Vandals hit Suber Hill cemetery in Lake Helen

PHOTO COURTESY SHERRY JOHNSON
Trashed — Cases of Pepsi cans litter Lake Helen’s Suber Memorial Gardens.

PHOTO COURTESY SHERRY JOHNSON
Tombstones are tipped...

PHOTO COURTESY SHERRY JOHNSON
Graffiti on tombstones...

PHOTO COURTESY SHERRY JOHNSON
And more soda cans...

By Jen Horton
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Oct 26, 2009 - 8:30:23am

Sherry Johnson went to Suber Memorial Gardens in Lake Helen. It was a Saturday morning, Oct. 10, and she was there to lovingly tend to her family’s plot.

She was shocked when she arrived.

“I went to Suber Hill to do a little maintenance around the family plot, and I discovered it to be vandalized,” she said.

Johnson called a family member and the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. She took pictures and documented, in writing, what she saw.

“This is what I saw: Three or four cases of unopened Pepsi cans with some opened ones that had been opened by some kind of explosive device, like a bullet or something; headstones and footrests chipped and tipped over, especially around Mom and Dad’s place. Uncle Nathaniel’s was chipped a little, but Aunt Elsie, Aunt Esther, and the older ones were tipped completely over; down by William Johnson’s father, the headstone was tipped over. There were also a few other families that suffered damage.”

There were wheel tracks around the cemetery.

“SUV and heavy wheel-tire tracks dug up the road leading up to the hill where my folks are resting,” Johnson said.

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Department responded, and promised increased patrols for the traditionally African-American cemetery on the west side of Lake Helen.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Brandon Haught confirmed extra patrols are scheduled. He also said there is no suspect, and there has been no arrest, in the vandalism case.

A locked gate has been installed at the cemetery.

Lake Helen City Commissioner Vernon Burton replied to Johnson’s e-mail, calling on all residents to take heed.

“Some of the graves and remains of relatives of Lake Helen residents are more than 125 years old,” Burton wrote. “It was, and is considered by some, to be the African American cemetery of Lake Helen. That being said, it in no way lessens the pain caused to the living, seeing the graves their ancestors who were marginalized in life and now being desecrated in death.”

He called for unity.

“I would hope that we as a community will view this attack on one as an attack on all,” the commissioner wrote.

Suber Memorial Gardens, called “Suber Hill” by residents, is at 2800 Frontage Road in Lake Helen.

There are two other cemeteries in Lake Helen; the Lake Helen/Cassadaga cemetery located off Cassadaga Road and Kicklighter Road, and the Prevatt Settlement Cemetery.

Until police stepped up patrols, the Cassadaga cemetery was frequentlly targeted by vandals, especially near Halloween time, because of the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp connection.

The Prevatt Settlement Cemetery is abandoned, and has no access road.

For more information about local cemeteries, visit www.usgwarchives.org/fl/volusia/cemetery.

— jen

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