Olivewood Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Olivewood Cemetery has to say — and friend, this one deserves your full attention. Some places hold a city's memory in the ground itself. Olivewood Cemetery is one of those places.

For approximately one hundred years, this burial ground served the early African-American community in Houston. The Olivewood Cemetery Association incorporated in 1875 — and that same year, they moved with purpose, purchasing five and a half acres of this very property from Elizabeth Morin Slocomb. Then, in 1917, the organization added two adjacent acres to the grounds.

Now, the name you see on the marker wasn't always the only name people used. In its early years, this place was also known as Olive Wood, Hollow Wood, and Hollywood. By any name, it stands as one of the oldest known platted cemeteries in the city of Houston.

The original layout was something deliberate and considered — four hundred and forty-four family plots, comprising over five thousand burial spaces, arranged along an elliptical drive. Think about that number for a moment. Five thousand spaces.

A community planning not just for itself, but for generations it would never meet. The burial ground holds several hundred marked graves — and beyond those, an unknown number of unmarked ones. The full count of souls resting here may never be known.

Among those who are known, the names themselves tell a story of a community building itself from the ground up after emancipation. The Reverend Elias Dibble, pastor of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, is here. So is James B.

Bell, a businessman. Richard Brock, who served as alderman and was a landowner. J.

Vance Lewis, an attorney. James D. Ryan, an educator.

Russell F. Ferrill, a physician. And Milton A.

Baker, a dentist. Pivotal leaders, every one of them — men who shaped Houston's post-emancipation African-American community and now rest in the very ground their community was wise enough to set aside. But Olivewood is not only for the prominent.

Also buried here are ex-slaves, laborers, members of sororal and fraternal organizations, and military veterans. The full range of a people's life is in this earth. And the cemetery itself carries meaning in its stones and symbols.

You'll find obelisks, statuary, curbing, and interior fencing throughout the grounds. But look closer, and you'll find something older — burial practices that reach back before emancipation, before this country, to West African cultures. Upright pipes, symbolizing the path between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Ocean shells used as grave ornaments. And text with letters written upside down or backwards — a practice used in some West African cultures to signify death. Those weren't accidents.

Those were choices. Messages carried across an ocean, across generations of bondage, and placed here, in Houston soil, with intention. Today, Olivewood Cemetery remains a key historical site in this city — a testament, the marker says, to the foresight and perseverance of its founders.

And standing here, it's hard to argue with that. They incorporated, they purchased land, they laid out five thousand spaces along an elliptical drive, and they made sure that the people who built Houston's African-American community would have a place to rest with dignity. That's not just a cemetery.

That's an act of faith in the future.

What the marker says

This cemetery served the early African-American community in Houston for approximately 100 years. The Olivewood Cemetery Association incorporated in 1875 and purchased 5.5 acres of this property that same year from Elizabeth Morin Slocomb. The organization bought two adjacent acres in 1917. Also known in its early years as Olive Wood, Hollow Wood and Hollywood, it is one of the oldest known platted cemeteries in the city. The original 444 family plots comprising over 5,000 burial spaces were laid out along an elliptical drive. The burial ground contains several hundred marked graves, in addition to an unknown number of unmarked graves. Interred here are pivotal leaders of Houston's post-emancipation African-American community, including the pastor of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, the Rev. Elias Dibble; businessman James B. Bell; Alderman and landowner Richard Brock; attorney J. Vance Lewis; educator James D. Ryan; physician Russell F. Ferrill; and dentist Milton A. Baker. Also buried here are ex-slaves, laborers, sororal and fraternal organization members, and military veterans. This cemetery features obelisks, statuary, curbing and interior fencing. The burial ground also includes examples of pre-emancipation burial practices, including upright pipes (symbolizing the path between the worlds of the living and the dead), ocean shells as grave ornaments and text containing upside down or backwards letters (as used in some West African cultures to signify death). Today, Olivewood Cemetery remains as a key historical site in Houston, serving as a testament to the foresight and perseverance of the cemetery founders. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006