Marianne Rollings of the Friends of the Sons and Daughters of Ham
Past the field of joggers and dog walkers at Bandy Field Nature Park, over the fence and under the brush, lies a cemetery that’s remained hidden for 70 years. But thanks to the efforts of volunteers, neighbors and family members of the interred, the sacred ground is getting the respect it deserves.
The historic site off Three Chopt Road in Henrico was once part of a plantation owned by Benjamin Green. With more than 100 enslaved laborers, upon their deaths Green buried many on the property in unmarked graves. After the Civil War, several of the freed workers bought land on the old plantation through their fraternal organization, the Sons and Daughters of Ham. Not only did they want farms of their own, but they wanted to honor their family members with a formal cemetery. The Sons and Daughters of Ham built homes and a community center, known as Ham Hall, and they provided burial insurance so members would have a proper resting place.
The Black community there was still thriving 70 years later when Marianne Rollings was born in 1940.
“Grace was my first caregiver and used to bathe us,” recalls Rollings, who lives in her childhood home on Stuart Avenue. “Her daughter Ruth also worked for us and became close friends with my mother. They were family to us. Grace was the granddaughter of Moses Bradford Sr., a slave on the plantation, an original landowner and member of the Sons and Daughters of Ham.”
Rollings remembers visiting their house on Bandy Lane and strolling through Ham Cemetery as a child. “There were a lot of majestic and elaborate monuments then, which isn’t surprising since the family worked as stone masons and quarriers,” she says.
But in 1955, everything changed. Using eminent domain with the intention of building a school, the city of Richmond bought the properties and bulldozed the homes. Grace, Ruth and other Black families were forced to move away. Yet the school was never built, and the land sat vacant for decades.
Tim Roberts of Black Star Cultural Resources
Then in 1999, the University of Richmond wanted to purchase the property between its campus and Bandy Field. But they discovered that, while the homes had been purchased by the city in 1955, according to official records the Sons and Daughters of Ham still owned the cemetery.
“The family got involved, including my mother and Ruth, to make sure the cemetery wasn’t sold, and they were able to preserve it,” Rollings says.
But it wasn’t until visiting the site years later that Rollings became determined not just to preserve Ham Cemetery, but to revive it. “I went over there in 2017, and I couldn’t even find it — everything was overgrown,” she says.
She called Ruth’s daughters Diane and Carolyn and her niece Linda, and together they established a nonprofit organization, the Friends of the Sons and Daughters of Ham. They solicited volunteers and help from community organizations. “The Boy Scouts created our boardwalk, Truetimber [Arborists] came out and built our pavilion, and Henrico County employees, including the sheriff, have volunteered in cleanup efforts,” Rollings says. “We’ve also had a good relationship with the University of Richmond, who has brought a lot of interest.”
Last year, Rollings acquired two grants for the organization from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation for $25,000 each. With the funding, the Friends were able to hire Tim Roberts, an archaeologist with Black Star Cultural Resources.
“When they brought me on, they thought there were maybe 17 graves here,” Roberts says, “but using archival records and modern technology like GPR [ground penetrating radar], I believe that number to be closer to 300.”
Roberts reminds visitors that Ham Cemetery is an active excavation site, and it’s especially fragile due to hillside erosion as well as walkers treading up to Bandy Field. The University of Richmond has installed a new footpath away from the site, and Roberts has marked each of the 300 gravesites with a white flag. “It just gives you goosebumps,” he says. “I love being part of a project like this where you can allow yourself to feel. It’s not cold research.”
The grave of Queen Bradford Johnston at Ham Cemetery and related signage
Today, visitors can see newly installed signage detailing the history of the plantation, an illustration of Ham Hall and a list of family names of those buried at the cemetery. Just two tombstones are visible: those belonging to Queenie Bradford and Moses Bradford Jr. Moses Bradford was a buffalo soldier, and his tombstone is marked with the distinctive shield reserved for veterans of the 1898 Spanish-American War.
Elizabeth Baughan, an associate professor of classics and archaeology at the University of Richmond, is using the cemetery as a teaching opportunity. “These cemeteries are landscapes of memory that can help tell fuller and richer histories of Black communities than are told in our written archives,” she says. “The grave markers and other material traces of commemoration are fragile testaments to the family and social identities of those interred there and should be respected and preserved.”
Roberts doesn’t yet know how the final project will turn out, but for now, he’s proposing at least one change. “I’d love to see this called Bandy Field Nature and Historical Park,” he says. “It’s not just a natural green space; it was an important agricultural suburb for 80 years, and the stories of the people who lived and died here are profound.”
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