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While clearing land at the corner of Boundary and Lafayette streets, behind what is commonly called Mercy Cemetery, city officials and contractors uncovered gravestones dating to the late 1890s that they didn't know existed.
"We have maintained the Mercy Cemetery over the years to a set of historical lines," said city comptroller Mack Cook, who is helping lead a city-wide neighborhood cleanup initiative. "Beyond that, it was just one of those areas where no one at the city thought they had any reason to go."
It wasn't until a resident called the city earlier this month to ask that Beaufort clear the lots as part of its vacant lot redemption program that the hidden, historically black burial ground was discovered, Cook said.
The cemetery sits in Beaufort's Higginsonville neighborhood, originally established by freed slaves during the Civil War and named for Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson of Boston, who commanded the 1st SC Volunteers, a black regiment based in Beaufort, said Evan Thompson, executive director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation.
A tornado wiped out the community -- bordered roughly by Boundary, Lafayette, Phillips and Sycamore streets -- in the 1860s. It was later resettled with new houses and the cemetery, Thompson said.
"There are quite a few black Union veterans buried here along with their families," he said. "The saddest part is that it seems like no one really (cared) for the last 40 or 50 years. ... No one came to visit."
RICH WITH HISTORY
When he learned of the find, Thompson said he started looking through county tax and deed records to see if he could track down who owned the property.
Three different black burial societies -- the Sisters of Mercy, the Workers of Charity and the Zion Hope Society -- at one point owned land where the Mercy Cemetery sits, Thompson said.
Beaufort had about 12 black burial societies during and after the Civil War, all of which played an important role in freed slaves' lives before desegregation, he said. They helped create a sense of community, supported families when loved ones fell ill and provided land and financial help with burials.
"The societies were important African-American cultural organizations during the Reconstruction era," he said. "These cemeteries are one of the only physical reminders of them."
Some of the societies were also linked with local fraternal organizations that built meeting halls, two of which still exist on Duke and Greene streets, Thompson said.
Records show that the Sisters of Mercy owned two of the four cemetery lots recently uncovered. It remains unknown who owned the others, he said.
No one owns the property now, city officials said. Tax records just say "cemetery" under owner, leading Thompson to believe that Beaufort's black burial societies likely "dissolved into history at some point."
He plans to contact the Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture at the College of Charleston, which identified nine black burial societies in Charleston, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.
Of those, eight still operate, according to the Feb. 7 article.
SOLVING THE MYSTERY
For Thompson, it's exciting to branch out beyond Beaufort's National Historical Landmark District and talk about other historical spots.
Higginsonville holds great reminders of the area's past, he said.
"You could call it the first 'suburb' of Beaufort," Thompson said. "This was the first area added to Beaufort's street grid after the Civil War."
Some of the area corridors -- such as Lovejoy, Morris, O'Connell and Phillips streets -- were named for abolitionists.
Thompson plans to research the gravestones that were lost for so many years. The city will maintain the cemetery henceforth.
One person in particular remains a mystery, he said.
Willie Shumatella, who died in 1912 according to his grave marker, is nowhere to be found in historical records.
"There's no death record, no census record, no record at all," Thompson said. "But someone clearly cared enough to make a stone."
