Title

Creator

Subject

Subject

Keyword: cemeteries ; burial customs ; undertakers

Description

The Brewers explain the ownership of the cemetery, how clean-up days were organized, and how arrangements for burial were made.  They name and describe family members who are buried in the cemetery.

Publisher

D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville, NC, 28804

Contributor

Date

Electronic Record Issued: 2001-07-30

Type

Sound ; Text

Format

Identifier

Source

OH 90.1: South Asheville Colored Cemetery Oral History Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804

Language

English

Relation

Coverage

Acquisition

Donor number: 138 ;  Date of acquisition: 1990-05-02

Processed By

Interview Date

List of Names

Transcript:

DEE WILLIAMS: Reverend Brewer, the first question I would like to ask you is about the parcel of land that we know as the South Asheville Colored Cemetery; Were you ever told or did you ever hear any one discuss the issue as to why this particular piece of land was chosen or designated to be a Colored Cemetery in South Asheville?

REVEREND BREWER: When my family came to Asheville in 1922, we joined the St. John A. Baptist Church. I found that there was already what was called the Burial Association/Cemetery Board which was staffed by members from the St. John A. and St. Mark Church. I remember Mr. John Ragsdale was a member of the board. Both churches took care of the cemetery, and as far as I knew both churches owned the land that the churches and cemetery was on. I don't know how they came to own it. However, the St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Church, was organized in a house on a lot that I once owned right across the street from me here. They sold that house and land to a Mrs. Nellie Gray through Mr. Dave Fletcher, who was one of the Trustees of St. Mark.  Then they moved to their present location.

DEE: Mrs. Brewer, would you tell me how the two churches took care of or maintained the up-keep of the cemetery?  Was there a special clean-up day set up for this reason, or was up-keep the responsibility of specific individuals?

MRS. BREWER: The up-keep of the cemetery was a community effort mostly. On any given Sunday, one of the Deacons of our church, St. John A., would make an announcement in church that the cemetery grounds were in need of a good cleaning and give the day and date set aside for everyone who could or would, to be at the cemetery for a community cleaning effort, and I imagine that someone at St. Mark would have made the same announcement, because on that date announced, members of both churches would come together at the cemetery and the men would clean the cemetery grounds while the women would prepare food and drink.  It was an all day project.  However, on an everyday basis the grave diggers, one of which was my father, the Reverend Gordon, kept the Cemetery grounds pretty nice.  And then the families of the deceased buried there kept up their own family plot also. I remember one family, the Millers, had planted a rose bush around the grave of Mrs. Miller, and they kept it up; it was absolutely beautiful.

DEE: Yes, I understand that the South Asheville Cemetery was a very beautiful cemetery, and you mentioned owned by the two churches St. John A. and St. Mark.  Was it therefore considered a private cemetery, only for members and family members of one of the two churches?

REV. BREWER: No, it was a community cemetery.  Members of St. John A. and St. Mark buried their relatives there, but anyone in the South Asheville community could request burial for their relatives there.

DEE: Yes, and as far as the community of South Asheville is concerned, in my mind's eye it seems that the South Asheville Community we know today envelopes a much smaller area than it did during the time that the cemetery was in use. Could you tell me, Reverend Brewer, what areas of Asheville at that time were considered as a part of the South Asheville Community?

REVEREND BREWER: Well, at that time, Haw Creek, Chunns Cove, and Stoney Hollow was part of the South Asheville Community.

DEE: What about Shilo, was it considered a part of the South Asheville Community, and if so, is anyone from Shilo that you know of buried in the South Asheville Cemetery?

MS. BREWER: No, I don't think that Shilo was considered as a part of the South Asheville Community. I don't know of any one from Shilo being buried in The South Asheville Cemetery. I believe they had their own church cemeteries out there.

DEE: They had their own church cemeteries, that's interesting. Tell me Reverend Brewer, what other burial grounds were available for blacks during that time?

REV. BREWER: Well there was Violet Hill, Sunset and Riverside. Riverside was the city cemetery, but it was better to bury your kin at South Asheville Cemetery, because at Riverside all blacks were buried down on the back lot down by the road. There was also other churches that had their own cemeteries.

DEE: How and through whom were burial arrangements made by a family wishing to bury a family member in the South Asheville Cemetery?

REV. BREWER: If you or your family member were not a member of either St. John A. or St. Mark, then there was a burial fee of between $75 and $85 dollars to be paid and there was a fee of $15 dollars to be paid to the grave digger. In those days that was considered a lot of money, and some families would dig their own family member's grave to save money. The burial fee at South Asheville was low compared to most burial grounds who were charging $115 and higher. The arrangements for a burial were made between the members of the Cemetery Board Committee and the undertakers. One of the undertakers would notify the committee that they had a body and that the family requested burial at the South Asheville Cemetery, the committee would review the request and grant permission for the burial.

DEE: Who kept records of those transactions, of the people buried in the South Asheville Cemetery, and the monies paid for burial fees, and what about people who had no money to pay, was there such a thing as a pauper's grave yard?

MRS. BREWER: Record keeping was the responsibility of the family involved. People kept records in their family Bibles of who was buried where, but the undertakers took care of mostly all the arrangements for a burial, and I imagine they kept records of the people they had buried, and the monies paid to them for the burials. Now my father, Reverend Gordon, when he was the grave digger there, could tell you who was buried where, who their kin people were and which undertaker buried them. As far as the folks who had no money to pay, South Asheville buried some, but mostly the city buried the kin of people who had no money to pay for a burial, usually at Riverside Cemetery.

REVEREND BREWER: There was Mrs. McDowell, Mrs. Francis McDowell.  She was who the family paid the $15 dollars to for the grave digger.  She may have kept some records.

DEE: So arrangements for burials were made through the undertakers. Who were the undertakers for blacks in Asheville at the time that the South Asheville Cemetery was in use, and exactly what arrangements were made through them?

MRS. BREWER: The undertakers here were Mr. W.A. Allen, Mr. James Wilson and a Mr. Henry; I don't remember his last name, but what they did was make the arrangements with the church or cemetery to bury a body, they provided the coffin, usually made of pine. There were some metal ones available, but they were very expensive.  The undertaker would make arrangements with a grave digger to dig the grave. The first grave digger I remember was Mr. George Avery.  After he got too old, my father took over the grave digging and my husband, Reverend Brewer, would help him. The undertaker paid the grave digger. They also provided the tin plates to mark the grave. Those were replaced by grave stones provided by the family, at a later date, if the family could afford one.

REVEREND BREWER: Now the family was responsible for dressing the body, the family would dress the family member in very expensive clothes or gowns, and whatever jewelry they had; wedding rings, favorite jewelry or any favorite object of that persons would be buried right along with them. People went all out to bury their kin because they wanted to put them away nicely in their final resting place. They would also place favorite objects on the outside of the graves too, things like antique vases and bowels to put flowers in or children's favorite toys.  It was very nice, until the vandals started taking everything. I remember my family placed an antique vase on my sister Sara Ellen's grave.   Some white folks in Georgia, the Dr. Sherrill's family, had given it to her when she was about 3 or 4 years old; we placed it on her grave to keep flowers in. One day I saw a white lady riding down the trail on a horse with a vase in her hand and I thought to myself, "That looks just like Sara's vase," so I went up to Sara's grave to look, and sure enough it was gone.

DEE: Reverend Brewer, you mentioned your sister Sara Ellen. Tell me a little more about her. What did she do for a living?  And what other relatives do you have buried in the South Asheville Cemetery?

REVEREND BREWER: My sister Sara Ellen Brewer died at the age of 18.  She was a member of the St. John A. Baptist Church, as was all of my family. Sara was baptized in what is now the Kenilworth Lake. Sara's grave was down the hill from Mrs. Miller's grave (the Lady with the rose bushes surrounding her grave) right next to what was then the school yard, but now a drive way surrounding the Church passes right near Sara's grave. I have a brother buried in the South Asheville Cemetery, Thomas Brewer.  He was a mechanic; he built motorcycles for a living.  He died in Goldsboro, and my mother, Mrs. Cornelia Brewer, is buried in the South Asheville Cemetery.

DEE: Mrs. Brewer, I understand that you too have family members buried at the South Asheville Cemetery.  Would you please tell me a little about them?

MRS. BREWER: Yes, my Father and Mother are both buried at the South Asheville cemetery. My mother, Mrs. Leila Banks Gordon was an avid church worker . She had rheumatism and could not work out side the home, but she loved to sew and spent a lot of time in the church.   Her grave is one grave over from my father's, Reverend Gordon, because someone else died before she did and that person was buried next to my father, so she was buried next to them the next grave over. Their graves are very near what is now a tennis court.

DEE: Reverend and Mrs. Brewer, I am going to read you off a list of names I have.   I got these names from other people who have relatives buried in the South Asheville Cemetery, and some I copied from tombstones at the cemetery.  If you would, please tell me if you recognize any of these names as people you know as buried in the South Asheville Cemetery and what, if anything, you know about that person: Mr. J.E. Randall, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Dalton, members of the Keebler family, Mr. R.D. and Emma Alexander, Mr. Schofield Miller, members of the Patton family, Mr. Jessie Clayton, members of the Ragsdale family, members of the Ramseur family, members of the Mims family, members of the Ballinger family, Mr.William Glenn's, members of the McClain family and Reverend John Duke.

REVEREND BREWER: Yes, I do recognize quite a few of those names. Reverend John Duke was Pastor of St. John's Church at one time, Dalton Street was named after Mrs. Dalton, the Alexander's lived in Stoney Hollow, John Ragsdale was a member of the Cemetery Board and others, but I could not give you any information on when or where in the Cemetery any of those people are buried. Most of them still have relatives living in Asheville and some still in the South Asheville Community. The family members may have family Bible records or just know most of the information you want on their family members buried in the South Asheville Cemetery.

DEE: Reverend Brewer, would you say that the deterioration of the South Asheville Cemetery began when the old-timer, so-to-speak, the older members of the Cemetery Board, the older caretakers, and older family and church members, some of whom I have just named on my list, when they began to pass away, was that the beginning of the end for the cemetery?

REVEREND BREWER: No, not at all, because when an older member, whether it be a church family member, a Deacon, a board member or whoever; another church member or a descendent of the deceased would take charge.  The responsibility was passed on. Jessie Huston was one of the people who took charge after Mr. Avery passed away.

DEE: What then did cause the deterioration of the South Asheville Cemetery?

REVEREND BREWER: The city condemned the South Asheville Cemetery in 1939.

DEE: Why was the cemetery condemned?  Did the city give any specific reasons for the condemnation of the South Asheville Cemetery?

REVEREND BREWER: Yes, they said that the cemetery was full. The undertakers received word that they could not bury any more bodies there, the Cemetery Board received word and passed it on the community. After the city condemned the cemetery, they took over the possession of it through eminent domain. I don't know why the city condemned the Cemetery.  It was not full.  The city just did whatever it wanted to. We had no representation, no voice in the matter. I think the city just wanted the property so that they could do with it what they pleased, build on it I suppose. If George and the others hadn't protested when they did, the cemetery would be gone. They say the white folks gave that land to the black folks, so the city can't take it, but now George and the others must prove that fact or the city may still get it. That would be sad, to have to move your relative's bones.

DEE: On that note I will bring our interview to a close. Thank you, Reverend and Mrs. Brewer for your cooperation and for all of the valuable and enlightening information you have given me today.