ERMA — Coast Guard volunteers are cleaning up an overgrown cemetery that was once the site of the Union Bethel Church and the first Black settlement in the south county.
Union Bethel Cemetery is the final resting place of Cape May and Lower Township's first African American families and Black Civil War soldiers. Located off Tabernacle Road, it has been covered by high grass and scared by fallen trees and limbs.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Daniel S. Kobs lives next door to the cemetery. A sign in his yard directs the curious to the Civil War era graveyard.
Kobs said a neighbor told him how nice the property had been maintained in the past. He said he was aware Coast Guard members had volunteered to clean up the cemetery some years ago.
“They transferred out and it kind of got forgotten,” said Kobs.
He is a crewmember on the Coast Guard Cutter Dependable. Kobs said he mentioned the cemetery to fellow crewmembers and they agreed take on maintaining the property as a project.
Three years ago, Boy Scout Troop 87 based at Tabernacle United Methodist Church spruced up the cemetery.
Online research indicated the cemetery dates back to 1834, said Kobs.
They are family plots from the Turner family, which was the head of a family tree of many African American families in the Cape May area. Members of the Vance, Humphries and Hastings families are also buried there under tall trees.
“The grass was 2 feet high, three trees were down, you could probably only see about 15 gravesites and there are so many back there,” he said.
Kobs said his volunteers wanted to bring the cemetery up to “decent condition” and decorate it a bit. He said the soldiers and sailors buried in Union Bethel Cemetery were part of their inspiration to restore the property.
Kobs will be stationed in Cape May for two years and is planning to bring volunteers to the cemetery every few weeks to cut down weeds. The goal is sell firewood to fund the purchase of equipment to maintain the property, he said.
Six Coastie volunteers scheduled their first workday two weeks ago on a very hot Friday morning. Lower Township assisted with supplies for the clean up.
The crewmembers returned to the cemetery Fri. July 13. Kobs said one more Friday workday should put the property in order. The volunteers have about 50 hours of labor invested in cleaning up the historic cemetery.
Kobs said the volunteers need a riding lawnmower to keep the cemetery maintained now that the heavy work has been completed. Anyone wishing to donate a riding mower may contact Eileen at the Lower Township Manager’s Office at (609) 886-2005 ext. 132.
No comments:
Post a Comment