Draft Cemetery Survey.pdf

GRAVE IDENTIFICATION SURVEY,

FORT LEE ADAMS ROUNDABOUT

Prince George County, Virginia

Project: VA-A-AD-JPR(1) Contract Number GS10F0230N

Report submitted to:

Federal Highway Administration - Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division • 21400 Ridgetop Circle •

Sterling, Virginia 20166

Report prepared by:

New South Associates • 6150 East Ponce de Leon Avenue • Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083

Hugh B. Matternes – Principal Investigator

Hugh Matternes, Principal Investigator and Co-Author David Price, Historian and Co-Author

Sarah Lowry, Remote Sensing Specialist and Co-Author

July 13, 2010 • Draft Report

New South Associates Technical Report 1890

GRAVE IDENTIFICATION SURVEY, FORT LEE ADAMS ROUNDABOUT,

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA

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ABSTRACT

This investigation addressed the location of an unmarked cemetery on property currently owned by Prince George County, adjacent to U.S. Army Fort Lee Military Reservation in eastern Virginia.

Historical research indicated that the burial ground was associated with the Laboring Sisters of the Vine Burial Association who used it as a cemetery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Open, wooded, paved and wet conditions in the roughly 1.3-acre project required the use of reconnaissance survey, ground penetrating radar, penetrometer, and cadaver dog survey methods. Relic fences and property boundary markers indicated where the probable cemetery property boundaries were located for two of the three original sides. Ground features could not verify the eastern side of the original parcel. Thirty-seven potential burial sites were identified in the project area. These were found both outside and within the suggested cemetery property boundaries, implying that graves may not have been segregated to the original cemetery area.

Future management of the cemetery and related grounds should be prepared to address boundary uncertainties and grave placement outside of these margins.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project was the result of considerably more people than those listed as authors on this report and their help was greatly appreciated. Several people contributed to the background history research on the project area. Elizabeth Jordan at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR) provided contact information for key individuals involved in the project and research ideas. Joanna Wilson Green helped coordinate map and documentary research at the VDHR.

Bryce Stanley, Staff Archaeologist at Fort Lee, provided his initial chain of title research and maps for the project area, which greatly aided in the completion of the work. Special thanks to Carol Marks Bowman, Executive Director of the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center, and Lucious Edwards, Head of Special Collections & Archives at Virginia State University, both of whom provided general background information on the county and its cemeteries. Raleigh Cook at the Virginia Department of Transportation provided historic aerial photographs of the project area. Appreciation also goes to the staff of the Library of Virginia and the Petersburg Public Library for providing access to local history resources for Prince George County. Staff of the Prince George County Registrar Office provided great assistance with chain of title research.

Completion of the project entailed the collaboration of a variety of specialists. David Price, M.A.

addressed the project's historical research. Hugh Matternes, Ph.D. and Valerie Davis, M.A., of the New South Associates’ Cemetery Studies Program, conducted the surface reconnaissance, probe survey, and assisted with the cadaver dog survey. Ms. Sherie Gwin and Ms. Connie Kershner of the Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association undertook the cadaver dog portion of the investigation. Shawn Patch, M.A. of the New South Associates’ Remote Sensing Program provided his ground penetrating radar expertise and supervised total station mapping of the project area.

In-field support was received from several local agencies. Amy Wood of the Fort Lee Regional Archaeological Curation Facility acted as liaison with the Military Reservation, insuring that clearance, access and project boundaries were understood by all. We were especially thankful in her ability to have the transmission line corridor bush hogged for us almost immediately. Mr. Ryan Kimberly and Dr. Owen Lindauer of the Federal Highway Administration provided on-site guidance and their impressions of the proposed construction project. Joanna Wilson Green and Ron Grayson of Virginia Department of Historic Resources also provided assistance and patiently listened to us complain about the yellow jackets.

Support was also received from within New South Associates. The project was managed by Dr.

J.W. Joseph and administration issues tackled by Yulounda Ralls and Gina Mims. Sarah Lowry, M.A. of the New South Associates’ Remote Sensing Program generated all electronic maps of the project area and assisted in the interpretation of the GPR results. Brierly Davis served as field intern, lending hand throughout the project. The report was edited by Jennifer Wilson and assembled by Lis Cap and Rebecca Brown. Additional graphics were built by Tracey Fedor. A well-deserved "Thanks Y'all!!" is offered to all who helped.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................iii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLE ............................................................................................................................... v

I. INTRODUCTION

Project Area

II. THE HISTORIC CONTEXT

Brief History Of Prince George County Settlement Eighteenth-Century Growth Nineteenth Century Twentieth Century Project Area History African-American Burial Customs and Benevolent Societies

III. METHODS

Historical Research Archaeological Field Methods

Surface Reconnaissance Penetrometer (Probe) Survey Search and Rescue (Cadaver Dog) Survey Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Survey

IV. SURVEY RESULTS

Past Property Lines

V. CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES CITED

APPENDIX A: AUTHORS' RESUMES

APPENDIX B: PENETROMETER SOIL COMPACTION DATA

APPENDIX C: AMPLITUDE SLICE MAPS

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Fort Lee Adams Roundabout Project Area Figure 2. Virginia Department of Transportation Plot Map Showing Location of Potter's Field Figure 3. 1892 Plat Map Showing Tinsley Farm and Cemetery Parcel Figure 4. 1920 Plat Map Showing Cemetery Parcel and Grand Star Lodge Figure 5. 1921 Plat Map Showing Grand Star Lodge as "Colored Society" Figure 6. 1937 Aerial Photograph of Cemetery Parcel Figure 7. 1959 Aerial Photograph of Cemetery Parcel Figure 8. Survey Methods Figure 9. Plan View Map of Project Area Figure 10. Surface Features in Project Area Figure 11. Soil Compaction Map Figure 12. Potential Burial Area Adjacent to Project Area

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1. GPR Survey Grids Table 2. Inventory of Potential Graves

I. INTRODUCTION

New South Associates, Inc, (New South) has completed a grave identification survey and site assessment linked to the Fort Lee Adams Gate Roundabout in Prince George County, Virginia. This work was done on response to a scope of work entitled Fort Lee Adams Gate Grave Identification Survey on behalf of Federal Highway Administration as part of an environmental assessment (EA) being prepared for the project. The project received funds and sponsorship from the Federal Highway Administration and U.S. Army Fort Lee, as well as the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and the work was completed in pursuant of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (36 CFR Part 800), as amended, and Section 4(f) of the U.S. Department of Transportation Act of 1966 (23 CFR 774). This survey was intended to provide information leading to the protection and management of the cemetery as a historic resource; a priority defined the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2003:5).

This report describes the fieldwork completed at the site and provides assessments regarding the presence of a cemetery within the project area. It updates and details information in Management Summary, Grave Identification Survey, Fort Lee Adams Roundabout, issued June 28, 2010 by New South.

Fieldwork was completed between June 8 and 11, 2010 and historical research conducted the week of May 30, 2010. The cemetery survey was accomplished in accordance with the provisions outlined in the National Historic Preservation Act (36 CFR Part 800), the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (2006) draft policy regarding burial sites, human remains, and funerary objects and in accordance with guidelines addressed in the Commonwealth of Virginia Code

18.2. In addition, this project adhered to additional instructions provided by the contracting officer or the contracting officer's representatives. Since the project did not involve the disturbance or excavation of human remains a permit, as outlined in Commonwealth of Virginia Code 10.1-2305 was not required. The nondestructive and minimally invasive methods used in this investigation also precluded the issuance of state or federal archaeological permits (See Commonwealth of Virginia Code 10.1-2302). Deposition in collections management repository was not required because artifacts or human remains were not collected as a part of this investigation.

The report has been broken into five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the investigation and describes the project area. Chapter 2 provides the results of historical research into the project area and its surroundings. Chapter 3 outlines the methodologies employed during the field investigation and Chapter 4 discusses the field investigation results. Finally, Chapter 5 outlines New South Associates' conclusions about this investigation. Resumes of the authors, penetrometer soil compaction data, and amplitude slice maps are all located in the appendices.

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PROJECT AREA

The project area focused a 1.3-acre parcel with ownership ties to the County of Prince George, Virginia and Commonwealth of Virginia, believed to be the location of an unmarked cemetery.

The approximate center point of this project area was located about 400-feet northwest of the intersection of Adams Avenue and Jefferson Park Road (UTM: 18S 295087.72E 4122690.39N).

Since the exact boundaries of the cemetery were not known at the time of the survey, the survey also extended onto the adjacent federal and U.S. Army/Fort Lee properties and along the existing VDOT Right-of-Way (ROW) in the proposed Area-of-Potential-Effect (APE). Non-intrusive survey techniques were used on both VDOT ROW and Fort Lee locations. The total area treated by the current survey between 1.3 and 2.0 acres.

The project area was bounded on the west by the wooded western side of a transmission line cut inside the Fort Lee Military Reservation, on the east by Jefferson Park Road, to the south by a northwest-southeast aligned abandoned gravel road, and the north side was defined as an east-west line corresponding with the north side of Jovern Drive on the east side of Jefferson Park Road (Figure 1). Wooded areas in the southern portions of the project area were dominated by young to mature adult pines that graded into adult oaks, hickory, and other hardwood trees along the project area's northern side. The under story was lightly vegetated with low-growing brush that included wild grape, Virginia creeper, and smilax. Sunny patches in the forest were densely packed with more opportunistic pioneer plants, namely poison oak, raspberry, and tall grass.

Marshy areas along the northeastern side (near Jovern Drive) exhibited cattails and rushes. While wild life was not specifically observed in the project area, these marshy spots sported numerous crayfish dens. At least three large yellow jacket nests were present within the wooded area. Most of the margin along Jefferson Park Road was covered in a low-trimmed grass lawn. The Fort Lee fence line was also kept clear of forest vegetation. Meadow plants, including Queen Anne's lace, poke, rag weed, sedge, and mullien were noted. Portions of the project area underneath the transmission lines were carpeted in a variety of trimmed grasses.

While soils in the project area were not specifically exposed or explored, exposed areas, particularly along the western side of the project area, exhibited a fine-grained silty loam with moderate clay content. In wooded areas, this was covered by a dense, sometimes up to three-inch thick layer of decaying leaves, pine needles, wood, and other organic matter. In more low-lying areas, this duff lens also contained an appreciable concentration of very fine-grained silt. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Soil Surveys for the project area noted the presence of Aycock silt loam along the western and northern sides of the project area, Slagle sandy loam in the east central aspects, and Emporia fine-grained sandy loam over the southern quarter (USDA n.d.).

In general, the project area lacked any rock. A few river polished granite cobbles were noted in the Fort Lee fence line corridor that paralleled the southern boundary of the project area1. They may represent construction-related manuports or naturally occurring objects emphasizing the soils' fluviomarine depositional environment.

1 No river cobbles were noted inside the project area nor did they appear to be mortuary-related artifacts. No cobbles were collected.

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Figure 1.

Fort Lee Adams Roundabout Project Area

JEFFERSO

N PARK RO

AD

ADAMS AVENUE

JOVERN DRIVE

BO

IL H

ILL RO

A

D

ALLIN ROAD

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GEORGE

Base Source: USGS Topographical Quadrangle; Prince George, VA., 1969 (Photorevised 1981).

GRAVE IDENTIFICATION SURVEY, FORT LEE ADAMS ROUNDABOUT,

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA

VIRGINIAApproximate Project Location of the Fort Lee Cemetery

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Bull Hill Road

There were several indications that the project area had been subjected to different land uses. The roadbed and at least part of the VDOT ROW associated with Jefferson Park Road had been elevated approximately three to eight feet above the project area. The encompassing fill visibly contained gravel, earth, concrete, and asphalt chunks. A layer of gravel had been deposited on the abandoned roadbed that formed the southern boundary of the project area. Passage along the road had formerly been restricted by a metal swing gate and then permanently blocked by erection of a large earth and gravel berm across this roadway. Shallow drainage ditches were noted along both sides of this road. The northern side of the road was lined with an old barbed wire fence.

Another barbed wire fence ran obliquely (northeast-southwest) at a 90-degree angle from a concrete property marker near the junction of the abandoned road and the Fort Lee fence line corridor. Another clearly displaced property marker was observed inside the wood line along Jefferson Park Road. Surface soils underneath the transmission lines were unconsolidated, exhibited numerous tire ruts and an uneven surface, indicative that they had been impacted by heavy equipment in the recent past. Several push piles were visible immediately outside the western side of the project area and again along the wood line forming the eastern boundary of the fence line corridor, within the project area. Trees in the southern portions of the project area were relatively fast-growing pines, and these were considerably less mature than the more mature and slower growing hardwoods observed in more northerly parts. These indicated that grounds associated with the southern part of the study parcel had been open and then allowed to reforest over the past few decades. Hardwood tree growth emphasized that these past activities avoided disturbing the project area's more northerly aspects.

II. THE HISTORIC CONTEXT

The potter’s field cemetery is located at the intersection of Jefferson Park Road (State Route 630) and Adams Avenue, adjacent to the rear (west) entrance to Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia.

The parcel is identified as a potter’s field on a circa 1960 plat map from the VDOT and in county tax records (Figure 2). Based on chain of title research, it appears that the property was used as a potter’s field from 1891 to 1917, when it was owned by an African-American benevolent society called the Laboring Sisters of the Vineyard. No records for this society or its immediate neighbor, the Grand Star Society, were found during research for this report, though census records show that the groups’ trustees were all African-American farmers. In 1917, the Laboring Sisters of the Vineyard sold the property to an individual who appears to have lived there until 1921. In 1933, it was sold at auction to Prince George County, after which it was not maintained and reverted to forest.

BRIEF HISTORY OF PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY

SETTLEMENT

The original Prince George County was established in 1702, almost 100 years after English settlers first explored the area for colonial settlement by the Virginia Company. Originally much larger than it is today, the county was named in honor of Prince George of Denmark, the husband of England’s Queen Anne. Colonial explorers first visited the Prince George and Hopewell areas in May of 1607, when they sailed up the James River to explore the land around its confluence with the Appomattox River in search of a suitable place for permanent settlement. They later chose the site of Jamestown, just down the James River from Prince George. The county’s first English settlements occurred in the northern part of the county in 1613, when Sir Thomas Dale established an indentured servant colony called Bermuda City at the site of present day Hopewell. Not long after Dale’s colony was established, it received its first African population of laborers, whom records show were either slaves, indentured servants, or a mixture of both. From this time on African- and African-American people, both free and enslaved, would form a major portion of the population of Prince George and other surrounding counties (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:2-3).

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the Virginia colony develop into a plantation economy, mostly based on tobacco as its principal cash crop, which was established as an investment opportunity for the Virginia Company’s shareholders. Food crops such as corn, wheat, vegetables, and herbs were also grown to feed the colonists. Early housing consisted of crude post-in-ground dwellings with and without plank floors. These buildings were quick and easy to build, but suffered from exposure to ground moisture. The earliest known stone foundation in the area is that of Abraham Peirsey’s plantation home, Flowerdew Hundred, built between 1624 and 1628 (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:4).

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Figure 2.

Virginia Department of Transportation PlatMap Showing Location of Potter’s Field

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After an initially cautious but friendly reception, the area’s Native American population soon grew angry over the English colonists’ encroachment on their territory. Tensions first flared when Indians unsuccessfully attacked Jamestown in 1607 and the Bermuda Hundred plantation in 1610. After a brief period of peace from 1616 to 1622, during which settlers poured into the colony, war flared again with the 1622 Massacre of colonists by a confederation of regional tribes, including the Powhatan and Algonquin. The coordinated attack killed almost a fourth of the colony’s settlers and was followed by protracted war of attrition that finally ended in the late 1620s when colonists overpowered and wiped out the local tribes. The Powhatans, even after their numbers were deflated due to disease and death, continued to wage war on settlers in the Prince George area through the seventeenth century (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:4-5).

Despite near constant warring with Native Americans, the Virginia Colony and Prince George County region continued to grow. The first district courthouses were established in the county in 1623, one year before King James revoked the Virginia Company’s charter to make Virginia a royal colony. Plantations were reestablished after Massacre of 1622, tobacco flourished, and settlers and indentured servants continued to stream in from England, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Holland, and Africa. Joining them was a large influx of royal gentry from England, known as the Cavaliers, who purchased large landholdings and brought wealth and prestige to the colony (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:6).

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GROWTH

In August 1702, the English House of Burgesses created Prince George County out of the old Charles City district, from the old “corporation” system originally put in place by the Virginia Company.

The county was at first much larger than it is today and contained more than 17 future counties. The northern boundary was the James River and extended south and west indefinitely. The primary market town was City Point, near present Hopewell, where docks exported tobacco and imported other goods for the colony. Tobacco cultivation continued to drive population growth and overall prosperity in the county through the eighteenth century, when colonial Virginia reached its zenith.

Tobacco warehouses and ferries lined both sides of the James and Appomattox rivers, and affluent planters built large plantations complete with Georgian mansions and numerous outbuildings.

Horse racing and breeding was a major entertainment pastime for the elite, and the Church of England continued to grow and dominate the colony’s religious life. Several small villages and towns took shape in the county as well, including Broadway, Garysville, Burrowsville, Petersburg, and Blandford (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:8-10).

The Stage Road (now referred to as Adams Road), near where the project area cemetery is located, also developed during the colonial period. It is one of the oldest highways in the county and connected Richmond and Petersburg with Surry County, and passed through the county from east to west. The present state routes 10 and 106 roughly follow the historic road. The road bordered Brandon, Flowerdew Hundred, and Ward’s plantations, and passed over Powell’s and Ward’s creeks, all of which were major population centers (Works Progress Administration n.d.:78).

Prince George County was mostly removed from the actions of the Revolutionary War, though there was a small cannon battery set up at Hood’s Bluff on the James River to defend against British incursions; however, it never saw much action. In 1781, the forces of Lord Cornwallis marched through the county along the Stage Road in pursuit of Lafayette, past the present day town of Prince George (Works Progress Administration n.d.:78).

NINETEENTH CENTURY

As the nation transitioned to independence following the Revolution, Prince George County continued to develop its local political institutions. Residents began with the planning of a new courthouse, prison, and the consolidation of previous independent communities into the town of Petersburg. The courthouse was finished in 1810 and a Superior Court operated there by 1818.

City Point on the James River, aided by the construction of a new railroad line connecting it to Petersburg, was by 1835 the county’s largest town with a number of houses, grocery stores, a school, and hospital. By 1850, the county had a population of 3,188 white and free people of color, as well as 4,408 slaves (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:11).

The Civil War had a major impact on all of Virginia, but the Prince George County and Petersburg area saw little action until the last two years of 1864-65, when the war arrived with ferocity. After General Ulysses S. Grant was appointed commander of Union forces in the spring of 1864, he launched a series of battles against Confederate General Robert E. Lee around Richmond called the Overland Campaign. When he lost the battle of Cold Harbor that summer, Grant abandoned the idea of capturing Richmond through direct assault and instead concentrated on nearby Petersburg.

Located only 25 miles to the south of Richmond, Petersburg was a major supply center with five railroad lines, key roads, and water access to the James River (Wilson 2009; National Park Service 2007).

Beginning in June of 1864, Grant’s forces fought through Prince George County to encircle Petersburg’s defenses in a nine-month siege to cut off Richmond’s supply lines from the south. The siege was the longest in American warfare, and also notable for the early use of trench warfare in which Union troops built an extensive network of trenches around Petersburg. After a humiliating Union defeat at the Battle of the Crater, Grant finally broke Lee’s defenses in April of 1865 and Lee was forced to evacuate the city. Lee’s ultimate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse happened just one week later (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:14-19; National Park Service 2007).

After the Civil War, Prince George residents struggled to rebuild their ravaged community. The county court was reestablished in a new building in 1865. The county’s population of former planters and small farmers adjusted to a new way of life without slave labor, and newly freed slaves joined the already large population of free blacks in and around Petersburg. Farmers grew wheat, corn, tobacco, and cotton, though they eventually relied more on peanuts toward the end of the nineteenth century (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:20).

TWENTIETH CENTURY

The turn of the twentieth century brought a large influx of Czech and Slovak immigrants to Prince George County. Many of these people had originally settled in the upper Midwest but were attracted to the county’s abundant cheap land and hospitable climate. Though the local population of English stock discriminated against them, they managed to establish many prosperous farms and communities in what would come to be known as New Bohemia (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:21).

In addition to the county’s ongoing agricultural economy, two other major employers impacted the area’s history in the twentieth century. The first employer was the 1914 Du Pont factory in Hopewell that orginally produced gun cotton and later transitioned to making dynamite at the beginning of World War I. The plant grew steadily to become what was regarded as the largest in the world at the time and spurred the construction of a massive factory town for workers. At the height of World War I, the plant employed 29,000 workers (Prince George Tricentennial Committee 2003:24).

The establishment of Camp Lee, now called Fort Lee, during the First World War also had a major economic impact on the county. Today, Fort Lee serves as the headquarters for the U.S. Army’s Combined Arms Support Command and Quartermaster Corps. Camp Lee was created in 1917 just a few weeks after the war began. Since that time, it has trained and educated thousands of soldiers who served in every major twentieth-century conflict. At its peak during World War I, Camp Lee had the third largest population in Virginia, behind the cities of Richmond and Norfolk.

After the war, the camp property was turned over the state and protected as a wildlife preserve, and portions were carved off for the Petersburg National Battlefield. The camp was remobilized on the same land at the beginning of World War II and served as the home of the Quartermaster Replacement Training Center, which prepared over 300,000 soldiers for key support operations like supply, fuel, and food distribution. It was renamed Fort Lee in the early 1950s and resumed its training operations for troops in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. It was after this time that the fort underwent a campaign to replace its earlier temporary buildings with permanent constructions.

Today, Fort Lee remains the training center for the Army’s combat service support troops (Wineman 2009).

PROJECT AREA HISTORY

The potter’s field cemetery is located on property that was in the late-nineteenth century part of John T. Tinsley’s 1,120-acre farm in the Bland District of Prince George County. In 1863, Tinsley and his father, Cornelius, began purchasing property at the northwest corner of the intersection of Stage Road2 and Bull Hill Road (present Jefferson Park Road). The Tinsleys purchased land from John W.

Eppes, Henry T. Bryant, Richard G. Bayler, Daniel L. Sturdivant, and J. L. Shackleford. John Tinsley’s land deals later embroiled him in a chancery suit that lasted until after his death in 1892.

Court-appointed commissioners inventoried his possessions and produced a map of the farm property. The map showed all of the land accumulated by Tinsley in the 1870s and 1880s (Prince George County 1894:Deed Book 39:417), (Figure 3). Most of the Tinsley farm, except for the small portion where the potter’s field cemetery is, was eventually incorporated into Camp Lee (Botwick and McClane 1996:67-69).

2At the time, Stage Road was also known as Courthouse Road. The abandoned road forming the southern margin of the project area was part of the original Stage Road.

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Figure 3.

1892 Plat Map Showing Tinsley Farm and Cemetery Parcel

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In 1890, just before his death and the conclusion of the chancery suit, Tinsley and his wife, Ida, sold a 27-acre parcel of their farm that would later contain the cemetery to John S. Lucas. The deed for this property is significant because it mentions that the parcel borders that of the “Union Sisters Grand Star Society” on the east side of Bull Hill Road (Prince George County 1890:Deed Book 37:356). Later 1920s plat maps of the area labeled this property across the road as simply the “colored society” and “Grand Star Lodge” (Prince George County 1920:Plat Book 3:152A; Prince George County 1921:Plat Book 5:41) (Figures 4 and 5).

The history of the Union Sisters Grand Star Society is unclear as no documentary evidence other than deed and plat map references to it were found for this report. Efforts to track down local oral history sources were also unsuccessful. It was likely an African-American benevolent society that, among other possible activities, provided funerals and burial services to poor people in this rural area of Prince George County. The name “Grand Star Lodge” indicates it may have also had some affiliation with a local Masonic group (Trinkley et al. 1999:17). More information about the history of African-American benevolent societies in the region is discussed below.

In 1891, one year after Lucas purchased the 27-acre property from Tinsley, he sold a one-acre portion of it for 10 dollars to an organization called the Laboring Sisters of the Vineyard. The deed shows that two trustees acted on behalf of this benevolent society, Nathan Bowman and Emmet Hines. Both of these individuals were listed on the 1880 Federal census for Prince George County (the 1890 census records are not available), one as an 18-year old black farm laborer in the Rives District, and the other a 25-year old black farmer in the Bland District of Prince George County (U.S.

Census 1880). By the time of their trusteeship, they were 29 and 36 years old, respectively. No records or oral history accounts of the Laboring Sisters of the Vineyard were found but considering that the group purchased its one-acre parcel down the street from the Union Sisters Grand Star Society discussed above, it appears the two groups were related.

There are no references to the potter’s field cemetery in any of the deeds to the property, but it appears the Laboring Sisters of the Vineyard used the one-acre parcel for such purpose until 1917.

In September of that year, the society’s trustees, James Eppes, Vina Hines, and Margaret Harrison, sold the property to S. C. Kennedy, J. J. Temple, and J. B. Bailey. Figure 4 is a plat map showing that Kennedy resided on the property in 1920. The 1920 census listed one Stanley C. Kennedy in the Bland District of Prince George County and identified him as a white grocery store owner and head of an eight-person household (U.S. Census 1920). It appears that 1920 was the last year Kennedy occupied the property as he defaulted on the mortgage, and it reverted that year to the Banking Trust and Mortgage Company of Petersburg, Virginia (Prince George County 1920:Deed Books 75:212 and 79:520). The 1930 census shows that by that time the Kennedy family had moved to nearby Hopewell, where Mr. Kennedy worked as a foreman in a textile repair shop (U.S.

Census 1930).

Kennedy’s foreclosed property was sold at auction to high bidder J. R. Jones, who immediately sold it to William J. Wiseman, Jr., a white foreman at a silk mill. Wiseman owned and presumably lived on the one-acre property with his wife Edith, who was a stenographer in a lawyer’s office, and three daughters. Census information shows that the Wiseman’s property was valued at $1,500 in 1930, but they later sold it to Prince George County in 1933 for the remarkably small sum of $75. The 1933 deed does not mention why the property was sold for so little (U.S. Census 1930;

Prince George County 1933:Deed Book 106:209).

Figure 4.

1920 Plat Map Showing Cemetery Parcel and Grand Star Lodge

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Figure 5.

1921 Plat Map Showing Cemetery Parcel and Grand Star Lodge as “Colored Society”

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GRAVE IDENTIFICATION SURVEY, FORT LEE ADAMS ROUNDABOUT,

Prince George County has owned the potter’s field property since 1933, and there is no evidence that the county continued to use it as a cemetery after that date. A 1937 aerial photograph of the property shows that it was cleared of most trees at that time, but a later 1959 aerial shows that the parcel was by then overgrown (Figure 6). A 1962 VDOT plat map labels the project area with the phrase “PR. GEO. CO. POTTERS FIELD CEMETERY, 1AC.” and shows the property’s partial boundaries (Figure 7).

In 1965, the county sold a 0.41-acre portion of the original parcel to the Commonwealth of Virginia. County tax records describe the current parcel as a .59-acre “Potter’s Field” (County of Prince George Tax Records, Parcel No. 230 (OA) 00-032-A).

AFRICAN-AMERICAN BURIAL CUSTOMS AND BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES

The nature and function of the Laboring Sisters of the Vineyard, and the neighboring Grand Star Society, is better understood when placed in the historic context of late nineteenth-century African- American benevolent societies of Virginia. The Chicora Foundation of Columbia, South Carolina, published a detailed historical examination of three large African-American cemeteries in nearby Petersburg, Virginia, less than 10 miles from the project area. The report includes a great deal of information on regional burial customs, benevolent societies, and potter’s fields (Trinkley et al.

1999).

Since the colonial era, a diverse population of whites, enslaved blacks, characterized the Petersburg area and “free persons of color,” whose rights were under white control. Drawn by work opportunities in the town’s many tobacco factories, “the number of free persons of color in Petersburg increased dramatically with both immigrants and new manumissions and self-purchase.

The census of 1810 found 310 free persons of color. By 1830, there were 2,032 free blacks alongside 3,440 whites and 2,850 slaves” (Trinkley et al. 1999:11). By 1870, Petersburg had a majority black population with 10,206 blacks and 9,342 whites, making fertile ground for the development of African-American businesses, churches, banks, and fraternal and benevolent societies (Trinkley et al. 1999:11).

Excluded from the white-controlled world of government and business, Petersburg’s large African- American population created its own spheres of activity and influence, including their own funeral and burial customs. Similar to the white community, they formed scores of local benevolent societies that, among other activities, ensured community members received a respectable funeral and grave marker. Societies also provided social connections in times of death and hardship, and health benefits and care for family members after a death in the family. The societies typically collected an initiation fee and monthly dues from each member in exchange for a cemetery plot and a small cash grant to surviving family (Dolan 1994; Jones-Jackson 1987:25; Pharr 1939;

Willet 1927:2; Parsons 1923:215). “For a group granted little dignity by the surrounding society,” stated the Chicora study, “the funeral developed into a prominent religious ritual and social event, providing a rare opportunity to acknowledge a member of the African American community... it was unquestionably important that when life was finished, the body not be disposed of like a dead animal, but the ‘book should be closed with dignity” (Trinkley et al. 1999:14). Potter’s field cemeteries were typically created by benevolent societies on the edges of cities and towns for the indigent who did not have the means to pay for their grave (Trinkley et al. 1999:29).

Figure 6.

1937 Aerial Photograph of Cemetery Parcel

FORT LEE

CEMETERY

PROJECT

APPROXIMATE

LOCATION

GRAVE IDENTIFICATION SURVEY, FORT LEE ADAMS ROUNDABOUT,

Figure 7.

1959 Aerial Photograph of Cemetery Parcel

FORT LEE

CEMETERY

PROJECT

APPROXIMATE

The most prominent historic African-American cemetery in Petersburg is the People’s Memorial Cemetery, founded in 1840 by the Benevolent Society of Free Men of Color, the city’s first documented black mutual aid society. In addition, Petersburg was home to a large number of black fraternal organizations affiliated with the Masons, Odd Fellows, and women’s organizations like the Sisters of David, Sisters of Esther, Sisters of Samuel, and Sisters of Job (Trinkley et al.

1999:16, 20). The popularity and function of these benevolent societies waned after the turn of the twentieth century, and by the turn of the twenty-first century, Petersburg hosted only one fraternal organization (Trinkley et al. 1999:19).

The existence of the Laboring Sisters of the Vineyard, and the neighboring Grand Star Lodge, in Prince George County indicates that the influence of benevolent and fraternal societies extended beyond cities like Petersburg into rural areas of the surrounding region. Census information shows that the trustees of the Laboring Sisters were black farmers. They likely organized the group to pool the community’s sparse resources to provide acceptable burials. For an unknown reason, the organization and its mission ended with the sale of their cemetery property in 1917.

III. METHODS

HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Project staff began background history research by contacting staff of the VDHR, VDOT, and the Fort Lee Regional Archaeological Curation Facility. These agencies provided previously known historical information, maps, photographs, and incomplete chain of title research on the project parcel. Staff then visited the Prince George County Courthouse records room to complete the parcel’s chain of title and identify relevant plat maps and tax records. Additional research was conducted at the Library of Virginia in Richmond and the local history/genealogy room of the Petersburg Public Library. There is no central county history archive or local history/genealogy collection in Prince George County and the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center lacked helpful information or archives. Lucious Edwards, Head of Special Collections and Archives at Virginia State University in Petersburg, and a local expert in Prince George County’s African- American history, was interviewed but was not aware of the cemetery property or the social aid groups associated with it.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD METHODS

The project area included tracts that were wooded, open, and covered in gravel. These ground covers were unsuitable for the application of a single survey and detection technique, so multiple methods were applied. Surface Reconnaissance, Penetrometer (Probe) survey, Search and Rescue (Cadaver Dog) canine survey, and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) were used in various locations within the project area. The surface reconnaissance examined the entire project area for graves, monuments, and other mortuary-related surface features. The probe survey portion of the project addressed wooded grounds within the project area. These included those north of described abandoned road, those east of the Fort Lee fence line corridor and west of Jefferson Park Road.

The canine survey duplicated these parcels but was able to include a cleared and disturbed corridor east of the Fort Lee fence. GPR survey focused on the gravel covered abandoned road, the corridor east of the Fort Lee fence line, and an open transmission line west of the Fort Lee fence line and east of its wooded western margin.

SURFACE RECONNAISSANCE

Graves placed in rural southern environments, such as the setting found at the Fort Lee Adams Roundabout, are less clearly defined than those found in more urban settings. Therefore, they are frequently more difficult to detect. From the ground surface, potential rural mortuary deposits are identified by any of the following features:

1. Human-sized cigar-shaped depressions or mounds,

2. Presence of formal stone, metal, concrete, or wooden grave markers,

3. Presence of dressed or undressed fieldstones arranged as head and/or footstones,

4. Presence of concentrations of mortuary-associated ground covers, particularly vinca, narcissus (daffodils), cedar, hemlock, crepe myrtle, gardenia, spirea, roses, lilies, and/or irises,

5. Stone, metal, wood, or floral enclosures that restrict land use for other (particularly agricultural) purposes,

6. Oval or rectangular concentrations of stone, glass, wood, metal, seashells or plastic containers, used to outline a potential grave’s dimensions,

7. Low oval or rectangular piles of stones,

8. Maintained areas evidenced by removal of vegetation and unwanted debris, and/or

9. Oval or human-sized color/plant differences in mowed areas.

Historical research indicated that the burial grounds had distinct ties with the local African-American community. Pre- and post-Emancipation African-American cemeteries follow traditions stemming from West African, Anglo-American, and to a lesser extent historic Native American funerary ideas as well as concepts that seemed to have evolved uniquely from within the practicing communities (Richey, et. al 2008; Capozolli 1997; Vlach 1991; Nichols 1989; Fenn 1985; Thompson 1984).

While the material objects used to define and decorate their graves and cemeteries, are, by themselves, not diagnostic indicators of African-American funerary behaviors, their prevalence, and use in conjunction with other material representations can identify its presence and help define an unknown cemetery's community affiliation. In addition to the surface indicators outlined above, potential African-American surface features3 included:

1. The traditional West African emphasized a greater relationship between the worlds of the living and the dead than was typically associated with mainstream American cosmologies. Objects were typically placed with the grave to placate the spirit or to act as charms. These would have included personal possessions, like the last used objects (usually dishware), toys, medicine bottles, pipes, combs, clocks, or bed frames. Objects that shimmer when struck by the sun were believed to generate doorways between the spirit and living world; these would have included glass and ceramic sherds, silver coins, mirrors, and shiny metal objects.

2. The shimmer produced by the sun's reflection off shiny surfaces creates brilliant white or silvery hues. White and silver objects were frequently left at a grave to symbolize the world of the dead.

White fieldstones (particularly quartz or quartzite), salt glazed pottery, sun bleached objects, and plain white ceramics are among the objects commonly placed on and around graves. When white marble or light-colored concrete gravestones were not available (or sometimes when they have been discolored by mildew) gravestones and/or grave enclosures were whitewashed or painted white or silver. Light colored or white blooming flora, particularly yucca and wood iris, were common color-related plantings.

3 The complex interaction between material attributes and symbolism has been considerably simplified in this methodological exposition. In reality, the symbolic meaning attached to any given material representation tends to cross several of these thematic groups and involves many interpretations.

3. In some West African traditions, the worlds of the living and the dead are symbolically separated by a river, lake, or ocean. In the Americas, water symbolized the return to one's homeland across the ocean. This symbolism was translated in surface decoration by the use of water pitchers, metal cans, canning jars, bottles, jugs, seashells, bathroom tile, nautical paraphernalia, and similar objects to hold water or emphasize the view that the grave is the transition between worlds of the living and the dead. Riparian flora or those similar to those found in riverine environments, such as the giant reed, were also used as intentional grave plantings.

4. Objects were sometimes used to symbolize the luumbu or house of the spirit, denoting a sacred space reserved for the dead. In the Americas, funerary representations of these involve enclosures placed around a grave and/or a cluster of graves. The most common of these were typically bottles or jars used to outline the grave. Alternative forms may have included plants, bricks, stones, and/or seashells.

In addition, the cemetery has ties to a burial association. These societies were relatively common in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century African-American communities, and they frequently left their own material representations on the grave. In particular, markers, grave covers, plaques, and sculptures express fraternal and organizational symbolism that was important to the association.

These would include chains, hammers and other tools, compasses, five and six-pointed stars, moons, birds, and wildlife. These symbols frequently were associated with a variety of initials relating to important concepts to a given burial association.

All grounds within the project area were examined for these features. When found, they were marked with pin flags for additional examination. Once detected, all features were inventoried, recorded on a sketch map, and photos of the general site area were generated.

PENETROMETER (PROBE) SURVEY

Penetrometers were used to assess soil compaction as a means of determining if unmarked graves were present in the project area. One advantage to examining soil compaction was that it only minimally disturbed the ground surface and subsurface. Traditionally, this type of examination has been conducted using a steel tipped ceramic probe, however recent comparisons have advocated the use of a soil compaction probe or penetrometer for grave identification (Hailey 2007).

Following a strategy outlined by Killam (2004), transects spaced two feet apart were superimposed on the landscape. Each transect was systematically tested at two-foot intervals for the presence of subsurface features. This pattern placed a probe test in every area large enough to hold a human-sized grave pit. All available ground surfaces within the cemetery were tested using a manually inserted penetrometer (Figure 8A).

Penetrometers measure soil compaction density. In silt and clay-based environments, individual soil particles tend to be plate-like and align themselves parallel to the ground's surface. If left undisturbed, these soils will retain considerable compaction. When disturbed, however, the orientation of these particles will change to a less consolidated form, enabling space to form between particles and the soils to become less dense. This phenomenon has enabled researchers to identify the presence of unmarked graves, which structurally are often little more than a disturbance filled with soils that have lost their original particle alignments. Under ideal conditions, grave shafts

Figure 8.

Survey Methods

A. H. Matternes Tests Using Penetrometer

B. S. Swin and Shar examine Fort Lee Fence Line Corridor

C. S. Patch Collects Data Using GPR within Transmission Line Corridor

A

B

C constructed up to 150 years prior to survey have been detected using soil compaction in Virginia (Owsley 1995). Penetrometers measure the amount of soil compaction within a given test site in pounds per square inch (psi); with measurements of 100 psi indicating extremely loose soil and those over 350 psi being too dense to penetrate. Using positively identified graves found during the surface reconnaissance survey, grave shafts in the project area environment were noted to exhibit soil compaction readings of 250-300 psi to a depth of about one foot. This contrasted with undisturbed soil compaction readings of 300-350 psi noted at depths of six inches or less.

Penetrometer depths did not exceed 24 inches for any given test; it is exceedingly unlikely that these would have impacted any underlying human or funerary remains. Soil conditions in the project area required the use of a dense soil (0.5-inch) tip. Owing to recent rainfall prior to the investigation period, subsurface conditions were optimal.