Two KU researchers want to find the history hidden within a series of overgrown headstones nestled in a field in a Eudora neighborhood.
Graduate student Grace Awbrey and geophysicist Blair Schneider plan on locating unmarked graves within the Southwest City Cemetery this May. They will attempt to name the people buried at the historic African American burial ground.
Awbrey is working on the cemetery for her master’s thesis project in museum studies. She is focusing on the cultural preservation side of the project. Her bachelor’s is in anthropology and religious studies.
“I’m looking at obituaries, looking at Census records from Eudora from the time the cemetery was active, death records. Eudora was really good at keeping track of all of that until the mid-1910s,” Awbrey said.
Schneider has her master’s and doctorate geophysics degrees from KU. She focuses on near-surface geophysics for archeological and forensic research.
Schneider has worked on preservation before at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence. She wanted to do the same in Eudora.
“It’s not far. I’d love to engage the community again. And so we got all the geophysics, we’ll bring it out there and see if we can figure out exactly where, potentially, some burials are that aren’t marked today,” Schneider said.
The cemetery served as the original city of Eudora burial site until a modern cemetery opened in 1867, said Ben Terwilliger of the Eudora Area Historical Society.
The cemeteries became segregated as more Black residents moved into the area from Missouri following the Civil War. For more than 100 years, the Black community used Southwest City Cemetery.
“It has over 110-20 years that it was a functional cemetery, and Eudora had a large Black community so I’m sure there’s a lot of unmarked graves,” Terwilliger said.
Throughout the 20th century, Eudora’s Black population significantly declined.
“I think part of the reason it was neglected was because all of the descendants of the people that were buried there moved away,” Terwilliger said.
The project will begin in May with the data collection taking two to three weeks. However, processing and interpretation can take up to a year.
The project is not funded, but instead relying on volunteer work. Both Awbrey and Schneider are volunteering through the University of Kansas.
“I’m hopeful that this project we do will help locate a number of unmarked graves, and at least give us an idea of how many burials are out there,” Terwilliger said.
Awbrey is working with Terwilliger to submit a Heritage Council grant for signage at the cemetery.
“We’re just trying to make sure people know what it is and the history behind it, considering Eudora’s extensive history with African Americans,” Awbrey said.
Anyone interested in volunteering to help with the Southwest City Cemetery project can contact Grace Awbrey at [email protected].
Reach reporter Katie Hanney at [email protected].
