{"id":47462,"date":"2022-10-17T11:06:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=47462"},"modified":"2022-10-17T11:06:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:06:19","slug":"tarleton-helping-preserve-stephenvilles-historic-mount-olive-cemetery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-helping-preserve-stephenvilles-historic-mount-olive-cemetery\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton Helping Preserve Stephenville\u2019s Historic Mount Olive Cemetery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Mount
Mount Olive Cemetery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Among the trees and autumn leaves lies some of Stephenville\u2019s richest history \u2014 a century\u2019s worth \u2014 and Tarleton State University is partnering with community leaders to preserve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before the railroad tracks on College Farm Road, at the once flourishing St. John\u2019s Baptist Church, a small graveyard with a big story lies quietly, surely unopposed to a little attention. The dirt road leading into Mount Olive Cemetery (established 1922) is dotted with 250 known African American graves and another 90 unmarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At year\u2019s end 2021, a team from the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University used ground-penetrating radar to locate all gravesites in the cemetery. Now Tarleton has joined the city of Stephenville and the Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council to properly acknowledge each unmarked burial with a stone inscribed \u201cunknown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s just the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Deborah Liles and her students are combing local written and digital archives to write the history of St. John\u2019s and Mount Olive and those buried there. It will chronicle 100 years of African American life in Erath County and tie to the larger American story. Tarleton\u2019s W.K. Gordon Endowed Chair in Texas History, Dr. Liles serves on the board of several historical associations statewide and is known for her award-winning work on women, slavery, local communities and ranching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s research will be published, with proceeds going to the Mount Olive Cemetery Association for continued upkeep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMount Olive is a sacred place,\u201d said Stephenville Mayor Doug Svien. \u201cOur collaboration with Tarleton is about uplifting the achievements of African Americans. We are one city, one county, with a responsibility to our forebears. That\u2019s a good thing to remember, and Tarleton is right there helping us do it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Stephenville City Council received a project update at its October meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tarleton President James Hurley said this kind of \u201cmeaningful human endeavor\u201d binds a university to its community. \u201cLet us never be only books and classrooms,\u201d he said. \u201cLet Tarleton herald and honor its neighbors. We are proud to partner with our city leaders to celebrate our diverse history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Liles: \u201cThis project is vital to create a more inclusive history of Erath County. It provides a tremendous experience for our students to discover the value of public history and community activism. Everyone\u2019s story matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christine Newton, Executive Director of the Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council, concurs. \u201cNothing gives better insight into a people\u2019s culture than the way they are memorialized. With Tarleton\u2019s research, we hope to bring in the living community to learn about the families associated with Mount Olive and to better understand our heritage of place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the burials were relocated from Stephenville\u2019s West End Cemetery, which dates to 1856. Wallace Howell was the first person to be buried in Mount Olive, on May 5, 1922. A family plot for the Edwards family marks a mother, father and their children. The last of the Edwards clan to be buried there was Gertrude Chandler Hicks in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Directional and entry signs soon will point the way to the cemetery, now barely noticeable from the roadway. Dr. Liles and her spring art class will create a stained-glass mural to honor those interred, and a community-wide unveiling \u2014 complete with new burial markers \u2014 is planned for late 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is registered with the Black Cemetery Network, an organization committed to identifying and saving African American burial sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, contact Tarleton\u2019s Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and International Programs at 254-968-0506.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Among the trees and autumn leaves lies some of Stephenville\u2019s richest history \u2014 a century\u2019s worth \u2014 and Tarleton State University is partnering with community leaders to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":473,"featured_media":47464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,424,425],"tags":[430,431,432,438,440,442,445],"class_list":["post-47462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-research","category-arts-events","category-campus-community","tag-academic-affairs","tag-administration","tag-alumni","tag-college-of-graduate-studies","tag-college-of-liberal-fine-arts","tag-community-events","tag-division-of-research-innovation-and-economic-development"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"ehellmund@tarleton.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/ehellmundtarleton-edu\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2022\/09\/Mount-Olive-Cemetery-Sign-e1666022571746-300x200.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Academics & Research<\/a>","Arts & Events<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academics & Research<\/span>","Arts & Events<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Academic Affairs<\/a>","Administration<\/a>","Alumni<\/a>","College of Graduate Studies<\/a>","College of Liberal & Fine Arts<\/a>","Community Events<\/a>","Division of Research, Innovation and Economic Development<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academic Affairs<\/span>","Administration<\/span>","Alumni<\/span>","College of Graduate Studies<\/span>","College of Liberal & Fine Arts<\/span>","Community Events<\/span>","Division of Research, Innovation and Economic Development<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on October 17, 2022","modified":"Updated on October 17, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on October 17, 2022 11:06 am","modified":"Updated on October 17, 2022 11:06 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Sign reading \"Mount Olive Cemetery, Est. 1922.\"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}