Pictured, from left, are: Dusty Saunders, Ed Gillim, Latonya Montgomery Gillim, Freda Brown, Jodi Redding, Lauren McCollister, Garrett Whipkey, Letha Lee and Glenn Redding.
Slave gravesite cleaned; 144 markers placed
Pictured, from left, are: Jodi Redding, Glenn Redding and Latonya Montgomery Gillim after placing the first marker flag.
Supports and volunteers work together to clean up the gravesite.
A sea of orange marker flags placed across the slave cemetery in Ivanhoe, markers that totaled 144.
Garrett Whipkey, right, shows Lauren McCollister how big the gravesite is.
IVANHOE — Supporters gathered again in Ivanhoe for the second slave grave cleanup and restoration event this past Saturday. Those that attended witnessed history as over a 100 marker flags were placed across the cemetery to identify those that were buried there.
As part of this event historian Glenn Redding with his wife Jodi Redding came down from Pender County to help find the initially 23 identified slave graves that were to be marked. This turned into a historically monumental undertaking as the search for 23 vastly expanded.
Redding used a metal detector to locate where the slaves were put to rest and, by the time the search ended, 23 became a total of 144 markers placed.
“I’m proud that my buddy Ed came to me for help and I was more than happy to do it,” Glenn Redding said. “I like history and this is definitely a part of history and its local history. Metal detecting is a hobby of mine and I wasn’t sure how much of a help this was going to be.”
“This detector is mainly for finding metal objects and some times old masonry bricks will send up metal signals,” he said. “So we’re hoping that this is what we’re finding, bits of old brick that were placed over the graves to represent them.”
“I feel honored that I was invited out here to do this and I think that heritage is something that should stay strong,” Jodi Redding said. “It’s just like our memorials and should be remembered so that history does not get repeated.”
There were plenty on new faces that came to support this cause and a couple shared their thoughts on being apart of this historic day.
“This is very important and takes us back to our ancestors so that we can remember them and what they meant to our race and what they did so many years ago,” Sampson County Commissioner Letha Lee said. “We weren’t around back then but we do know they struggled.”
“It’s just an honor to be apart of helping preserve their legacy so that all the generations past, present and future never forget that struggle. A struggle that we still have to face some times even today.”
“When I heard about this I was excited because of the ancestry and I am a descendent of some the very people that may be buried here,” Freda Brown, who came from Fayetteville, said. “I didn’t know about this place so I just wanted to come and help out.”
“I’m very big into ancestry.com and I’ve been identifying some of the cemeteries in other areas so that those places can have events similar to this one,” she added. “When I heard about this organization I just knew that I had to be apart of it and hopefully this will continue to grow.”
As the markers were slowly being place each volunteer was hard at work recleaning the entire grave site. They raked leaves, cleared out falling branches, barrelled away debris and even had a leaf blower on hand to lighten the load.
As the host Ed Gillim, his wife Latonya Gillim and Garrett Whipkey shared their thoughts on being part of persevering the historical site yet again.
“Today is truly a fulling day because it is great to see these orange marker flags out here and I think that’s a big mark of progress over last time,” Whipkey said. “It just astounds me how many markers are out there which is a testimony to how these bodies were just thrown out here, it just makes it more real.”
“It just makes you realize the importance of what we’re doing,” he added. “It’s looking better and better and I’m just visualising the day when we have stone markers out here so that people will know when they drive by that a historical cemetery is here.”
“It’s great to get the flags in the ground and see to progress and take it from what it was,” Laytonya Gillim said. “Before the hurricane that put this site under came through the graveyard looked like it does now. Afterwards is when the debris and all that came and covered this place.”
“This has been a long time coming, getting it back to what it once was,” she said. “So, again to see those markers just hits home how real all this is and it feels good to be apart of preserving history.”
“This was a good event and we appreciate everybody that came out to support us,” Ed Gillim said. “Again this is apart of the importance of the preservation of history. Unfortunately, back then the slaves that are in these graveyards didn’t have the accommodations and comforts that we have.”
“We thank God that they fought for us to have what we have now so we want to preserve this graveyard so that they can at least have a good resting place.”
Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-592-8137, ext. 2588. Follow us on Twitter @SampsonInd and like us on Facebook.