Visiting old cemetery ‘a powerful experience’

When the Summerlee Foundation acquired the 400 acres in 2007, the tract included Bull Hill Cemetery, an African-American cemetery dating back to the 1850s and once part of the extensive Churchill Jones plantation.

“It was such a powerful experience for me. I can’t even explain the feeling I had standing there,” she said. “I felt lifted, warmed, like I was walking on clouds filled with sunshine. I cried. It changed me. I felt committed to working on behalf of all those buried in Bull Hill. Not just my grandmothers, but everybody’s grandmothers and grandfathers. I just could not leave their names unspoken in the earth. They just have to be remembered.”

The land also includes the earlier sites of Sarahville de Viesca, 1834-36, and Fort Milam. Jones moved to Falls County in 1853 from Alabama with his family and slaves. Eventually he owned 50,000 acres of prime Central Texas farmland.

Gangly trees shroud the half-acre graveyard, and a thick layer of vines, bramble and dried leaves crunch as visitors walk through. The Summerlee Foundation has plans to clear brush, plant grass and flowers, and erect a sturdy fence, once the THC researchers have finished their work.

Summerlee acquired the land from a descendant of Churchill Jones, also named Churchill Jones, of Marlin. Styles and the current Jones have become friends through their shared stories. Styles is relieved that the cemetery will be studied, documented and preserved.

“I attend genealogy meetings with other African-Americans,” Styles said. “The one place that most hit a roadblock is when they try to talk or get information from the descendant of the slave owner. Normally, the slave owner descendants are fearful of how the information will be used and if a big ‘scandal’ may come of it.”

However, Jones was open and friendly, willingly providing family papers that helped her document her great-great-great-grandparents, she said.

Descendants of those buried there have had recent reunions, the last in July. For Styles, descended from Jones’ slaves, her visit is a homecoming across the centuries. Bull Hill was an active cemetery until 1961.

Styles has been working with other family members to document all of the burials - a difficult task because of sketchy records. She has a list of 81 persons known to have been buried there, and another list of 68 who may be interred there. Countless more names have been lost because of slavery, Jim Crow laws and segregation, Styles said.

Nedra Lee, working with a grant from the Summerfield G. Roberts Foundation of Dallas, has been documenting the stories of the families represented in the cemetery. She has interviewed descendants and attended family gatherings to locate more relatives. Meanwhile, after documenting, mapping and photographing each burial, archaeologists have removed most of the stones to a safe place to either be fixed or replaced. Most burials, however, are marked with simple rocks or wooden crosses.

Archaeologists and researchers from the Texas Historical Commission have researched and documented this historic slave cemetery, untouched by urban or agricultural encroachments. The site also reveals interesting clues to 19th century African-American culture and memorials.

For Styles, Bull Hill is affirmation of all the stories she heard as a child from her parents and grandparents.

“I was shaking when I realized my grandma was telling the truth. I was so overwhelmed,” she said. “When I saw Bull Hill, I looked out over that site. I felt the spirit of my ancestors, I felt like they said, ‘Thank God, you found us. We lived the best lives we could, and we tried to pass on the best part of us to other generations.’”

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