The restoration process of a historic Alberta cemetery has reached an important milestone.
Permanent headstones were placed on July 12 at the Bethel Baptist Cemetery near Barrhead, Alta. The cemetery is one of the few traces that remain of the Black pioneer community of Campsie.
Barrhead is about 120 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
There are now 13 permanent headstones to remember community members. Another grave was also reclaimed in good condition and did not require headstone work.
The restoration project started as far back as 1997.
Descendents of the settler families worked with the Barrhead Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints and the Barrhead and District Family Community Support Services in restoring the cemetery and fundraising for the stone markers.
“We’re very pleased at how it all turned out,” descendent Deborah Beaver told CBC.
Her great-grandparents, James Moses Beaver and Hattie Beaver, were among the first Black settlers to arrive in Campsie. They donated the land where the cemetery stands; a handful of original outbuildings still stand on the nearby property.
Beaver’s uncle, George Kenneth Beaver, is buried there. He died in 1940 a few days after his birth.
The aluminum-etched grave markers that were installed in the early 2000’s have now been replaced with granite markers.
Bill Warwaryick with the Barrhead congregation has been with the restoration effort since the beginning in 1997.
“Our project is basically done, and it was so exciting,” Warwaryick said, noting the project began as part of a worldwide day of service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I’m glad to have been a part of restoring, or in commemorating some of the important history in Alberta.”
Beaver said it is vital to preserve and spread awareness about the legacy of Black pioneer communities in Alberta.
“It’s very important, because a lot of people don’t know,” Beaver said, who co-founded the Black Settlers of Alberta and Saskatchewan Historical Society.
Campsie was settled in the early 1900s when hundreds of African-Americans, fleeing escalating violence of newly enacted Jim Crow laws, left the United States and settled in the Canadian Prairies.
Enticed by the promise of free land, they came north by the hundreds. By 1911, about 1,000 had crossed the border.
In Alberta, they settled primarily in four isolated, rural communities closely connected by kinship and trade: Campsie, Junkins (now Wildwood), Keystone (now Breton) and Pine Creek (now Amber Valley).
“My dad was born and raised there. He went to school there, and basically that’s where he lived all his life. He was about 87 when he passed away, and that’s the only place he lived is out there,” Beaver said.
She hopes to further commemorate the legacy of Campsie through a documentary in the near future.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
