In 1992 BMW decided to build a plant in Greer, South Carolina near the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport. The land that was to be used contained two family cemeteries; one of which belonged to my family.

I had been researching the JONES family for many many years and had been taken to this small cemetery back in a grove of trees in a pasture by my grandfather, who told me his grandmother, Mary League Jones, was buried there along with her newborn baby and that a tree had been planted over her grave. She had died sometime in the late 1870s and my grandfather was not sure which grave was hers.

There were only 2 or three fieldstones with any inscriptions visible, but there were many graves. A wall of hand made brick surrounded one side of the cemetery. The Jones descendant who owned the land was elderly and had not cared for the cemetery so it was overgrown with vines and brush.

Other families were buried there also. Hezikiah Hughes who married Easter Jones was supposed to be buried there as was a Holtzclaw family. Steve Garrett, a Hughes descendant from PA, contacted me and we began the process of trying to protect this cemetery from destruction.

First order of business was to respond the the notice in the newspaper asking any descendants of the deceased buried there to contact the SC Ports Authority. This I did by phone and in writing within the 30-day time limit. The lawyer for the Ports Authority contacted me. Who explained the plans for removal of the graves by backhoe to a Memorial Garden at Fort Prince, many miles away. I expressed my displeasure with this idea. At first we attempted to stop the removal of the graves by looking into wetland or wildlife conservation areas. There were several old houses on the property, log cabins, which we attempted to get designated historical.

After these efforts failed, we expressed our desire to have the graves moved by hand to a church cemetery of our choosing and to have appropriate markers placed. The Ports Authority negotiated with Abner Creek Baptist Church, which agreed to take the remains. An archaeological firm from Atlanta came up to survey and record the removal of all remains. A firm from North Carolina came to perform the actual digging, and a local mortician was required to be on site.

I took a two-week vacation from work to be on site as a family representative in September of 1992. I became friends with the archaeologists who let me participate in the actual removal of remains.

First the area was "probed" by the archaeologist for burials, and flagged. The area was then cleared of most brush and trees, cordoned off, and surveyed. Each grave was carefully surveyed and plotted before digging began. A backhoe was used to dig the first 2 or 3 feet down. The operator was extremely skilled and could take down inches with the bucket.

It was explained to me by the archaeologists, that once a hole was dug, the dirt was disturbed in such a way as to be recognized hundreds of years later by color changes. My eye wasn’t keen enough to see this, but as each layer of earth was removed, the archaeologist would look and decide either to go deeper with the backhoe or to begin hand shoveling.

Contrary to popular belief, most old graves were not very deep, the changes in the dirt beginning around 3 feet down. Once this was noted, the archaeologists would hand shovel onto a sieve until coffin hardware began to appear. This would be in the form of rusted nails, and maybe a hinge or two. Then the sieve was emptied and the small garden shovels were used, each scoop going into the sieve and being closely examined. This was the part I was lucky enough to participate in. I would carefully examine each scoop of dirt for any hardware, personal items, clothing remnants, wood, or human remains.

Once the beginning of the actual burial was determined, each scoop of earth afterwards was placed into a new pine box approximately two feet by two feet. Any items found in the dirt were carefully logged and placed into the box. Items found included milk glass buttons, teeth, some bone, various hardware. In one grave was found the black beads of a necklace and the remains of an agate choker. Another contained a hair bun complete with copper combs.

It was easy to determine the outline of the caskets because the ground was so hardened around it that you could still see the shovel marks of the original grave digger. In fact, it was determined that the same man had dug many of the graves by the patterns of the shovel marks.

Once you hit hard earth on bottom and all sides, the complete outline of the casket was perfect. This was measured, photographed, and cataloged. Then the new pine coffin was nailed closed and placed in the enclosed truck.

There was one grave underneath a huge tree. The only was to get to it was to get a bulldozer in there to get the tree out of the way. This took the better part of a day. Once the tree was uprooted, we found two graves, an adult and an infant. I knew then that I was at the grave of my great grandmother. She and her child were the last remains excavated of the Jones family. All boxes and stones were loaded into the truck. After discussion, the archaeologist didn’t need the hand made bricks and agreed that I could take them, which I did, and have been giving them to any Jones’ descendant researchers I meet.

Another cemetery of the Davis family had to be removed. I visited them several times on that excavation. Because this cemetery was in a low-lying area unlike the Jones cemetery, which was on a hill, there were hardly any remains found. Water had long since destroyed any burials. In fact, during some of the digging there, they were scooping mud.

Approximately 80 graves were moved from the two cemeteries. After all was done, the truck proceeded to the church cemetery where a large hole had been dug. The boxes and their stones were placed in the hole and covered up. Two markers were placed there identifying the cemeteries, date of removal, and on the back the names of two identified remains, Hezikiah Hughes and Mary League Jones.

This was the best experience of my life, one that I greatly enjoyed and learned much from. Far from being gruesome, it was almost somber. I actually could touch my ancestors. I took many pictures, which are posted below with explanations. I made great friends of the archaeologists and learned much from them.