Who was William Pondexter?

Who was William Pondexter and why is he buried in the Watertown public cemetery with the word "negro" on his gravestone?

That is a question that has been asked for many years and is one the Carver County Historical Society (CCHS) will try to answer in partnership with the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum, the Watertown Area Historical Society, the city of Watertown and the Watertown city cemetery.

Those organizations successfully applied for a $12,900 Minnesota Legacy grant to enlist a genealogist to help research and determine where Pondexter came from, who he was, any living descendants, and why the tombstone was engraved the way it was.

The headstone in Watertown reads that William Pondexter died September 28, 1911 at age 51. There is no other information, no published obituary to be found, and just a fleeting mention of him in local papers. The Waconia Patriot reported: “Billy Pondexter, a black man who has been living at Watertown for some time, dropped dead in the livery barn there last week. Heart disease was the cause of death.”

Meanwhile, a county death record lists William Pondexter as 54 years old, black and a slave from the South. The cause of death sudden ruptured coronary arteries. No birth date or family names were listed, according to earlier historical accounts.

Another local account noted his death and said he will be sorely missed, which speaks well to both Pondexter and the community, notes CCHS Executive Director Wendy Petersen Biorn.

Townsfolk apparently thought enough of Pondexter to purchase a burial site and tombstone in the Watertown cemetery, not bury him in a potter’s field or paupers’ grave unlike others who died unknown or destitute.

Now, in its pursuit of history and education about it, the county historical society and partners are launching an historical investigation that hopefully will lend more detail and answer lingering questions like: Who was William “Billy” Pondexter? Whom did he work for? Why did he come to Watertown and how did he get there? What about his family? Who were they and did they ever know where he was? And why the word Negro on his grave?

Biorn points out that the word Negro did not have negative connotations until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s when the term Black or African American became preferred during the struggle for justice and equality. Slavery, however, earlier ripped freedom and identities from individuals like William Pondexter.

In many cases, Biorn adds, slaves took the name of an owner or farm/plantation where they labored. There was a Poindexter plantation in Tennessee, and with a southern pronunciation that could have translated into Pondexter.

That is one potential lead historians have. They are about to pursue others.

Anyone with knowledge or connections to the Pondexter family is invited to contact Petersen at the CCHS at 952-442-4234.