(This article first appeared in the February print edition of the Hendersonian.)
An interest in different aspects of African American cemeteries took hold in Henderson in 2024. Much of that interest was piqued from a 2023 ceremony and research that the Henderson County Public Library conducted related to the headstone of Paul Horace Kennedy, a well-known 19th century pastor in Henderson who in his early life had joined the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Interest in another cemetery, Mt. Zion, grew for Deborah Hoda, the local NAACP president, after she began doing research in her family’s past. That interest continued to grow as she learned more.
Here’s a look at the research and actions that community members undertook last year.
Mt. Zion Cemetery
The echoes of long-ago forgotten lives are illustrated by the tombstones at Mt. Zion Cemetery—some are buried or partially covered by earth or grass, others flipped the wrong side up or leaning to one side of the other, some hang on a mound next to U.S. 60, seemingly about to fall into the roadway.
It’s a place that Deborah Hoda became very interested in last year. Her descendants, her great-great grandparents, J. Alex and Maria Carr, are buried there. It’s where Maria’s mother and Hoda’s great-great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Powell, is buried.
Hoda has done all the research and tells the stories as if she knew them. “Lizzie” Powell was an enslaved woman and the mother of Maria, a blue-eyed, red-head “mulatto” whose father was Powell’s owner, the once governor of Kentucky and Henderson resident, Lazarus Powell.
Hoda has said she might want to get buried at Mt. Zion Cemetery. Upon research with the city of Henderson, the cemetery is maintained as a historic cemetery and no burials are allowed there.
Another concern that Hoda and others interviewed by the Hendersonian mentioned were the number of graves that are said to be recorded on the cemetery’s grounds. Hoda said she has counted at least 1,400 gravesites in historical accounts. Previous accounts in the Gleaner articles in the 1990s and 2000s say that close to 1,000 graves were recorded in the cemetery.
Either way, it’s easy to see that there are nowhere near that many head stones, which raises questions for their whereabouts. Some have told Hoda there used to be a children’s section in the cemetery; and many think the construction of U.S. 60 decades ago resulted in lost gravesites.
Beyond that, the aesthetics of the cemetery are problematic to Hoda. She wants a fence around the property and to spruce up the cemetery grounds, possibly a small parking area. “Give them a little decency,” Hoda said.
Barret Cemetery
Christi Edwards said she got interested in this cemetery on the grounds of the old Barret plantation, later the Boynton Merrill farm, which is next to the Owensboro Health complex and behind Walmart, after reading about the Rev. Paul Horace Kennedy in 2023.
Last spring, Christi and husband, John, as well as Charlie McCollum, began clearing out the area where they’d learned the cemetery was located. It was a task. Everything was covered in blackberry brambles, John Edwards said. They also cut down smaller trees and grapevines and hauled all of it off. There was also old wire and fencing that had to be removed.
“We put in tons of hours on this,” John Edwards said.
John Edwards said they found at least 12 headstones marking the sites of many African Americans, some with military markers who’d served in the United States Colored Troops.
“But I know there are more people buried there,” John Edwards.
He said the cemetery is much easier to get into and move around than it was, but there’s still more work to be done. He hopes to get back to work on the site in the summer and hopes others might want to join. Also on his wish list is a sign to commemorate the cemetery.
Bruce Family Children
The story of how the headstones of two children buried in Webster County in the 19th century were restored and brought back to their original cemetery began in Henderson County in the 21st century.
According to an HCPL pamphlet, the two small headstones were found in a roadside ditch in the county and taken to then-Sheriff Ed Brady, who asked a deputy at the time, Keith Berry, if his wife, Sue, might research the stones’ origins.
Sue Berry conducted extensive research, but after finding no records of the children, she placed the stones in her garden and surrounded them with flowers.
Fast forward several years and Sue Berry brought the stones to the Depot Community Room, the home of the former Henderson Historical Society, and let Donna Spencer take a look. Using Ancestry.com and findagrave.com, Spencer, who is now a part of the HCPL genealogy and history department, discovered that the stones had come from Oak Grove Cemetery in Webster County.
They also learned that one of the stones was placed at the cemetery in February 1867 by Nathaniel and Frances Bruce, who had formerly been enslaved. It was for their four-month daughter named Frances E. Bruce. The couple came again five years later, again on a February day, to place a stone for their infant son, who was “born, lived, and died on the same day.”
On Oct. 12, a monument restoration ceremony was held at the cemetery and the stones were returned to their rightful place in the Oak Grove Cemetery.
Rededication Ceremony for United States Colored Troops
A couple weeks later, on Oct. 26, HCPL again hosted a ceremony, this time in Fernwood Cemetery to rededicate memorial markers for five soldiers who served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War.
Those soldiers were:
• Lt. Aaron Edmonds, 101st Regiment, Company I, who enlisted Sept. 16, 1864, and died Oct. 5, 1896
• Pvt. Anthony Rouse, 118th Regiment, Company C, who enlisted Aug. 24, 1864, and died June 22, 1897
• Pvt. John Elam, 118th Regiment, Company D, who enlisted Aug. 24, 1864, and died Aug. 11, 1896
• Pvt. Green Robertson, 118th Regiment, Company G, who enlisted Sept. 19, 1864, and died Sept. 2, 1896
• Pvt. Valentine Dixon, 118th Regiment, Company G, who enlisted Sept. 19, 1864, and died July 14, 1896.
Kristy Vanderpool, also an employee in the HCPL history and genealogy department, said the impetus to restore these headstones was directly connected to work the department had done to restore the memorial marker of the Rev. Paul Horace Kennedy, the well-known 19th century Henderson pastor who also had joined the United States Colored Troops. The library’s history and genealogy department worked on this in summer 2023.
Vanderpool said she was at Kennedy’s tombstone rededication service then, and looking from his gravesite in Fernwood Cemetery, she noticed five markers that were deeply sunken into the earth. Upon closer inspection, she found all five marked the graves of African American Civil War soldiers. After restoration, the tombstones were put back into the ground and set at military height, Vanderpool said.
Vanderpool also works on the physical restoration of the markers. She and husband, Mark, run Vanderpool Restorations. The restorations are funded by HCPL and the Friends of the Henderson County Public Library Monument Restoration Fund.
The history and genealogy department will continue the work in 2025. They say they will rededicate six more markers of veterans who served in the USCT—three in the spring and three in the fall. Dates have not yet been set while HCPL associates attempt to locate relatives of the long-ago deceased veterans.
