Historic Camden cemeteries get a cleanup, but work remains

CAMDEN — A small army descended on Evergreen and New Camden cemeteries in Camden on Wednesday, armed with shovels, rakes, paper bags, gloves and determination.

Dolly Marshall was one of them, grabbing a boxed Panera lunch from under a pop-up tent and taking it out into the middle of Evergreen, so she could have a quiet lunch with her grandfather, Thaddeus Jones.

Their conversation may have been a little one-sided, but Marshall didn't mind. Jones, a World War I veteran, died in 1984 and was buried in this cemetery at the corner of Ferry and Mount Ephraim avenues. Until a few years ago, Jones didn't have a headstone, though; Evergreen, its ownership bankrupt and in receivership, is maintained by volunteers, by Harleigh Cemetery for periodic maintenance, and by the city.

Camden's history:South Jersey historic home recognizes enslaved laborers who built founding family's wealth

Marshall, a preservationist and activist, knew her grandparents were buried here but wasn't sure exactly where. The headstone his children got for his grave was either damaged or stolen. In 2018, as the country observed the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Marshall searched burial records to find Thaddeus' grave, and her family worked to get a headstone. That headstone, courtesy of the Department of Veterans Affairs, was in place by 2019.

"There is a born date and a death date and a dash in between," said Marshall, a Camden native. "I'm trying to get at that dash. Their story is our story."

One of those stories, that of Dempsey Butler, is told in part just past a fence and a small line of trees next to Evergreen.

A voice for Black people in Camden

Dempsey Butler was born in Virginia, and came to Camden around 1840, according to the website HistoricCamdenCounty.com. He opened a general store on Kaighn Avenue and began investing in real estate, amassing wealth at time when few Black people could.

Butler became a philanthropist, lending his fortune to help endow Cooper Hospital, Philadelphia Hospital and Masonic halls. An abolitionist who supported the Underground Railroad, Butler established a section of Camden called Kaighnsville for freed slaves and Black people.

He also established a small veterans cemetery for Black Civil War veterans, men who'd fought on the Union side only to be denied burial in white cemeteries when they died. (Johnson Cemetery in East Camden and Mount Peace Cemetery in Lawnside were part of that effort as well, Marshall said, the latter meant to serve Black veterans in the first incorporated African American municipality north of the Mason-Dixon line.)

History, development collide:Proposed warehouse at former Freeway Golf Course in Gloucester draws opposition

Today, the cemetery occupies a tiny pocket next to Evergreen, its marker worn out by time and the elements and many of its grave markers faded. Butler and his wife are buried there as well, and veterans groups come periodically to place flags and clean the trash that blows over from Ferry Avenue.

Marshall has done a great deal of research on Butler and the cemetery that bears his name, learning about his time in Virginia (when, as a railroad boss, he oversaw Black and white employees, rare for a Black man in the South at the time).

As an intern with the City of Camden, Marshall, a Rutgers-Camden student, has been working with city officials to bring more attention to Butler Cemetery, and hopefully to fold its upkeep into the existing maintenance efforts at Evergreen and New Camden cemeteries.

'It was a mess'

Fran and Harry Maser came to Camden from Mount Laurel for last week's cleanup, but the couple visits Fran's maternal grandparents' gravesites each year. On their last visit, they were shocked to find a homeless person who'd set up housekeeping in the cemetery, dumping trash in a sacred space.

"It was a mess!" said Fran Maser as her husband nodded. "Garbage all over."

They called the city and sought help from Jewish organizations, and said they were satisfied with a prompt response. But the couple, at 80 (Fran) and 81 (Harry) still wanted to be there to help the mass cleanup effort planned by the city.

Volunteers came from several Camden and South Jersey companies: Wawa and Subaru, Holtec and Campbell's Soup, Covanta and CAMCare, even Bishop Eustace and Eastside high schools, more than 300 people in all. They cleared overgrown shrubs and pulled stubborn roots away from headstones; some even uncovered century-and-a-half-old markers that had been swallowed by dirt, grass and debris.

Levi Ford, general manager of the Wawa on Church Road in Mount Laurel, said he was inspired by his employees, some of them Camden residents, to get Wawa involved in the clean-up.

"They said to us, we do volunteering but we never do anything in the city, and I thought, this is a great opportunity," the Mount Laurel resident said. So many Wawa employees volunteered, he said, they ran out of t-shirts.

The environment:Clean Water Act at 50: What has been its impact in South Jersey?

Mayor Vic Carstarphen, Public Works Director Keith Walker and several other city workers also fanned out, many of them also volunteering their time to clean the two historic cemeteries, distribute supplies or hand out drinks and lunches.

"This is humbling," said Carstarphen, organizing volunteers and offering encouragement like the coach he used to be, dressed for the job in shorts and a "Camden Strong" t-shirt, gloves at the ready. "This is important not just for Camden, but for people from outside the city who come here to pay respects to their loved ones."

A contingent of Camden firefighters from Engine 10, including Battalion Chief Frank Sandrock, were there as well.

"'Firefighter' isn't really our title anymore," said Sandrock, who grew up in the city.

"We're first responders; our job is to help people in whatever way we can — that's what the fire department does. It's about heart," he said, touching his chest just below his radio receiver for emphasis, "just like for everybody else out here."

As a trio of Wawa volunteers dug a weighty headstone from 1868 out of the earth, buried for who-knows-how-long in the dirt, then set it back upright, Sandrock marveled at their dedication.

"This is what service is about. That person's looking down and smiling right now," he told them, adding with a laugh, "Maybe there's Wawa in Heaven, too."

Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has covered Camden and surrounding areas since 2015, concentrating on issues relating to quality of life and social justice for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. She's called South Jersey home since 1971. Contact her with feedback, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @By_Phaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.

Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Historic cemeteries in Camden undergo cleanup, but work remains