Ground-penetrating radar work was conducted at the Benjamin Lawrence gravesite in the Clemson Experimental Forest Aug. 25, 2021.
The GPR work indicated approximately 108 graves estimated to range from 150-200 years old are in this secluded area of mature hardwood and timber on a hilltop or ridge overlooking the Keowee River of Lake Hartwell.
There is believed to be 107 potential burials at this location—though exactly who these persons are is a mystery yet to be revealed
Ground-penetrating radar work was conducted at a grassy area of the Pitner Center gravesite at the Pee Dee REC on March 14, 2022.
The GPR work found no evidence of actual graves at the site, though there are some depressions in the ground and there is verbal history of headstones existing previously.
Members of the Clemson University statewide gravesites team met Brian Gandy, director of the Darlington County Historical Society, at the Pee Dee Research and Education Center to visit what is believed to be the William Standard gravesite.
The site is the possible location of a family cemetery of the Revolutionary War officer, William Standard, whose family previously owned the property based on historical descriptions that fit the possible location.
In February and April 2003, a group of Boy Scouts led by Eagle Scout Brandon Blake cleared the underbrush and removed limbs and other debris from the site.
Once the forest debris had been removed, the Scouts mapped about 85 graves, based on fieldstones and by visually assessing deformities in the ground. Finally, they placed markers beside the visible depressions and field stones and rebuilt the fence around the gravesite’s boundary.
Greenville News writer Anna Simon documented the work in her piece published April 30, 2003, entitled:
Scouts Clear Years Away From Slave Cemetery
By Anna Simon
CLEMSON BUREAU
asimon@greenvillenews.com
CLEMSON — Armed with yard tools, Brandon Blake and about 15 other members of Clemson Boy Scout Troop 235 attacked a 100-foot by 100-foot tangle of fallen leaves and downed trees inside two strands of sagging barbed wire.
Their mission on that overcast February day was to begin to uncover and restore what is believed to be a slave cemetery owned by Gen. Andrew Pickens, an American Revolutionary era leader who Pickens County is named for.
Pickens, who is buried at Old Stone Church in Clemson, lived near the high knoll that today is in woods behind chicken houses at Clemson University’s poultry farm on Cherry Road.
Two months later, the site looks like a park. New fencing and a gate surround a stand of tall blackgum, sourwood, dogwood and oak trees that rise above the graves.
Scouts uncovered row after row of fieldstones that mark about 150 unmarked graves.
There are only three headstones. Two bear names: Hannah, the wife of James Reese, who died in 1857 at the age of 49, and Loutilda Thompson who was born June 10, 1916, and died Dec. 20, 1918. The third stone bears only the initials T.E.M.
“You couldn’t see much at the beginning,” said Blake, 17, who organized the effort as his Eagle Scout service project.
As they removed the rotting leaves and forest debris, the Scouts uncovered stone after stone and worked carefully to avoid moving any rocks.
“You’d just trip over them,” Blake said. “You’re digging away and there’s another rock. There’s a lot more here than I thought there would be.”
Scouts have marked all the graves with short sections of white PVC pipe hammered into the ground. They will add permanent markers later. The next step will be to try to piece together the history of the cemetery and map out the graves, Blake said.
The most interesting part of the project has been connecting with local history, said Blake, a junior at D.W. Daniel High, who is considering majoring in history in college.
There’s not much information to go on as Blake tries to put a history together, said Paul Kankula, a genealogist, who is working with the scouts to determine if the cemetery was the slave cemetery of Pickens, whose homestead was only one-quarter mile away.
Kankula believes the cemetery was a slave cemetery because so many graves were unmarked, because they are shallow and because of the proximity to where slave quarters were in relation to Pickens’ home.
He also believes the cemetery was multi-generational because of the number if graves and the centuries spanned by the two marked headstones.
Kankula hopes that a sibling or niece or nephew of two-year-old Loutilda Thompson, buried there in 1918, might be in the area today and know some of the history.
Chris Day, writing for the Daily Messenger on June 19, 2003, published the following account:
Old graveyard believed to be slave cemetery
By CHRIS DAY
newsed@dailyjm.com
CLEMSON — There is a forgotten graveyard in a straw-covered forest out back behind a Clemson University facility. One Seneca resident has an idea who is buried there.
“It’s speculated it’s a slave cemetery of Gen. Andrew Pickens,” said Paul Kankula, who specializes in compiling research data for applications such as family genealogies.
The cemetery is located behind the Morgan Poultry Center, off Old Cherry Road.
Kankula believes his theory makes sense, because he said that Pickens’ home was situated within walking distance of the graveyard.
Kankula said that Pickens’ son, Andrew Pickens Jr., also kept slaves on the property of his home, and the slaves’ living quarters were located in close proximity of the cemetery, too.
Kankula said the graves are shallow, most likely dug with wooden planks, since slave owners didn’t allow their slaves the use of metal tools, like shovels.
Added to that, he said, it would have been tough for the slaves to dig through the red clay.
Trying to prove that it’s a cemetery for slaves, though, is tough, said Kankula. There are readable tombstones remaining.
Kankula said that all efforts to contact any possible relatives of the names on the markers came up empty.
One stone reads, “In memory of Hannah, the wife of James Reese, who died June 8th, 1857. Aged 49 years. This stone is erected by James Reese.”
Late last April, Boy Scouts from Clemson’s Troop 235, led by Eagle Scout candidate Brandon Blake, 17, spent several days clearing the land on which the cemetery sits. Blake and his crew plotted the cemetery with string and placed a piece of plastic pipe at the spot of each marker.
Blake’s father, James Blake, said Gen. Pickens’ home was located so close to the cemetery that where it stood is now submerged in Lake Hartwell. The father said his son’s next project is to map the cemetery, and to number each grave.
If it’s learned for certain that the 100- by 100-foot graveyard is a slave cemetery, Mr. Blake said the scouts would like to have a sign permanently placed to remember it as such.
Kankula said that he learned about the cemetery after a friend, who has conducted 20 years of cemetery research, asked him to compile her information into one source. He is the homestead coordinator for an Oconee County genealogy Web site, www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html, and a Pickens County Web site,
www.rootsweb.com/~scpicke2.
In an effort to map the “corners,” Members of the Clemson statewide cemeteries team conducted surveys with drone LIDAR equipment at the William Grant, Colhoun and Benjamin Lawrence cemeteries in the Clemson Experimental Forest in February 2022.
The cemetery where Col. R.W. Simpson and many of his family members are buried is located in the central area of the Piedmont Research and Education station in a prominent spot near the beef farm headquarters.
The family descendants actually own the cemetery and after many years it had fallen into disrepair.
In 2014, with the family’s approval, Max McCarty, son of Clemson Turfgrass Specialist, Dr. Bert McCarty, adopted the cemetery renewal as his Eagle Scout Project.
Non-native shrubs and trees were removed. Original trees and shrubbery were pruned. Headstones were documented and cleaned with an acid wash process and the Confederate Veteran’s grave markers were cleaned and re-painted.
The original fencing, which was severely degraded and damaged, was replaced.
Members of the Clemson University statewide gravesites team cleaned up the Old Mill gravesite at the Coastal Research and Education Center in March 2022.
The cemetery, the only one identified at the Coastal REC, is located on the far northeast corner of the property in a grove of larger hardwoods and pines on the edge of Long Branch creek.
There are three headstones present, but many visual depressions with no markers. Clearing work was completed at this site in April 2022, but recent visual inspections reveal there are apparent depressions extending beyond the fence, so further discovery is necessary.
Members of the Clemson University statewide gravesites team conducted a controlled burn at the Old Church gravesite at Edisto REC in February 2022.
The cemetery located within a pine timber stand has graves in rows. The ruins of a church are nearby, and an estimated 60+ graves are believed to be those of congregants who attended the church.
Some headstones are present, but there are many depressions with no marker. The graves are estimated to date back to 1870-1930.
Clearing work was completed of this site on Feb. 27, 2022.
Members of the Clemson University statewide gravesites team visited the Old Church gravesite at the Edisto Research and Education Center in summer 2021.
The team spent several hours walking the site during the visit, photographing the area and documenting their observations.
The Old Church gravesite is one of three located at the Edisto REC and is believed that congregants who attended the church are buried there. The site is believed to comprise 60+ graves dating from 1870-1930.
In September 2022, a team from Clemson along with professionals from Preservation South visited the Hopewell Plantation gravesite to expand the discovery work the Scouts had started almost 20 years prior, utilizing the most modern technologies available.
A survey of the gravesite was conducted using ground penetrating radar (GPR) scans to identify and map all potential graves. The GPR scans identified 120 graves. Using the scan information, the team also was able to map official four corners of the site to include appropriate buffer area around known graves.
The Hopewell Plantation is one of three historic properties owned by Clemson University.
The Hopewell house is associated with Revolutionary War General Andrew Pickens, who first built a log structure on the property around 1785 before gifting the current structure it to his son, South Carolina Gov. Andrew Pickens, Jr.
In 2017, an existing conditions report indicated that the Hopewell house was probably built around 1812. The property remained under private ownership after the Pickens era, passing through the Carter, Reece and Cherry families. In 1936 it was sold to the US Resettlement Administration under the authority of the Bankhead – Jones Farm Tenant Act and the property became a part of the Clemson Community Conservation Project, eventually being deeded to the university in 1954.
In 2003, a group of Boy Scouts led by Eagle Scout Brandon Blake cleared the underbrush and removed limbs and other debris from the site. Once the forest debris had been removed, the Scouts mapped about 85 graves, based on fieldstones and by visually assessing deformities in the ground. Finally, they placed markers beside the visible depressions and field stones and rebuilt the fence around the gravesite’s boundary.
About a quarter mile from the Hopewell homestead is what is believed to be the gravesites of those enslaved on Hopewell Plantation and their descendants. Most of the identities of those buried at Hopewell are not currently known as the depressions are mostly marked only with field stones. There are, however, three graves marked with headstones at the site. Headstones marking the graves of Mrs. Hannah Reese, age 49; Loutilda Thompson, age 2; and a third headstone only bearing the initials T.E.M are present in the Hopewell cemetery.
Going forward, the team will engage in community outreach as well as archival and related research to develop documentation related to the Hopewell gravesite and those who are buried there.
