• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Deacon Allen Greene discovered his great-great-grand grandmother is buried in ST. St. Mary's Cemetery in Howard County. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

St. Mary’s Cemetery, resting place to enslaved people, will undergo revitalization

November 7, 2023
By Kyle Taylor
Special to the Catholic Review
Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Racial Justice

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

At St. Mary’s Cemetery in Howard County, a project is underway to revitalize the final resting place of enslaved people.

Sarah Hill, parishioner of St. John the Evangelist in Columbia who is working on her Girl Scout Gold Award, clears overgrowth around a headstone at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Ellicott City. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

The 3.2-acre Catholic burial ground was once associated with Doughoregan Manor, a pre-colonial manor built in the early 1700s owned by the Carroll family. Deacon Allen Greene of the Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City is spearheading the effort to restore the cemetery, especially after learning he has ancestors buried there.

“The more I got to digging around and looking at the burial records, I realized an ancestor of mine was buried there,” he said. “That was it for me. I felt a sense of obligation to dig in and do what I could to help restore the area.”

According to church records from St. Louis in Clarksville, there are at least 163 burials in the cemetery, with at least 61 of them Black Americans who were likely servants or enslaved people who worked at the manor.

Deacon Greene credited two local Girl Scouts, Sarah Hill and Nadia Klem­entsen, for bringing attention to the neglected cemetery while working on their silver award project. The cemetery has been virtually untouched since 1991, he said.

“Imagine an area that hasn’t been touched in more than 30 years,” he said. “There will have to be a clean-up in order to clean up the weeds and all the underbrush.”

Being overrun by nature only compounds the already-daunting task of locating any burial sites, as many of the graves are unmarked or missing headstones.

“We need to go through the site and identify where people have been buried,” Deacon Greene said. “That’s one of the first steps, in addition to clearing out the underbrush. Once we’ve done that, we would look to honor those individual sites. Then it’s going to be up to the county, as far as ongoing upkeep. We hope in the coming months to get the grave sites detected and recorded with the assistance of ground-penetrating
radar.”

To assist with all those goals, Howard County, the legal owner of the property, has applied for a grant through the African American Heritage Preservation Program. Jenny Kraska, executive director of the Annapolis-based Maryland Catholic Conference, has been an aid in that process since Deacon Greene reached out to her after learning about how Kraska assisted a church in Bowie where enslaved people were buried in its cemetery.

From left, Deacon Allen Greene, Sarah Hill and Kelly M. Palich work to restore St. Mary’s Cemetery in Ellicott City. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

“Anything we can do to help communities that are willing to preserve their heritage and those sacred spaces, we should do whatever we can to help that process along,” Kraska said. “It’s the right thing to do and they deserve that respect and that acknowledgement.”

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said in a written statement that the preservation and conservation of the historically segregated Black cemetery “will not only serve as a model for the treatment of other similar sites, but it will also afford us the opportunity to gain perspective, resilience and knowledge to help shape our present and future.” The project will “further allow us to memorialize our ancestors and show them the respect they so dutifully deserve,” he added.

Hill, a senior at Marriotts Ridge High School in Marriottsville who is one of the Girl Scouts working on the cleanup effort, said it angered her to see the burial site overgrown. She is determined to work on restoring the grounds even if it extends beyond her Girl Scout project.

“I want to make sure that this cemetery is mapped and has a pathway – a proper way to access and reach headstones,” said the parishioner of St. John the Evangelist in Columbia.

As important as this project is to Deacon Greene, he thinks it is just as important to the African-American community. To him, the cemetery is a reminder of the past and should be honored for that historical significance.

“As this county continues to diversify, increasing its vibrancy and growth, we should remember its past,” he said. “It’s important that landmarks like St. Mary’s Cemetery don’t become the underbrush of this nation’s history, but its foundation. Although I would hope it’s important to all Americans, to the African American community, it represents an important part of our journey in this nation. We should honor those who preceded us, and indeed those interned at St. Mary’s represent that.”

Read More Local News

Scopes Monkey Trial ignited century-long debate on evolution and belief 

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

Copyright © 2023 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Kyle Taylor

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

  • Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

  • DUAL ENROLLMENT Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

  • Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

| Latest Local News |

Scopes Monkey Trial ignited century-long debate on evolution and belief 

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

| Latest World News |

Poll: Record-high percentage of U.S. adults say immigration good for country

Patriarchs support Christian communities attacked by Israeli settlers in solidarity visit

Pope Leo visits Italian Carabinieri station, Poor Clares during summer break

1 officer dead, 3 seminarians kidnapped after attack on Nigerian seminary

Trump administration to appeal after judge blocks ICE detentions based on race

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Poll: Record-high percentage of U.S. adults say immigration good for country
  • Scopes Monkey Trial ignited century-long debate on evolution and belief 
  • Patriarchs support Christian communities attacked by Israeli settlers in solidarity visit
  • Pope Leo visits Italian Carabinieri station, Poor Clares during summer break
  • 1 officer dead, 3 seminarians kidnapped after attack on Nigerian seminary
  • Trump administration to appeal after judge blocks ICE detentions based on race
  • Remember common decency in immigration enforcement
  • Sponsors – for life
  • Listen for God this summer

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en