Once-neglected cemetery restored as place of honor

KEN KOONTZ | THE CHARLOTTE POST

A platoon of volunteers collaborated with Wreaths Across America to restore Cedar Grove Cemetery, a 1.8-acre burial ground near Beatties Ford Road. Wreaths Across America, which honors veterans at gravesites across the U.S., also placed markers at Forest Lawn-West Cemetery on Freedom Drive.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg land records say that Cedar Grove Cemetery was established in the 1880s on a 67-acre tract of land off Beatties Ford Road.

The once-sprawling farmland included a 1.8-acre final resting place for once-prominent local and even nationally recognized figures, military veterans and regular citizens, including cemetery founder R.B. Bruce, pastor of Grace AME Zion Church and an AME Zion Church bishop.

Records show Cedar Grove’s last burial was in 1992. Since then, it was largely unattended. High stands of grass became heavy brush that became small saplings and eventually large, tall trees.
Graves became obscure and unrecognizable. Headstones toppled and broken.

Prior interest in cleaning and restoring the cemetery didn’t materialize until two years ago, then became a major project that culminated last month as part of a nationwide program called Wreaths Across America. The nonprofit organization of volunteers was established in 2007 and conducts initiatives at more than 4,600 cemeteries and locations nationwide including Arlington National Cemetery. Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg cemeteries were included: Forest Lawn-West on Freedom Drive and Cedar Grove. Their objective is explained in the project slogan, “Remember-Honor-Teach.”

About 75 volunteers converged on Ceder Grove on Hildebrand Street next to University Park Elementary School. Wreaths were placed on the graves of 21 veterans with markers and headstones that identified them.

Restoring the cemetery did not start with Wreaths Across America. It began as a personal project by a student in UNC Charlotte’s master’s degree program and the curiosity of Charlotte transplant Ché Abdullah, who reached out to make it an extended community involvement campaign.

Abdullah recounted how he was leaving his volunteer reading to students at the school in 2022 when he noticed someone being interviewed in the overgrown cemetery. He approached and found out that Kevin Donaldson was talking to WFAE-FM about clearing out the undergrowth and restoring dignity to this cemetery.

Abdullah spearheaded getting other community-based volunteers to help in the campaign they called “Save Cedar Grove.”

Donaldson, Abdullah, volunteers and UNCC historians virtually unearthed many stories of people who have come alive here in Cedar Grove Cemetery. Abdullah learned that a veteran buried there, Wendell French, served in World War II with his grandfather, Albert Britt. French died in 1968 at age 49. Britt lived with his family in a Beatties Ford Road home that now houses the Nation of Islam’s Masjid Ali Shah.

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