Buried History: Scientists, Historians and Students Explore Neglected African-American Burial Ground in Port Jervis
The Friends of Robert Lewis community group launched a revealing ground penetrating radar study of a Port Jervis burial ground.
By John Kinney
Underneath America a racist legacy is often buried with the bones of African Americans. Enslaved or free, they often rest in forgotten fields.
One of those neglected burial grounds, God’s Acre, is on North Orange Street in the City of Port Jervis. Thanks to a grassroots effort, the history and provenance of this forlorn and overgrown burial site for 19th and early 20th Century Port Jervis area African Americans and the destitute may gain the recognition and care due the departed of all races and cultures.
This effort is led and inspired by Robert Eurich, the force behind a local racial justice group, The Friends of Robert Lewis, and supported by the administration and students from the Port Jervis High School, Minisink Valley Historic Society, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), local churches and a nationally recognized author, among others.
A National and Local Effort
It coincides with the national trend to restore, preserve and honor centuries-old historically Black burial sites. Often, the neglect of these burial grounds is an extension of the racism Black people experienced while living.
For Eurich, a Port Jervis native and advocate now living in the Binghamton area, “it's about helping to mend the unseen fabric of the community that has been torn by ills of the past that carry over to the present. And it's about recognizing and acknowledging basic human dignity and the respect all people deserve, regardless of their social standing, cultural or ethnic heritage.”
According to Eurich’s research, God’s Acre was used both as a burial ground for African Americans and a pauper’s field and was established sometime prior to 1867 in what was then the Town of Deerpark. The last known burial was in 1924. Since then, it has lain fallow and returned to nature.
An adjacent cemetery, Agudath Achim, owned by the local synagogue, was adversely impacted by the neighboring overgrowth. To protect its own well-kept land and prevent inappropriate neighboring development, the synagogue acquired God’s Acre, which had no verified owner, by quit claim deed in 2017.
Aaron Robinson, the administrator of Agudath Achim, has supported efforts to gain recognition for God’s Acre and said the temple, which is now merging with the Middletown, NY synagogue, “would be very inclined to transfer ownership of God’s Acre to an appropriate entity.”
Headstones have not been found in God’s Acre, but soil indentations and markers signify burial sites. Using ground penetrating radar (GPR) to search for those sites occurred to Eurich, and he contacted the USDA, which uses GPR for varied purposes. Soil scientist Olga Vargas, a GPS operator, also joined the project team.
Eurich’s Advocacy Role
But first, the site, with a century’s worth of growth, had to be cleared enough for the GPS equipment to traverse. The bulk of that work was undertaken by Eurich, who grew up a few blocks from the cemetery. He was co-chair of the Port Jervis Task Force on Tourism in the early 1990s and founded the community service-oriented PortJervisNY.com website in 1999.
June 2 of 2017 was the 125th anniversary of the 1892 lynching-murder of Robert Lewis, a local African American. Ralph Drake, who had for years walked a lonely June 2 vigil tracing the lynching mob’s route, reached out to Eurich for assistance in publicizing the remembrance walk.
Eurich later helped organize the Friends of Robert Lewis group, which brought widespread attention and regional and national recognition to the lynching and walk.
In 2022, that culminated in a historical marker being placed at the East Main St. site of the lynching. Eurich also assisted noted author Philip Dray in his research for the well-received and powerful account, A Lynching At Port Jervis: Race and Reckoning in the Gilded Age. Dray, assistant professor of Journalism + Design at Eugene Lang College, has stayed active with the local group.
God’s Acre in Context
Dray put Port Jervis developments in context: "In recent years there has been vigorous new scholarship and research focused on the history and lives of African-Americans in the Hudson River Valley, a region that, along with New York City, was, by the late 18th century, one of Colonial America's largest slave societies.
“New academic and popular writing about the daily lives of enslaved persons, the Underground Railroad, discrimination, racial violence, and the plight of fugitive slaves in places like New Paltz, Goshen, and Albany has been published, while numerous schools and libraries have begun to offer educational programs aimed at connecting people of all ages with this important history.
“A simultaneous development has been the effort to better know the stories of past Black communities through the investigation of historic burial grounds, such as God's Acre in Port Jervis. I'm honored to be a part of this project, led by The Friends of Robert Lewis, the Minisink Valley Historical Society, Mayor Decker, and the students and teachers of Port Jervis High School, for its strong potential to bring greater awareness and appreciation of the city's past."
As noted by Dray, a shared objective has been educational outreach and student involvement.
Port Jervis Students and the USDA
The Port Jervis school system has stepped up in that regard.
In a Google Meet interview, Port Jervis High School Principal Anthony Lazzaro, science teacher Kasey Stankunas and 11th graders Aniyah Green and Gabe Torres elaborated on their involvement which culminated in an onsite seminar at God’s Acre in early November.
Lazzaro said he was contacted by Eurich and felt that the history and science components were perfect opportunities for students.
The students and Stankunas outlined a multi-disciplinary interest and approach that involved science, particularly forensics, soil science and local history.
It was a “unique experience for the kids” to be involved in local issues, she said. Just under 40 student volunteers walked the almost 1.5 mile route to North Orange Street from the school.
“To learn about ground penetrating radar and local history” was a highlight for Torres. Both students were motivated by scientific aspects and relished the opportunity to use the GPR equipment.
Green said she was “shocked; you don’t learn about this (neglected burial grounds) in a small town. It’s important to get the word out to more people.”
Stankunas said the geologists did a great job, and one takeaway that hit home was the shallow depth of many burials because of the geology in that area.
“It was a real learning experience for us,” Lazzaro said, noting that an onsite experience like this was an opportunity that students will remember better than information from a classroom setting.
Working with Stankunas and student volunteers, research soil scientist Olga Vargas and retired soil scientists Rich Shaw and Ronnie Taylor conducted a hands-on seminar in GPR, soil classification and surveying at the site. Students rotated through three stations to learn about the history of the burial grounds with Eurich, soil science with the retirees and actually operating the GPR equipment with Vargas.
“The students were enthusiastic and well-prepared,” Vargas said. “And the teacher was great.”
In her draft report, Vargas noted , ”there were stones that were placed vertically as markers for burials and there were a series of vertical stones...lined up in a row. There were also areas where the ground was slumped in front of vertically placed stones.”
According to the report, this was potentially due to decomposition of buried bodies. The actual GPR results show potential burial sites in front of the vertical markers. (See photos of the GPR scan and the markers.) The GPR scans also showed some burials may have been stacked at various depths.
Eurich’s research has identified eight known burials, and he estimates there could be at least 60 more.
Because the burial ground is owned by the adjacent Jewish cemetery, it was necessary for Robinson to sign off on the GPR project, which he willingly did.
With ground penetrating radar results in hand and support from community institutions, Eurich thinks a historical marker “seems like a next natural progression,” as well as more educational outreach and student involvement, cleaning up the site, some landscaping and ensuring proper future maintenance. He noted one student’s suggestion that a monument of some kind might be built.
Unlike the known and unknown residents of God’s Acre, history is not meant to be buried. It teaches us how we got where we are, why we live the way we do and how we can use the past to improve the present and future. Perhaps the community-supported efforts at God’s Acre will be the start of a new legacy.
John Kinney is a retired journalist and publishing executive. A Port Jervis native, he lives in the Town of Wallkill.
Organizations and individuals involved with and supporting the project:
The Friends of Robert Lewis
Port Jervis High School principal, staff and students
Nancy Conod, executive director, Minisink Valley Historical Society
United States Dept. of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service
Author Philip Dray
Agudath Achim Cemetery administrator Aaron Robinson
Hill-N-Dale Abstracters, Inc., owner John Wood
Wickham Methodist Church
Alex Ginella, SupportJervis.com
Robert Williams
Vinnie Bagwell, public artist and sculptor
Penny Sullivan, Ramapo Rescue Dog Association
Jack Austin
Tri-State Interfaith Council
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Excellent article. Each June 2nd I try to get out of work early enough to walk the route with Ralph and everyone but it hasn't happened yet, maybe 2024 will be the year. Keep up the good work.