File:At Rest, Humble Negro Cemetery, Humble, Texas 0508101257BW (4591346369).jpg

I've found no information on Willie Simms' brief life.

He died, though, on September 11, 1921, at the age of 11, and was buried in the Humble Negro Cemetery, otherwise known as the Pipe Yard Cemetery.

Jim Crow Laws, segregation, were brutally enforced at the time. Not only could African-Americans not be buried in the Humble Cemetery, but, after 1933, when Humble was incorporated, new laws were passed, forcing African-Americans to move, some to nearby Bordersville, just outside the city limits. There are reports that the graves of the few African-Americans who had been buried in the Humble Cemetery were moved.

Willie Simms' remains seemed at rest until 2008, when three Kingwood teenagers dug them up, and confessed to using the skull as a "bong" to smoke marijuana. The remains were later reburied.

Grace Church now attempts to maintain the cemetery.

On the day that I was there, an empty flagpole stood.

The concrete ruins of an old kerosene refinery are on the north boundary of the cemetery, and dense woods are on all sides.

The cemetery lies across the railroad tracks from an Humble ISD administration building and a Home Depot.

Time, and the elements, take a toll on cemeteries, especially those essentially abandoned for many years.

We know where our parents are buried, may visit their graves, but how many of us regularly visit our grandparents' graves? Commercial, perpetual care, cemeteries, and those associated with churches and municipalities have systems in place for maintenance, but there are many cemeteries, especially those that were no longer in use after desegregation, that are nearly forgotten, descendants moving away, passing away...

At Evergreen and Olivewood, both essentially abandoned, but for the efforts of volunteers, there are occasional signs of vandalism. I've never seen vandalism, desecration, though, on the scale that I found at Humble Negro Cemetery. Over the years, most of the stones were broken, many to fragments. Many graves are unmarked, but for sunken places on the ground. Graves of veterans have been used for target practice. Nearly every stone is broken. Some of the graves had concrete slabs over them. In every case, the slab has been shattered, and the earth beneath disturbed, now, somewhat, replaced. Graves have clearly been violated.

The range of weathering of the damage indicates that it has taken place over decades.

It might not be hard to convince me that the graves in such cemeteries should be the responsibilty of descendants, survivors, but I strongly feel that the graves of those who have helped to defend this country deserve better, from the nation, than those veterans' graves at Elmview, Olivewood, and here.

A part of me feels that there is, perhaps, something to be said for letting such sites return completely to nature, but our history lies here, with those who helped build this country, this community. This violated grave, this forgotten cemetery, this record of segregation, and Jim Crow, and the south's racist past, represent the true spirit of the Confederacy, the true southern heritage, and should be noted, should be remembered, the next time that some pandering politician chooses to endorse one of the Confederate History Month proclamations that the Sons of Confederate Veterans churn out.

www.usgwarchives.net/tx/cemph/harris/humble-n.htm

archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/TX-CEMETERY-PRESER...

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl//5787895.html

I won't really be aware, after my death, of what happens to my physical remains, but I have long felt that I don't want to be buried in any such place, even one with groundskeepers and sprinkler systems. I've asked that my ashes be scattered at Bolivar Pass, on an outgoing tide.

Bordersville Learning Service Project directly available at YouTube - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddBP-VF6KGc

"Claiming Kin" Genealogy blog is located here -