Not-for-profit formed for upkeep of Shady Grove Cemetery

The descendants of those buried in Shady Grove Cemetery organized as a not-for-profit group in order to restore and provide ongoing maintenance for the final resting place of their ancestors.

Shady Grove Cemetery, near Dutchtown, south of Cape Girardeau, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 2022. According to the Register, the cemetery was likely established just after the Civil War by the rural Black community.

The cemetery was maintained by newly freed slaves who went on to set up a community in the area that has since been lost.

Judy Humphrey is the three times great-granddaughter of Washington Gibbony, a slave who fought in the Civil War and is buried at Shady Grove.

Humphrey said she and the surviving families formed The Shady Grove Heritage and Preservation Organization. She said the organization has 501(c)(3) not-for-profit status and can receive tax-free donations to be used for restoration and upkeep of the cemetery.

"Some of the headstones have been destroyed. Several of them are missing, and some are broken," Humphrey said. "So, we want to go in there and we want to restore the cemetery, hopefully back to at least some respectable level. I can't say back to the way it was, but we're certainly on our way to making it more of what it should be."

Humphrey said the organization has hired someone to maintain the grounds, but they are still in the beginning stages of plans for restoration.

She said they have built a website, www.sghapo.org, that gives some history on Shady Grove and the descendants.

The site states the mission of the organization is "to preserve our family's historic enslaved and freedmen's cemetery from further erosion, vandalism and encroachment and to restore and maintain Shady Grove Cemetery, a registered national historic site, as a vital piece of American history."

The site is still being updated, Humphrey said, and will soon have a link for donations.

Humphrey said the descendants have held two reunions so far, and a third is planned to take place next year on Juneteenth, Wednesday, June 19. She said they hope to hold the reunion at Elmwood Manor in Cape Girardeau, and they expect to have around 500 family members in attendance.