"You did not know there was a cemetery here," John Meredith, president of Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration Project, said. "Young people had no idea, and even older people rarely went in."
Now, a Texas Historical Marker has been awarded to the site with a ceremony that took place Feb. 15. Members of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Phi Iota Zeta Chapter celebrated six of those buried by giving gravesite presentations of their lives and descendants of those buried throughout the cemetery were in attendance.
The background
Meredith said Edens spent five years researching the cemetery’s history, identifying some of the individuals buried there and working with the Montgomery County Historical Commission. In 2016, he founded the non-profit Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration Project to begin restoration efforts.
"[Conroe Community Cemetery] finally got a name after 128 years of not having a sign or an official title," Meredith said.
The cemetery contains 372 identified burial sites, but only 46 have markers with names. Many graves were located using metal detection, cadaver dogs and other methods. Meredith said a lot of what helped them identify graves was the depressions in the ground. Traditional African-American burial customs were also found.
"We find seashells on a lot of the graves," Meredith said. "The belief was that the ocean connected them back to Africa."
Broken glassware was commonly found as well, Meredith said.
"It was always ornate, not just trash ... like a final tribute to the deceased," Meredith said.
What we know
Several people of historical significance are buried at the site, Meredith said. James Pitts was recognized in 1942 as a leading Black educator in Texas. Mittie J. Washington Turner Campbell, the first Black female principal in Conroe ISD, was an advocate for education.
"She was the driving force behind fundraising for the Black school," Meredith said. The research of her from the cemetery helped name a CISD school in her honor.
Sergeant Luther James Dorsey, a Buffalo Soldier who served from 1873 to 1878, is also buried in the Conroe Community Cemetery.
"He patrolled the Texas-Mexico border, dealing with outlaws and hostile encounters," Meredith said.
He is the only known Buffalo Soldier buried in Montgomery County, Meredith said.
Diving in deeper
Since 2019, over 700 volunteers—including local genealogists, Boy Scouts, church groups and high school students—have worked to restore the cemetery.
Meredith said the reason he pursues this restoration project is to preserve the stories of those lost.
"If we don’t preserve these stories, they disappear," Meredith said. "We speak for the dead. ... If we don't say something, they really are dead. We talk about them, and they're back alive again. ... So we're trying to bring to life some people that are really forgotten out here, forgotten about their contribution to this community."
