EDITOR’S NOTE — This is the first in a four-story February series dedicated to people and/or places key to Black history in Effingham County.

GUYTON — There are lots of secrets buried at Fergerson Cemetery that a group of citizens is determined to uncover.

The effort emerged from the research of JoAnn Clarke, a volunteer with FindAGrave. Owned by Ancestry.com, FindAGrave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records

Fergerson Cemetery, established in 1907 for Black Guyton residents, has become a focal point for Clarke because its history is full of holes. She discovered it while adding plots in Guyton Cemetery, an adjoining property, to the FindAGrave database.

“There is something spiritual about that cemetery,” Clarke said. “I can’t put my finger on it. I’ve (created memorials for) nine cemeteries in the Effingham County area and one in Bulloch County and I’ve never had the draw, the attachment, the deep interest. 

“This goes far beyond anything I’ve ever done in FindAGrave. I am completely intrigued by that cemetery.”

Clarke started working with FindAGrave a couple years ago. She considers herself to be a “Guyton girl” despite moving from Seattle, Washington.

“I introduced a girlfriend of mine to the process and we started going to Fergerson and found a cemetery that had not been recorded in FindAGrave,” Clarke said. “Guyton (Cemetery), next to it, has 1,500 (FindAGrave) memorials. Fergerson had 59.”

Since then, Clarke and company have set up memorials on the FindAGrave website for every marked grave at Fergerson Cemetery.

“But there is something intriguing about Fergerson because of the handwritten headstones,” Clarke said. “Some of them are just handwritten in with a very cryptic handwriting from the 1920s for the from the 1920s or the 1930s. Then we started doing more research rather than just taking pictures and creating a memorial.

“We actually started doing research on some of these people and I discovered a document that said, ‘Fergerson, in its early days, was known as the colored cemetery.’ That caused us to visit City Hall to see if we could get more information about it because, again, I was interested in the history of it.

“That’s when we got connected up with Lucy Powell, Robert Hunter and Pearl Boynes.”

Powell, Hunter and Boynes are experts in Guyton’s history. All have family members buried in Fergerson Cemetery, which is frequently spelled “Ferguson Cemetery” on maps.

“There are so many people out there who are known in community who have history dating way, way back,” Powell said. “One of the instrumental founders of New Hope AME Church and the founder of the Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Association are buried out there.”

Powell, Hunter and Boynes have helped Clarke link families with loved ones, boosting the total of Fergerson Cemetery’s FindAGrave memorials to 459. Still, unmarked graves or graves marked by pieces of wood devoid of a name abound. Others appear to have been completely neglected or forgotten.

“There are times when we go out to Fergerson that we have to pull weeds away or get rid of an ant hill — even get down on our knees with some water to try to read what is on the headstone,” Clarke said. “We are talking about how we can get the unmarked graves marked because there are families that haven’t been able to afford a headstone or put any sort of a marker.”

“We’ve had people buried here who actually didn’t own  a plot,” Powell said.

The land for Fergerson Cemetery was deeded to the City of Guyton by Annie, Minnie and Alice Fergerson in 1907 to be used for “colored” residents. The cemetery is now operated and cared for by the Fergerson Cemetery Committee, which includes Powell, Boynes and Hunter and Michael Garvin.

“At first, it wasn’t incorporated. It was just a group of people who tried to keep the cemetery up,” Powell said. “We had it incorporated in the 1990s so that we could sell plots and have money to keep it clean.”

Fergerson and Guyton cemeteries remain segregated but that is by choice, not a government or private edict.

“People want to be buried with their families,” Boynes explained.

The Lawton Nease family deeded an additional half-acre to the cemetery committee in 2008. That sliver of property is currently covered with trees.

“We’ve never bothered it because we don’t have the funds,” Boynes said. “We actually haven’t had the need, really, to use it yet.” 

Fergerson Cemetery plots aren’t sold on an individual basis. They are available as family units.

“Mr. Hunter told me that all the Hunters would be buried in Fergerson,” Clarke said. “If they die in New York, their body is brought back to Fergerson.”

Years ago, women buried in Fergerson Cemetery were placed next to their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters instead of their husbands.

“A maiden name seems to be more important (at Fergerson Cemetery) than I’ve seen anywhere else,” Clarke said. “There is pride in that maiden name, I guess.”

 To aid in the ongoing grave identification effort, Clarke has enlisted a friend take a drone video of the premises. YouTube videos about the cemetery’s history and its inhabitants are also in the works.

“And we thought that maybe the Effingham Herald would be interested in writing a story about the cemetery, its history, what is being done out there and how important it is to preserve that,” Clarke added.

The Fergerson Cemetery Committee is seeking assistance to gravel the roads and repair a wrought-iron fence at the cemetery. Dead trees and overhanging limbs need to be removed, too.

“All of that takes money but I think there needs to be an awareness of what’s there,” Clarke said. 

Everyone currently involved in the cemetery project believes it is a worthwhile endeavor.

“We’ve learned a lot of history and we think people need to know about it,” Clarke said. “Everybody deserves to have a memorial created for them.”

Boynes and Powell wonder who will operate the cemetery once the current committee members are gone.

“We are concerned about it but not worried,” Boynes said.

“Somebody will pick it up,” Powell added.