Minutes of the Friends of the Geer Cemetery 05/09/2005
In attendance were: Mr. R.K. Bryant (Chair), Mrs. Carrie Mc Nair (Research Chair), Mrs. Chantae Bohannon-Mangum ( Research committee member, and cemetery stakeholder) and Jessica Thompson Eustice (Secretary).
5:00 pm This May meeting in the Auditorium at the Durham County Library was called to order by Chairman Bryant.
Minutes were not available from the April Meeting. Jessica had not attended that meeting. Members of the FOCG expressed condolences to the Eustice Family on the loss of Russell C. Eustice.
Business Items:
Our Chairman, Mr. Bryant asked if someone had checked with Frank Hyman to see if he drafted letter to City Council about ownership, Perpetual Care and Maintenance of the Geer Cemetery. An email from Mr. Hyman was mentioned. That Email is pasted to the end of these minutes. Jessica agreed to follow through with Frank Hyman.
Contract with TROSA and Continuation of Clean up/Maintenance of the Cemetery:
It was asked: When and where were TROSA going to have their final clearing of the Geer Cemetery – It was recalled that John L. Bright had said that they had already done the final clearing.
Discussion:
Nathaniel McLaughlin lives on Beechwood off Cornwalls…He could design and build a brick sign for the Geer Cemetery – He wants to know where it will be placed – it could be a sign similar to the one placed at the Boys Club – set in brick so that it could not be easily damaged with a map and dates. The idea of a curved sign that could be seen from both Camden and Colonial near the Cemetery Lane entrance was raised.
Chairman Bryant mentioned again that we need to create a grid of the cemetery – Jessica will return the original of the grid plan to Chairman Bryant.….Mrs. McNair produced a copy of the grid from a previous month’s minutes.
Wills and Deeds to Geer :
As the discussion continued, Chantae Bohannon-Mangum presented copies of the 1877 Deed to the Geer Cemetery which she had retrieved from Nat Clark, volunteer genealogist at the Orange County Library.
Discussion:
Examining these copies, Mr. Bryant and Mrs. McNair considered the question of who Willis Moore, John Daniels, and Nelson Mitchell could be. We reviewed the burial list provided by The Research Committee, and found that there was a Nelson Mitchell buried in the Geer Cemetery. He lived from 1855-1931. There were also some people with the last name Moore buried there: Ruby/ Mary/ Infant/ Moore, April 6 1930. Someone remembered a Roland Mitchell on Taylor Street. Also someone remembered a Willis Mitchell on Umstead and Moore St. in back of the old Hillside. I noted “Mason name changed to Sawyer.” But I am not sure what this note means. Any help would be much appreciated.
Mr. Bryant mentioned that there was a John O’Daniel who lived across the street from C.C. Spaulding
[Jessica recalls these details from the research done in 2002 at the Orange County Library by Dr. Bird Stasz:
Orange County Marriage Records:
- Solomon Geer-Mariah Mason: 02/02/1873 (b)
- Thomas Geer-Cornelia Bragg: 02/28/1874 (?)
- Walker Geer-Lane Dixson: 05/28/1870 (?)
- John W. Geer-Harriet Leathers: 04/11/1876 (?)
- Nelson Mitchell-Mattie Moore: 12/26/1878 (b)]
Also discussed was the Peaks Cemetery, and some important memories came to light regarding this:
The Peaks Cemetery is located near some warehouses in the woods off Ellis Road, between Briggs Ave. and Ellis Road. (American Tobacco used these warehouses.)
*Mrs. Elizabeth Rollins name came up (She thought her father was the last person buried in the Peaks Cemetery; the hearse had to park on the opposite side of the fence, and the coffin was lifted over the fence to be buried in the Peaks Cemetery).
Cemetery maps are in the N.C. room at the Durham County Library. There is a book with all the tombstones—burials…
Mr. R.K. Bryant Jr. recalled a meeting (in the 1970’s?) at the Methodist Church near Bennett Place:
Something about :
…Jean B. Anderson …Hildegard Ryals … said that they needed someone working with them on Durham Natural and Cultural Resources…to discuss cemeteries…he was supposed to go to White Rock’s District Meeting and that’s when Elizabeth Rollins told him about her father*…they were pinpointing sites all around the County…a map of Cultural Resources…
Elizabeth Pullman
George Pyne
Jane Ch…city planner…Guess road and Rob…Carpenter Fletcher Road…Bahama…the Turrentine Cemetery
Sparkmans lives next to Mobile off of Elm St. and Sparkman Alley
Committee Reports:
Research Committee Discussion:
It was recalled that there was something in the January 1900 Sun Paper about the Colored Cemetery …. These archives are most likely located in the Durham County Library Library …
With so few members present, it was agreed that we would start the meeting informally by perusing photographs and burial lists. Yours-Truly attempted to record the discussion as accurately as I could, but I missed some details. If there are errors in this information, they are mine.
Sallie R. Husband (we were looking at a photo of her headstone) died on Jan 15, 1905. Mr. R.K. Bryant Jr. informed the group that when his grandmother Margaret Ruffin started the prayer meetings of White Rock Baptist Church, she started them in the home of Sallie R. Husband. This home was located at the intersection of Pettigrew and Lyon Street, where the John Avery Boys Club is now located. She was the mother of Madge Hargrave, and Margaret Holeman. Madge’s grandmother was a Tucker.
Other names mentioned in this discussion:
Mrs. Harry
Rosa Hester
Solomon Justice
Robert Justice
John Justice
Lewis Justice
Peakes
Marion Haskins Gibson
Mac MacDougald’s daughter
Michaux
Hesse Mitchell – 84
Thaddeus Mitchell
Joseph Mitchell – someone has a picture with White Rock’s Band.
MacIntyre
Mrs. Merritt and her daughter
Mr. Magette
Mr. Barbee
Mr. Bigelow
Williams Family at New Hope Church
The Hills, Williams, Hortons, Perry, Sedalia, Charlotte Hankins Brown
Manie Taylor Geer – Nephew Bernard
Mamie Holliday – White Rock –lived on Cecil Street
Major Geer
Michael McNair
Charlton McNair
Allen Building 1968 – 69
Howard Fuller – Superintendent of Schools in Milwalkee who came to Durham in 1968 and organized the Malcolm-X University – some black parents whose teenage children had wonderful scholarships to go to Duke University felt compelled to send their children elsewhere because of the distraction
.Mr. R.K. Bryant recalled his teacher Anna Easter Brown who started the AKA sorority at Howard University. She is the one who taught forbidden black history by posting pictures of black leaders around her classroom.
Yours-Truly brought up the (Now closed and abandoned) walking bridge (near Mr. Bryant’s home on Bernice Street) over the Durham Freeway. It was mentioned by our chairman Mr. R. Chairman Bryant Bryant Jr. that the walking bridge is to be moved and reopened:
there was a meeting – I wasn’t clear whether it was a Trails Commission meeting or another meeting…something was said about District 2 – a City Council Meeting – something about Hwy. 70 there were only 3 people there – The next words I was able to catch in writing were: Trails Commission Meeting – People walking on Pettigrew – Department of Transportation – Master Plan – Allocated – Beth Timson – Parks and Recreation – A plan to encourage more walking...
Also mentioned was the proposed DPS Vocational High School to be located in the Holton School Building. Instruction in bricklaying is to be offered there.
Jessica’s Proposal:
Then Jessica presented her letter of intent and request for help with her plan to dedicate her life to the Geer Cemetery (its role and symbolism in American History) to the Committee members present…
Mr. R. K. Bryant Jr. suggested to Jessica that she flesh out the details of her request and her idea, and present the idea to the committee again when more members were present. This she agreed to do.
Mr. Bryant mentioned that he would like to share his 1926 White Rock Church Bulletin with the right historian.
It was gently suggested that next time we meet we might ought to split into two groups: the Practical Preservation group, and the Historical Research group so that we can get more done practically to preserve the Cemetery.
Minutes simply submitted as is by: Jessica Thompson Eustice
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Frank Hyman’s Email:
Hello all ,hope everyone is well.
I won't be able to attend tonight’s meeting, but wanted to offer a suggestion for a course of action.
Given that the TROSA contract for maintenance has run it's course or almost run its course we need to ensure that their work won't be in vain and the cemetery overrun by vines and weeds and litter in the future.
Also given our limited availability of time, as far as I know we haven't been able to secure sure funding from grants or other sources. (please let me know if I am wrong about this)
Given those issues it may be wise on our parts to send a letter to council members asking them to take ownership of Geer Cemetery or at least to continue providing maintenance for the site.
I've had conversations with Eugene Brown, Diane Catotti, Cora Cole-McFadden and Howard Clement about Geer Cemetery. To each of them I've expressed our belief based on our research that Geer Cemetery seemed to function as the de facto Black cemetery (without government funding) that complemented the White cemetery (with government funding) of Maplewood during the segregation era.
I didn't ask any of them for a hard commitment but I did ask for their gut reaction to the idea of the city taking ownership and/or responsibility for maintaining Geer based on the social justice aspect and all four felt favorably disposed in that direction. In fact Howard Clement said that if we provided him with a letter asking for that support from the city based on our analysis, he would shepherd our request through the council process.
If we do choose to send such a request I think it is important to emphasize that the request is based on the social justice issue as fairness to past and present tax payers both black and white and NOT to emphasize the additional points about preserving open space, etc. There are many other cemeteries in need of maintenance and support that would be valuable as open space and for other reasons. The council would be loathe I think to open the door to taking care of Geer as an abandoned cemetery on the basis of open space, etc. because it opens them up to requests from numerous other groups that they would then have a hard time either accommodating or turning down, leaving them in the position of wanting to turn us down as well in order to be fair.
In other words, if we want to give the council a reason to take care of Geer Cemetery that allows them to avoid opening the floodgates to other requests, I believe we need to focus on the one very serious thing that sets Geer Cemetery apart from other abandoned cemeteries--the social justice issue.
Do folks share that sense of things?
Sorry I can't be with you tonight, but if you choose to follow a course as I'm suggesting I would be happy to help with drafting of such a letter, if you'd like.
take care, Frank Hyman
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