Cemetery gets historical marker after years-long effort

INGOLD — A ceremony of life and death was held at Ingold First Baptist Church over the weekend. This one didn’t focus on Memorial Day, but instead on the community itself and their ability to come together and create a roadside marker for the Historically Black Robinson Cemetery to remember those who have been buried there since its creation in 1791.

This marker lists out 27 people who have been laid to rest in Robinson Cemetery for the past 200 years, but have only been able to be identified within the last eight.

The list includes people like Leslie Spearman, who died in 1898 and their descendant Annie Spearman, who died in 1997. Other people include Jewel Bronson, Model Williams, Flossie Spearman, John Spearman, Lounene Richardson, Dean Robinson, Harrel Spearman, Charles Ray Spearman, Flo Robinson, Caroline Boykin, George Spearman, John Spearman, B.J. Spearman, a member of the Hayes family, Zulema Spearman, Mallon Spearman, Georgiana Spearman Bronson, John Dan Bronson, Ardlee Hayes, Maggie Herring, Bertha Spearman Bronson, Chervis Bronson, James Bronson, Mocis Allen, and Ellve Herring.

Their names are now engraved on a roadside marker to show their final resting place.

Before the marker was unveiled, a ceremony was held at Ingold First Baptist Church, where many spoke to the significance of the marker.

Inside the church, right in the main area of the congregation, members of the church and the community stood before a small crowd and gave speeches about what this marker means to not only the community, but to them as well.

The first speaker was Dr. Gigi Spearman, a retired lieutenant colonel, whose own great grandmother is buried in the cemetery. She spoke of her grandmother, and her fascination with her after attending her funeral at 6 years old.

“As we focus on the names that appear in the program, I pray that our hearts and our minds are filled with gratitude for our loved ones, the legacy that each one of them bear. I have a special connection to number 16, my great-grandma’s name,” Gigi said. “And honestly, I was only 6 years old when she passed away, but the memory is embedded in my mind forever that I stood by her bedside, my dad holding my 6-year-old hand. I will never forget it. It’s the only time I ever saw her, but I never forgot her.”

Most of all, she spoke about the community coming together to create this marker and that it was important for the community to remember those who came before and to honor them by moving forward.

“Today, tomorrow, and in the days to follow, we must act by remembering their sacrifices in our hearts and strive to honor them in their memory by being good and faithful, hopeful and strong, and most of all, committed to building a better future for ourselves, our communities, and our future generations,” Gigi said.

Jeanette Hill, a member of the Ingold Cemetery Roadside Marker Committee, recited the names of all the people from the community who have not only been laid to rest in Robinson Cemetery, but in every cemetery in the area.

“Now we have the Robinson Cemetery down there. And most of the people from what we call out in the town were buried there. But we have more family cemeteries in this Ingold community. We did not break that out in the town, but I will name them,” Hill said.

After the reading of the names, and once Hill had sat back down in her pew, public comments from anyone in attendance were opened. And it was during this public comments that LaVern Spearman spoke up about the history of this project, and what went into the last eight years to get the marker.

He spoke of working with Todd Daughtry from the Sampson County Property of Deeds Department, and how it was Baxter who told him that the cemetery was donated by a Presbyterian church.

“I want to thank Mr. Todd Daughtry from the Sampson County Property of Deeds Department,” LaVern said. “We started this over eight years ago, on the phone and e-mail. And he would say, I think this may be it. But he gave a lot of time. And what really got me, he said, ‘Mr. Spearman, based on what I’m finding, he said, a church donated that property.’”

He also thanked his brother, R.J. Spearman, for the work that he did identifying the people who had been buried. He told the crowd that R.J. was like “a walking Rolodex,” and he could get you any information in five minutes.

And it was R.J. and Hill who worked to identify the 27 people who had been buried and whose names now live forever on a plaque just outside of the cemetery. That plaque was unveiled after the public comments concluded.

Everyone had piled into their cars, following Williamson as he drove down Johnson Road and turned on to Lisbon Road. They parked on the side of the road before walking to their destination. The crowd passed by the nicer gravestones, where the names could be easily read, instead making their way further into the cemetery where the grounds were a little more overgrown and the markers were either missing or worn down over time. They gathered there, standing on the side of the road next to a deep ditch and listened to Williamson one more time as he spoke about the significance of the plaque.

“This is a proud moment for me,” Williamson said. “That we have the opportunity to do this — have this marker here in front of this cemetery.”

And it was only after this speech that Williamson, with the help of another member of the Ingold community, took the covering for the plaque off, showcasing the names and history of the cemetery for everyone to see.