Rev. Thomas W. Henry who was affiliated with the Underground Railroad and one of the original founders of the church connected with the cemetery, “was burying people in that cemetery from the 1830s to the 1850s,” says Kline. According to Kline, Thomas was implicated in the John Brown plot against slavery when he was recommended to Brown as a “trusty” agent to contact
in Hagerstown.
The organization comes out twice a year to do clean up days. However, the efforts are not just limited to cleanups.
“We’re trying to identify graves,” says Kline. “We’ve identified about 50 or so, so far. But I’m sure there’s more there.”
Fixing up the cemetery and identifying those buried there is not the only task.
“We’re trying to prevent more encroachment,” says Kline. “There are houses now up on either side and some businesses behind it. We’ve seen similar cemeteries that have just been run over by sprawl, etc. We want to make it a spot where people want to stop by and visit.”
For Claire Connor it was just good old fashion curiosity that first drew to locating lost African American cemeteries in the area.
“I’ve always been fascinated with abandonment in general,” says Connor. “I was doing photographs of abandoned places. I would say it wasn’t until maybe 2020 that it even occurred to me that there could be such a thing as an abandoned cemetery.”
Her interest would result in her becoming a volunteer for the Find a Grave website and going to graveyards to photograph various memorials and add them to the site. It was through Find a Grave that she first came across Bagtown Cemetery, which is located between Smithsburg and Boonsboro.
“I noticed that of the 14 memorials that were said to be there, not a single one had a photo,” she says. “This led me to believe that no one had been there in a long while, and that perhaps no one even knew where to find it anymore. I was extremely determined to locate the cemetery at this point. I couldn’t bear the thought of it being forgotten.”
Her search was not easy.
“I don’t know that anyone other than maybe adjoining landowners who have the slightest clue that it’s there,” she says. “Other locations kind of still look like cemeteries when you go. But this is just woods.”
Not only has she found the cemetery, but she has been busy learning more about the people buried there. She relied heavily on the information provided by an individual named Samual Piper who visited all the known cemeteries in Washington County between 1936 and 1941 and made a list of the names of the deceased on cemetery markers.
“At this point, I have located all but one of the marked burials that Samuel Piper documents to account for 13 memorials,” she says. “The graves have all been photographed and added to Find a Grave. Additionally, I am slowly combing through old Washington County death certificates in an effort to find others buried there. I have located 13 additional decedents, bringing the number of known burials up to 27. There are undoubtedly more.”
And Connor will keep working at it.
“I’ve been inspired to reclaim people’s legacy,” she says.
As she stands next to his tombstone, Carolyn Brooks holds a long-cherished family photo of her great-great-grandfather, Nathan Williams, who at one time owned Fort Frederick. The cemetery in Clear Spring was recently discovered by Brooks, who hopes now to preserve it.
As more of these lost and neglected cemeteries come to light, organizations such as the Coalition to Protect Maryland Burial Sites, which is a nonprofit, are working to encourage state laws that are more adaptable to protecting and preserving them. These include creating a commission to address abandoned and neglected cemeteries and establishing penalties for destruction and removal of remains.
A significant issue, says Eileen McGuckian, president of the coalition, is the idea of ownership.
“Without clear ownership, you are limited on a lot of things,” she says. “You can’t go for grants. You probably can’t get insurance for these cleanups that are happening. You are not eligible for things if nobody knows who exactly they are dealing with.”
Some of the cemeteries are connected
to churches that are no longer standing, for example.
However, says McGuckian, bills presented before the recent Maryland General Assembly if passed may help clarify the idea of ownership. “One of the bills this year says it outright and another bill hints at it,” she says, “that counties and municipalities are enabled to take title to a property for the purpose of transferring ownership to someone who will take care of it.”
Thus, paving the way for care and preservation.
Those like Ellen Fowler would be pleased by all these efforts, thinks Amt. Fowler’s own grave, in fact, is now enclosed within the property of the cemetery and is no longer part of the neighbor’s yard.
“We talked to those neighbors where her gravestone was placed,” says Amt. “The neighbors were like, ‘Absolutely you can fence that back into the cemetery. We know it belongs to the cemetery.’”
Yet work still needs to be done.
“Her stone is still kind of in pieces,” says Amt. “It’s not all properly put together because that will take a crane. And we will do that eventually. But we have taken a step toward carrying out the wishes of her will by at least keeping the dogs away and restoring that part of the cemetery to the cemetery.”
Adding with a smile, “She’s probably saying, ‘Why haven’t you fixed that stone yet?’ But I’m sure she would understand and know that we are getting to it.”