Researchers search for DNA at William P. Johnson cemetery

Young County Commissioners restored the William P. Johnston Cemetery to its original lot lines and heard an update on the cemetery preservation committee’s plans to find and identify unmarked graves.

Historian Dorman Holub told the Commissioners at their Jan. 22 meeting that the committee plans to present the plat approved by Commissioners to landowners who have personal property on land deeded by Addie M. Graham to the County for “a burying ground for colored people” on Dec. 4, 1923, and ask them to remove it.

The cemetery preservation committee also has identified several gravestones for people buried at other cemeteries, including Author Horton who is actually buried in Olney’s Restland Cemetery with his wife, Mr. Holub said.

The committee wishes to remove those gravestone, he said.

The committee also recommended that Commissioners allow Texas Tech archaelogists to use ground penetrating radar to identify unmarked graves, and to scrape the site and possibly gather DNA samples to be used to identify those buried in each unmarked grave, he said.

The Commission voted to approve the cemetery preservation committee’s recommendations.

County Judge Win Graham was approached last August to determine who owned the cemetery,.