Saving Stories: Fairview Cemetery

Prior to Saturday, May 31st cleanup. Photo taken by Jim Ravencraft.

The Fairview Project Committee and community volunteers came together for the initial cleanup of the cemetery located at 300 Holman Street in Greenwood, SC. on Saturday, May 31st at 8:00 am. A total of 32 volunteers which included Greenwood County Library genealogy room volunteers, members of the Greenwood County Historical Society, Faith Home, Rev. Furman Miller, and members of Weston Chapel AME Church in Greenwood worked to almost 12 pm clearing trees, briars, trash, and other vegetation.

Working to uncover the Backus grave. Photo taken by Robin Foster.

Fairview Cemetery is an historic African American cemetery with hundreds of documented burials since 1909. Over the years, it has been overtaken by vegetation towering 10 to 15 feet high. No one wanted to assume responsibility for this great undertaking, but I could not just let this remain the plight of the family members that I have discovered on death certificates as being interred there. Some I have found headstones for. The headstone of my great great grandmother (Jane McCoy) which did exist at one time has not been found yet. Now that I have become so involved in this effort, I have gained a respect for the whole community buried there and will keep going to honor their memory as well.

As chairperson of the project appointed by Greenwood County Councilman Gonza Bryant, I was thrilled with everyone's effort. They had a good portion of the cemetery cleared in 90 minutes. We would not have come as far in that amount of time if it had not been for Faith Home volunteers who brought their own equipment. A member of Weston Chapel AME brought her daughter.

After initial cleanup. Photo taken by Jim Ravencraft.

My husband had not entered the cemetery previously for fear of snakes, but he worked with two other volunteers clearing trees. We saw a fawn in the cemetery, and deer have also been sited which probably explains why we have not seen snakes.

We discovered a few new graves beneath the undergrowth, and they have been documented. I was so disgusted to see all the debris over Rev. L. S. Burnett's grave (beers bottles, trash, a bra, medicine bottles). That is one spot that I want to see cleared soon so that it can longer be used in that way.

Robin Foster, Saturday, May 31st. Photo taken by Ellis McClure

We have a long way to go until this cemetery is brought up to standard. To learn more about Fairview Cemetery, click here. We are hoping to find people to donate labor and money that can be used to clean and maintain the cemetery. Our next cleanup dates are:

June 10, 2014 at 8 am

June 28, 2014 at 8 am

If you would like to send a donation, please forward it to:

Greenwood Historical Society

P. O. Box. 49653

Greenwood, South Carolina 29649

C/O Carol Scales

Please specify that your donation is for Fairview Cemetery.

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UPDATE: Truth Revealed About African American Undertaker Buried in Fairview Cemetery - April 9, 2014

Scores of people are forgotten here including my family. All this brush will soon turn green making the markers you see now less visible. Why has it remained so? Is this how we honor those who have gone on before? I have been so heartbroken over this. Presently this burden is bigger than the few concerned and intending to correct it.

Fairview Cemetery, Robin Foster March 31, 2014

This was a difficult post to write. In all the days I have spent researching my family, I have never come across a cemetery in such condition as that of Fairview Cemetery located at 300 Holman Street in Greenwood, South Carolina. I first visited Fairview Cemetery in 2009 with my mother. I fully expected to be able to identify the headstones of loved ones buried there. There was so much vegetation, we could not even enter it. This is an aerial map which shows what large an area the cemetery takes up:

Greenwood Maps

My family at Fairview Cemetery

The father of Senator Frank Gilbert (1934-1999), Thomas Gilbert, is buried in Fairview. Cousin Senator Gilbert is a descendant of Beverley Vance (1832-1899), and Beverley is my 2nd great grandfather. Beverley was a constable in 1868 and testified before the SC Senate in 1876. Formerly enslaved, Beverley was a political leader in his community and would have been proud to know that a great grandson would be a senator of this state. This blog post gives some background on Beverley Vance. This area would have been part of Abbeville County prior to 1897. According to my family oral history, Fairview was a burial place for many Johnson-Vance descendants. I hope to identify all of them.

I was never able to attract enough attention from enough people to make a difference in the condition of this cemetery. I have wept over that and the fact that even though death certificate research led me to this place, it has remained impassable to me. Five years passed. Now the vegetation is over my head, and almost completely covered in vines.

New hope

For the first time since my move to Greenwood, I attended the regular meeting of the Greenwood Historical Society where it was thought that I had come out of my interest in their plans to clean Fairview Cemetery, but it was the first I had heard about it. You could imagine my excitement. This will be a great undertaking.

Greenwood County Historical Society

P.O. Box 49653

Greenwood, SC 29649

No one knows who owns Fairview according to the Greenwood County Assessor's office while correspondence about the property is received by them.. The last owner is mentioned in a deed from 1919. It was part of a 14 acre parcel of land on Holman Street. Some of the land went to homes. A portion went to establish the cemetery. Today, some think it is property of the City of Greenwood. No matter who owns it, something should be done. What do you think? Does the condition of this cemetery bear any reflection on anyone?

Fairview Cemetery, Brush and Debris, Robin Foster March 31, 2014

I visited the cemetery on Monday, March 31. A resident who lives adjacent informed me that there are many interred there. A lady who used to take care of the cemetery who lived across the street passed away. The local resident toured the outside perimeter with me, but warned me it was too dangerous to walk through. She said she has actually seen a family pull up and remove their ancestor's casket and marker to place them some place else. I guess that would be one resolution, but what about those who remain?

We walked behind the adjacent apartments where headstones could be seen elevated high above us. We tried to climb, but she was worried about snake holes and me falling through a grave. All that brush on the right is part of the cemetery.

Fairview Cemetery on the right facing Holman Street, Robin Foster March 31, 2014

I went to the top of the apartment stairs next door to get this shot:

My quest

I decided that the most helpful thing that I could do was to help the historical society prove that far more people are buried there than the 56 memorials on Find A Grave. Using FamilySearch.org, I have spent night and day in search of death certificates which cite Fairview Cemetery as the burial site.

So far, I am surprised to have documented fifty more people out of 1,100 searched so far taking the memorials on Find A Grave up to 106. I have over 100,000 more death certificates to search through. The odds are great that I will discover many more.

Now I have come to be interested in the stories of everyone buried there. Not all of the people I have found below have been added to Find A Grave yet. Among those interred there is former undertaker, James T. Percival (1872-1937). I am wondering how many people he buried in Fairview. His family plot is one of the only visual evidences of burials from the street:

Percival Family Plot, Robin Foster March 31, 2014

Work ahead

It will take many resources to clean up and maintain this cemetery. I hope that identifying the people whose markers I cannot even see from the street right now becomes ample motivation for those who can help. I will eventually put all the names below on a spreadsheet and link any stories we discover about them. I have the help of my fellow volunteers at the Greenwood County Library, and I am indebted to them for their support. I am also grateful to the volunteers at Find A Grave who have worked to take photos on site.

Please stop for a few moments to browse through the people below who lived real lives or died as infants and share this post to heighten awareness. These folks could have been forever forgotten. Many thanks go to those who are part of the push to clean this cemetery so that I can go in to see what evidence remains of my family and others.

Check back often. I will repost this article as it is updated. I will work each day to find and add more. Some on the list below have not been entered on Find A Grave yet. Visit Find A Grave to view other memorials.

Hattie Adams
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Louis Ainer
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Mary Jane Alexander
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Howard R. Alexander
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Volley Alexander
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Nimrod Alexander
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Mary Allen
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Perry Bacon
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Bennie Richardson Beatty
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Mary Boozer
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Tatum Boozer
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Thomas J. Bailey
Find A Grave
Death Certificate

James H. Backus
Find A Grave
Death Certificate

Dr. Theo. E. Percival
Death Certificate
Find A Grave
Lincoln University Herald 1924

Winona Perriee
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Emma E. Perrin
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

James Perrin
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Lelia Phelts
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Ella Poole
Death Certificate
Find A Grave

Clarence Ray
Find A Grave

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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Military Veterans Beneath Overgrowth in Farview Cemetery

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Help to Save Fairview Cemetery

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Truth Revealed About African-American Undertaker Buried in Fairview Cemetery

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Gone and Almost Forgotten at Fairview Cemetery

UPDATE: Truth Revealed About African American Undertaker Buried in Fairview Cemetery - April 9, 2014

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James Nelson Adams. Photo taken by Jim Ravencraft, April 2014.


William Nedwood. This photo was taken by Jim Ravencraft, April 2014.