With Halloween approaching, Camden’s “City of the Dead” is beckoning.

But a trip through the city’s three historical cemeteries along Campbell Street doesn’t have to be scary. Instead, it can be calming and informative.

Quaker Cemetery is the better known of the three cemeteries, located within several blocks of one another in the downtown area.

But Beth-El Jewish Cemetery and Cedars Cemetery are garnering more attention through the Clean Community Commission’s efforts to clean them up and add fencing.

Joanna Craig, director of Historic Camden Revolutionary War Park, said people visit old cemeteries for a variety of reasons: to enjoy a beautiful setting, study fascinating headstones or pay homage to a war hero.

But the main reason, she said, is to find out more about people through history.

“It gives you a real sense of place,” Craig said.

All three cemeteries offer stillness and beauty, and all three offer a hands-on history lesson.

Here’s a look:

Quaker Cemetery

Location: Meeting Street at Campbell Street

Established: 1759

History: Samuel Wyly, a leader in the Quaker community, offered four acres of land to be rented for a single peppercorn per year. The cemetery has since grown to 50 acres and is governed by a board of directors. The oldest Quaker graves from the late 1750s are marked with arching bricks rather than headstones. Nearly 250 years after is was established, the graveyard still has open plots.

People buried there: Many of Camden’s heroes and legends are buried in Quaker. Among them is Richard Kirkland, the “Angel of Marye’s Heights,” who risked his life to carry water to wounded enemy soldiers at the Civil War’s Battle of Fredericksburg. He died just six months later, at age 20, during a battle at Chickamauga, Ga., in 1863. But his memory and act of humanity are kept alive each year when locals gather at his grave for a wreath-laying ceremony.

Cedars Cemetery

Location: Campbell Street

Established: 1868

History: People have been buried on the property since the early 1800s. But the grounds did not officially become a cemetery until Cyrus McGirt purchased 14 lots on Campbell Street in December 1868 from J.D. Dunlap for $225 and began allowing burials there. One hundred years after McGirt bought the property, his descendants deeded it to the Cedars Cemetery Association.

People buried there: Burial sites range from unmarked slave graves to the resting places of prominent members of the African-American community in Camden. Board members of the Cedars Cemetery Association believe Bonds Conway is buried here in an unmarked grave. In 1793, Conway became the first person in Camden to buy his freedom. He was a successful businessman, landowner and homeowner. One of his homes now is used as the headquarters of the Kershaw County Historical Society.

Beth-El Jewish Cemetery

Location: Campbell Street

Established: 1878

History: The Hebrew Benevolent Association bought a lot for $75 from Col. William Shannon for the cemetery. In November 1878, the cemetery’s charter was granted. The cemetery was expanded in the early 1900s.

People buried there: The cemetery features familiar names from Camden’s Jewish community. One monument that stands out was erected in 1881 by Herman Baum in memory of his brother, Marcus, who died at age 31 during the Civil War’s Battle of the Wilderness. The monument, which stands 10-feet tall at the front of the cemetery, reads: “The sterling qualities of his nature were illustrated by his brief career, to which a glorious Death in defiance of his adopted Country formed a fitting close. . . . He fell at the side of his beloved Chief Gen. J.B. Kershaw, a martyr to the ‘Lost Cause.’ His bones now mingle with the dust upon that field of Honor but his memory is enshrined in the hearts of those who esteem it a privilege to erect this Humble memento.”

TAKE A TOUR

Quaker Cemetery, at the corner of Meeting and Campbell streets in Camden, is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Brochures are provided at the front gate.

Beth-El Jewish Cemetery is next door to Quaker, and Cedars Cemetery is a few blocks down Campbell Street. Those two cemeteries will be included in a brochure due out next year by the Kershaw County Clean Community Commission, highlighting spots along Campbell Street.

Quaker Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the commission is working to gain that recognition for the other two sites as well.

The commission has fixed the fence around the Beth-El cemetery and is raising money to build a brick and iron fence at Cedars but still needs $15,000 to $20,000.

Donations may be mailed to the Kershaw County Clean Community Commission, P.O. Box 1731, Camden, 29020. Call (803) 432-1427.

Reach Rupon at (803) 771-8622 or krupon@thestate.com

Caption: PHOTO: BWJoanna Craig of Historic Camden cleans off the grave of Benjamin Perkins in the Quaker Cemetery in Camden. FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE STATE

Memo: KERSHAW NIEGHBORS
October 20, 2005 | State, The (Columbia, SC)
Author/Byline: KRISTY EPPLEY RUPON Staff Writer | Page: 7 | Section: NEIGHBORS 2