Dozens uncover history at Zuber
Organizers want to get the slave burial grounds listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dozens of volunteers rolled up their sleeves, donned work gloves and picked up power tools and hand tools Saturday to help clean up the historic African-American Zuber Cemetery.
The cleanup even drew Anthony Jackson, an Atlanta businessman who heard about the event from a client. He went online to read about the cemetery and just showed up Saturday for the work day.
“This is awesome, the community engagement, a taste of history. I think it’s special,” Jackson said. “I knew nothing about it prior to Friday, but now I am enriched, enlightened and engaged.”
‘This is awesome, the community engagement, a taste of history. I think it’s special.’ Anthony Jackson, volunteer
Janis Boone said there could be as many as 500 remains scattered across the old cemetery. The Boones are leading an effort to have the property listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Solomon Boone, one of those who has spearheaded the cleanup and resurrection of the old cemetery for the past 10 years, said his mother and many of her ancestors are buried in the old cemetery which is on a narrow wooded lane off Willow Road in between Rome and Shannon.
Years ago, an adjacent property owner dumped truck loads of trash in the dirt entrance road to the cemetery. Boone said he was prepared to go to court to force the man to remove the trash and allow access to the cemetery.
While a large swath of the property has been cleaned up, much remains to be done as headstones can be seen far off in heavy undergrowth and small utility line type flags mark depressions in the ground where volunteers believe there are probably unmarked remains.
Ellen Watters Sullivan got involved in the project in recent years after hearing about the cleanup and recalling that her father, a reporter from the Atlanta Journal, brought her to the cemetery decades ago while reporting on the Civil Rights movement.
Col. Joseph Watters of the Hermitage plantation was her great-great-great-greatgrandfather.
“He enslaved (many) of them. So my father, when he brought me here, said, ‘remember this place, it’s where you are from,’ and he never wanted to talk about it again,” Sullivan said. Saturday, she too was a part of the cleanup effort to return a sense of dignity and significance to the many who were laid to rest at Zuber.
First-year students at Berry College picked up lessons in local history that they are not likely to read about in any of their history classes on campus as they helped with the clean up.
Cambell Liska, a first-year student from Texas, said participating in the clean-up of an old African-American cemetery, with many of those interred there believed to have been slaves, was not something that she could have imagined. “It’s so cool to see all of these headstones and the dates on many of them,” Liska said.
David Tran, a first-year student at Berry from Duluth, said he was impacted by a headstone which read “Lost, but not forgotten.”
“Remembering these people who are so horribly forgotten has touched me,” Tran said
“This is a great experience for everyone, especially in their first year helping out with the community,” said Julianne Murdock from Cartersville.
Janis Boone said that, to this point, the oldest headstone that she is aware of dates to 1832.
“As we get it cleaned up a
‘(Col. Joseph Watters) enslaved (many) of them. So my father, when he brought me here, said, “remember this place, it’s where you are from,” and he never wanted to talk about it again.’ Ellen Watters Sullivan
little bit more we’ll be able to see more.”
Former Floyd County commissioner John Mayes was working a chainsaw to take down small- to mediumsized trees that have grown up through some of the possible grave sites.
“People need to be able to see what’s up here,” Mayes said. “I believe we can get more interest in the cemetery if we can get it cleaned up so people can actually realize it is a cemetery. Just look around and you’ll see depressions everywhere.”