05/22/2023
Holman Cemetery is nestled in a wooded area in Northern Durham County, North Carolina. It sits on the Black Meadow Ridge along the Eno River. Established pre-emancipation this land was used as a sacred burial space for African Americans who labored in the mills and plantations along the Eno River in Durham County (formally Orange County). It is not known the exact date of the first burials on the land, however through documented research, we have found that a formally enslaved woman, Dilsey Holman, purchased 88 acres of this land which included the burial site in 1878. On this land Dilsey and her children operated a small to***co farm. Her sons Columbus and William Holman built family homesteads and farmed the land until their deaths. The remaining members of the Holman family continued to reside on the land for several more generations until it was sold off into parcels in the late 1950’s. Over the decades, Holman cemetery has been called Mill Grove Cemetery and Ellis Grove Cemetery.
The mission of Friend of Holman Cemetery is to restore Holman Cemetery to a state of dignity and respect for all that find their final resting place there. Genealogists, researchers, and university scholars are currently working to identify what was initially thought to be 40-50 burials, however as we continue to work, Holman Cemetery is likely the final resting place for up to 100 burials.
