A historic Hilton Head cemetery is being restored to offer a look at the island's past
The gravestone lay flat, buried in a historic Hilton Head cemetery beneath layers of earth and time.
Thomas Webb was 46 when he died in 1816, the headstone revealed.
Webb is buried in Zion Cemetery along William Hilton Parkway. The site is home to the Baynard Mausoleum, built in 1846 and the oldest building on the island, according to the Heritage Library, which owns and maintains the cemetery.
Matt Sanger, assistant professor of anthropology and director of the public archaeology program at Binghamton University in New York, led a group of volunteers Thursday to search for unmarked graves.
Lou Benfante, president of the Heritage Library, said the group plans to turn the site into a Revolutionary War history park. He said Sanger was asked to search for the graves — so nothing is built on top of them — and for the original footprint of a chapel, which the library plans to reconstruct.
Sanger said ground-penetrating radar was used to reveal Webb's headstone and a tabby brick wall surrounding what he called the Davant family plot in which he was buried. Sanger believes there are likely other buried headstones in the cemetery.
Benfante said that over the past several years, Sanger and his group have found 28 unmarked graves.
Several Revolutionary War soldiers are buried in the cemetery, and the site once had a "militia muster house" where soldiers gathered, he said.
The library is almost done restoring the Baynard Mausoleum, Benfante said.
The next steps include rebuilding the church and militia house, and constructing a dock on Broad Creek like the one parishioners used when they came to services by boat.
The library hopes to fully restore the site by 2026 — the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
The cemetery is one of three Hilton Head sites Sanger is involved in documenting.
He is leading a group of students as they excavate the Sea Pines Indian Shell Ring in the Sea Pines Forest Preserve.
His group is also examining Mitchelville, the Civil War-era town founded by freed slaves.
This story was originally published July 6, 2018 at 11:28 AM.