I hope everyone had a Happy Valentine’s Day and enjoying the additional day off with President’s Day as well! This post will highlight my experiences out on the field on which resulted on more fun then should occur in a cemetery. (Also I figured out how to make the layout more dynamic and may have gone overboard with pictures!)
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| I was being a good driver by using a form of the "10 and 2" grip |
What
allowed for Friday to go smoothly is that our application for driving the
Volusia County vehicles was finally approved! I was just a little nervous about
driving a government car, but I did get a kick out of the fact that even when
driving the speed limit vehicles that wanted to pass never would. A little
thing, but it made me chuckle that even the county insignia welds that much
power.
My coworker
and I traversed northwards to Seville where we managed to visit five of the
eight cemeteries we’re working on that are located in that area of the county.
Some of the cemeteries we visited were Seville Cemetery, Harris Cemetery, and
Mt. Zion Cemetery. All were very different from the feel, racially, and even by
materials used in the cemeteries.
Seville
Cemetery is a massive cemetery that was segregated after one African American
man was buried amongst white citizens. The
white side is orderly arranged and has immaculate obelisks for Woodmen of
America and additional Masonic symbols as well.
My favorite was the Woodmen of
the World obelisk for it looked like a hewn tree trunk; I thought it was an incredibly unique and clever design.
However
once you cross over to the other half of the segregated cemetery it is obvious
it is much less organized and the weather is eroding the grave materials very
rapidly. There are some graves as recent as 2011 that looked as decrepit as graves from the 1930’s. It was incredibly depressing to see the vast difference between the adjacent cemeteries. At one point while wandering the cemetery, I came across piles of brick, which I found to have a very eerie vibe and could not figure out what it was for the life of me. Just like in every feel-good movie once I moved farther away and looked at “the big picture” I realized the bricks made up the cornerstone of an utterly decrepit church.
The next
cemetery, which was my favorite, was Harris Cemetery. Though it’s hard to find
unless you’re headed south of Seville, but it was absolutely beautiful and
relaxing.
Very few graves here, mainly family plots but they were definitely
tended to and had an array of decorations and memorabilia around the burials.
An additional aspect that I really enjoyed was the discovery of citrus trees
scattered around the inside perimeter of the cemetery. My coworker, a true
Floridian, took it as an opportunity to explain some of the vegetation and try
to figure out if the fruit were oranges or persimmons. Regardless it just added
to the natural beauty of the cemetery.
The last
cemetery I will regale you about was the Mt. Zion Cemetery, which had a
picturesque church with bathrooms in a separate outside building.
If there were
no graves or if that wasn’t a factor for some, it would make a great setting
for a wedding. Very idyllic and it is obvious that someone or a group is
replacing sunken or eroded headstones with simple granite instead. It was nice
to see that there are those apart of the community who take graveyard
preservation as seriously as Volusia County Government.
Before I
sign off until my next riveting post I want to mention this awesome website I
discovered while doing some extracurricular research on the Volusia County area
and local landmarks and wander upon this fascinating site, Haunted Places! I
love reading about ghost stories, especially for places I have been and it gave
me additional things to think about that I never considered such as the Devil’s
Chair is located in the Lake Helen & Cassadaga Cemetery. Without that
website I would not have put that together until I visited the cemetery later
down the road. If you’re as interested in ghost stories and haunts as much as I
am then check out the link x
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