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2 months ago
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A grave of a Jacksonville, Florida, 'hero' is located in an unusual spot - a sidewalk.
The grave belonging to the late Thompson Williams is in the middle of a walkway in Durkeeville, Florida.
The grave is located right next to the Emmett Reed Park and Community Center, according to News4JAX on July 9.
Williams died by gunshot wound in 1908 after he protected 'the honor and life' of a woman from what The Florida Times-Union called a 'fiend' who fired two shots at her.
He was buried in what used to be the Mount Herman Cemetery after his death, and he has remained under the concrete ever since.
The grave belonging to late Florida resident Thompson Williams currently sits in the middle of a sidewalk next to the Emmett Reed Park and Community Center
Williams died by gunshot wound in 1908 after he protected 'the honor and life of a white woman.' Williams was survived by his wife and 10 children at the time
The Mount Herman Cemetery was primarily for Jacksonville's black citizens, dating back to the 1880s.
By 1953, most of the cemetery had become a park, which historian Ennis Davis found makes it special.
'This park is unique because it is Jacksonville’s largest 19th-century African American cemetery,' Davis told News4JAX.
According to Davis, the remodeling is how the unfortunate grave site was created.
'This alone should let you know that the development of this street and its infrastructure was built over a cemetery, and they moved the grave in the middle of the sidewalk just to do it,' he said.
Davis did a bit of research on his own and found an 1800s map that gave a layout of the legendary cemetery.
'I came across an 1800s map of Jacksonville that had a zoomed-in map of ownership in the LaVilla area, and this was identified as the Mount Herman Cemetery,' he said.
Historian Ennis Davis found a map of the area from the 1800s, which showed its layout and the location of Mount Herman Cemetery
Bodies were removed after the cemetery was donated to the city in the 1940s, and only one plot remains untouched
The revamp began in the 1940s after someone from the Francis L’Engle family donated the cemetery to the city.
Nearly all bodies were removed in the years after the donation, and the Emmett Reed Park and Community Center was eventually built on top of the cemetery.
Hardly any headstones are left in what used to be the Mount Herman Cemetery, and the plot is only big enough for one family.
Other than Williams, the Fagin family has remained in the same resting place since they died in the 1900s, one of whom was a US military veteran.
Jacksonville native Freddie Paney knew about the former cemetery's existence since he was little, and he's not sure how its historical destruction can be fixed.
'What they should do is put a big sign up and let people know that it was a cemetery,' said Paney.
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