Early on Wednesday, Jan. 3, a Town of Wake Forest construction inspector found that tree protection fencing had been removed as well as several trees from the marked slave cemetery in the Kitchin Farms subdivision now being constructed.
The inspector notified Senior Planner Michelle Michael who was involved in protection plans for the cemetery. She and Urban Forestry Coordinator Jennifer Rall went to the site and found that not only had the fencing and trees been removed but the site had also been graded.
The cemetery, now referred to as the plantation cemetery, is close to Burlington Mills Road and surrounds the family cemetery. Some of the graves, many of them unmarked, had been moved to the current plantation cemetery to make way for an entrance into the new subdivision. The cemetery was marked on the development plans as a protected area.
According to the timeline provided by Michael, she contacted her supervisor, Assistant Director of Community Development Brendie Vega, who issued a stop work order. The developer, Mungo Homes, was notified about the stop work order. The Wake Forest Police Department was also notified because cemeteries are protected by state law. Because of the snow Wednesday, it was not possible to find out the status of the police department’s investigation.
There was an on-site meeting early Wednesday afternoon with Wake Forest staff members, an investigator from the police department, representatives from Mungo Homes and several of their contractors and representatives from Forsythe Investments. As a result, the developer was told to secure the cemetery and not allow access unless approved by the town or for emergency vehicles.
Town staff contacted the state Medical Examiner’s Office, asking if it needed to be involved. They were told no, but to call the state archeology office (OSA). Staff from that office met with town officials and most of the participants in the Wednesday meeting at noon Friday, Jan. 5, at the site.
“The archaeologists from OSA walked the cemetery and determined upon their visual inspection that approximately 2-4 inches of soil had been disturbed during grading. They added that more than likely the grading had not caused any grave disturbance. OSA recommended ground-penetrating radar as the best method of identifying the grave locations,” Michael wrote.
Town staff gave the Mungo Homes officials names of three firms which have ground penetrating radar capability. Once that survey with the ground penetrating radar is complete, Michael said, town staff “will work with the developer on selecting an appropriate method of remarking the graves and fencing the cemetery.”
Also, Rall is working to determine how best to replace the trees that were removed, which usually will mean planting multiple suitable trees in their place.
A number of local people have been very upset by this casual desecration of a marked cemetery.
4 Responses
Shame all around on this one. Correction – SHAME. S H A M E!!!!!!!
This Town and its leadership have let the wheels come off. It’s really too bad. It could have stayed a really nice community but unfortunately, it’s just like everywhere else, USA. Sad.
Thanks to Michelle Bowers of Facebook’s “Old House Life” group for spearheading this investigation.
Develop, develop. Develop
In early 1990’s Steve Gould discovered an unmarked cemetery of 52 graves in what is now Crenshaw Manor.
The state came in and supervised the drawing of a map showing their location and assigned a number to each grave. Decayed and minimal remains were carefully transferred to stainless steel cylinders with grave numbers assigned cylinder # and re-interred beside the Family Cemetery @ Crenshaw Hall. There is no marker there anymore, but cylinders are. It would be interesting to DNA test these remains and identify local families who may have had ancestors who lived/worked on Crenshaw Hall plantation. There is a secured ledger in the Wake Forest College Birthplace Museum that lists names of people brought to the area with Crenshaw ancestors who moved to the area from VA in early 1800’s. Maybe these are those people.
Are there funds or grants that could finance such DNA testing?