Documentary on local Black cemetery screened in Cape May
CAPE MAY — Cemeteries tell a silent story, and Tim Millaway’s documentary “Whispers from the Forgotten” uncovers the history of the Union Bethel Civil War Veterans Cemetery in Lower Township.
The documentary’s prime focus was the significance of Black history in the cemetery. It made its Garden State debut on Feb. 15 at the Cape May branch of the Cape May County Library in the former Franklin Street School. The viewing room was packed, and the audience learned the untold stories of the 19th-century community members of Cape May and Lower Township.
The 33-minute film featured interviews with Lower Township Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) Chairwoman Pary Tell and descendants of community members buried in the cemetery, including Janis Washington White and Wanda Wise Evelyn of Rio Grande, Emily Dempsey of West Cape May, and Shirley R. Wilson of Wildwood.
The documentary starts with the story of the Rev. Edward Turner, the first community member buried in the cemetery in 1836. It explains that the cemetery was abandoned as members moved north to join the Whitesboro and Cape May communities. Another critical aspect the documentary informs the viewer about is the 16 Civil War veterans buried there.
Fifteen members served in the U.S. Colored Troops and one in the U.S. Navy.
White, Evelyn, Dempsey and Wilson recall their descendants throughout the documentary, going back several generations.
White explained that her great-great-great-grandfather was buried in a grave mislabeled on the headstone as James Standsbury. After 100 years, her father and older brother had his headstone changed to correctly read James S. Washington.
Dempsey discussed how she tagged along with her father and grandfather when they cleaned the headstones.
A strength of the documentary was its involvement of key community members and the photos, including the conditions of the gravestones, shown during the interviews.
After the screening, Millaway said the documentary was meant to be simple after he interviewed cemetery caretaker Rudy Von Coln and Tell, but it expanded when a Facebook post revealed there were still descendants of those buried living in the community.
The film has been submitted to film festivals, and another screening is scheduled for June 24 at a library in Cherry Hill.
Viewers will understand how various groups tried to maintain the cemetery. But it was not until the Lower Township HPC was revived in 2017 that they became stewards in charge of caretaking. Von Coln, a military veteran and member of the HPC, performs the day-to-day care.
Another local interviewed in the documentary was Paul Schulte of the Builders Club. He read an article about the cemetery’s state of disrepair and wanted to get involved in its upkeep because of the veterans buried there.
A poignant story told during the documentary was the gravesite of nine Black sailors who were found on a Delaware Bay beach in Lower Township around 1850. Pary told the story, explaining no one knew where the soldiers came from or could find any identification. There were no survivors of the shipwreck.
A Boy Scout project completed a sitting area around this gravesite, while another Scout chose to restore the flagpole and create a walking bridge entrance as his Eagle Project.
The tale of the unidentified sailors is one of the untold stories in the cemetery, as are the few headstones that contain Confederate markings. It was speculated these soldiers started out fighting for the Confederacy, possibly in place of their owners, but ultimately ended up fighting for the Union.
Despite its short run-time, the documentary is packed full of pertinent information, including evidence Turner was involved in the Underground Railroad and speculation he may have hidden enslaved people on his property. The church that Turner founded is also mentioned during the documentary, including a surprise viewers will learn about the building’s survival and current existence.
As the documentary takes viewers on a trip through time, they learn the last names and some of the occupations of the many community members buried in the cemetery, including the Vances, the Turners and the Washingtons.
Playwright Stephen Larsen was interviewed regarding his play “Other Side of Jordan,” about the Underground Railroad in Cape May.
The scope of the documentary imparts to the viewer the importance of telling history and the changing culture of those who came before.
After the documentary, Millaway and assistant director Tom Coyle, along with White, Eveyln, Wilson, Von Coln and Larsen, took time to answer questions.
“History is messy and when you’re going through it there are certain facts you’re not sure are right or wrong,” Millaway said. “But what we’ve learned recently is that if history is messy, you know you are going down the right course. There are just some things we don’t know.”
“Whispers from the Forgotten” tells more than the stories of cemeteries, acknowledging those who came before and their contributions that shaped the local area. The Union Bethel Civil War Veterans Cemetery is off Tabernacle Road in the Erma section of Lower Township.
By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Star and Wave