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Sarasota in Sarasota County, Florida — The American South (South Atlantic)
 

Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery

 
 
Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Tim Fillmon, February 27, 2016
1. Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery Marker
Inscription.
The Florida Mortgage and Investment Company deeded five acres in 1905 to Trustees John Mays, Willis G.P. Washington, Lewis Colson, Campbell Mitchell and J.P. Carter for a "colored" cemetery. The land was platted in 1910 as Oaklands Cemetery. For a few years in the late 1920s the cemetery was known as Peppermill. By 1929 it was called Woodlawn.

The earliest death date on a marked grave is 1905. Other gravestones and funeral home records indicate that at least eleven of the people buried in the cemetery were born before the end of the Civil War. One of these was cemetery trustee Willis G.P. Washington, who was born in 1851. Carrie Belle Warren's headstone shows a birth date of 1808.

Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery was the first cemetery formally established for the burial of Sarasota County's black residents. Thus, funeral records show that people from Tallevast to Myakka to Venice were brought to Sarasota for burial. Residents of the Johnson Camp for farm workers in Fruitville, the Bee Ridge Turpentine Camp, Laurel and Woodmere (a sawmill town south of Venice) joined those of Sarasota's Overtown and Newtown commutes in the cemetery.
(Continued on other side)
Reverse:
(Continued from other side)
Joseph Holton was the first local African American to establish a funeral
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home in Sarasota. he began his mortuary practice in the 1920s with Edward Stone, who served the Sarasota community from his funeral home in Tampa. By 1930 Holton was the sole director of Holton Funeral Home and continued there until his death in 1948.

The first known African American doctor to practice in Sarasota is associated with the cemetery. Dr. Frank E.A. Simpson was the attending physician for at least two people buried there in the late 1920s.

Traditional African American burial patterns are evident in Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery. The strength of family blood ties often results in adult children being buried next to their parents rather than next to their spouses. The families of Sarasota pioneers Leonard and Eddie Reid and Joseph and Annie Weldon illustrate this custom.

According to funeral home records and tombstones, there were at least 1200 burials in the cemetery by 1980. There may have been additional early ones for which wooden markers have disappeared over time. Burials have also occurred since then.
 
Erected by Sarasota County Historical Commission.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African AmericansCemeteries & Burial Sites. A significant historical year for this entry is 1905.
 
Location. 27° 20.771′ N, 82° 31.953′ 
Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery Marker Reverse image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Tim Fillmon, February 27, 2016
2. Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery Marker Reverse
W. Marker is in Sarasota, Florida, in Sarasota County. Marker is on Gillespie Avenue, 0.2 miles south of 12th Street, on the right when traveling south. Marker is located at the end of Gillespie Avenue just inside the cemetery gate. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1037 Gillespie Ave, Sarasota FL 34236, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. St. Martha Mission Church (approx. 0.6 miles away); Rosemary Cemetery (approx. 0.6 miles away); a different marker also named Rosemary Cemetery (approx. 0.7 miles away); A Resting Place of Pioneer Families and Hidden Histories (approx. 0.7 miles away); Sarasota County Courthouse (approx. 0.7 miles away); First Black Community (approx. 0.7 miles away); Charles Ringling Building (approx. 0.7 miles away); Sarasota Terrace Hotel (approx. ¾ mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Sarasota.
 
Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery Marker looking northwest. image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Tim Fillmon, February 27, 2016
3. Oaklands/Woodlawn Cemetery Marker looking northwest.
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on November 22, 2022. It was originally submitted on March 4, 2016, by Tim Fillmon of Webster, Florida. This page has been viewed 439 times since then and 20 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3. submitted on March 4, 2016, by Tim Fillmon of Webster, Florida. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.

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Mar. 19, 2024