CAYCE, S.C. — For more than a year now, the City of Cayce has been working on preserving the final resting places of founding members of the community, and specifically people from the Black community.
City Grant Manager Taylor Gray applied for a Federal Historic Preservation Grant to conduct a survey of local African-American Cemeteries. The South Carolina Department of Archives and History awarded the city $15,000, and the city has matched the funds to make the funding $30,000 for the project.
Stantec, an engineering company in Columbia, was contracted for the project and gave a 20-minute presentation on Tuesday about what they found in surveying several plots of land with marked and unmarked graves. Kimberly Hinder with Stantec gave the presentation and explained the findings.
"In summary, we identified seven African American cemeteries and four that may have had some African American burials within the city limits. We're recommending ground-penetrating radar for most of the sites in order to determine the number of burials and boundaries for the cemeteries," Hinder explained.
The company plans to continue researching each cemetery location they have looked at and hopefully have the community point them toward more graves. According to Cayce Cayce Museum Curator Andy Thomas, there is no timeline for the preservations project just yet.
"I think it's going to be a long term, and then as far as preservation, that's long-term. What are you going to put into it, your resources, and what you're going to put into it," Thomas said.
Chicora, a local cemetery preservation foundation, is not involved with this particular project but their director, Michael Trinkley, says preservation and restoration done right, should take time.
"Finding the cemeteries is certainly a great first step, but the second step needs to be, 'What are we going to do with them?'. Too often, people think once you record the stones... you've got all the information you need... Cemeteries are sacred, protected spaces under South Carolina law... so there's a lot more to the preservation of cemeteries, than just finding them. Usually, however complex and time-consuming finding them is, coming up with what you're going to do with them... is even more extensive," Trinkley said.
69-year-old Anthony Weston took time after the Tuesday night presentation to walk through the Saint Anne Cemetery behind City Hall, where generations of his family have been buried. Weston says he and his family are thrilled that more effort will be taken toward preserving Black history in Cayce.
"I'm glad they're doing this because you go into the museum and it looks like no Black people were ever in Cayce," Weston said.
To share information with Stantec on any unmarked graves in Cayce, contact Kimberly Hinder by email at Kimberly.Hinder@stantec.com or call at (813) 367-0969.