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12A
RELIGION / The Charlotte Post
Thursday, May 22,1997
CHURCH NEWS
News of note
•Hampton University will host it
83rd Minister’s Conference, June 2-6.
This year’s theme will be “The Future
of the Black Church; Where Are We
Going and How Do We Get There?"
Invited speakers and panelists include,
Bishop John Hurst Adams, Bishop
Cecil Bishop, Bishop Nathaniel Linsey
and Dr. Henry Lyons. For more infor
mation, call (757)727-5255.
Keller Avenue and Senior Drive
Revival services continue through
Friday at 7 p.m. Guest speaker, the
Rev. Walter S. Thomas of New Psalmist
Baptist in Baltimore, Md.
Church in Winston-Salem, 7 p.m.
Friday
•The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte
recently purchased a new facility on
Church Street. The new building will
house 95 diocese employees now scat
tered throughout Charlotte at five dif
ferent locations. Employees will move
into the building by fall. The 46 county
Diocese serves nearly 100,000
Catholics in western North Carolina.
•J. B. Ministries
2300 Statesville Ave.
Anniversary service at 7:30 p.m.
Guest speaker, 13-year old Ned
Barnes.
•Bethany Baptist Church
4700 WUlard St.
Pastoral anniversary banquet,
McDonald Cafeteria, 2812 Beatties
Ford Road. Speaker, the Rev. Robert
Leak of New St. John Baptist. Tickets,
$20. For more information, contact
Claudette King at 333-5874.
• Trinity Park Baptist Church
9115 Trinity Road
Concert featuring Anson High School
Gospel Choir, 4 p.m.
James Ephraim of McClintock
Presbyterian Church.
4630 or (888)599-4630.
•First Mount Calvary Baptist
209 W. 28th St.
Deacon and Deaconess Program, 3
p.m. Speaker is the Rev. William
Richardson of Mount Pisgah Baptist
Church.
•Nazareth Primitive Baptist
2230 Bancroft St.
120th church anniversary, 4 p.m.
• Steele Creek AME Zion
1500 Shopton Road
Choir Concert 5 p.m. featiiring the
Steele Creek CJospel Choir.
•Clement Memorial AME Zion
2207 Newland Road
Choir concert featuring the Turner
Family, 3 p.m.
Upcoming Events
Saturday
•Faith Community Independent
Church
701 Hovis Road
Choir concert featuring Faithful
Travel singers at 7:30 p.m. Services
continue Saturday at 7 p.m.
•South Tryon Presbyterian
931 Wilann Drive
Conference speaker is the Rev.
Anthony Jinwright of Salem Baptist
Church, 6 p.m.
•Greater Mount Zion Baptist
2311 Crescent Lane
Gastonia
Twelve Tribe rally, 3 p.m.
•Shepherd’s Fold AME Zion
426 West Blvd.
Family and Friends Day, 11 a.m.
Wednesday
•Zion’s Renaissance Expo ‘97
through May 31 at the Adam’s Mark
Hotel. For more information, call 599-
• Little Rock AME Zion
401 N. McDowell St.
“Legacies of Courage,” May 30-31 at
6:30 p.m. Written and directed by
Cheryl “Sparkle” Mosley. For more
information, call 334-3782.
Thursday
• South Tryon Presbyterian
931 Wilann Drive
The church will continue its second
annual “Conference on the Spirit”
though Saturday. Workshop topics: The
Holy Spirit’s Role in Prayer, Knowing
the Heartbeat of Ck>d, and The Spirit In
You begin at 9 a.m. Evening speaker in
the Rev. Loran Livingston, Central
Church of (3od, 7 p.m. Registration
$20. One day fee, $5.
• First Mayfield Memorial
Baptist
901 Oaklawn Ave.
Tenth annual Family Fellowship
Celebration through Sunday. Tonight:
Gospel singing featuring Temple
Baptist Church Choir, Love Centered
Choir, Reeder Memorial Baptist, 7 p.m.
• First Mayfield Memorial
Baptist
901 Oaklawn Ave.
Fish fry and picnic, noon-5 p.m.
•East Stonewall AME Zion
1729 Griers Grove Road
Men’s Choir concert, sponsored by
Deaconess Board, 3 p.m.
•University Park Baptist
•South 'Tryon Presbyterian
931 Wilann Drive
Workshop topics - 'The Mechanics of
Prayer, Prayer Without Ceasing, How
and When God Answers Prayer, 9 p.m.
Evening speaker is the Rev. Dwight
Bryant of Mount Carmel Baptist
•Noah’s Ark Outreach Ministry will
host the 'Transit Singers of Charlotte,
the Voyager Trio of Gastonia at the
Radisson Grand Hotel, Dogwood Room
1. Services begin at 1 p.m. Keynote
speaker is the Rev. James Milsap of
Knoxgrove Baptist Church.
• Silver Mount Baptist
501 West Arrowood Road
Young People’s Choir Concert, 6 p.m.
•New St. John Baptist
2000 St. John’s Church Road
11 a.m. message, “Be Ye Also Reader;
It’s Up to You.”
GALILEE BAPTIST
CHURCH
Rev. EA. Griffin, PASTOR
Sunday School 9:45a.m.
Simday Worship 11:00a.m.
Sunday School Study - Wed. 7pm
Prayer Service - 8pm
2933 Shady Lane • Charlotte, NC 28208
333-0810
•University Park Baptist
2400 Keller Ave.
District III Usher’s Meeting 10 a.m.
Sunday
•St. Paul Baptist
1401 Allen St.
Monthly NAACP Religious Emphasis
Service, 6 p.m. Speaker is the Rev.
SIMPSON-GILLESPIE
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Dr. Carl Arrington, Senior Pastor
Marker of bishop and shriner found
Sunday School - 9:30 a.m.
Sxmday Worship - 11:00 a.m.
Bible Study, Wednesdays - 7rfX) p.m.
3545 Beatties Ford Rd. • (704) 399-2717
Continued from 11A
“It was owned by a white family
by the name of Misenheimer,”,
McCarroll said. “In later years, I
think a group of African
Americans purchased it.”
A partially obscured marker at
Bruce’s grave reads “First
President of the Cedar Grove
Cemetery.”
McCarroll, who has spent more
than 60 years in the funeral busi
ness, remembers the cemetery
well. He also remembers who is
buried there.
At one point it was a veritable
Who’s Who in black Charlotte.
There are some Nelsons, some
Averys, Bishop Bruce, the Reids
and Browns out there,”
McCarroll said. “The Rev. L.B.
West, a minister at Brooklyn
Presbyterian is buried out there,
too.”
and trash.
“It was horrible,” Roberts said.
“People were afraid to walk out
there. And it’s so close to the
school. Drug users and dealers
were all that you saw.”
Even people who had relatives
buried there were afraid to visit.
'That all began to change two
years ago.
Roberts, head of the
Taylor/LaSalle Community
Watch Program, began a cam
paign to clean up Cedar Grove a
couple of years ago.
For some of the volunteers,
Saturday’s effort had special
meaning.
Patricia Ferguson’s mother and
five other relatives are buried at
Cedar Grove. She looks forward
to the day when she can come out
to the cemeteiy alone and not
have to watch for danger.
vX" y-- V*'*-,’
Above, Bruce’s granite and marble marker. Volunteers found
the fallen marker Saturday.
Wnow
P.O. Box 23509
Charlotte, NC 28227
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McCarroll said the cemetery
changed hands again in the ‘40s
or ‘50s. It was bought by John S.
Davidson, owner of Davidson
Brothers Funeral Home.
Davidson renamed the cemetery
Cedar Hill.
It was meticulously maintained
for years by two men known only
as “Mr. Johnson” and after
Johnson’s death, “Mr. Dixon.”
’Ihey mowed the lawns and kept
up the white plastic fences,
chains and bricks borders that
separated plots.
Johnson lived in a house where
University Park Elementary
School sits now.
Longtime neighbors remember
a neat house with horses and a
caretaker who worked the
grounds daily.
McCarroll was left in charge of
maintenance in the ‘60s when an
aging Davidson moved, to
Tfennessee to live with his daugh
ter.
“I kept it up as long as Mr.
Davidson lived,” McCarroll said.
“After he died none of his daugh
ters could take it They tried to
give it to the dty, but no one
wanted it 'That’s when it grew
over.”
McCarroll estimates more than
1,000 people are buried at the
cemetery.
“There are graves out there
without markers,” McCarroll
said. There are graves out there
underneath the road that goes
around the cemetery. “There are a
lot of people out there.”
‘This used to be a beautifiil
cemetery years ago when I was a
younger girl,” Ferguson said.
“Nothiirg but greenery. We had a
caretaker that took care of the
graves. Once Mr. Johnson passed,
individual families took care of
their own plots. But I guess peo
ple have just moved away and
loved ones have been forgotten.”
Saturday was just the first of
many clean-up days at the ceme
tery.
Mixed in with the trash were
the remains of hundreds of plas
tic and silk flowers left over the
years by relatives.
Small faded purple flowers sit
atop the grave of Virginia Dare
Reid.
A wreath of bright red flowers
sits near Jannie Brice’s grave.
For Roberts, cleaning the ceme
tery up is just the beginning. She
already has her sights set on the
vacant lot across the street.
“We’re going to clean it up,”
Roberts said as she gestured to
the piles of trash. Tt’s going to be
nice again. We just need for the
famihes to come out to help.”
Tiny purple flowers
Over the years, the once-proud
cemetery deteriorated.
Prostitutes and derelicts made
their homes among the markers.
Mattresses and beer bottles lined
that pathways that cut around
the graves. Markers were covered
with dirt In places, the remains
of pine boxes were exposed by
water erosion.
Saturday’s clean-up yielded
dozens of boxes of beer bottles
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