GreenvilleThursday, November 5
A radar survey finds hundreds of unmarked graves at Greenville's Springwood Cemetery
The 5AM Simpsonville team
A ground-penetrating radar survey has found hundreds of unmarked graves in Section V of Springwood Cemetery, a former potter's field in the northeastern corner overlooking Academy and Church streets. The City of Greenville says the survey identified about 617 graves. The Greenville Journal reports the research team found 572, with 30 to 50 more expected in a small area not yet studied.
Springwood Cemetery by the numbers
- 10,000
- people estimated buried in the cemetery
- 2,600
- of them in unmarked graves
- $6,000
- from the historical society for permanent disc markers
- 30 to 50
- more graves expected in the unsurveyed area
Sources: WSPA 7News, Greenville Journal
The discs don't name the dead, because many remain unknown. Committee members are also considering a larger monument and a garden with yucca and daffodils.
“This has been here for 150 years, really unobserved.”
- Survey: Omega Mapping Services ran the radar in August
- Radar cost: $3,000, provided by Debbie Weeks
- Identities: researchers will check church and mutual aid society records
Section V went from a lost burial ground to a marked one
- 1860A surviving marker dates to 1860, offering clues to the burial ground.
- 1865Records date the graves in Section V to around 1865.
- Late 1960sAcademy Street construction mostly removed the former Elford Colored Cemetery.
- 1970sElford Cemetery becomes part of the larger Springwood Cemetery.
- AugustOmega Mapping Services runs the radar survey of Section V.
- SeptemberThe advisory committee reviews findings and approves metal disc markers.
Sources: WSPA 7News, Greenville Journal
Sources: WSPA 7News, Greenville Journal