Bates Allen Park Tours and Clean Up
Date – Time
January 16, 2023
– 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Location
Bates Allen Park
630 Charlie Roberts Ln
Kendleton, TX 77451 US
Additional Information
WHEN: Monday, January 16, 2023 (Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday Federal Holiday)
TIME: Starts 8:30 am, and ends no later than 11:30 am. Arrive and depart at your convenience.
WHERE: Fort Bend County’s Bates Allen Park (Site of Historic Newman Chapel Cemetery and Historic Oak Hill Cemetery)
WHAT: Tour cemeteries, and assist in cleaning tombstones and removing brush overgrowth that restricts access to historic gravesites for family and the public if desired.
WHY: After discovering the tombstone of Benjamin Franklin Williams had fallen into an unacceptable state of disrepair in February 2022, volunteer members of the Exchange Club made six visits to Bates Allen Park in 2022 to clean tombstones, clear access to tombstones from overgrowth, and reconstruct tombstones that had fallen over. Mr. Williams was a slave for the first 46 years of his life. After becoming a free man in 1865, Mr. Williams became the first African-American to be recognized by the State of Texas as a Methodist minister. He served three terms representing Fort Bend County in the Texas House of Representatives, where he was the first man of color to receive votes to be the Speaker of the Texas House. He died on February 27, 1886, and is buried in Newman Chapel Cemetery. When members of the Exchange Club first visited his gravesite, his tombstone had fallen into the mud and was covered with weeds and fire ant beds. We righted the tombstone and cleaned it, but maintenance of this tombstone and the thirty other tombstones in both historic cemeteries must be constant. January 16, 2023, is our first tour and maintenance effort for 2023.
QUESTIONS/RSVPs: Exchange Contacts are Pete Olson (281-216-0842 text/cell, [email protected]) or Nick Landoski (832-620-5461, [email protected]) or Exchange President Lori Bisewski (281-799-7084, [email protected]).