Builder unearths hidden graves while digging at site of Bluffton community
Shrouded from S.C. 170 by a thick layer of trees and faded by age, an array of headstones sprout up from the soil.
The graves have been there for decades. But developers, while constructing the entrance to hundreds of homes at Cypress Ridge, discovered three more hidden less than 200 feet away from the known cemetery.
The historically black family plots are adjacent to the roundabout at May River Road near Pritchardville.
Family members of the people buried there as recently as 1970 say it’s known as Pritchardville or Pritchard Cemetery. Several family members believe there are likely more unidentified graves in the area.
Before the three additional graves were discovered, the cemetery and the gravesites were marked for commercial development by K. Hovnanian Homes near where the entrance to the new Four Seasons at Carolina Oaks age-restricted community is planned.
Kevin Icard, Bluffton’s planning and community development manager, said the area was always going to be landscaped with no commercial development.
Nevertheless, the town has requested the developer amend its master plan to identify the area as green space instead of commercial. That amendment to not disturb the graves has been tabled until the next Bluffton Town Council meeting on Feb. 11.
A representative of K. Hovnanian Homes did not return a call for comment Thursday.
Graves discovered
During construction on July 31, K. Hovnanian Homes employees discovered the graves and contacted the Bluffton Police Department and the State Historic Preservation Office.
The developer immediately stopped construction, and the state archaeologist with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Jonathan Leader, stepped in to oversee preservation, State Historic Preservation Office archaeologist Keely Lewis said.
A ground penetrating survey of the site might be conducted, Lewis said.
Beth Gantt, an archaeological consultant for the developer with RS Webb and Associates, said she is in the process of conducting a final report on the ground disturbance of the site and will deliver her findings to the state.
Family grave sites
Freddie Frazier of Savannah said his grandfather, Fred Frazier, and cousins, Mary Palmer, Sam Bolden Jr., James Jenkins and Leroy Collins, are buried at the site his family called Pritchard Cemetery.
Reporters were able to identify the headstones of Frazier, Palmer, Bolden and Jenkins at the cemetery. Collins’ grave was one of the three burial sites discovered by the developer.
James Jenkins was a minister at St. Matthews Baptist Church in Bluffton, and the cemetery is most likely related to that church, Frazier said.
The original development agreement for the Jones Estate Planned Unit Development from 2000 describes Pritchard Cemetery as “an unnamed African American cemetery ... located west of SC Route 170 Approximately 1,000 feet north of the SC Routes 46/170 junction.”
The 20-year-old document says the cemetery, “contains less than 10 marked graves and 10-20 possible grave depressions. These depressions are within a space approximately 150 by 150 feet.”
This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 11:40 AM.
