Edgefield Cemetery Association

12/03/2024

Thank you for supporting the upcoming Wreaths Across America. Please remember our cemeteries on this Giving Tuesday.

The yearround mission of Wreaths Across America is to REMEMBER the fallen, HONOR those who serve and TEACH the next generations the value of freedom.

11/12/2024

This year, Saturday, December 14, 2024 is National Wreaths Across America Day. The primary location this year is Sunset Memorial Gardens in Johnston. The ceremony will be 11 AM. Additional wreaths will then be placed at 12 other participating cemeteries in Edgefield County for veteran's graves. To donate a wreath for Willowbrook or Eastview, or to ask about another location, please contact Loretta at 803-637-6163. Donations can be made through November 22. Wreaths are $18 each and you may purchase 2 and get 1 free. Send donation to Carolyn Piekielniak at 231 Center Spring Rd, Edgefield, SC; and make the check out to Wreaths Across America.

The yearround mission of Wreaths Across America is to REMEMBER the fallen, HONOR those who serve and TEACH the next generations the value of freedom.

11/11/2024

Veteran's Day
Thank you to all for your service.
Willowbrook Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 150 veterans.

Soldiers from every major war fought by the United States are laid to rest in this historic cemetery: including those who fought in the American Revolution, War of 1812, 2nd Seminole War, Mexican War, War Between the States, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Four of Edgefield’s Ten Governors (Francis W. Pickens, John Gary Evans, John C. Sheppard, and J. Strom Thurmond), numerous SC and US Senators and members of the House of Representatives, 150 Confederate soldiers (including four Brigadier Generals of the Confederacy), and many editors of The Edgefield Advertiser rest in this cemetery.

Please consider donating to support a veteran of your choice or to the general cemetery fund at 803-637-4010. You may also contact us at the Edgefield Cemetery Association, P.O. Box 523 Edgefield, SC 29824. Thank you for helping preserve American history.

06/25/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do6yXJBlsKo&t=492s

Tonya Guy of the Edgefield Cemetery Association shares some of the historical highlights of Edgefield's Willowbrook Cemetery.

09/01/2023

Register for the 2nd Annual Preserving Historic Cemeteries Workshop!

It’s just a few weeks away. Register now!
2nd Annual Preserving Historic Cemeteries Workshop
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Details and registration are available at https://scarchivesandhistoryfoundation.org/category/news-events/

05/11/2022

04/21/2022

When planning your summer trips to soak up history include historic cemeteries, also supporting cemeteries through word of mouth, gifts or time. The Book "199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die" is an inspiring read, by Loren Rhoads.

"When you go to a graveyard, you see what’s important to a society, what gets remembered"

12/20/2021

Saturday, December 18th, volunteers and members of Old 96 Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution joined the Edgefield Cemetery Association to lay wreaths at Willowbrook Cemetery. We learned more about the veterans in our community, specific names and families that served. So many veterans to remember, patriots who sacrificed for us all. See the Wreaths Across America website for more:

Each December on National Wreaths Across America Day, our mission to Remember, Honor and Teach is carried out by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as at more than 2,500 additional locations in all 50 U.S. states, at sea and abroad. From the Revolutionary War to present day conflicts, our veterans are devoted sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers. They come from all backgrounds in life to place those lives on the line for our freedoms. There are millions of individual stories to tell.

12/06/2021

Support the association that cares for more than 150 veterans graves, in addition to historic statesmen and Governors, including the late Strom Thurmond and SC's youngest Governor, John Evans. Please join us on December 18th for Wreaths Across America - kick off at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Edgefield at 11:30 and Willowbrook at 12PM. We value your donations to this historic cemetery to support the historic tombstones, fences, and ensuring the landscape remains safe for all visitors. There is no perpetual care. (803) 637-4010. The Edgefield Cemetery Association is a nonprofit 501(c)(13). Monthly maintenance is required and your gift will go straight to work.
Please send a gift to the:
Edgefield Cemetery Association
P.O. Box 523, Edgefield, SC 29824

12/01/2021

The beautiful ginko tree, ginkgo biloba, along the brook in this cemetery are truly wonderous and historically have been a symbol of peace, hope and vitality. Its origin is in China, and is also considered a 'living fossil', having co-existed with dinosaurs. The oldest ginko in the United States exists in Philadelphia at Bartram's Garden, planted in 1785. Some trees in China are between 1,000 and 2,000 years old. The tree pictured here in Willowbrook Cemetery is large and has graced the bank for many decades...imagine the history, the sorrow, the beauty it has witnessed!

10/18/2021

In the spirit of Halloween, there are certainly sad and eerie symbols. The study of visual imagery for its symbolism is known as 'iconology'. Curious why a tombstone may have a draped cloth of linked chains?

Gravestone designs represent the opinions and sentiments of the deceased, as well as of those who knew them. These carvings include religious symbols about the hereafter, representations of...