Article and Photos by Linda Charlton
On Veterans Day (November 11), towns, cities, and cemetery associations across the country mark the holiday with speeches, flags, parades, and patriotic music. At Groveland’s newly restored historic black cemetery – Oak Tree Union Colored Cemetery of Taylorville – the honor goes a step further. The veteran memorial at the site lists all ten of the United States veterans known to be buried there. All served during World War One. All served in the army.
While there may be more than ten veterans buried in Oak Tree among the 229 known gravesites (possibly as many as 306), ten is all that could be documented.
The dead veterans are Will Buggs (died 1931), Charlie Butler (died 1920), Joe Green (died 1938), Sam Griffin (died 1935), James Middleton (died 1928), Doc Nickles (died 1936), Henry Spellman (died 1931), Will Thomas (died 1933), Austin Williams (died 1934) and Gus Williams (died 1938).
Green, Griffin, Middleton, Spellman, and Gus Williams all have military issue headstones. The other five are somewhere in Oak Tree, under one of the many stones inscribed “unknown.”
While there’s no one around who knew any of the veterans personally, there is one Groveland resident, Sam Griffin, who knows the uncle for whom he was named. Citing his father’s description of his uncle Sam, the younger Sam Griffin says “he was the happiest man in town — unless you made him mad.”
The Sam Griffin buried in Oak Tree was promoted to the rank of corporal before leaving the army, and he was stationed in Europe. The other veterans for whom military records are available all served as privates. In some cases, the application for government-issued headstones is the source for the military record of the deceased. In other cases, the State of Florida memory project is the source. For a few, the only record is that in the 1930 census, they were listed as veterans of the “WW,” a war which we now refer to as World War One. For one veteran there is a secondary record.
Austin Williams appears in the Edge Funeral Home logbook of burials with the notation of “Charge to the U.S. Govt.” The record also indicates the charge was “Paid.” Add the funeral home record to the death certificate and the 1930 census record and it’s not hard to put together the basics of his life. Austin was 46 when he died. He was born in Georgia. He worked on the farm of Leo Lynch, who provided him a place to live. Lynch and Williams were both veterans of the World War. Williams was a widower, Lynch was single (as per the 1930 census) They had common ground. When Williams became ill with kidney problems, Lynch sought out the services of a physician When Williams died, Lynch was the informant.
Restoring Oak Tree Union Colored Cemetery of Taylorville has been a major project for the City of Groveland. The cemetery dedication was originally scheduled for October 4 but was postponed due to the aftereffects of Hurricane Helene. Dedication is now tentatively set for sometime in February.
The history of the cemetery is in its name. Groveland was Taylorville back in 1895 when the cemetery was established. Local black churches kept records of who was being buried there. The first official record of any black church in Groveland is of the Oak Hill Union Colored Church of Taylorville, ‘union’ meaning that Baptists and Methodists shared worship space. The ‘tree’ in Oak Tree is a reference to the giant oak tree that for years was how passers-by on State Road 19 could locate the cemetery, for there was no road or driveway leading in.
Radar has confirmed the number of gravesites (229). However, an additional 77 are possible because sometimes radar misses a site—e.g., a child with a very small casket or someone who was buried without a casket.
