Hettie Adger Cemetery/St. Paul CME Church
I continue to tell people sometimes the only evidence of one’s existence
is found in the graveyard. If you are of African descent and
you lived in Louisiana and died before 1915, your tombstone was basically your death certificate. The state of Louisiana did not start issuing death certificates until after 1915 in Caddo/Bossier parishes. Just think of all of those ancestors we never knew existed. Just think about all of those ancestors who came and left with no gravemarker at all.
This past May, the parishioners of St. Paul CME Church, adjacent to Hettie Adger Cemetery, raised just under $5,000 to help maintain the grounds and make some repairs. There are gravemarkers seeping into the boardering marsh that empties into the creek, some buried in brush, and some simply sinking into the ground.
This cemetery is one of the oldest in Northwest LA being one of the first to bury African Americans and survivors of slavery. The church it is attached to has a vast history that goes all the way back to slavery when it was formed at Rush Point plantation located in present day Belcher, LA. The enslaved Africans intially organized themselves
while attending Carolina Bluff CME church in Plain Dealing, LA around 1800 with 19 charter members. They mobilized enough resources to branch off and build a log cabin church house at Rush Point plantation in 1815. Rush Point plantation was owned by the Dickson family (of modern day Morris & Dickson Co.) and was
situated in current day Dixie, LA. In 1897, additional charter members & charter member descendents donated property and deeds to establish and rebuild the sanctuary relocated in Belcher, LA, just north of Dixie. In 1924, a new sanctuary was erected on the same deeded property. In 1961, the present day sanctuary was built and still stands today. Hettie Adger, a long time parishioner, contributed generously to St. Paul’s C.M.E. Church history by donating additional burial land, which continues to remain the resting ground of many of our ancestors.
Cemetery site: http://www.redriversankofa.org/stpaul.html