Priscilla Chambers and Robert Lett spent much of their childhoods in Richwood, near Walton.
Though their family later moved to the West Coast, the siblings have both been researching their family history for many years.
“I started doing my research when I was about 16,” Chambers said. “I just started asking questions of my mom, about her parents and grandparents. That’s how it started.… I’ve always been interested in history.”
Which is how Chambers learned about Myrtle Sleet, a baby girl born to Chambers’ great aunt and uncle, Alice and Estill Sleet, in 1924. Baby Myrtle died less than a year later and was buried at Florence Cemetery.
Chambers was able to participate in the dedication of the monument to honor those buried there on a windy day in November. Other community members and city officials joined her for the dedication of a monument to more than 120 African American people buried there. Of those, 55 were formerly enslaved people who became free before they died.
The Boone County Public Library’s Borderlands Archive and History Center hosted the event and dedication ceremony.
The memorial is a part of its ongoing project to support and expand the community’s understanding of local history, people and events across the county. Funding for the monument came from a grant by the 400 Years of African American History Commission.
Curiosity leads to discovery
The history center’s lead researcher, Hillary Delaney, was on hand at the ceremony. She has been working to identify as many of the people buried there as possible, combing through records and speaking with family members and the local community.
“I do a lot of study with the Underground Railroad, and as a result of that research, I started learning more about people who were enslaved here, individuals – who their family members were, where they lived,” she said. “And it dawned on me that was hugely helpful in terms of genealogy for descendants, because it’s so hard to get that information. So, I started saving that…. It grew into a much bigger countywide project to document people who had not been documented previously. So that was the beginning.”
For Halloween in the city, the library hosts cemetery walks and shares spooky stories in the graveyard. It was on one of those walks, in 2018, that Delaney said she first noticed something odd about the old cemetery.
“I noticed that some of the standing stones were actually facing away from the path instead of toward the path in the African American section,” Delaney said. “And that section, according to the plot map for the cemetery, is Section 1. It’s not exclusively African American burials there, but that is where the majority of the African Americans who are buried in Florence are.”
She said she also noticed that the area, the oldest section in the graveyard, seemed devoid of grave markers. This sent her on a quest to find out how many graves there were in the section and, if possible, who was buried there. She spent the next years researching everything she could about the Florence Cemetery, including cemetery records, death certificates, family genealogies, newspaper obituaries and, finally, ground penetrating radar scans.
The radar revealed graves packed tightly together along the back fence, and Delaney postulates that it may have been a potter’s field at one point because of how close together they are. Neighbors on the other side of the fence told her there were definitely graves on their properties as well, although time and weather have knocked down or eroded any markers.
Who is buried there?
At last count, Delaney had identified 127 people by name, including some who served in the Civil War and World War I. In addition to extensive records research, she’s been working with family members to help identify and connect ancestors and to help build the database.
Here are a few of the people whose stories are now documented:
Fisher Aylor served his country in the Civil War. Born into enslavement in Boone County around 1820, he enlisted in the Union Army in 1864. He joined the 117th Infantry, Company G, of United States Colored Troops and served as a teamster during the war, driving wagon loads of supplies and armaments.
The 117th was formed in Covington and took part in some major operations during the war, including the siege and fall of Petersburg and Richmond in Virginia. They participated in the pursuit of Robert E. Lee and were on guard duty at Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox Court House.
While in service, Aylor contracted what the army called “rheumatism,” due to the poor conditions and weather he had to endure. After the truce, he was sent to Texas where he became ill and was hospitalized before being granted a medical discharge.
He returned to Boone County and settled in Florence with his wife, Hannah. In 1874, he purchased space in the cemetery. He later moved to Burlington and to Erlanger. He died at the Dayton soldiers home in 1907. Hannah Aylor’s gravestone is marked in the cemetery, but Fisher Aylor’s plot is not marked.
Edmon Bell also served with the 117th Infantry, United States Colored Troops, in Company F. While in service, he was promoted to corporal. He was born into slavery in Boone County in 1844 and died in 1874. His wife, Martha (1846-1875), is also buried in Florence Cemetery. (There is likely a connection to the Aylor family; both families were enslaved by the same person.)
Orlando Carneal was born in 1844 and died in 1919. He, too, served with the 117th Infantry. Delaney is working with one of his descendants, Joyce Florence, to have a marker placed by the Veterans Administration. Carneal had been enslaved in Boone County, and some records give him the last name of his enslaver, Goodrich, including the army records. This may create a hurdle in getting the marker, but Delaney said she thinks the VA will go by the family’s preferred name so long as they can prove it’s the same man.
Florence said her great-grandfather Orlando and his brother Benjamin both served in the Civil War, and their names are on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. In addition to working on the local marker, she is also working with other residents of Elsmere to put together a history of the African American community there.
Thomas Green, born in 1849, was the subject of a Kentucky Post article written in 1940 about the birth of twin mules on his farm in Erlanger. The article also talks about Green’s life and accomplishments and noted he was a grandfather of a teacher at the Erlanger-Elsmere Negro School. It also mentions he and his wife had recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Thomas Green died in 1941. His wife, Fannie Delaney Green, is also buried in the cemetery. She was born in 1857 and died in 1952.
Rachel McNeal was born in about 1798 and was enslaved by the McNeal family. That family had two daughters, Polly and Mariah, who were both deaf. McNeal assisted them and stayed with them even after the war. In the 1870 census, she was living with and caring for the two sisters. Both women died within a few years of each other. They left about an acre of land and a house to Rachel and her family in 1879. At the time, her family included her son, Thomas Taylor, his wife, Ellen, and their children. All are buried in Florence Cemetery. Rachel McNeal died in 1889.
Thomas Thomas was born in Maryland in 1795. He was one of the trustees of the Colored Baptist Association and a founder of the First Baptist Church of Florence. His son served in the 117th but was killed in service in Virginia. He remained a leader in the community. He died in 1875.
Myrtle Sleet died as a baby and was buried in Florence. Her parents, Alice and Estill Sleet, are buried in Elsmere. A descendant, Priscilla Chambers, had been doing family research when she learned about her great-aunt and great-uncle’s baby girl who died less than a year after her 1924 birth. She found Myrtle at the cemetery recently and was able to participate in the dedication of the marker to honor those buried there.
‘A treasure for sure’
Chambers’ and Robert Lett’s father, Charles Lett, was an educator who taught at Wilkins Heights Elementary School in Elsmere and then became principal at the Grant-Lincoln High School in Covington. Chambers said she suspects her deep interest in history came in part from her father. He would open the newspaper after dinner and question his children about events of the day and the connections they might have to historical events.
In 1965, Charles Lett took a job as an administrator in Pasadena, California, and moved the family there. Chambers said she would question relatives whenever they came back to the area to visit. Now, she has moved back to Boone County and is doing deep research into her family and exploring the history of the African American community throughout Boone County.
Robert Lett still lives in California, but he has done his own share of family and historical research. On their mother’s side, the family goes back in the area to the time of slavery. Unlike many, they have more than stories passed down. The family has actual records, including the bill of sale of his great-great-grandfather Robert to his wife, Viney, in 1856. Viney had purchased her own freedom in 1847.
Robert Lett remembers seeing the document as a child.
“The slave certificate, bill of sale, has been in our family,” he said. “I remember growing up at family events, they would take it out, and they put it underneath a piece of glass. It was in the family as a type of heirloom. I call it a black folks’ heirloom, you know? We didn’t have many heirlooms, but that was a treasure for sure.”
Despite the distance and the years, both siblings said they feel a strong tie and pull to the area.
“The advantage that my sister and I have is we were raised right there,” Robert Lett said. “I was raised in Richwood, Kentucky. My grandfather’s farm was in Richwood, Kentucky. The children of Robert Lavine Sleet, one of the children of James John Simon and Viney, remained right there in Boone County.
“My sister’s much more adept at research. I probably tell the story better than she does, but she’s the one who has really gotten all the research documents at this point in time. She’s the one who uncovered the judge’s minute books that gave us our great-great-grandmother’s document showing how she was able to purchase herself out of slavery with one of her daughters.”
Chambers also was the one who uncovered the story of baby Myrtle in the Florence Cemetery. Most of their family is buried in Mary E. Smith cemetery in Elsmere and other cemeteries in the area.
“My grandfather’s brother was Estill,” Robert Lett said. “He worked out in Boone County as a farm manager, and his wife was a housekeeper. They raised all their kids out in Boone County. My great-grandfather was one of the ones who helped build the church there in Florence. He also became an elder and deacon in that church. His sons and nephews were deacons in the church. So it makes sense to me that one of Estill’s children is buried there.”
Chambers had this advice for those interested in exploring family history:
- Start with immediate family and ask as many questions as you can.
- Keep your ears open. Anytime anyone says anything, jot it down.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions and write as much down as you can.
- Go to the library.
- Be willing to help people, especially in your area. They may be able to help you, too.
“I’ve gotten information from people who were sitting right next to me at the library doing research,” Chambers said. “I’d ask them what family they are doing, and I’d find out I know that family. I have some information on that family.… You never know when something’s going to pop up. Ask the question. My dad used to say ‘no never hurt anybody,’” she said.