TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Caretakers in Leon County say old cemeteries are being forgotten at a time when they need to be tended to the most. Tallahassee’s Old City Cemetery to the small burial grounds in Woodville; they warn that these places hold history that cannot be replaced.

At Old City Cemetery in Tallahassee, caretaker Mr. James Hoge has spent 17 years looking after what many consider the city’s oldest public cemetery. The site dates to 1829 and includes soldiers, families from the segregation era, and generations of residents.

“We can’t dig anyone up and move them,” Hoge said. “The remains will always be here. This is their resting place.”

Hoge said the cemetery has had some problems in the last decade, but he continues
to maintain it with the resources he has. “Some families are still coming. Some don’t.
But they’re all still here,” he said.

In Woodville, St. Peter’s Cemetery has served the community for more than 100 years.
Caretaker Tony Franklin said the cemetery has an older section on one side of the road, and a newer section bought around 2000.

The cemetery is supported by yearly dues and burial fees, which help pay for
mowing, repairs and upkeep. Families often place granite headstones, so names will last for many years.

“It should be a law to support cemeteries,” Franklin said. “Let them be landmarks. Let the county or state maintain them, just out of respect for the dead.”

Nearby, East Grove Cemetery is one of Woodville’s oldest burial grounds. Caretaker Mrs. Mary Still said the cemetery goes back well over a century and includes her
great-great-grandfather, along with turpentine workers and early Black families.

“If you know someone’s buried there, why would you want to move that?” She said. “It
should be there. It shouldn’t be destroyed.”

Still said families continue to visit and leave flowers and markers when they can. The
cemetery has survived name changes and disagreements in the community, but she said people fought hard to keep it standing.

Across all three cemeteries, caretakers share the same concern: these historic sites face neglect, pressure from new development and a lack of public awareness. They say protecting them is important not only for families, but for the history of the region.

“These places tell who was here,” Franklin said. “If we don’t protect them, we lose more than graves. We lose the story.”

Communities cannot ignore the places where their history rests. Local caretakers say the cemeteries matter to the families who built these towns, and they worry that developers could try to use the land for other purposes. They say losing these burial grounds would mean losing part of the community’s story.