Group wants permanent help in maintaining overgrown cemetery

CHESTER, S.C. — Laria Cornwell first drove past the Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Chester last fall, not even knowing there was a cemetery outside her car window.

"You couldn't even see the headstones from the road at all," Cornwell said.

She and her mother did their homework after learning that a family friend had a relative buried at the large cemetery just off the J.A. Cochran Bypass.

"It's been neglected for so many years," Cornwell said.

The cemetery is completely overgrown with tall weeds and brush.  Most of the hundreds of graves are unmarked.  Headstones are either toppled and hidden under brush or missing completely.  Many graves are deeply sunken in and covered with briars and litter.

Across a small dirt road there is a large tract of woods.  Back in the trees, more graves are visible, secluded deep in the trees, kudzu and thorns.  One dated back to 1899.

There are Civil War soldiers buried there, and slaves as well.

Cornwell is involved in a group called Zipporah's Angels. It helps build character in young girls from middle school and high school.  The group decided to take on Mt. Hebron Cemetery as a project.

Last fall, they uprooted large trees, cleared brush and cleaned up some of the grave sites.

However, six months later, nature is taking over again.  Now, they need permanent help to maintain the cemetery, and that's another issue all together.

Eyewitness News asked Chester County Councilman Alex Oliphant about the property.

"It's private property, but nobody really owns it," Oliphant said. "Nobody's paying taxes on it."

The cemetery was once owned by a local church, but was deeded to the Mt. Hebron Cemetery Association decades ago.  That association has not kept up the property, and apparently many of its members are now deceased.

Eyewitness News tried to contact a member of the association, but without success.

Cornwell has no intention to give up on the project.

"It's time to stop talking about it and start doing something," she said.  "With a little effort and help of some of the local funeral homes, we can get records of who's buried out here."

Right now, volunteers just want someone to step in and maintain the mostly African-American cemetery.  The land was recently annexed into Chester, but as of now the city is hauling away debris from the site, but not maintaining it because it's private.

There is a city-owned cemetery a few hundred yards away that could absorb Mt. Hebron, but that would be an expensive plan.

Oliphant suggested the old cemetery could be declared a public nuisance, and then tax money could be spent to clean it up and possibly maintain it.

Apparently people are still being buried there, at little or no cost.  Channel 9 spotted a young child's grave from 2005.

For now, Cornwell wants to raise awareness and enlist help from the community to step up and restore the respect and dignity of those buried there and long forgotten.

WSOC