Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

The Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church and Cemetery of Archer were established in 1873 on land donated by the Rev. Major Reddick, part of a parcel he received through the 1862 Homestead Act. Church trustees were Romeo Reddick, Rinaldo Reddick, Major Reddick, Henry Peterson, Adam Moulton, Richard Doby, and Arthur Haynes. Originally called Deer Hammock, Archer became an economic hub for local plantations, especially after the cross-Florida railroad was built in the 1850s, and Sen. David Levy Yulee’s Cottonwood was the most well known of these plantations. At least 25 African Americans who had once been enslaved were interred in the cemetery, including Elbert McKinney Sr., born in 1829 in South Carolina, an enslaved blacksmith at Cottonwood who daily blew a ram’s horn to call enslaved laborers to work, and Ellen Lawrence, whose grave dated about 1796-1884 and is the earliest marked grave in the cemetery. Formerly enslaved laborer James Dansey homesteaded 40 acres east of Reddick’s donation and sold the parcel to his brother, the Rev. Frank Dansey, in 1881; Frank Dansey, founder of St. Joseph’s Missionary Baptist Church, began using 1.28 acres nearest the Reddick donation for burials and was buried there in 1911. Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church remained active until the 1960s, though the structure may have been moved, and the cemetery remained active until 1989. After a period of neglect, educator, community advocate, and civil rights activist Careatha “Clyde” Williams founded the Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Cemetery Restoration Organization in 1999 to preserve the resting place of community ancestors and honor their resilience in the face of enslavement, segregation, and racial terror. In 2004, Henry Penny Jr. formally donated 1.28 acres to the organization, land once owned by the Rev. Frank Dansey and used as part of the cemetery since the 1880s. More than 125 identified individuals are buried there, including formerly enslaved people and veterans of World War I and World War II. In 2021, the restoration organization partnered with the University of Florida’s Historic Preservation program and the Florida Public Archaeology Network to survey, document, and prepare a preservation plan, and ground penetrating radar revealed more than 65 unmarked graves.

Archer, Florida · United States