Family fights to preserve centuries-old cemetery

(A version of this story appeared  Nov. 23, 2010) in Newsday and on Newsday.com.)

More than four years ago, Julius and Joysetta Pearse moved along a narrow walkway and peered through a fence at an overgrown piece of land on Harold Avenue in Wantagh.

The Freeport couple -- both of whom are recognized experts in genealogy -- had been called to the site by the owners of an adjacent property.

According to some property records, the land is a cemetery, although markers are long since gone. And the adjacent property owners wanted to keep it from being developed.

But to members of the Jackson family, the land is the final resting place of ancestors who settled in Nassau County centuries ago.

Old records, along with research by the Pearses and others, would -- in the four years since the couple made their first visit to the site -- help preserve the site as an African-American cemetery. The town board is slated to vote on the preservation Tuesday.

Jeffrey Jackson, who appears in the 1790 census, lived as a free black man in the area now known as Wantagh. Records show that fewer than five free black residents lived in Nassau County, along with a number of slaves, according to the Pearses' research.

In 1808, Thomas Jackson, a Quaker and Revolutionary War veteran, sold more than 20 acres of land to Jeffrey Jackson for 20 British pounds. The land, on Old Mill Road between Lawrence Place and Harold Avenue, became Jeffrey Jackson's homestead, with homes for family members and a burial ground for Jackson's descendants.

One researcher, using census and other documents, compiled a list of people she believed might be buried at the site, according to Pearse. They include 21 men and women surnamed Jackson.

There are no markers or evidence of bodies or caskets at the cemetery, which was in use until about 1862. Julius Pearse said that a search with specialized equipment turned up nothing in the area.

"That's not surprising," he said. "The bodies were buried in wooden caskets and they were buried long ago." Besides, he added, the site became a dumping ground for construction and other materials as the years wore on.

The Jackson family lived on the land until 1921, according to the Town of Hempstead, working as farmers, cattlemen, carpenters, masons, oystermen and woodsmen. There was also a songwriter, Horace Jackson; and four Civil War veterans -- David, Morris, Gilbert and Charles Jackson.

But what made Jackson's descendants -- and there are some 6th- and 10th-generation Jacksons still living in Nassau County -- leave their homestead?

"They sold the land because of the Klan," said Donald Kavanagh, the family's attorney. Pearse said his research showed that Ku Klux Klan was active in the Wantagh-Bellmore-Freeport area in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. "Family members signed papers selling the land off," Pearse said.

According to Kavanagh, Jackson's descendants continued to visit the cemetery through the 1950s, when the land was still mostly farmland. In the 1960s, it was subdivided for housing.

More than four years ago, Jackson's descendants asked Hempstead's Landmarks Preservation Committee to preserve the cemetery. Pearse said the goal is to clear the site, open it to Jackson's descendants and put up a historic marker.

But getting through the landmark designation process took time. The site is on private land and abuts three properties. According to documents obtained by Pearse, the current homeowners' deeds make no reference to a cemetery.

Meanwhile, there also was a dispute over the cemetery's size. The town hired experts to help resolve the issue, said Michael Deery, a spokesman for town Supervisor Kate Murray.

In September, the commission recommended that a 0.8-acre site become a landmark.

Tuesday, the town board is slated to vote on whether to approve that status. "We wanted to make sure we did the right thing and had the right site," Deery said.

So far, he said, everything looks good, which is great news for Jackson's descendants -- and the rest of us.

"African Americans have been in Nassau County since before the Revolutionary War," said Joysetta Pearse. "It's local history that sometimes gets lost."