Olivewood Cemetery
Olivewood Cemetery, in Houston, Texas, lies near a bend in White Oak Bayou, along the rail line to Chaney Junction, where the First and Sixth wards meet just northwest of downtown. The 6-acre (24,000 m2) cemetery is an historic resting place for many freed slaves and some of Houston’s earliest black residents.
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[edit] History
In 1875, the land, which had previously been used for slave burials, was purchased by Richard Brock, Houston's first black alderman. It opened as a cemetery for black Methodists in 1877.[1] When Olivewood was platted, it was the first African-Americans burial ground within the Houston city limits.[2]
Many 19th century influential African-Americans were buried in the cemetery, including Reverend Elias Dibble, first minister of Trinity United Methodist Church; Reverend Wade H. Logan, also a minister of the church; and James Kyle, a blacksmith; as well as Richard Brock.[3]
The cemetery includes more than 700 family plots around a graceful, elliptical drive that originated at an ornate entry gate. It contains graves of both the well-to-do and those who died in poverty; therefore, the grave markers run the gamut from elaborate Victorian monuments to simple, handmade headstones. Burials at Olivewood Cemetery continued through the 1960s.[4]
In 2003, after decades of neglect and abandonment, the "Descendants of Olivewood," a nonprofit organization, was established to take guardianship of the cemetery, "to provide care and to protect its historical significance."[2]
Olivewood was designated an Historic Texas Cemetery. By 2010 water and vandals threatened to damage graves in a portion of the cemetery.[5]
[edit] Hauntings
Over the years, there have been numerous reports of mysterious after-dark sightings and strange movements within the graveyard.[2]
Cathi Bunn, a paranormal investigator, began exploring Olivewood in 1999. One moonlit midnight, Bunn said she videotaped the ghost of Mary White, who was buried in 1888, hovering above her headstone.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Aulbach, L.F. "Ghosts of Houston's Past Haunt the Cemeteries on Buffalo Bayou". Buffalo Bayou - An Echo of Houston's Wilderness Beginnings (2001). http://www.hal-pc.org/~lfa/BB01.html. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
- ^ a b c Perry, J. "Grave undertaking: efforts to preserve earliest black cemetery". Houston Heritage, City Savvy (Online Ed. 2005). Archived from the original on 2007-04-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20070415070243/http://www.houstontx.gov/hr/savvypages/archives/fall05/fall05_cemetery.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
- ^ "Black Cemetery Preservation/Tombstone Transcription". Projects, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc. (AAHGS - H-Town, 2003-2004). http://htown.aahgs.org/projects.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
- ^ "Preservation Update". Greater Houston Preservation Alliance. Archived from the original on 2006-12-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20061208053148/http://www.ghpa.org/update/index.html. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
- ^ Gonzalez, J.R. "Help needed to rescue threatened graves near downtown." Houston Chronicle. May 17, 2010. Retrieved on May 17, 2010.
- ^ "Historic and Haunted Olivewood Cemetery". Cemeteries, The Ghastly Ghost Hunter. http://www.ghastlyghosthunter.com/Historic_and_Haunted_Olivewood_Cemetery.html. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
[edit] External links
