No good deed goes unpunished.
Since the late 1990’s, the City of Wilson’s Public Works Department has mowed and sprayed the front section of Odd Fellows Cemetery, known to the City as “Rountree-Vick,” when it maintains Vick Cemetery. In December 2020, Lane Street Project began to clear the back three-quarters of this long-abandoned historic African-American burial ground. Volunteers of every age, color, and creed gathered twice monthly through the spring to hack vines and haul trash from this sacred space.
When I visited Odd Fellows in June 2021, I was surprised to find the grass uncut and the ditch sprouting hundreds of sweetgum saplings. On June 23, I forwarded the first two photos below to a city official, requesting that the City perform its regular maintenance. He said he’d see to it.
On July 23, when a LSP member advised me that the grass remained uncut, I repeated my request to the official. No response.
Today, to my shock, I got a glimpse of three-foot weeds sprouting near the Foster family’s headstones. (Thanks, MG, for the video from which I grabbed this still.) Wisteria once again threatens to engulf Nettie Foster‘s marker, but that’s a perennial problem. On the other hand, I have not seen weeds like this in Odd Fellows in more than 20 years.
Odd Fellows Cemetery, 7 August 2021.
Now that volunteers have rallied to save a cemetery allowed to disappear into the woods over the decades, has the City completely washed its hands of its care?
I need your help.
Please call or email the mayor and your councilperson to request that the City immediately resume regular mowing and maintenance of this section of “Rountree-Vick” cemetery. (Their contact information is here.) And please ride by the cemetery regularly to check on its condition. The job facing Lane Street Project’s volunteers is daunting enough without the City backsliding from its duties and responsibilities. Help hold it accountable.
Thank you.