Cemeteries tell stories, often in little more than names and dates etched on ancient stones.
The cemetery at Union Grove Baptist Church, Opelika, in Tuskegee Lee Baptist Association, has stories to tell and local volunteers are working to preserve the cemetery so those stories will not be lost.
“Remarkable” is how Bill Richmond, a member at Union Grove Baptist and a self-proclaimed history buff, describes the work he and others have done to trace the history of those buried in the cemetery.
“It’s a historical record of the community and that’s what we’re trying to preserve and bring attention to,” Richmond said.
When Richmond took responsibility for caring for the cemetery a few years ago no one knew much about most of the graves. Richmond got to work repairing tombstones, cleaning around plots and reclaiming areas of the cemetery that had been overtaken by growth.
Around the same time, Edna Ward, a member of the Lee County Cemetery Preservation Commission Inc., contacted Richmond and offered to help record the history of those buried in the cemetery.
“We knew that it was a really old cemetery, one of the oldest in Lee County,” Ward said. “We hoped the church would consider allowing us to try to get historical recognition for them on the Alabama Historical Commission’s Historic Cemetery Register.”
Richmond, Ward and other volunteers began searching through county government records and newspaper archives looking for births, marriages and deaths connected to the cemetery. Often the only lead volunteers had was the name on a grave marker.
Unfortunately Union Grove had little to offer in the way of records, Richmond said.
“The church has burned twice in its existence and a lot of the information was gone,” he said. “The only records that were preserved were those that had been handed down from one person to another in the church.”
The team persevered, however, and after 14 months of research they were able to identify 365 burials in the cemetery. They also located three deeds for the church’s property, including one dated Aug. 25, 1856, 10 years before Lee County was created. Another deed showed that Union Grove owned a parcel of wooded property adjacent to the cemetery that church members did not realize belonged to the church.
Ward put together a 168-page book detailing the stories and information they had uncovered including photos and stories contributed by descendants of those buried in the cemetery.
All the hard work has paid off for Ward and her fellow volunteers, as Union Grove’s cemetery was placed on the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register on Jan. 16.
Project in the works
The project isn’t finished, however. More details come to light each month, Richmond said. One lead Richmond is currently pursuing is the possibility that several Confederate soldiers and possibly a Union soldier may be buried at the cemetery.
Richmond hopes publicity surrounding the release of the Union Grove history book will generate information about families who own plots in the existing cemetery. He also leaves his name and phone number on grave markers so visitors to the cemetery know who to contact with questions or information.
“It’s the stories we’re after because that becomes part of the community’s history,” Richmond said.
The stories also are helping rebuild the church’s history.
“As part of our research we pulled obituaries, and time and time again the obituary recognized the person’s faith and what the church meant to them,” Richmond said.
“The church’s history is unraveling a piece at a time,” he said. “Hopefully we can build records that future generations can use.”
To order a copy of the Union Grove history book or to provide information regarding the cemetery, contact Bill Richmond at 334-741-9669 or 265 Lee Road 461, Opelika, AL 36804.
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