Avery Road Colored Cemetery
Also known as Smith Family Cemetery
Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
Wooden markers would have been used before 1920, but there are no signs of burials, wooden or stone markers. According to descendants of Benjamin Smith (ca.1849-1924), family had stopped visiting the cemetery by the 1940s.
The site appears on two maps, one from 1917 and one from 1919 as the Avery Road Colored Cemetery. On the original land owned by Judge Richard Johns Bowie, deeded to Benjamin Smith, formerly enslaved on Judge Richard Johns Bowie's farm in Rockville, MD. Benjamin was the only African American to be deeded land from the Bowie estate, suggesting he could have been a family member. The earliest record of Benjamin Franklin Smith is the 1850 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedule dated June 1850. Benjamin is listed on that schedule as a "two year old male mulatto." This date coincides with his birth date of February 1849 recorded among family records (Canaday, pp. 17-18).
The cemetery is the oldest African American burial ground in Rockville, MD, with its first recorded burial of Jane Smith in 1885.
Research provided by Julianne Mangin
Wooden markers would have been used before 1920, but there are no signs of burials, wooden or stone markers. According to descendants of Benjamin Smith (ca.1849-1924), family had stopped visiting the cemetery by the 1940s.
The site appears on two maps, one from 1917 and one from 1919 as the Avery Road Colored Cemetery. On the original land owned by Judge Richard Johns Bowie, deeded to Benjamin Smith, formerly enslaved on Judge Richard Johns Bowie's farm in Rockville, MD. Benjamin was the only African American to be deeded land from the Bowie estate, suggesting he could have been a family member. The earliest record of Benjamin Franklin Smith is the 1850 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedule dated June 1850. Benjamin is listed on that schedule as a "two year old male mulatto." This date coincides with his birth date of February 1849 recorded among family records (Canaday, pp. 17-18).
The cemetery is the oldest African American burial ground in Rockville, MD, with its first recorded burial of Jane Smith in 1885.
Research provided by Julianne Mangin
Nearby cemeteries
Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
- Total memorials5k+
- Percent photographed96%
- Percent with GPS21%
Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
- Total memorials1k+
- Percent photographed95%
- Percent with GPS8%
Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
- Total memorials3
- Percent photographed67%
- Percent with GPS0%
Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA
- Total memorials2
- Percent photographed100%
- Percent with GPS0%
- Added: 5 Sep 2018
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2672463
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