“It really is literally groundbreaking because the state takes land for various projects, and it rarely gives it back. And there couldn’t be a better reason to give it back,” said Eileen McGuckian, a historian and preservationist.
Last month, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved the return of a quarter acre along Interstate 495 to the Morningstar Tabernacle No. 88 Moses Cemetery and Hall.
The bamboo-filled piece of land will be added to the already cleared out cemetery plot. Ground-penetrating radar shows there may be as many as 26 unmarked graves in the new addition. There could be anywhere from several hundred to a thousand people in total buried there, according to surveying.
For nearly a century, it served as a meeting place and cemetery for Black families in the area. It was founded in 1880 by a formerly enslaved couple, Robert and Sarah Gibson, after they purchased the parcel of land off what is now Seven Locks Road.
Several other Black families came to the area and set up Community No. 10, named because of its location near the 10th lock of the C & O Canal.
Morningstar Tabernacle No. 88 of the Ancient United Order of Sons & Daughters, Brothers & Sisters of Moses was established to provide financial and burial assistance to the community, as well as a two-story building within the cemetery known as Moses Hall, which became a hub of social life there.
The nonprofit Friends of Moses Hall is trying to restore the cemetery and has identified more than 130 men, women and children who were buried there.
“My great grandfather, James Coates and his wife, Annie Sims, lived in that community, and they were buried here,” Christopher Waynes said.
Shannon Stewart also has ancestors buried in the cemetery.
“I’m just happy that we’ve come this far and as we’re becoming recognized now,” Stewart said.
Most of the graves are unmarked; less than a dozen have headstones.
McGuckian said that many of the people buried there didn’t have any sort of monument to begin with.
“A lot of the ones that were here have disappeared,” McGuckian said. “Vandalism occurs, deterioration of the material. Some of them may have only been wooden markers at first, and they deteriorate. Some of them may have had temporary markers and they never got around to putting the permanent ones so and that’s not an unusual circumstance.”
Eventually, the Friends of Moses Hall wants to build better access to this cemetery. It currently can only be accessed through neighbors’ yards.
“The vision is a place that people can visit their descendants, a peaceful place and an accessible place,” Waynes said.
Ideally, the group will look to add an access point to the cemetery from Seven Locks Road.
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