Here’s something a little off the beaten track to get your head into Black History Month.
Next week you have two opportunities to learn how to document the burials in Mt. Olive Cemetery in Green Cove Springs, one of the oldest African-American cemeteries in Florida and Clay county.
On Wed., Feb. 15, the Clay County Archives and the Florida Public Archeology Network are sponsoring a Cemetery Resource Protection Training workshop on how to preserve and care for cemeteries.
The workshop will cover:
- Study of the Mt. Olive Cemetery
- Study of cemeteries as historical resources
- Laws that protect cemeteries
- How to conserve headstones & markers
- How to manage cemetery landscapes
- Hands-on demonstration of how to clean headstones
Free and open to the public, the workshop runs from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the old Clay County Courthouse in the Historic Triangle in Green Cove Springs.
Registration is on a first-come-first-served basis and is limited to 30 people. The morning sessions include coffee and pastries.
For more information, e-mail Amber Weiss, outreach coordinator for the Florida Public Archeology Network at aweiss@flagler.edu.
Applied Learning
You can put theory into practice on Sat., Feb. 18 starting at 9:30 a.m.
The Archives needs volunteers to walk Mt. Olive Cemetery in the 1700 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Green Cove Springs to transcribe, count and document graves. The data collected will be complied and entered into the new Archives web site and available to the public.
An African-American cemetery with burials going back to at least 1916, Mt. Olive is one of the oldest cemeteries in Clay county.
Here’s a partial list of internments from the Clay County Historical Commission.
Volunteers are asked to bring clipboards, pencils, drinks and snacks.
You don’t have to attend Wednesday’s workshop to volunteer to walk Mt. Olive.
Registration and information for both the workshop and the cemetery walk are available at the Clay County Archives, 915 Walnut St., Green Cove Springs or by calling the Archives at 904.371.0037.
To volunteer for the cemetery walk, call the Clay County Archives or e-mail County Archivist Claude Bass at clayarch@bellsouth.net.
FYI – The Mount Of Olives In Context
Associated with Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and prominent both the Old and New Testaments, Mediterranean traditions of the olive hold that resurrection of the dead begins in olive groves and in peace.
The Mount of Olives cemetery in east Jerusalem has been used as a cemetery for over 3,000 years and preserves approximately 150,000 graves.
Charles E. Merrill Educational and Historical Resource Center & Clay County Archives
- 21 Gratio Place & Ferris (State Road 16)
- Green Cove Springs, Florida 32043
- Hours: Wed. & Thurs., 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
- Contact: Claude Bass, Clay County Archivist
- Phone: 904.284.2386/904.278.4780
- E-Mail: Clayarch@bellsouth.net
http://claycountygov.com/menu/Archives.htm
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OFFICIAL BIO: K Truitt is a second-generation, native Floridian born in Jacksonville. Truitt worked in public higher education for 25 years, most recently in Texas, is a successful grant writer, knows newspaper publishing, printing and graphic design and wants to work in the public sector. Contact: kt.4examiner@yahoo.com
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