United American Cemetery Tour
The United American Cemetery, in Madisonville, was originally called the Colored American Cemetery. It was dedicated in 1883, but it includes many older tombstones, going back to the 1840’s and 1850’s. That’s because the cemetery was originally in another location, but it was forced to move. This tour tells the stories of the people buried in this cemetery.
Gravesite of Lena Beatrice Morton
Literary scholar who fought discrimination
Lena Beatrice Morton was the author of half a dozen books about literature, language, and teaching, beginning with an anthology, Negro Poetry in America, in 1925.
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Gravesite of William H. Beckley
Underground Railroad Agent
On May 16, 1834, a classified advertisement appeared in the Alexandria (Virginia) Gazette: “RANAWAY, from the subscriber, on the 5th instant, WILLIAM BECKLEY, an indented apprentice to the Ship’s Carpenter’s business, a bright mulatto, about eighteen years of age, about five feet four or five inches high.”
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Gravesite of Pernia McKinney
Life-long learner
When Pernia McKinney was 63 years old, she enrolled in elementary school. She took night classes at the Douglass Night School in Walnut Hills after working during the day.
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Gravesite of Frank A.B. Hall
First Black Member of Cincinnati City Council
Frank A.B. (Alfred Butcher) Hall was the son of former slaves, born in 1870 in Vicksburg, MS. He moved to Cincinnati in 1892 and operated a lunch stand in Walnut Hills for 5 years before joining the Cincinnati Police Department.
In 1899, Hall was promoted to patrolman and continued to rise…
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United American Cemetery
Historic African American burial ground
The United American Cemetery, in Madisonville, was originally called the Colored American Cemetery. It was dedicated in 1883, but it includes many older tombstones, going back to the 1840’s and 1850’s. That’s because the cemetery was originally in another location, but it was forced to move.
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Receiving Vault, United American Cemetery
Site of attempted body-snatching in 1883
A central fact of 19th-century cemeteries was that if someone died in winter, when the ground was frozen too hard for a grave to be dug, the body would have to be stored someplace, possibly for months, until a thaw.
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Nancy Williams Gravestone, 1832
Earliest-known grave marker for an African American in Cincinnati
“Sacred to the Memory of Nancy Williams, wife of Henry Williams, who departed this life, October 21st, 1832, aged 27 years and 1 month. She believed and said take away all and give me Jesus.”
The gravestone, located in the United American Cemetery in Madisonville, itself is a masterpiece of…
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John Isom Gaines Monument
One of the most important grave markers for an African American in Cincinnati
When the grave monument for John Isom Gaines was erected on August 1, 1860, the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper estimated that 3,000 people attended the ceremony – at a time when the entire Black population of Hamilton County was around 4,600.
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