Posted on 09/13/2003 6:28:06 AM PDT by honeygrl
Story last updated at 1:52 a.m. on Saturday, September 13, 2003
Many more graves discovered at Gospel Pilgrim Surprising find at cemetery
By Don Nelson don.nelson@onlineathens.com
Crawling through thick underbrush on their hands and knees, members of an archaeological team recently discovered an estimated 3,000 grave sites at historic Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in East Athens.
That's three times the number contained in previous estimates of the number of African Americans laid to rest in the 10-acre cemetery off Fourth Street.
Vincent White, project manager for the East Athens Development Corp. and administrative project manager for the effort to preserve Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery, said experts had expected to find no more than 1,000 graves in the cemetery.
A 10-year-old Clarke County cemetery directory lists only 126 tombstones at Gospel Pilgrim.
''The community will be overwhelmed when they hear there were that many graves out there,'' White said. ''We were expecting, when we cleaned this up, we could get more graves in there, but that may not be the case. No one had any idea it would be that many.''
Athens-based Southeastern Archaeological Services conducted the recent field study, which was done over about a 30-day period, according to company Vice President Chad Braley.
The Gospel Pilgrim Society, a membership group which offered burial insurance, founded the cemetery in 1882 on land purchased from Elizabeth Talmadge.
The cemetery holds the remains of many influential and prominent African Americans from Athens, including Alfred Richardson and Madison Davis, the county's first African-American state legislators.
Pathways on Gospel Pilgrim's 10 acres look like woodland trails disappearing into thick foliage and overhanging tree boughs. Though attractive, the lush greenery signifies decades of neglect of the sacred ground.
''The vegetation was so thick in order to get through some places we had to crawl through, in others we walked,'' Braley said of the field study.
The archaeological team didn't make an exact count of the graves.
''It wasn't our goal to locate each and every one,'' Braley explained. ''That would have taken a lot more time. Our goal was to get a rough estimate and identify roads for clearing. Later, volunteers will get a more accurate count.''
State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond spearheaded early efforts to clean up and protect the historic cemetery, and through a $100,000 labor department grant administered by the EADC, a preservation project was begun.
The Jaeger Co., a preservation and architectural consulting firm with offices in Athens and Gainesville, was recruited to help coordinate preservation and maintenance. They subcontracted with Southeastern for the field study.
''It's a fabulous project for cemeteries and for Athens,'' said Tevi Henson, preservation planner with the Jaeger Co.'s Gainesville office.
White said the field study identified and counted the visible grave sites and located the 15-foot wide roadways leading into the cemetery. The cemetery has a main entrance and four pathways, he said.
''We'll give that report to the architect for developing a strategic plan for cleanup and for clearing the roadways and the site,'' White said.
He added that the wide pathways need to be cleared to determine if any graves are in those avenues.
''The density is so thick it's hard to tell,'' White said. ''It will take a serious campaign to really clear those pathways. Once we've tackled that, it'll be easier to go in and start clearing the grave sites.''
White said the next phase of preservation includes development of a training plan for potential contractors for clearing the roadways, a process he described as ''very delicate.''
Henson said she expects to have a training strategy designed by the end of October. White hopes the actual work will be completed by the end of the year.
In the meantime, the Landscape Club of the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences agreed Friday to make the cemetery a service project. Next month, the club will begin helping with roadway clearing.
The $100,000 grant administered by the EADS has been used to commission D&D Lawn Service to help keep the existing pathways clear until a comprehensive plan is created and implemented, White said.
D&D has hired five people to help with that maintenance. The grant proposal calls for eventually employing 10 people to maintain the grounds.
White also said the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has sent the EADC a letter indicating support for designating Gospel Pilgrim as an historic site.
If nothing else, if the inscriptions could be transcribed and posted to Rootsweb or USGenweb, there are genealogists somewhere who would appreciate it greatly.
Agreed. Is there some place where a retired fat guy could contribute a few bucks toward their cause?
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
From what I've been able to learn about the cemetery, it was maintained in pretty good shape until the last known sexton died in 1977. No one has been able to locate the records of the Gospel Pilgrim Society so we don't know who was buried where!
Some relatives of the deceased have maintained their own family lots over the years, but the general upkeep of the whole cemetery has been sporatic over the years. There was an attempt to clean out the jungle in the 1990s, but the overwhelming task required more effort than a few volunteers can do in a Saturday work session.
We're working on getting a website together so that people can contribute information about burials or family members. Will keep you posted when it's up and running!
See below - we're working on this!!!
I'm sure the kudzu ate it up...
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