WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- There's an effort underway to locate and mark graves that have been lost in an African-American cemetery.
- The cemetery in Old Salem is tucked away behind a hedge next to the City Cemetery
- Some graves are just marked with stones. Others show the wear of over a century
- The church plans to raise funds to replace the missing gravestones
The cemetery in Old Salem is tucked away behind a hedge next to the City Cemetery that's the final resting place for city fathers like R.J. Reynolds.
"A lot of people in Winston never even knew this place existed, a lot of Saint Phillips members didn't know because the older members died out and there was no one to carry on the story,” said Dorothy Pettus, a member of the church.
Workers used flags to mark the obvious gravesite that belong to Saint Phillips Moravian, one of the oldest African-American congregations in the country.
"We just found out about 10 or 12 years ago that this place was up here,” said Pettus.
Some graves are just marked with stones. Others show the wear of over a century.
Some records show there could be over 230 graves.
The Salem Congregation of the Moravian Church is funding the effort.
"We believe in the democracy of death, and the equality in death, and what we're trying to do is to get this graveyard to look like the other graveyard,” said Peggy Crouse, a member of the Congregation Graveyard Committee, of, the Moravian Cemetery near Home Moravian Church.
The first person was buried there in 1859, a 12-year-old boy named George. From George's site other markers are mapped.
Unmarked graves are confirmed with the ground penetrating radar.
Seramur & Associate is putting together the survey of the cemetery.
"As we move the radar along the ground's surface, we'll get reflections from the sides of the graveshaft and also from the bottom of the graveshaft,” said Keith Seramur.
The church plans to raise funds to replace the missing gravestones.
"We've had numerous younger people that live across the country, across the world reaching back they heard their ancestors were buried there, and wanting to find those graves,” said Pettus.
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