Helping Hand Cemetery Club
(HHCC)
Courtland, Virginia
|
|
MISSION
.
The mission of the Helping Hand Cemetery Club is to improve and to maintain the cemetery as a peaceful, dignified, safe, and beautiful place worthy of its historical recognition. HHC is the link to the legacy and heritage of the African-American community of Courtland, Virginia. In addition, HHCC's mission is to receive and to acquire additions to the cemetery and to sell lots and burial rights therein.
|
|
President's Corner
Dear Members,
This has been a year like no other because of Covid 19. I hope that you and your family are well. Please practice good health guidelines and encourage family members to do the same.
I would like to thank members for helping the Helping Hand Cemetery Club (HHCC) transition to the new fiscal year change starting January 2022. The new fiscal change will make it easier to report documents to the State of Virginia, the IRS, and will help keep our organization books current.
Note: We are now preparing for our 125th celebration (sesquicentennial) to highlight past and present achievements of the HHCC. We hope to inform families and friends of the important roles that those interred in the cemetery played in the early Courtland community. We will " Tell Stories " of community leaders who were influential in the Courtland community.
The Helping Hand Cemetery(HHC), our cemetery, will become an outdoor museum showcasing historic community leaders and organizers and their accomplishments.
Note: The125th celebration program is scheduled for May 28, 2022. We are asking you to put this date on your calendar. Your support for the celebration is greatly needed.
Also, we have invited speakers who will share related stories regarding the history of Southampton County and surrounding areas. We are hoping that the Covid virus will be under control and we can have an in person celebration. The Backup plan will be a virtual celebration.
Again, thank you for your support and we hope to see you in May of 2022.
|
|
Volunteers.............Thank You |
|
Jason Fowler
The Helping Hand Cemetery Club needed plans to create a kiosk building that would house a directory and a map to make it easier for friends and visitors to find interred family & friends.
Thanks Jason for your architectural design skills, quick turnaround time, and your willingness to help the HHCC..
|
|
Elton Peterson
The majority of the Helping Hand Cemetery Club Board of Trustees lives in other states like Florida, Delaware, Texas and North Carolina.
Mr .Elton Peterson who resides in Courtland helped with our kiosk project by securing, contractors, a cement company and even helped with the building of the kiosk itself. Along with Elton finding folks to complete the work, he pitched in to make sure the work was completed.
|
|
The Roy Perry Family
The Perry Family lives next door to the cemetery only separated by a wooden fence. The Family has assisted us in the following ways:
provided electricity for our annual Memorial Day Cemetery Program
...provided a hose and water for mortar for the kiosk bricks
...allowed contractor to store his mixer for easy access.
Most Importantly,: the Perry Family has assured us that we can count on them for future cemetery support.
|
|
Helping Hand Cemetery Club Special Project
The Helping Hand Cemetery Club is fundraising to build an Informational Kiosk!
Thank you Trustee Maurice Darden for supervising this project.
|
|
Membership
by Maurice Darden
Our goal is to maintain the Helping Hand Cemetery (HHC) as an eternal resting place for friends, relatives and loved ones. Your financial support is essential and crucial for planned and non-scheduled annual maintenance. Please visit the HHC Facebook page to track our progress.
There are several methods to support HHC.
-
Life Time Membership - $500 (one time payment – no annual
membership dues)
-
Annual Membership - $60
-
Friends of HHC – Any amount, any time!
-
In kind service – work on special projects as determined by the HHC
Board
Ways to donate:
- Pay by check – Make checks or money orders payable to HHC at P.O.
Box 612 Courtland Virginia 23837
HHCC is a 501C 13 Tax Exempt Organization. You should expect a receipt before the end of the tax filing year. If you have questions about membership or finances, please contact Wallace Maurice Darden (modarden@aol.com) or (919) 632-3166.
|
|
|
|
HHC Life Members
Alton Darden
Melvin Johnson
Dolores Peterson
Wallace Darden
Valerie Alston
James Wilson
|
|
|
Bricks "R" Us
One of our successful fundraising events has been selling bricks to memorialize family and friends. Memorial bricks are $100 each and are placed to be visible to folks who visit HHC.
Below are bricks that have been recently purchased.
Order your brick at:
For more Information contact
Alton Darden
(313) 414-9430
Email: amd18084@aol.com
|
|
(FYI)
Please click the information link and feel free to share with others.
|
|
Maintenance Update
by Bob Barnes
|
|
Mr. Barry Taylor is the Helping Hand Cemetery grounds maintenance contractor. Under his care, our cemetery is well maintained and continues to be an attractive landmark in Courtland, Va.
Mr. Taylor takes extreme care to be available whenever needed by HHC. One thing we can say about Mr. Taylor is that he is dependable and accountable!!!
|
|
Beautification Update
by Bob Barnes
Helping Hand Cemetery Club places emphasis on perpetual, personal attention for each family's loved one whose final resting place is here.
The Peterson family is one of many families who have placed their faith and trust in HHCC for many decades. This vault has been recently cleaned and painted by our contractor.
|
|
If you are interested in sprucing up your loved one's vault or headstone, contact President Alton Darden at (313) 414-9430. |
|
Our Ancestors are Telling Us Their Stories
by Dolores Peterson
HHCC trustees have not let Covid-19 slow us down. Our goal continues to be the creation of an interactive and educational on-site resource for the many families and friends who visit our historic cemetery. You see, HHC isn’t just historic because our ancestors purchased the cemetery 125 years ago (and by the way, some members have family records that show HHC, formerly the Courtland Colored Cemetery, was a burial ground prior to its purchase); HHC is also historical because those buried in the cemetery tell the true history of the early African-American community of Courtland. Their stories reveal struggle, perseverance, survival, entrepreneurship, community activism, success and much more, despite living in a post slavery/Jim Crow era.
Our HHC board has spent endless hours researching the African-American “turn of the century” Courtland community finding that if you learn the stories of its people, you understand the history of the community. Thus, the cemetery was a great place to start. We are telling their stories, as well as those community members who lived and worked in the community, but then moved to other areas. We intend to share these stories at our May Conference to which everyone is invited, and we will launch our new website in May as well. These stories were compiled through actual interviews, newspaper articles and document research.
We want to thank our members and friends who paid membership dues, donated various amounts, purchased memorial bricks, donated their time, and submitted information. Don’t Stop! We appreciate you and need your donations to bring us closer to achieving our goal.
Under the leadership of President Alton Darden and Vice-President Melvin Johnson along with dedicated trustee members: Maurice Darden, Bob Barnes, Rosilyn Bryant, Gail Lover, Shelton Darden and myself, Dolores Peterson, and Trustee Friends Maxine Darden, Forrest Johnson, and Vernon Darden, we are proud to report…
- We have received recognition by Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources for 115 graves for people who were born before 1900. We have since found at least 12 additional graves that also qualify.
- We have received support from The 400 Years Commission and Virginia Humanities.
- We have created this HHCC Newsletter to keep our members, the community, and the general public informed of our "Telling Their Stories" project and our cemetery restoration progress.
- Preservation Virginia visited HHC and using ground penetrating radar determined that after scanning two-thirds of the cemetery, there were approximately 175 unknown graves below the surface.
- We held meetings with Virginia Tech working with their design team to determine the best way to create a more aesthetic, safe environment. They provided us with a rendering for future planning.
- Our informational kiosk is nearing completion. (Thank you to Elton and Leonard Peterson, and Alvin Walden who participated in its construction.) The kiosk will contain a map and a directory of those interred in the cemetery.
- We held meetings with the Department of Forestry who visited HHC to identify the type, age and health of our trees, and have now offered their assistance with tree preservation, removal, and next steps.
- We applied for a historical marker to designate the cemetery as a historic site.
- We are planning to celebrate HHC's 125th year as an organized historical cemetery and have invited key speakers to address the history of African American and Native American culture focusing on Southampton County.
- We have ordered more than 30 historical plaques to identify graves of prominent citizens of the past.
- We have conducted four key interviews with Courtland citizens 89 years and older and will publish transcripts from these interviews. We have more interviews scheduled.
- We have collected a number of stories from the descendants of those interred in the cemetery. We welcome all stories, so if you want to submit a story, you still have time.
...And we’re not finished!
|
|
Elizabeth Gilboy
VA Tech - Director Community Design Assistance Center
|
|
Nick Proctor
VA.Tech - Project Manager Community Design
Assistance Center
|
|
 |
Virginia Tech University Design Team Visits H.H.C.
by Alton Darden
Elizabeth Gilboy, Director of the Community Design Assistance Center, and Nick Proctor, Project Director, gave us many design ideas to improve the Helping Hand Cemetery physical setting. They met on site with Shelton Darden, Forrest Johnson, Wallace Darden, Bob Barnes and Vice - President Melvin Johnson of the Helping Hand Cemetery Club.
The VA Tech team met with our board to see what ideas we had for improvements, to make suggestions, and then laid out great plans in the form of picture renderings.
The VA Tech Team has got us moving to future improvements at HHC.
Note: Hats off to the VA.Tech Team
|
|
|
|
Lara Johnson
Urban & Community Forestry Program Manager
by Alton Darden
The Virginia Department of Forestry under the leadership of Urban & Community Program Manager Lara Johnson visited the Helping Hand Cemetery twice for preliminary and final tree assessments.
Her team included Kendall Topping, Meghan Mulroy-Goldman and Joseph Lehnen. They met on site with President Alton Darden, Trustee Bob Barnes, and HHC member Maxine Nowlin.
Our trees in the cemetery were assessed and we found out which trees needed to be saved, pruned or removed.
We also were amazed that we have trees that are over 200 years old, and
we plan to place plaques on our trees to identify the tree type and age.
So, when you visit our cemetery, be sure to scan the entire area to get other important facts.
Note: Hats off to the Forestry Team!
|
|
Preservation Virginia
Searches for Unmarked Graves
David M. Givens, Director of Archaeology, Jamestown Rediscovery
The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation (JRF) was asked at the behest of the Helping Hand Cemetery Board of Trustees to inspect the Helping Hand Cemetery burial areas and to conduct a geophysical survey. The Preservation Team met on site with Vice-President Melvin Johnson and trustees Maurice Darden , Dolores Peterson, Bob Barnes, Vernon Darden, Shelton Darden Jr. and HHCC Member Forrest Johnson.
The purpose of the study was to search for possible interred unmarked graves at the cemetery.
"At the Helping Hand Cemetery, Courtland, Virginia, the author collected over 8,480 square feet (.19 acres) of data using the GSSI UtilityScan 350 MHz antenna.
The survey's express goal was to determine the potential for graves or associated funerary structures within the bounds of the known cemetery."
David M. Givens
Note : Hats off to the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation (JRF)
|
|
Find your Friends & Family on the sites below:
https://www.findagrave.com
|
|
Please get the latest information about our projects by following us on Facebook. Be sure to like us!
|
|
Helping Hand Cemetery Club Salutes longtime member
Mr. James Robert Scott, Sr.
Oct. 22, 1914 - Oct. 4, 2021
Courtland, Virginia
Mr. Scott lived to be over 106 Yrs. of age. For many years, he volunteered in The Helping Hand Cemetery and was well known for his knowledge of the many burials and locations of community members interred in the cemetery.
Mr. Scott could recall information and stories about the lives and contributions of those buried in the cemetery and because of his longevity, he had first hand knowledge of the history of the cemetery and the Courtland community.
|
|
Board of Trustees
Official Representatives
|
|
President
Alton Darden
Florida
Retired Teacher - Detroit
Teacher & Recreation Center S
supervisor
amd18084@aol.com
|
|
Vice President
Melvin R. Johnson
Virginia
Current Medical Director
- Norfolk City Jail
bg_mel_johnson@msn.com
|
|
Secretary/Parliamentarian
Gail E. Lover
Texas
Retired Educator, Parliamentarian
Professional Genealogist
glover8311@aol.com
|
|
Historian/Grant Writer
Dolores Peterson
Delaware
Retired Middle School Principal
Bronx, NY
dvlp13@yahoo.com
|
|
Treasurer Rosilyn Bryant
Virginia
Current Community Teacher
rara60@verizon.net
|
|
Membership Chair Wallace "Maurice" Darden
North Carolina
Retired Manager
Verizon Telephone
modarden@aol.com
|
|
Cemetery Observer
Elmer "Bob" Barnes
North Carolina
Retired Commercial Banker
Local Radio Talk
ebobbarnes@embarqmail.com
|
|
Media Specialist
Shelton "Bobby" Darden
Virginia
Information Technology Professional
shelton_d@yahoo.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
