HCWHA US 250th GeoTour
Ellsworth Cemetery
Party like it’s 1776 with the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area’s 250th GeoTour! Designed for beginner and veteran geocachers, participants will travel through time, solving puzzles and following clues to learn more about mid-Maryland’s rich history. In honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States, our 250th GeoTour will take you throughout Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties to sites of historical significance, including battlefields, houses of worship, museums, parks, and more!
Our tour is an opportunity to learn more about the people, places, and events that laid the foundation for our country. While supplies last, those who collect 15 or more will earn this Geotour’s limited edition geocoin commemorating the 250th. Happy hunting!
Courtesy of Ellsworth Cemetery
Established in 1878 by African American veterans of the Civil War, Ellsworth Cemetery was created as a burial place “for the Colored residents of Carroll County.” Today, Ellsworth is a historical site preserving the history of Black residents of Carroll County and offering a glimpse into post-Civil War race relations in Maryland.
By 1953, over 90% of cemeteries in the United States were segregated via de jure segregation, and historically Black cemeteries suffered from systemic inequality. In 1999, Rev. James Hinton, pastor of the Union Memorial Baptist Church that held the deed to the cemetery, remarked that, “before Ellsworth, [Black residents of Carroll County] were just put into the ground somewhere."
Black cemeteries gave African Americans the ability to memorialize their dead in ways largely unavailable prior to the Civil War. The Civil War did not end racial discrimination, and Jim Crow laws of the 1800s and 1900s ensured that Black and white citizens would remain separate, even in death.
Locally owned churches and community volunteers funded and kept up the cemeteries, but were unable to preserve the space alone. “By starving these cemeteries of funding, maintenance, and attention,” historian Greg Melville writes, “we obscure the important and ugly chapters from our past that they reveal and should not be forgotten.”
Today, Ellsworth Cemetery is owned and administered by the Community Foundation of Carroll County as a Field of Interest Fund. The fund ensures that the cemetery will last well into the 21st century, telling the stories of the Black residents, free-born and enslaved, who helped build Carroll County. Ellsworth Cemetery stands as a memorial to the Africans and African Americans who worked, fought, and died to build the United States we know today.
Ashcraft, Mary Ann. “Carroll Yesteryears: The origin of Ellsworth Cemetery’s name leads to first Civil War martyr.” The Baltimore Sun (February 2024). https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/02/24/carroll- yesteryears-the-origin-of-ellworth-cemeterys-name-leads-to-first-civil-war-martyr/.
“Ellsworth Cemetery.” The Black Cemetery Network. https://blackcemeterynetwork.org/bcnsites/ellsworth -cemetery.
Melville, Greg. “Death Comes Equally to Us All: Racial Segregation in American Cemeteries Is Still Very Much Alive.” In Over My Dead Body. United States: Abrams, Inc, 2022.
“People of Ellsworth.” Ellsworth Cemetery. https://ellsworthcemetery.org/people-of-ellsworth/.
The Geocache
At the given coordinates, there is a sign. On the sign there are six names mentioned that formed the Ellsworth Cemetery Company. Put their last names in alphabetical order and enter the names into certitude (all lowercase, no spaces) to receive the final coordinates and a hint. The geocache is a short walk away.
You can validate your puzzle solution with
certitude.
Thanks to the following members of the Maryland Geocaching Society in placing the hides for this GeoTour: deepdish23, hunterKat, GR8Caches, Snurt, Phos4s, JediTrashPanda and AL's Guide.