Columbian Harmony Cemetery

The Columbian Harmony Society was a mutual aid society formed on November 25, 1825, by free African Americans to aid other black people.Sluby and Wormley, p. 1.Richardson, p. 307. On April 7, 1828, it established the "Harmoneon," a cemetery exclusively for members of the society. This was a {{convert|1.3|acre|m2}} cemetery bounded by 5th Street NW, 6th Street NW, S Street NW, and Boundary Street NW. Burials began in 1829.Sluby and Wormley, pp. 10–11.

On June 5, 1852, the Council of the City of Washington in the District of Columbia passed a local ordinance that barred the creation of new cemeteries anywhere within Georgetown or within the area bounded by Boundary Street (northwest and northeast), 15th Street (east), East Capitol Street, the Anacostia River, the Potomac River, and Rock Creek. A number of new cemeteries were therefore established in the "rural" areas in and around Washington: Columbian Harmony Cemetery in D.C.; Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland; Glenwood Cemetery in D.C.; Mount Olivet Cemetery in D.C.; and Woodlawn Cemetery in D.C.Richardson, p. 309.

As Harmoneon quickly filled, the society was forced to find new burial grounds. It acquired on July 1, 1857, a {{convert|17|acre|m2}} tract bounded by Rhode Island Avenue NE, Brentwood Road NE, T Street NE, and the railroad tracks of the Capital Subdivision of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Transferral of graves was completed in 1859.Sluby and Wormley, p. 13. It sold the old Harmoneon site for $4,000.Proctor, John Clagett. "Many Burial Places in Old Washington." Washington Star. December 1, 1929, p. 13. An {{convert|18|acre|m2}} tract adjacent to the Columbian Harmony Cemetery was purchased in the summer of 1886.Sluby and Wormley, p. 21. From the early 1880s to the 1920s, Columbian Harmony Cemetery was the most active black cemetery in Washington, with 21.8 percent of all African-American burials occurring there. It never ranked lower than fourth in total African-American burials, and between 1892 and 1919 it was number one in every year but one. In 1895 alone, one-third of Washington's blacks were buried there.Richardson, pp. 311–12. Columbian Harmony was one of the "big five" of black cemeteries in the District of Columbia.The others were Payne's Cemetery, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Mount Zion Cemetery, and Mount Pleasant Plains Cemetery. See: Richardson, p. 321. By 1900 landscaping and roads were added throughout the cemetery. A chapel was built in 1899, and a caretaker's lodge in 1912.Sluby and Wormley, pp. 25–27.

Columbian Harmony Cemetery was filling so rapidly that its owners considered purchasing a new cemetery outside the District of Columbia. By 1901, it held 10,000 graves."Honored Confederate Dead." The Washington Post. May 31, 1901. In 1929, the society purchased {{convert|44.75|acre|m2}} near Landover, Maryland, for $18,000.Sluby and Wormley, p. 30. Some of the owners of existing burial plots sued in 1949 to prevent relocation of graves."Cemetery Row Referred to D.C. Counsel." The Washington Post. August 26, 1949. Although some burials took place at the new cemetery, no grave relocations took place. In 1950, the society stopped new burials at Columbian Harmony Cemetery.Sluby and Wormley, pp. 37–39. By this time, at least 400 African American veterans, nearly all of them former United States Colored Troops, were buried there. In 1953, the society relocated the few graves at Huntsville to a nearby cemetery and sold its property for $178,000 to a real estate development company.Sluby and Wormley, p. 39.

The lack of new burials left the cemetery in a difficult financial situation. The cemetery was experiencing an annual loss of $3,000 a year.

In 1957, real-estate investor Louis N. Bell offered to buy Columbian Harmony Cemetery. Bell informed the society that he would expand his {{convert|107.5|acre|m2}} Forest Lawn Cemetery (which was near the society's former property in Landover) by {{convert|65|acre|m2}}. He offered the society a 25 percent stake in the new cemetery and to pay all relocation costs in exchange for the property in D.C. Although the society rejected this offer, negotiations continued. Bell eventually agreed to also establish a perpetual care fund, designate a {{convert|30|acre|m2|adj=on}} section of the cemetery as the "Harmony Section", and allowed the society to appoint half the board of the new cemetery association.Sluby and Wormley, p. 45.

Beginning in May 1960, approximately 37,000 graves were moved to National Harmony Memorial Park. The District of Columbia Department of Health had to draft and win approval of a whole new set of regulations to govern the mass relocation. A D.C. district court agreed to issue a single exhumation order, rather than review thousands of cases. All the heirs of those buried at Columbia Harmony Cemetery were contacted and their permission to move the graves secured. More than 100 workers exhumed, recrated in new coffins, moved, and reburied the dead."Workers Start to Clear 100-Year-Old Cemetery." The Washington Post. May 24, 1960. The re-interments were completed on November 17, 1960.Sluby and Wormley, p. 49. It was the largest cemetery move in the nation's capital, and cost $1 million."Old District Graveyard's Moving Set", The Washington Post. September 1, 1959.

However, to move 37,000 graves between May and November 1960 means that hundreds were moved every day, and there was no time to "recrate them in new coffins", even had 37,000 coffins been available. Many were reburied in a mass grave. Unfortunately, the relocation agreement did not cover the existing memorials and monuments, which would have required identifying remains, moving the markers, and burying each body with its corresponding marker, if any (making a mass grave impossible). This would have taken much more time. According to the Maryland Historical Trust, none of the original grave markers were retained. Furthermore, most of the remains at Columbian Harmony Cemetery were transferred and reburied without identifying which person was being reburied.[http://www.mncppcapps.org/planning/HistoricCommunitiesSurvey/Documentations/72-045/72-045_Harmony%20Memorial%20Park_MIHP%20Form.pdf "Harmony Memorial Park." Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form. Maryland Historical Trust. Maryland Department of Planning. March 9, 2009. Capsule Summary, p. 72-045.] Accessed October 28, 2012. The headstones were sold as scrap and used to secure the riverbank of the Stuart Plantation, a 1400 acre conservation easement site on the banks of the Potomac in King George County, Virginia. In 2016 the property was bought by Virginia State Senator Richard Stuart, a descendant of the original owners, who discovered the grave markers and sought the help of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam in recovering them. A nonprofit organization will reclaim as many of the headstones as possible and send them to National Harmony, and related memorial markers will be placed in both Maryland and Virginia. It brought to light a historic injustice in D.C.

When the Rhode Island Avenue – Brentwood Metro station was constructed in 1976, workers discovered that not all the bodies had been exhumed. At least five coffins were unearthed, and numerous bones. A plaque was affixed to a column near one of the station's entrances to commemorate the former cemetery.Meyer, Eugene L. "History Chiseled in Stone", The Washington Post October 30, 1998. When a parking lot at the site was renovated in 1979, more bones and bits of cloth and coffins were unearthed.

File:Harmony Cemetery Project - 51398086651.jpg

The relocation agreement did not cover the existing memorials and monuments. According to the Maryland Historical Trust, none of the original grave markers were retained. Furthermore, most of the remains at Columbian Harmony Cemetery were transferred and reburied without identifying which person was being reburied.[http://www.mncppcapps.org/planning/HistoricCommunitiesSurvey/Documentations/72-045/72-045_Harmony%20Memorial%20Park_MIHP%20Form.pdf "Harmony Memorial Park." Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form. Maryland Historical Trust. Maryland Department of Planning. March 9, 2009. Item 8, p. 4.] Accessed October 28, 2012. Grave markers were sold as scrap.

The fate of many of the original markers remained a mystery for almost a half-century. In 2009, hikers found a large number of headstones in the riprap lining the banks of the Potomac River, on privately owned land near Caledon State Park in King George County, Virginia."Gravestones Found on Potomac's Edge." Fox 5 News. March 11, 2009. Virginia State Senator Richard Stuart, who bought the land in 2016, enlisted Virginia historians to trace the origin of the headstones; they were determined to have come from Columbian Harmony.

Because the headstones were adjacent to the state park, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation could only turn them over to a nonprofit. With the assistance of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, an agreement was signed by the state of Virginia, state of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the History, Arts, and Science Action Network (HASAN, a nonprofit based in Lynchburg, Virginia). The grave markers are planned to be turned over to the nonprofit, and National Harmony has agreed to allow the nonprofit to place them on the appropriate graves at the cemetery. The two organizations are also working to create a memorial garden inside the main gate of the cemetery. Stuart said he will work to create a parklike memorial along the Potomac to recognize any headstones that cannot be reclaimed. The government of the District of Columbia said it will assist in researching the history of those buried at Columbian Harmony.{{cite news

|last=Schneider

|first=Gregory S.

|title=A Virginia state senator found headstones on his property. It brought to light a historic injustice in D.C.|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=October 25, 2020|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/headstones-black-cemetery-potomac-river/2020/10/25/3586f0d4-0d7a-11eb-8074-0e943a91bf08_story.html|accessdate=October 26, 2020}}

As of February 2021, only 55 headstones of the estimated thousands had been recovered.{{cite news

|title=Inside the search for tombstones from the Columbian Harmony Cemetery, where 37,000 Black D.C. residents were once buried

|newspaper=CBS News

|date=21 February 2021

|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/columbian-harmony-cemetery-history-37000-black-dc-residents/

|accessdate= 31 December 2023}}

A number of nationally and locally important African Americans were buried at Columbian Harmony Cemetery. Among them was the first African-American D.C. firefighter (whose name was not known) to die in the line of duty."Roses On Firemen's Graves", The Washington Post. May 16, 1912. Other notable interments included:

• Lucy Addison (1861–1937), educator{{cite web|last1=Kneebone|first1=John T.|title=Lucy Addison (1861–1937)|url=http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Addison_Lucy_1861-1937|publisher=Encyclopedia Virginia/Dictionary of Virginia Biography|accessdate=10 March 2015}}
• Sandy Alexander (1818–1902), co-founder, First Baptist Church of Washington"Began Life as Slave." The Washington Post. March 30, 1902.
• Osborne Perry Anderson (1830–1871), only surviving African-American member of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Grave site unknown.{{cite news

|last=Meyer

|first=Eugene L.

|title=At Cemetery, a John Brown Raider Is Remembered

|newspaper=The Washington Post

|date=November 16, 2000

|accessdate=November 1, 2020

|url=https://henriettavintondavis.wordpress.com/tag/osborne-perry-anderson/}}

• George Bell (1761–1843), co-founder of the first African-American school in Washington, D.C.[http://www.mncppcapps.org/planning/HistoricCommunitiesSurvey/Documentations/72-045/72-045_Harmony%20Memorial%20Park_MIHP%20Form.pdf "Harmony Memorial Park." Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form. Maryland Historical Trust. Maryland Department of Planning. March 9, 2009. Item 8, page 2.] Accessed September 6, 2016.
• George Brown (?–1897), the "Black Sousa" who led the Capital City Band"Washington's Colored Sousa Dead", The Washington Post. January 18, 1897.
• Henry Brown (?–1866), White House assistant steward formerly enslaved by U.S. President Andrew Johnson{{cite news |date=1866-10-29 |title=Washington: By Telegraph to the Tribune |language=en-us |page=10 |newspaper=New York Tribune |url=http://www.newspaperarchive.com/us/new-york/new-york/new-york-tribune/1866/10-29/page-10/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2023-06-26 |via=NewspaperArchive.com}}
• Solomon G. Brown (1829–1906), first African-American employee at the Smithsonian Institution.{{cite news|title=Hillsdale News|work=The Evening Star|date=June 29, 1906|page=7}}
• John F. Cook Jr. (1833–1910), a prominent businessman and Howard University trustee from one of Washington D.C.'s most wealthy nineteenth century African-American families{{cite book |last1=Major |first1=Gerri |last2=Saunders |first2=Doris |title=Gerri's Major's Black Society |date=1976 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company Inc. |page=230}}
• Helen Appo Cook (1837–1913), founder of the Colored Women's League of Washington, D.C. and noted women's club leaders{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Jessie Carney |title=Notable Black American women book II book II Helen Cook |date=1996 |publisher=Gale Research |isbn=978-0810391772 |page=[https://archive.org/details/notableblackamer00jess/page/137 137] |url=https://archive.org/details/notableblackamer00jess |accessdate=20 July 2019 |language=en |url-access=registration }}
• Henrietta Vinton Davis, (1860–1941) actress, elocutionist, dramatist, impersonator and high-ranking member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League{{cite news|title=Deaths|work=The Evening Star|date=November 25, 1941|page=13}}
• Sherman H. Dudley (1872 – 1940) African-American vaudeville performer and theatre entrepreneur.{{cite news|title=Deaths|work=The Evening Star|date=March 4, 1940|page=A12|postscript=none}}; {{cite web|last=Monsho|first=Kharen|title=Dudley, Sherman H. (ca. 1870–1940)|website=Handbook of Texas|date=2021|accessdate=January 11, 2021|url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/dudley-sherman-h#:~:text=Dudley%20sold%20his%20theaters%20after,was%20survived%20by%20a%20son}}
• Christian Fleetwood (1840–1914), Medal of Honor recipient[https://www.afrh.gov/afrh/news/newslet/newslet_0108communicator.pdf "Army Veteran Paves the Way for African Americans in the Military." Armed Forces Retirement Home. January 31, 2008, p. 7.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007103758/https://www.afrh.gov/afrh/news/newslet/newslet_0108communicator.pdf |date=October 7, 2012 }} Accessed October 28, 2012.
• William Henry Harrison Hart (1857–1934), co-founder of the Niagara Movement (predecessor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People"Negro Benefactor's Rites Here Today." The Washington Post. January 10, 1934.
• Thomas R. Hawkins (1840–1870), Medal of Honor recipient{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}
• Emanuel D. Molyneaux Hewlett (1850–1929), civil rights activist and Washington, DC's first African American justice of the peace.{{Cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1929-09-22/ed-1/seq-7/#date1=01%2F01%2F1929&index=0&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=E+HEWLETT+JUDGE+M&proxdistance=5&date2=12%2F31%2F1929&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=judge+e+m+hewlett&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1|title=[no headline]|date=September 22, 1929|work=Evening Star (Washington, DC) (via LOC Chronicling America)}}

• William James Howard (1854-1925) former slave, pastor, Zion Baptist Church[http://washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1999/03/25/the-school-on-meridian-hill/2c6fcc2a-bf05-4c56-b5b6-13b0683ee6ae/ Washington Post, by L French,"The School on Meridian Hill"]
• Paul Jennings (1799–1874), former slave, personal servant to James Madison, antislavery activist, author{{sfn|Taylor|2012|page=224}}
• Henry Lincoln Johnson (1871–1925), Republican National Committeeman from Georgia"Henry L. Johnson, Dead Negro Leader, Was Son of Slaves." The Washington Post. September 13, 1925.
• Robert Johnson (1870–1903), pastor, Metropolitan Baptist Church"Funeral of Negro Minister." The Washington Post. December 23, 1903.
• Elizabeth Keckley (1818–1907), former slave, seamstress to Abraham Lincoln, civic activist, and authorSkalski, Liz. "A Hole in the Historical Fabric, Stitched Back Together", The Washington Post. June 3, 2010.
• Robert Pelham Jr. (1859–1943), journalist and federal government employee{{cite news|title=Mourn Passing of Robert A. Pelham|work=The New York Age|date=June 26, 1943|page=3|accessdate=January 31, 2017|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8678643/mourn_passing_of_robert_a_pelham_the/}}
• Philip Reid ({{circa}} 1820–1892), foundryman who oversaw the casting of the Statue of Freedom{{cite news|last=Morello|first=Carol|title=Slave who helped build Capitol's Statue of Freedom honored with historical marker|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=April 16, 2014|accessdate=September 6, 2016|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/slave-who-helped-build-capitols-statue-of-freedom-honored-with-historical-marker/2014/04/16/a0ddba8c-c58a-11e3-8b9a-8e0977a24aeb_story.html}}
• Mary Ann Shadd (1823–1893), anti-slavery activist, first black woman publisher in North America, first woman publisher in CanadaSavage and Shull, p. 136.
• William Syphax (1825-1891), first President of the Board of Trustees of Colored Schools of Washington and Georgetown{{cite news|title=Funeral of William Syphax|work=The Evening Star|date=June 19, 1891|page=8}}
• Robert Heberton Terrell (1857–1925), second African-American judge in Washington, D.C."Funeral Rites Held for Robert Terrell." The Washington Post. December 25, 1925.
• William W. Whipps (?–1940), Black pharmacist and co-founder of the Washington Association of Colored Druggists{{cite news|title=Deaths|work=The Evening Star|date=December 12, 1940|page=A14}}
• James Wormley (1819–1884), owner of the Wormley Hotel, and only African-American present when Abraham Lincoln died"Funeral of the Late James Wormley." The Washington Post. October 21, 1884.

• Laurel Cemetery, an African-American cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland that suffered the same fate during the same time period

{{Reflist}}

• Richardson, Steven J. "The Burial Grounds of Black Washington: 1880–1919." Records of the Columbia Historical Society. 52 (1989), pp. 304–326.
• Savage, Beth L. and Shull, Carol D. African American Historic Places. Washington, D.C.: Preservation Press, 1994.{{ISBN?}}
• Sluby Sr. Paul E. and Wormley, Stanton Lawrence. History of the Columbian Harmony Society and of Harmony Cemetery, Washington, D.C. Rev ed. Washington, D.C.: The Society, 2001.{{ISBN?}}
• {{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Elizabeth Dowling|title=A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons|location=New York|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|date=2012|isbn=978-0230108936|url=https://archive.org/details/slaveinwhitehous0000tayl|url-access=registration}}

• "Sluby, Paul E., Sr." (2018). [https://dh.howard.edu/og_manusripts/15 "The Columbian Harmony Society: A Brief History"] Manuscripts, Publications and Other Written Work.

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Category:Former cemeteries in Washington, D.C.

Category:1859 establishments in Washington, D.C.

Category:1960 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.

Category:African-American history of Washington, D.C.

Category:History of Washington, D.C.

Category:Cemeteries established in the 1850s

Category:African-American cemeteries in Washington, D.C.