Laboring Sons Memorial Grounds

Last updated
Laboring Sons Memorial Grounds
Laboring Sons Memorial Grounds
Details
Established1851
Closed1949
Location
CountryUnited States
Coordinates 39°25′14″N77°24′25″W / 39.42056°N 77.40694°W / 39.42056; -77.40694
Owned byCity of Frederick
Size1.17 acres (0.47 ha)
No. of interments≈ 1,500
Find a Grave Laboring Sons Memorial Grounds

The Laboring Sons Memorial Grounds is a memorial ground in Frederick, Maryland located between 5th and 6th Street on Chapel Alley. The cemetery was established by the Laboring Sons Beneficial Society in 1851 as a cemetery for free blacks in the city. In 1949 the cemetery would be given to the City of Frederick who destroyed the grounds and created a whites-only park. In 1999 the original nature of the grounds was rediscovered. In 2000, the City of Frederick promised to make amends for what happened with the grounds. In 2001 the site was dedicated as the Laboring Sons Memorial Grounds. Construction on the new memorial grounds finished in 2003.

Contents

Physical description

The memorial grounds are 1.17 acres (0.47 ha) in size and are located between 5th and 6th Street on Chapel Alley; they take up most of the block. The park is surrounded by sidewalks on 3 sides. The entrance, located on the side bordering 6th Street, has a metal archway. The sidewalks bisect sidewalks and lead towards a hill in the center on which there stands a monument to those who are buried on the grounds. The monument lists of the names of the identifiable dead buried on the grounds, along with a brief history of the grounds, and a note commemorating the Laboring Sons Memorial Committee and the City of Frederick for their work to restore the grounds. [1]

History

Establishment and decline

The Laboring Sons Beneficial Society was founded in 1837 [2] [3] "for the purpose of relieving or alleviating both spiritually and temporally any member of us who may be distressed and to see that his mortal remains be interred with decency." [4] It would not see official incorporation though until 1867, when the Maryland General Assembly passed an act incorporating it. [1] Its membership consisted of both free and enslaved blacks from Frederick; free blacks at the time numbered around 790 or about 16% of the city's population. [3] [5] They established the cemetery, purchasing 1.17 acres of land for $265, [5] located between 5th and 6th Street on Chapel Alley, in the Historic District of Frederick, in 1851. [2] [3] [4] [6] At the time there were few cemeteries in which blacks could be buried in the city, and even in those the amount of available space was limited. [5] In 1852, a quarter of the cemetery was divided in 12 foot by 16 foot plots with white marble corner posts. As time went on the remainder of the grounds were sold off as burial plots in order to fund the society's activities. [1]

In 1862 half of the Laboring Sons Beneficial Society split off into the Workingmen's Society due to disagreements within the group. [1]

By 1949 the cemetery had an estimated 1,500 bodies buried in it, but there was nobody left to care for the grounds, and they had deteriorated. [2] [4] [5] A photo in a 1948 newspaper showed the cemetery covered in weeds and underbrush. [7] Garland Makel Jr., grandson of one of the last of the society's officials, said, "There was nobody left to take care of it any more, everybody with any connection to the place had died or moved away." [2] After a special meeting of the lot holders in Laboring Sons that took place on 1 October 1948, [8] they gave the grounds to the City of Frederick, who in turn, promised to restore the grounds to their original condition. [4] The agreement proposed to the city, which the city accepted, was: that the city would maintain the land as a public park and playground with the name Laboring Sons Memorial Park, that no further burials would be permitted unless the city decided to allow a black hero, scientist, artist, or athlete to be buried, that a monument be erected, that the park would be open to colored residents of the city, all the monuments and stones currently in the cemetery would be left undisturbed, and that the city would fund a study regarding juvenile delinquency amongst the colored youth and propose solutions to fix it. [8] The memorial tablet that the city had promised to erect was never erected. [2]

Instead of restoring the grounds, in 1949 the city removed the remaining grave stones and headstones from the cemetery. [4] Newspapers at the time reported that some of the remains in the cemetery were disturbed. [5] The workmen buried some of the headstones to provide a smooth surface for laying black-top. [2] The city then covered the grounds in black-top, added recreational equipment (such as swings and a basketball court) and converted the grounds into a whites-only park which they named Chapel Park. [2] [4] During the construction, a list of the names of those interred at the site began to be compiled, but was stopped after reaching only 161 names. [3]

Municipal workers who helped move the grave stones underground said that they had just done as they were told and that no bodies had been moved. Makel also said that no bodies were removed from the site, but an official from Fairview Cemetery has said that some of the bodies were moved to Fairview Cemetery. [2] Lord Nickens, a civil rights activist in Frederick, also claims that some of the bodies were removed and moved to Fairview Cemetery. [9] The city has no record of any objections at the time to what was done to the cemetery. William O. Lee Jr. speculated that most people who had living descendants probably had their remains moved to Fairview Cemetery and that those who remained had nobody to object for them. [7] For some time after this the original use of the grounds was forgotten. [10]

Rediscovery

In the 1990s, a Frederick resident, Jackie Berry, decided to research her great-great-uncle's burial location. His death certificate stated he was buried in Laboring Sons Cemetery. She made the connection that Laboring Sons Park might be the location of Laboring Sons Cemetery. Around the same time former alderman Bill Lee and Bernard Brown, Grand Master of a Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World lodge, were urging the city to acknowledge what had happened and make amends. [4]

In 1999, the City of Frederick decided to rename all of the alleys in the city, with a particular emphasis on naming them after historical prominent black citizens. [5] The Gazette heard about the grounds because a local resident, living near Chapel Park, suggested that Chapel Alley ought to be named Laboring Sons Alley in recognition of Laboring Sons Beneficial Society and in memory of those buried under the park. [2] [5] The article, run in the Gazette in 2000, helped bolster support for restoring the grounds. [4] A newspaper reporter noticed that, on an old map in city hall, the grounds were labeled "Colored Cemetery" dispelling the idea that the city may have destroyed the grounds out of ignorance of their purpose. [4]

In January 2000, the board of alderman unanimously promised to make amends and honor those buried on the grounds with a plaque. [7] [10] In February 2000, a retired engineer, who remembered when the incident happened, and had worked on the grounds, and helped record the names of those interred there, showed city officials a map of the cemetery along with a partial list of names of those interred, allowing them to discover the location of the graves within the site. [4] [5] These documents put an end to speculation about whether or not there were any dead buried under the site. [11] After the names were found the plans for the plaque were changed from a plaque simply describing the history of the grounds to a plaque that would also list the names of those buried there. [11]

A committee was formed in June 2000 to research the site and plan a memorial. [5] An archaeologist company in Frederick volunteered to do a remote sensing on the grounds for free and found 10 possible burial shafts in two areas of the park. [2] [5] The committee suggested to the city that it remove all recreational equipment from the site, remove the asphalt, erect a monument with the names, birth dates, and death dates of those interred, along with a description of the site, create paths and benches on the sites that were not over identified graves, build another play area in the community, and rededicate the location as Laboring Sons Memorial Park. [5]

Restoration

Work on the memorial was fraught with "delay and inaction" for two and a half years after the committee issued its suggestions. [10] Roelky Myers, director of parks and recreation for Frederick in 2003, said that the committee the city set up for the memorial were unaware that they would have to go through the Historic District Commission, leading to delays. [12] In the week leading up to 13 September 2002 the Frederick Historic District Commission approved the basic design of the memorial park along with the design of the 4 foot tall and 11 foot wide granite monument to be erected there. The city's director of historic preservation, Barbara Wyatt, volunteered to design a memorial park to put on the site, and to champion the effort. William O. Lee Jr., a member of the committee formed in 2000, said, "Without her we wouldn't be this far". The design for the park evolved from a simple design with some benches and paths to a much more elaborate setup with trees, bisecting pathways, and retaining walls that are short enough to sit on. [10] City officials promised to rename it Laboring Sons. [2]

The city earmarked $40,000 of federal grant money for restoration of the park. [10] Another $60,000 was acquired from a combination of donations and the city's capital improvement program. [12]

Jennifer Dougherty, who was elected mayor of Frederick in 2002, promised during her campaign that she would restore the grounds, saying that, "It seems logical to say a burial ground should never become something other than a burial ground, or at least a place of honor." When she was elected Mayor she approved work to identify those who were buried in the grounds and made work on the grounds one of her priorities. [4] [10]

Construction of the memorial park was hindered by the discovery of bodies and having to bring in "copious amounts of dirt" in order to cover them. The dirt was used so that any construction would happen on the new top layer of soil and the bodies interred would remain undisturbed. [12] As work was done on the site the State's Attorney was notified anytime that a new body was found. [4]

In 2001 the site was dedicated as a memorial garden and the name changed to Laboring Sons Memorial Ground; in 2003, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the site was rededicated as a memorial ground and a plaque was erected listing the names of the 117 people known to be buried there. A second re-dedication ceremony was done on 20 June 2003 when construction on the site had finished [1] [4] [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cemetery</span> Place of burial

A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park, is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word cemetery implies that the land is specifically designated as a burial ground and originally applied to the Roman catacombs. The term graveyard is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green-Wood Cemetery</span> Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

Green-Wood Cemetery is a 478-acre (193 ha) cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several blocks southwest of Prospect Park. Its boundaries include, among other streets, 20th Street to the northeast, Fifth Avenue to the northwest, 36th and 37th Streets to the southwest, Fort Hamilton Parkway to the south, and McDonald Avenue to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cenotaph</span> Monument to a person whose remains are elsewhere

A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenotaphs honour individuals, many noted cenotaphs are instead dedicated to the memories of groups of individuals, such as the lost soldiers of a country or of an empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brookwood Cemetery</span> Burial ground in Surrey, England

Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westminster Hall and Burying Ground</span> Historic site in Baltimore, Maryland, US

Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is a graveyard and former church located at 519 West Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is currently part of the grounds of the University of Maryland's School of Law. It occupies the southeast corner of West Fayette and North Greene Street on the west side of downtown Baltimore. It sits across from the Baltimore VA hospital and is the burial site of Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849). The complex was declared a national historic district in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martyrs' Lane</span> Cemetery in Baku, Azerbaijan

Martyrs' Lane or Alley of Martyrs, formerly known as the Kirov Park, is a cemetery and memorial in Baku, Azerbaijan dedicated to those killed by the Soviet Army during Black January 1990 and in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1988–1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Hills National Cemetery</span> Veterans cemetery in Meade County, South Dakota

Black Hills National Cemetery, originally named Fort Meade National Cemetery, is a United States National Cemetery near Sturgis, South Dakota. Named after the nearby Black Hills, over 29,000 interments of military veterans and their family members have taken place since its founding in 1948. It is administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which also operates the nearby Fort Meade National Cemetery. It was the first—and currently, the only active—national cemetery in South Dakota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crown Hill National Cemetery</span> Historic veterans cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

Crown Hill National Cemetery is a U.S. National Cemetery located in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. It was established in 1866 on Section 10 within Crown Hill Cemetery, a privately owned cemetery on the city's northwest side. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Cemetery encompasses 1.4 acres (0.57 ha) and serves as a burial site for Union soldiers who fought in the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toowong Cemetery</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Toowong Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery on the corner of Frederick Street and Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was established in 1866 and formally opened in 1875. It is Queensland's largest cemetery and is located on forty-four hectares of land at the corner of Frederick Street and Mount Coot-tha Road approximately four and a half kilometres west of Brisbane. It was previously known as Brisbane General Cemetery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 December 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohlsdorf Cemetery</span> Cemetery in Hamburg, Germany

Ohlsdorf Cemetery in the Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemetery are civilians, but there is also a large number of victims of war from various nations. The cemetery notably includes the Old Hamburg Memorial Cemetery with the graves of many notable Hamburg citizens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loudon Park Cemetery</span> Historic privately owned cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland

Loudon Park Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. It was incorporated on January 27, 1853, on 100 acres (40 ha) of the site of the "Loudon" estate, previously owned by James Carey, a local merchant and politician. The entrance to the cemetery is located at 3620 Wilkens Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brandwood End Cemetery</span>

Brandwood End Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Brandwood ward of Birmingham, England.

Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cemeteries and crematoria in Brighton and Hove</span>

The English coastal city of Brighton and Hove, made up of the formerly separate Boroughs of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, has a wide range of cemeteries throughout its urban area. Many were established in the mid-19th century, a time in which the Victorian "cult of death" encouraged extravagant, expensive memorials set in carefully cultivated landscapes which were even recommended as tourist attractions. Some of the largest, such as the Extra Mural Cemetery and the Brighton and Preston Cemetery, were set in particularly impressive natural landscapes. Brighton and Hove City Council, the local authority responsible for public services in the city, manages seven cemeteries, one of which also has the city's main crematorium. An eighth cemetery and a second crematorium are owned by a private company. Many cemeteries are full and no longer accept new burials. The council maintains administrative offices and a mortuary at the Woodvale Cemetery, and employs a coroner and support staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Woolos Cemetery</span> Cemetery in Newport, Wales

St Woolos Cemetery is the main cemetery in the city of Newport, Wales situated one mile to the west of the Church in Wales cathedral known by the same name. It contains four chapels, and various ornate memorials dating back to the early Victorian period, and was the first municipally constructed cemetery in England and Wales. It remains in use to this present day as the main cemetery for burials in Newport, and has been used as a filming location for the BBC series, Doctor Who. The cemetery is listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cholera pit</span>

A cholera pit was a burial place used in a time of emergency when the disease was prevalent. Such mass graves were often unmarked and were placed in remote or specially selected locations. Public fears of contagion, lack of space within existing churchyards and restrictions placed on the movements of people from location to location also contributed to their establishment and use. Many of the victims were poor and lacked the funds for memorial stones, however memorials were sometimes added at a later date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presbyterian Burying Ground</span> Cemetery in Washington, D.C, United States

The Presbyterian Burying Ground, also known as the Old Presbyterian Burying Ground, was a historic cemetery which existed between 1802 and 1909 in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was one of the most prominent cemeteries in the city until the 1860s. Burials there tapered significantly after Oak Hill Cemetery was founded nearby in 1848. The Presbyterian Burying Ground closed to new burials in 1887, and about 500 to 700 bodies were disinterred after 1891 when an attempt was made to demolish the cemetery and use the land for housing. The remaining graves fell into extensive disrepair. After a decade of effort, the District of Columbia purchased the cemetery in 1909 and built Volta Park there, leaving nearly 2,000 bodies buried at the site. Occasional human remains and tombstones have been discovered at the park since its construction. A number of figures important in the early history of Georgetown and Washington, D.C., military figures, politicians, merchants, and others were buried at Presbyterian Burying Ground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at the corner of South Street and Anzac Avenue, Harristown, Queensland, Australia. It was surveyed in May 1850, and is one of the earliest surviving cemeteries in Queensland. The cemetery is large, containing over 45,000 burials. It has been run by the City of Toowoomba, and its successor the Toowoomba Regional Council, since 1974; previously it was run by government-appointed trustees. Many prominent people associated with the Darling Downs are buried in the cemetery, and all sections of the cemetery remain in use. Notable Toowoomba stonemasons R. C. Ziegler & Son, Henry Bailey, Walter Bruce, John H. Wagner and the Bruce Brothers are all associated with monuments within the cemetery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodland Cemetery (Cleveland)</span> Historic rural cemetery in Ohio

Woodland Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located at 6901 Woodland Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Established in 1853, it became Cleveland's main public cemetery after its founding and remained so for the next half-century. It fell into extreme disrepair, and most of its outstanding architectural features dismantled or demolished. In 1986, Woodland Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery has since undergone restoration.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Laboring Sons Cemetery" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "In Frederick, Past Injustices Vex the Present". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Smith, C. Fraser (2008). Here Lies Jim Crow: Civil Rights in Maryland. JHU Press. ISBN   978-0801888076.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Reclaiming The Hallowed Ground Of The Laboring Sons – Last Rites | WYPR". programs.wypr.org. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Lee, William O. Jr. (2003). Bill Lee Remembers: A Chronicle of Twentieth Century Black Life in Frederick, Maryland. Frederick, Maryland: Diversions Publications Inc. pp. 44–46. ISBN   097437153X.
  6. JTHG. "Laboring Sons Memorial Ground – Frederick Monument & Memorials – The Journey Through Hallowed Ground". www.hallowedground.org. Retrieved 2016-05-14.
  7. 1 2 3 Meachum, Roy (17 January 2000). "Belated Notice". Frederick Post. p. 6.
  8. 1 2 Walker, Edward W.; Makel, Mrs. John J (17 September 1948). "Notice to the Lot-holders and Persons Interested in the Laboring Sons Cemetery and Members of the Beneficial Society of the Laboring Sons of Frederick City". The News Post. Frederick, Maryland. p. 6.
  9. Wait, Patience (16 December 1999). "Forgotten History returns to light". The Gazette. Frederick, Maryland.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Miller, Steve (13 July 2002). "Memorial plans for park back on track". Frederick News Post. p. A-12.
  11. 1 2 Miller, Steve (5 February 2000). "Names of buried uncovered". Frederick News Post. p. A-1.
  12. 1 2 3 Symonds, Andrew (15 January 2003). "Cemetery dedication today". The Frederick News Post. p. A-9.