A cemetery where many residents of the Freedmen’s Town of Tamina are buried will receive a new historic marker in the days leading up to Juneteenth.
Tamina’s Sweet Rest Cemetery is the final resting place of around 200 individuals, including former slaves, Native Indigenous people, law enforcement officers and veterans.
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In 2021, the cemetery in South Montgomery County was designated a historic place by the state of Texas.
At 10 a.m. June 15, the Montgomery County Historical Commission will dedicate a new Montgomery County Historical Marker on the spot.
Here is what to know about the cemetery and the historical commission:
The historical commission
The Montgomery County Historical Commission is an arm of Montgomery County government and not a nonprofit organization. As of January, the commission had 38 members who are appointed for two-year terms by the Commissioners Court.
Commission volunteers support numerous preservation projects in the county.
The volunteer members also have a countywide historical marker program. The first county historical marker was placed at Shepard’s Barber Shop in downtown Conroe in 2015. It is the longest barber shop in continuous operation in Montgomery County.
Other markers placed since then celebrate the historical significance of people, buildings, churches and other landmarks.
History of the cemetery
“Founded in 1871, the Tamina community served as a post-Civil War community of Freedmen, that is, previously enslaved African Americans from nearby plantations,” said Larry Foerster, chairman of the historical commission. “The historic Sweet Rest Cemetery is the final resting place of decades of former Tamina residents.”
The grave sites date back to 1870, including those of Tamina’s founding fathers. Some of those buried there include John Elmore, the first Black mail carrier in Montgomery County, Mary Louise “Aunt Lou” Williams an early mid-wife to the Tamina area who died at age 103, U.S. Navy veteran Cornelius Leon Amerson and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Robert Dewayne Easley.
In 2018, Elijah Easley, a longtime Tamina resident and board chairman of the nonprofit Tamina Cemetery Project and Community Development Corporation organized an effort to restore the cemetery where many of his Easley relatives are buried.
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In the previous years, the cemetery was left dormant and became overgrown and some areas of the cemetery were under water. Restoration projects have taken place in recent years there. Also in May 2021, the community’s Memorial Day celebration took place there.
Easley was a leading force behind the cemetery’s restoration. He died in April 2023.
The dedication will take place the Saturday prior to Juneteenth marked on June 19. The date of June 19, 1865, which was later shortened to “Juneteenth,” marks the announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom from slavery in Texas.
Forester said the dedication ceremony will last no longer than 30 minutes and additional announcements about the dedication will be provided as the date approaches.
The cemetery is located near Hollins Road and Sweet Rest Road in the Tamina community.
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