Chapman Grove Baptist Church Cemetery

Association: Chapman Baptist Church
No. of Markers: 13 (View)
No. of Individuals: 3 (View)
Location: Eastham, Albemarle Co.

The Chapman Baptist Chuch was founded in 1900. Earlier, on January 10th, 1898, Mr. and Mrs. William Chapman “deeded the land for the church.”  The original church building burned in a fire in the 1950s and was rebuilt in 1955. The Chapman Grove Baptist Church Cemetery lies to the north and east of the church building. There are about a dozen visible markers that lie behind a white picket fence. According to oral history, a former Deacon, Mr. Robert Coles (who died in 1995), decided to bury people in the church cemetery who were not able to afford a plot in one of the larger, public cemeteries (e.g., Lincoln or Oakwood). Neighbors referred to the cemetery as a "pauper's cemetery."

Although it is likely that all of the burials date to the 20th Century (after the founding of the church), only two markers contained inscriptions: one for Mrs. Lucy Wright Terry (who died in 1982) and one for Lucy Goodall (whose dates were not visible). The J.F. Bell Funeral Database lists over a dozen additional individuals with a burial location cited as "Chapman Cemetery." The earliest burial in that list is "Miss Lewis" who died in 1963. The most recent burial was in 1994, suggesting that the burials may have ceased after the dead of Mr Coles (see above).