LoCoHistory

Old family cemeteries are often subsumed by modern developments, roads, and construction projects. In this case, a northern-Albemarle cemetery was enveloped by a series of new town houses, just west of the Target/Kohl’s mall and Route 29.

Birckhead Family Cemetery

The photo above, taken by Rob Eastman, shows the cemetery tightly packed in between houses. Fortunately, a metal fence was erected recently to protect the graves. The modest markers are paired head and footstones (as shown in the close-up below). The family patriarch was Samuel B. Birckhead a white man born in 1815 or 1817. He married Adeline Jane Durrett in 1848 and died in 1905. For more information on Samuel, please visit a genealogical site hosted by a descendant. The cemetery was originally part of a family farm was owned by Thomas Mann Birckhead (born in 1852). For more information on Thomas, please visit an external site here. Thanks are due to Mr. Eastman for bringing this site to my attention.

Although I am not entirely certain ‘who,’ I would assume that it was the developers who cleaned up the site and put in the fence. The photo below, taken by the genealogist mentioned above, shows the overgrown condition of the cemetery as of 2006. The original photograph can be seen here.

Attend a free lecture on local African-American Cemeteries by Dr. Lynn Rainville at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Sunday, February 5th at 2pm in the McIntire Room (third floor, central branch of the library). Professor Rainville will discuss her research into historic, black burial grounds and the associated mortuary beliefs and funerary patterns. Come learn more about these “outdoor museums” of African-American beliefs and family connections.

Prior to the talk, explore a related website designed by Prof. Rainville that includes information about dozens of historic, black cemeteries in Albemarle and Amherst Counties. Below is an excerpt from a walking tour of Charlottesville’s historic Daughters of Zion Cemetery (located minutes away from the Downtown Mall). Clicking on the image will take you to a virtual tour but please get out to see the real thing!

Upcoming event, January 25th, 2012, Noon: “The Enduring Legacy of Henry Martin and Other Enslaved Laborers at U.Va.” (in the Harrison Institute auditorium). Later that day, at 5:30 p.m., a second event will be held to honor Mr. Martin as part of U.Va.’s commemoration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (in the Rotunda Dome Room). Several scholars will discuss the lives and contributions of Mr. Martin and other formerly enslaved people at UVA during the lunchtime lecture.

Mr. Martin was born into slavery at Monticello on the day that Thomas Jefferson died: July 4, 1826. He was later sold to the Carr family, but eventually earned his freedom. In 1847 he was hired (as a free man) to be the bell ringer for the University of Virginia. Waking at 4am to begin work and tending to the bells throughout the day, he worked until his retirement in 1909. He died in 1915 at age 89. To read more about his life and the upcoming event, visit an external link to a UVA press release about Henry Martin and the upcoming events.

Join University of Virginia students (Memorial For Enslaved Laborers Committee) as they discuss their efforts to create a more appropriate Memorial to commemorate the enslaved laborers who constructed the University and lived on grounds during the antebellum period. An open discussion will beheld November 2nd from 7:30 to 8:30pm in Clark 107. The discussion will include a history of the project, a dialogue about its design, and comments by a guest speaker, Professor Claudrena Harold (Associate Professor, History).

A related effort is “Ucare:” University and Community Action for Racial Equality. This project is dedicated to “helping the University of Virginia and the Charlottesville communities work together to understand the University role in slavery, racial segregation, and discrimination and to find ways to address and repair that legacy, particularly as they relate to present day disparities.”

Both groups are working on better ways to commemorate the enslaved African Americans who lived and worked at the University during the antebellum period. The photos here illustrate the current, inadequate memorial (which lies under foot in a corner of the brick pathway that surrounds the Rotunda) and two top-place finishers in a recent competition to design a better memorial.

Spend this Memorial Day honoring some of Charlottesville’s former citizens and learning more about how Charlottesvillians from the past honored the dead. Join Dr. Lynn Rainville (anthropologist and historian) on a one-hour tour of one of Charlottesville’s most historic graveyards, Maplewood Cemetery (located behind Martha Jefferson Hospital). Learn about historic gravestone symbols, mortuary rituals, and funerals from bygone eras. Find out why Victorian mothers were encouraged to take their children on strolls through the landscapes of the dead. And get a sneak-peak into the lives of 19th-century Charlottesvillians (these individuals will return later this year during the Society’s October Spirit Walk). Tickets are $5 a piece and must be reserved in advance. All proceeds go to the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society to support their efforts to preserve and promote local history. Buy tickets on-line by clicking here.

I’ve posted in the past about the Kitty Foster site at UVA. Recently, the University of Virginia dedicated a new park at the former site of Catherine Foster’s house and family burial ground.  Foster’s home was part of an antebellum community adjacent to the University named “Canada,” probably a reference to the Free Black population who lived there (slaves were emancipated in 1843 in Canada). Catherine “Kitty” Foster was a Free Black woman who purchased land for a house in 1833. Kitty was born around 1790 and later worked as a laundress for UVA faculty and students. When she died in 1863, the land was subdivided among her descendants and remained in the family until about 1906 when the property was sold to white developers.

Archaeological investigations at the house site have uncovered ceramic sherds, glass shards, animal bones, nails, and a cobblestone path that relate to the everyday activities conducted here. Rivanna Archaeological Services produced a comprehensive report on these findings and the historical context of the Foster family in a report titled, “The Foster Family-Venable Lane Site: Report of Archaeological Investigations.”

In 1993 a coffin was located at the site during the construction of a parking lot. After an initial archaeological survey in the 1990s, Rivanna Archaeological Services returned in 2002 and 2005 (read more about their findings in 2005) to locate additional unmarked graves, totaling 32 individuals (read the story here). Because of their proximity to the house, these remains are believed to be relatives of Kitty Foster. After locating the burials, the human remains were recovered and left undisturbed (the photo illustrates a re-landscaping effort to indicate the location of the unmarked burials).

The more recent dedication ceremony included a newly constructed “shadow catcher” designed by Walter Hood and Cheryl Barton. This metal structure casts a shadow over the location of the cemetery and symbolizes an abstract outline of the house and its chimney.

>>For more information about the dedication ceremony, click here.

>>To read an article about the planned site in The C-ville, click here.

>>To here an interview with Dr. Gertrude Fraser (UVA vice provost for faculty recruitment and retention ) about the Kitty Foster Site, click here.

>>The site is listed on the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities African American Heritage website.

I have recently posted an unpublished manuscript by a local historian, Gayle M. Schulman. Read below for background on her work and a link to download the article….

In 1996, local historian Gayle Schulman came across a series of letters written in 1866 by Isabella Gibbons, a newly freed slave who taught in the Charlottesville’s Freedman’s School. Ms. Schulman’s project to research the life of Gibbons and her family (part of which was published in the Magazine of Albemarle County History, Vol. 55) led her to other studies of local African American history.

During her research into the Gibbons family she learned that both Isabella and her husband, William Gibbons, had been owned for part of their lives by University of Virginia Professors. In 2003, Ms. Schulman began a systematic review of archives, manuscripts, census data, church membership lists, and birth and death records searching for clues to their lives as individuals and as members of a community. A portion of this research is illustrated in her manuscript titled “Slaves at the University of Virginia.” To download a copyrighted version of this 33-page article (pdf file), click here.

Two years ago I published a post about Hungrytown, in southern Albemarle County.

An historic cabin in Hungrytown

Recently I received an email from a descendant asking about a nearby cemetery. I visited the cemetery a number of years ago. It contains the graves of families who lived in the neighborhood: Toms, Meltons, and others. Unfortunately only one stone is inscribed: that of a veteran, Wilton Toms (1828-1910) who served in the 46th Virginia Infantry during the Civil War. The stone was placed recently, in the past decade or so, to commemorate his service. The other family members are buried under fieldstones, some shaped, others plain. The fate of this cemetery - unmarked stones in a hard-to-find, rural location - is all too common. Where rural communities once flourished and shared the knowledge of who was buried in which grave, today these neighborhoods are often unpopulated or the original residents (and their memories) are long gone. One option for preserving the location of historic burials is to install a metal plaque with a list of the names of the dead. This information could be collected from the memory of residents and family members. While it would not be possible, in most cases, to assign names to individual graves, a plaque would help preserve the family ties to the graveyard. Another option is submitting a list of burials and photographs to a nearby historical society and/or county planning department. That way there will be a paper trail for future researchers. Perhaps the most important strategy for protecting these sites is to keep the memory of the dead alive in the younger generations so that they feel connected to these sacred spaces, visit, and care for the graves. This is easier said than done, but making the effort will ensure that these historic burial grounds are not forgotten by the next generation.

Charlottesville has many ties to the Lewis and Clark expedition: Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle County, William Clark’s family lived here for a time, Thomas Jefferson is the President who sent them on their mission to “… explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it’s course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, . . . may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce” (1803 instructions), Albemarle is now home to the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center, and, of course, we have the Lewis and Clark Statue at the intersection of McIntire, Ridge, and Main Streets.

This Friday (19th June) you have an opportunity to recognize another member of the Lewis and Clark expedition: a Lemhi Shoshone woman named Sacajawea (born 1788). She was the only woman on the mission and an invaluable guide, translator, and diplomat (smoothing relations between the anglos and Native Americans). The City of Charlottesville’s Historic Resource Committee will be hosting a dedication of an historic plaque in honor of Sacajawea at 1pm at the “Lewis and Clark” statue. This will be followed by a discussion of “The Role of Art in Interpreting History” at 2pm at the Charlottesville Design Center (at 100 5th St NE).

Elks Club Building (c. 1907). Postcard courtesy of Steven G. Meeks.

The building may be vaguely familiar to modern-day Charlottesvillians…perhaps the exposed brick side looks familiar ? It’s hard to place this building today because the portico and the moose have been removed (the four Corinthian columns in the front). The site is on East High Street, adjacent to the Old County Jail.

Built in 1902, this was the home of the Charlottesville Lodge No. 389, B.P.O. Elks (organized in 1897). This building served as their headquarters for decades. In its heydey the lodge included a library, card room, bowling alley, pool and billiard parlor, buffet, baths, and a banquet hall.

Juvenile Court Building (2002). Source Blair Hawkins.

After the Elks Club moved out, the building was converted to the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courthouse. After a 1940s fire, the facade was simplified, leaving only the pilasters (flattened columns). Since 2002 the building has been undergoing renovations. The renovations were significantly delayed after a wall collapsed in 2006. When completed the newest facade will differ even more from the original (Photo coming soon).