Bedminster Preserves African Burying Ground

The African Burying Ground in Bedminster is on its way to being honored and memorialized for posterity.

The Township Committee passed an ordinance that subdivided a 60-foot square section of township-owned land that holds the remains of eight area black residents last week, according to an article on MyCentralJersey.com.
The governing body put a deed restriction on the land to safeguard it for future generations.

The cemetery plot was purchased for $3 in the early 19th century by three black men, two of whom were slaves, and one who was a free beekeeper, as a place to lay their dead.

Tom Buckingham, who serves as vice president of both the Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the Somerset County Historical Society, read a reference to the cemetery in an old history book written by Andrew Melick, the great-grandson of the man who sold the cemetery plot to the three men in 1801.

The cemetery plot is located on the Hillside Avenue site of the old municipal building, which was torn down in 2011.

In order to commemorate the historical importance of the site, the cemetery will have a marker placed on it by the Somerset County Historical Society, MyCentralJersey.com said.