A tour of Jones Land.

I spent a beautiful afternoon with Grover L. Jones Jr. and his eldest daughter, Gronna Jones. The Joneses descend from one of Wilson County’s largest free families of color — one that I’ve blogged about over and over and over. Mr. Jones is a western Wilson County griot, and I was thrilled when Gronna offered to drive us around to some of the family’s landmarks, all on or within a mile or so of today’s Saint Rose Church Road.

Mr. Jones’ grandparents, John A. Jones and Betty Hinnant Jones, built this house around 1912. Mr. Jones himself was born in the “little room” at the south end of the house.

While the house was under construction, the Joneses lived in the upstairs loft of this tobacco barn.

This 1927 Dodge has been parked here all of Mr. Jones’ life. He’s 88.

John A. Jones planted these massive oaks — a white and three swamp whites — that now tower over his grandson. A gnarled pecan tree leans away from one end of the house.

Just down the road stands the church John A. Jones attended — Rising Sun Missionary Baptist.

Per John Jones’ 1962 obituary, he was founder of Rising Sun. Rev. Buchanan H. Edwards was its pastor during much of the first half of the 1900s and preached Jones’ funeral.)

Wilson Daily Times, 16 September 1962.

Rising from the rear of the church structure is a two-story addition. A Masonic lodge, whose name and number have been forgotten, met upstairs. (I’m trying to identify it further.)

The tenants who lived in this house farmed for the Joneses, mostly raising tobacco and corn.

Saint Rose United Holy Church, which Betty Hinnant Jones attended, stands north of the Jones house. The original wooden building was moved to the Green Pond area of Wilson County to house another church.

Two family cemeteries lie across the road. The Jones family cemetery, holding the remains of John and Betty Jones and some of their children and grandchildren, is relatively new.

The nearby Sane Williams cemetery is much older, with graves dating back to the 1890s. The predominant family buried here is Jones, but other surnames appear on the 65+ graves. Sane Williams (or Williamson) and John A. Jones owned adjoining property, and Mr. Jones pointed out the property of neighboring landowners Johnny Finch and Henry Coleman.

The Henry Coleman farm, known as The Kingdom, lies off Old Raleigh Road, but is a straight shot through the woods from the cemeteries. Below, one of the cemeteries in The Kingdom. The old Jones Hill cemetery, also known as Old Fields cemetery, which holds graves of Joneses, Powells, and related 19th century families, has grown up in scrub trees again.

Mr. Jones confirmed the site of the Jones Hill School, which he attended from first through sixth grade. His teachers were Ethel Moye Coley and Alice Shaw. (He attended Sims School for seventh grade, then Williamson High School briefly before the brand-new Springfield High School opened in 1951.)

This abandoned store was once located on the other side of I-95, very close to the school. In order to gain licensing to sell beer, however, the building was moved down the road to this location.

I didn’t get photos, but we also rode over to Sims, past Flat Rock Church of Christ, the remnants of Sims School, and the house in which Mr. Jones’ maternal grandmother Lillie Taylor Jones lived in the Sugar Hill neighborhood.

A very special thanks to Gronna and Grover Jones for indulging my thousand questions — and treating me to a hot dog at Best N Burger! Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026. 

The work of cemetery citizens.

Listen to this NPR story on our cemetery citizen counterparts in Connecticut here. (Shoutout to Adam Rosenblatt!)

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A lot of people may spend Saturday mornings snacking with friends or running errands – or joining us here. But some head to a different location – a neglected cemetery. Meg Dalton reports from one cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, where volunteers are trying to breathe new life into this space.

SHERILL BALDWIN: Hi.

LAURA LYNN: Hi.

BALDWIN: Are you here for the cleanup?

LYNN: I am.

BALDWIN: If you want to just park so that we’re not blocking, that would be great.

LYNN: OK.

MEG DALTON: Sherill Baldwin walks down a leafy hill. Before her are rows and rows of white stones sticking out of the ground, about the size of a sheet of paper.

BALDWIN: I refer to them as, like, baby teeth because they are not coming in straight, necessarily.

DALTON: Those baby teeth are actually gravestones in a small potter’s field called Blake Street Cemetery.

BALDWIN: It’s where poor people were buried when they couldn’t afford it themselves.

DALTON: The cemetery is small, about an acre. The gravestones are obscured by long grass, overgrown weeds, fallen trees and a lot of trash.

BALDWIN: So I have bags and sticks for picking up things.

DALTON: This morning, Baldwin and two other regular volunteers are here for a litter cleanup at the cemetery.

BALDWIN: And I think the place to start is probably – maybe around the fence line, if you don’t see anything in the side…

GIULIA GAMBALE: OK.

BALDWIN: … And then along sort of the wooded area.

DALTON: Giulia Gambale has a bag in one hand and a trash grabber in the other.

GAMBALE: What is this? Triscuit? Oreo? Trident. See, they like having fresh breath, but just, you know, pick up after yourself.

DALTON: Gambale walks over to the side of the cemetery and spots something unexpected.

GAMBALE: Looks like somebody’s homework is over here (laughter). Little bit of homework. That goes in the bag. What else?

(SOUNDBITE OF UNDERGROWTH RUSTLING)

GAMBALE: I don’t know what this is.

(SOUNDBITE OF UNDERGROWTH RUSTLING)

GAMBALE: More homework?

DALTON: Another volunteer, Laura Lynn, already has a full trash bag.

LYNN: I found a lot of candy wrappers, potato chip bag wrappers, a empty bottle, an empty can, piece of glass that I just picked up.

DALTON: Today, they’re mostly picking up small pieces of trash. But at past litter cleanups, they found air conditioners, even tires. Neglected cemeteries like this one are common in many parts of the United States. But people like Lynn, Gambale and Baldwin are trying to bring new life back to these spaces.

They’re part of a growing social movement of so-called cemetery citizens. That’s a term coined by Adam Rosenblatt. He’s an anthropologist and author of a book about cemetery citizens. According to him, cemetery citizens are people working to restore and honor systemically neglected cemeteries. Some volunteers do this work for personal reasons, like Gambale.

GAMBALE: My dad actually worked in a cemetery for, like, his whole life. And I just, like, learned to really love and respect cemeteries – the history, the architecture.

DALTON: Baldwin says every person’s motivations are unique, but they have a shared goal – to reinsert these spaces into the social fabric.

BALDWIN: You know, everybody’s got different things and different ways of honoring those that have passed. Cemeteries are definitely sacred places.

DALTON: Baldwin hopes Blake Street Cemetery becomes a place not only for the dead but for the living.

For NPR News, I’m Meg Dalton in New Haven, Connecticut.

SIMON: And thanks to Luis de Leon (ph) for recording bird song for that story.

(SOUNDBITE OF J^P^N’S “PRIDEFULL”) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Lane Street Project: the season’s last service day.

The workday’s shoutouts:

  • to the veterans who visited Odd Fellows Cemetery Saturday morning to place flags for Memorial Day;
  • to Will Kinsler, who came back with friends Haley of Fayetteville and Savannah and Dustin of greater Raleigh. They spent a full shift hacking new wisteria from trees and clearing the tree line to aid our mowing efforts; and
  • to the inimitable Senior Force — Castonoble Hooks, R. Briggs Sherwood, and William Hooks — our foot soldiers month in and month out.

Finally, a resounding thank you to everyone who came out to help this season. Each of you made a tremendous difference in the reclamation of Odd Fellows Cemetery, and we are honored that you chose to spend a Saturday morning with us when you could have been doing anything else.

Big things are coming, and we hope you’ll continue to support us as we put the generous gifts we’ve received to work. Though our official cleanup season has ended, we may call on you for specially scheduled service days this summer or fall related to upcoming projects. Thanks again!

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.