Members of the Rochelle community want to preserve and recognize their history through obtaining historical markers for two of their cemeteries.
Rochelle residents want historical markers for Oak Ridge Cemetery and Coleman Cemetery, historical sites reflecting north central Florida’s eras of slavery and segregation.
John “Ronnie” Nix, a fourth-generation rancher and farmer who grew up in Rochelle, said recognizing the Coleman Church Cemetery as a historical site is important to him because it represents the lives of people who lived in Coleman. Nix is also the board chair for Keep Alachua County Beautiful, an environmental nonprofit that serves to revitalize and conserve areas in Alachua County.
“It’s a history of not only a cemetery, but a history of a community and a history of survivals, people that went through slavery and people that were buried there,” Nix said. “We’re standing on the shoulders of all those people when we look at our community.”
Oak Ridge Cemetery, which is located on County Road 234, is the site of Madison Starke Perry’s grave. Perry was the fourth governor of Florida and owned a plantation in the current Rochelle area. He fought for the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
There is currently a historical marker placed at Oak Ridge Cemetery for Perry, but some members of the Rochelle community wish the historical marker addressed the history of the cemetery and Rochelle, instead of just the former confederate governor.
According to Robert Hutchinson, the former executive director of the Alachua Conservation Trust and a former county commissioner for Alachua County, Oak Ridge cemetery is located at the site of a battle between Colonel Newnan, a military commander, and King Payne of the Seminole Tribe in 1812.
“There was an epic battle that lasted for about two weeks,” Hutchinson said. “It started on the site of the cemetery.”
Members of the Rochelle community also said Oak Ridge cemetery is divided. Upon entering the cemetery, Black people are buried on the right, and white people are buried on the left, according to Nix.
Madison Starke Perry’s grave is located on the left side of the cemetery, decorated with confederate flags and an iron cross from the Sons of Confederate Veterans. “Old Joe,” a confederate statue moved to the cemetery in 2017, is also located on the left side of the cemetery.
Nix said Oak Ridge Cemetery was originally a cemetery for white people. Black families used the Coleman Church Cemetery, which was part of Coleman, a town founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. Black families began to use the Oak Ridge Cemetery after the Coleman community dissolved.
Some former slaves from plantations in Rochelle were buried in Coleman Cemetery, including Albert Hall, Nix’s great-grandfather.
In 2024, Keep Alachua County Beautiful received a $20,000 grant as part of the Abandoned African-American Cemeteries grant program. The non-profit will use the grant to build new fences at the cemetery and identify both marked and unmarked graves.
In May, Stantec, a company focused on sustainable engineering and environmental consulting, conducted a conditional assessment survey of Coleman Church Cemetery. The assessment reviewed the conditions of the marked graves and identified the types of headstones at the cemetery.
Nix says Stantec will conduct more assessments at the Coleman Church Cemetery to identify unmarked graves.
According to Willett Hancock, the curator of exhibitions at Matheson History Museum, creating historical designations is important to remembering history.
“Historical designations are a really important way to acknowledge important sites and ensure that they’re preserved for the future so that we can always have physical spaces to remember our history and reflect.”
https://youtu.be/NqnW1M2xtcw