Cemetery love: One of Hilton Head Island’s most intriguing locales gets day in the sun
A quiet celebration on a sun-dappled day at the Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery on Hilton Head Island marked its inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.
Representatives from the Heritage Library Foundation joined community members and volunteers on May 6 in accepting a plaque recognizing the historic site’s designation, which came in 2017.
The recognition follows years of painstaking research on the part of Heritage Library volunteers, who combed through records, oversaw restoration and research at the site and served as stewards of one of the island’s most fascinating locales.
Speaking on behalf of the Heritage Library, Historic Register researcher, long-time island resident and foundation board member Iva Welton said, “Research takes you into areas of knowledge that you might never think of going.
“While it broadens your outlook and knowledge, it can also give you a feeling of excitement when you discover answers that match the precise questions the national register requires.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this project, and I feel strongly that we as a community have a responsibility to recognize, restore and cherish our precious history. Preserving our historic sites is an excellent way to teach our future generations about our past.”
Welton led the effort to have the Rose Hill Plantation House included in the national register in 1983.
Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.
The Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery, located at the corner of Mathews Drive and William Hilton Parkway at Folly Field Road, is the final resting place of many of the island’s settlers, from colonial times through the antebellum era.
Research showed it to be the site of the first church on Hilton Head, completed in 1788. It also served as the center of activity on the island in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as the church was in close proximity to a militia muster house and a Masonic lodge.
The cemetery contains the graves and memorials for four Revolutionary War Patriots: Isaac Baldwin, James Davant, John Stoney and Charles Davant.
Charles Davant was ambushed by a Tory militia unit, was mortally wounded, and is the only known Patriot casualty on Hilton Head.
The cemetery’s Baynard Mausoleum, built in 1846 and long a source of fascination, is the island’s oldest structure.
The site is owned by the Heritage Library Foundation and shares a history with the colonial St. Luke’s Parish, represented on the island today by St. Luke’s Church on Pope Avenue.
The cemetery is currently the focus of a long-term campaign by the nonprofit Heritage Library Foundation to restore the site and position it as a history park.