From the TX-LOOSE-ENDS LIST.... -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [TX-Loose-Ends-Column] History Uncovered - Technology helps volunteers find unmarked grave sites Resent-Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:13:14 -0600 Resent-From: [email protected] Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 09:13:07 -0700 (PDT) From: Lynna Kay Shuffield <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Houston Chronicle - This Week - Aldine/Northside - 29 June 2005 History Uncovered - Technology helps volunteers find unmarked grave sites Evergreen's past is revelaed by moder means By BETTY L. MARTIN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Technology is being used to locate — after years of speculation — unmarked grave sites possibly on the former plantation grounds of the Fifth Ward. "Until you have some proof, until it's scientifically proven, it's interesting, but not fact," said W.W. "Woody" Jones of Project Respect Inc., an organization dedicated to researching and preserving black cemeteries. "Let us do the scientific research and get the data so that we really know what's there." Jones, an independent consultant at Prairie View A&M, is assisting several geologists and volunteers from businesses who are surveying grave sites in Evergreen Negro Cemetery, a former cotton plantation, at the corner of Market Street and Lockwood. He and others decided to investigate Evergreen after students at Phyllis Wheatley High School and other teenagers participating in the Fifth Ward Enrichment Program wrote letters to politicians last year showing their interest in the cemetery and calling for its preservation. Jones said that through a blend of technology, used by geologists in finding oil and gas deposits under the earth's surface, and research of documents and oral histories, the team of volunteers and students can establish a database or template to be used in funding preservation projects at historic black cemeteries throughout Texas. Mark Everett of Texas A&M University and Carl Pierce of Pierce Geophysical Services have been setting up the radar equipment usually used in detecting hydrocarbons, Jones said. "What they do is to select a particular section that we are going to try and analyze, starting at the outer edge of the property, getting one line of data across the property so that we're able to see the underground graves as lines of data on the computer screen," Jones said. Some of the older tombstones in the cemetery bear the design of chain links, which signified the grave sites of slaves. Assigning different colors to soil, clay, sandy loam and the water table, scientists will be able to see if there is space in the middle that could be an unmarked grave. 'Seeing' graves "These people didn't buy vaults," Jones said. "Most of the coffins were wooden. As it decayed, with thousands of pounds of dirt on it, the grave site compresses down to 2- to 5-inches thick, above or below or right in the middle of the water table, so we see on the screen these different things expressed as lines." Jones began Project Respect in 1995, the year he worked with former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier's administration to change Texas law, giving nonprofit organizations the right to have access to the state's estimated 3,000 neglected grave sites for restoration and preservation purposes. "Up until 1995, you were basically trespassing to go on these properties. There was no way to rehabilitate them," Jones said. "We wanted to make it economically feasible to do the projects and the law gives nonprofit organizations the ability to petition district court to take control, to take possession of these properties to restore them." Most of the grave sites on Evergreen's eight acres, about two city blocks, date back to the late 1800s through World War II, but a few are older. The oldest known so far appears to date back to 1828, but time has eroded the tombstone. "We suspect it was 1828, but we need to get it to a lab and do a laser," Jones said. Jones said Evergreen, like nearby Olivewood Cemetery, could hold important historical significance. He was working in Olivewood, but decided to focus on Evergreen after students at Wheatley and in the Fifth Ward Enrichment Program wrote Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee last year to ask for materials to help clean the cemetery. Dion Thomas was an M.B. Smiley sophomore when he wrote the commissioner June 30, 2004, describing the cemetery's condition while on a field trip with the 2004 Fifth Ward Enrichment Summer Program. "We saw tombstones broken and trashed, and there was trash all over the ground. I am writing to ask if you would help us make our community better. Like, one of the tombstones said, 'gone but not forgotten,' (but) that person is forgotten." Another student in that summer program, Tyler London, described in his letter to Lee tombstones sinking into the ground and grass that had not been cut in years. "Commissioner Lee, you know that the Buffalo Soldiers are buried there, so please, please get someone or some people to get this graveyard cleaned up, because some of my ancestors might be buried there — and some of yours, too." "They (the students) sent these letters that were circulated to a number of different politicians and it was the inspiration of these kids that really got their attention," Jones said. The students volunteered to cut grass and clean the debris from the cemetery at the beginning of last school year. Their efforts helped focus attention on the cemetery and attract other volunteers from Project Respect, the Houston Geological Society, Keep Houston Beautiful, the Cooperative Extension Program at Prairie View A&M University and businesses volunteers, said Margaret Fitzgerald, Wheatley's senior coordinator last year. Community effort Throughout the school year, Fitzgerald met with vocational teacher Diane Singleton, and their students at Evergreen. In April, Conoco-Phillips brought in volunteers to build the fence, and Jones got volunteers from the Houston Geological Society to survey the cemetery's map. The Wheatley students' interest in Evergreen really kicked off when they read the inscriptions on the tombstones. "We'd read them as we moved the weeds back," said Charles Williams, a licensed social worker with the program. "What really touched our hearts was the one for Helen Armistead, who only lived six months, born and died in 1928. And the ones with the chain lengths, the people born into slavery." It will be good to find out who is buried at Evergreen and to let their descendents know where their ancestors are buried, Williams said, and to have a ceremony when the work at Evergreen has been completed. "It's a beautiful feeling to see the total community coming together and getting involved from schools, institutions, other projects, because people care," he said. Lynna Kay Shuffield - P. O. Box 16604 - Houston, Texas 77222 'Our Loose Ends' Genealogy Column http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/COLUMN-001.htm Milam County TXGenWeb - http://www.geocities.com/milamco/ San Jacinto County TXGenWeb http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/SANJAC-01.htm ==== TX-LOOSE-ENDS Mailing List ==== "Our Loose Ends" Genealogy Column Website at: http://www.geocities.com/lks_friday/COLUMN-001.htm