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Bull Hill Cemetery
also known as
The Carter Munch Cemetery
Press Release for April 18, 2007
For media inquiries,
please contact our public relations
coordinator in the
Marketing Communications Division, 512/463-4565 or Jim Bruseth, 512/463-5863
Texas Historical Commission
Award Winner Seeks
Descendants of Those Buried in
Historic African American Cemetery
AUSTIN, Texas –– A grant recently awarded to the
Texas Historical Commission (THC) will help record and protect an historic
African American cemetery and help researchers find living descendants of those
buried there.
An old slave cemetery known as Bull Hill and also
Carter-Munsch near the town of Marlin is slowly re-emerging from the landscape
that once completely covered the markers and simple rocks that serve as head
stones. Researchers predict there could be several hundred graves at the site,
part of the former Churchill Jones Plantation. A $5,000 grant from the
Summerfield G. Roberts Foundation of Dallas will enable THC staff to record and
document the cemetery and to conduct oral histories with living descendents of
those who are buried there. The Summerlee Foundation of Dallas recently bought
more than 400 acres to preserve the cemetery and the old town site of
Sarahville de Viesca, the capital of the 1830s Robertson Colony of Central
Texas.
The recipient of the THC’s new Preservation Fellows Award, Nedra Lee, will work with THC
archeologists to protect Bull Hill-Carter-Munsch Cemetery and locate and interview
descendants as the foundation for her master’s thesis at the University of
Texas at Austin, where she is a graduate student in anthropology. Before
beginning her graduate studies, Lee worked for the Historical Society and the
City Museum in her hometown of Washington, D. C.
“I want to use the skills I will gain as a Preservation Fellow
to facilitate research and organize programs that aim to provide more inclusive
representation and understanding of the past,” said Lee.
The THC’s Preservation Fellows Program was created to build
interest in and awareness of historic preservation among college students from
underrepresented ethnic groups. The program targets talented undergraduate and
graduate students to encourage their interest in pursuing fields of study in
history, preservation, architecture, archeology, landscape architecture,
downtown revitalization and heritage tourism. Fellows work with THC staff for
eight weeks during the summer.
“Documenting this historic cemetery, and hopefully, finding
and interviewing descendants of those buried there is an important and exciting
project for our first Preservation Fellow,” said THC Archeology Division
Director Jim Bruseth. “We hope its success will encourage other students to
pursue a Preservation Fellow award that will eventually lead to a career in
historic preservation.”
An elderly African American woman from Marlin whose
grandparents are buried in the cemetery has already been located. If you know
of someone who has relatives and family members buried at Bull
Hill-Carter-Munsch, or if you are a descendant, please contact Jim Bruseth at
512/463-5863 or Nedra Lee. To learn more about the THC’s Preservation
Fellows Program contact THC Development Officer Toni Turner at 512/936-2241 or
visit www.thc.state.tx.us.