HOUSTOUN PLANTATION CEMETERY

This 19th century cemetery is one of many known abandoned cemeteries in Florida. Before 1900, 80 to 100 enslaved and formerly enslaved persons are believed to have been buried here, many of them children and post-Civil War workers. Though visible in the 1920s, the burial ground was later lost, and in the 1970s was rediscovered by state archaeologists. In 2019, archaeological research led to the identification of 23 likely unmarked graves and 14 more possible graves. Edward Houstoun’s plantation that originated in the 1830s included this cemetery. Enslaved people made up three-fourths of Leon County residents in 1860, 78 of whom were owned by Houstoun. His family farmed this area until 1906. Early 20th century residents of suburbs built around a new 9-hole golf course near this site remembered overgrown graves. Some were decorated with carved wooden crosses. Others were planted with lilies and ligustrums. The cemetery is nearly a mile from the Houstoun house site and rests on a hilltop, characteristics typical of plantation cemeteries for enslaved people in the American South. It has been within the boundaries of the golf course since the 1930s when the course was expanded to 18 holes.