Historic cemetery gets marker

GALVESTON — Palm trees, birds and a few headstones are all that most people see as they pass by Rosewood Cemetery on 63rd Street off Seawall Boulevard.

Galveston’s first African-American cemetery will receive a new subject marker from the Texas Historical Commission in a short dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Along with getting a new marker, the site is giving up secrets about its inhabitants.

Investors purchased shares in the cemetery association, and the first interment was in 1911. There were about 190 burials by the time of the 1915 Galveston hurricane, which did much damage to the unprotected site.

After the storm, many families chose to bury their loved ones in New Potter’s Field (Municipal Cemetery), since the walk from town was shorter. Similar detailing of the monuments suggests that both cemeteries once looked the same.

The last recorded burial at Rosewood Cemetery was in 1944, and by the early 1950s, the county purchased a vacant section of the land for the extension of the seawall. This closed the natural drainage of the site and eventual developments surrounded the cemetery. Runoff from rains brought sediment into the overgrown burial ground, covering most of the monuments.

In December 2006, Judy and John Saracco donated the cemetery to the Galveston Historical Foundation, and work began to clear the site of brush and trash.

Countless hours have been spent by volunteers to maintain the site, construct a fence and restore the respect that those buried there deserve.

Rosewood holds as many as 550 people, from all segments of Galveston’s early 20th-century black community.

Handmade markers with the names written in the wet cement and carved marble, limestone and granite headstones represent all levels of economic prosperity.

Policemen like Joseph Scott and Howard D. Hill and the longshoreman Tony Adam Smith all helped Galveston rebuild after the 1900 Storm.

One military marker currently is visible — that of Pvt. Ben L. Scott, a stevedore who loaded and unloaded ships during World War I.

The Rev. Benjamin J. Hall, founder of Galveston’s First Union Baptist Church, is buried in Rosewood. It is hoped that one day his exact location can be found with ground-penetrating radar, since sediment now covers his marker. Then, there’s Miranda Moffett, who died in 1914, at age 80. Born in 1833, three years before Texas became a republic, I’m sure she had many stories to tell about her life. Investigations continue to uncover more headstones and stories like these, which lie just below the surface.

Galveston Historical Foundation invites you to the dedication of Rosewood Cemetery’s marker this Saturday morning and tour the site to learn more about this part of our island’s history.

If you know a descendant of someone buried in Rosewood or would like to help research or maintain the cemetery, please contact the Galveston Historical Foundation at 409-765-3419 or brian.davis(at)galvestonhistory.org.

Brian Davis is director of preservation services for the Galveston Historical Foundation.