WVSU dedicates expansion on founders’ family cemetery

KANAWHA COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – West Virginia State University hosted a special dedication ceremony Friday to honor the rich history within, and beneath, the historically Black school.

The dedication honored the recently expanded Cabell Cemetery, which originally contained 24 graves, including the family of one of the biggest influencers for the college.

Samuel I. and Mary (Barnes) Cabell once owned the land now occupied by the Home of the Yellow Jackets. Samuel was a wealthy, white plantation owner, and Mary was his former slave. In 1858, Samuel freed Mary and their 13 children. According to WVSU, Samuel was murdered by neighbors in 1865, but he had already taken steps to ensure Mary and the children inherited the 970-acre Cabell Estate.

A descendant sold 30 acres of the property and the West Virginia Colored Institute was founded in 1891. The school would become West Virginia State University in 2004.

According to WVSU, another cemetery near campus, the former Brown Cemetery, included the graves of Samuel and Mary’s daughter Eunice Cabell Brown, her husband Zachariah Taylor Brown and their descendants. Several years ago, one of Eunice and Zachariah’s descendants, WVSU Alumnus Dr. Langley Spurlock, proposed relocating Brown Cemetery to become part of Cabell Cemetery.

“Multi-ethnic, multicultural from the start, and there were reasons for it by law at the time. But, it has developed along those lines, and it remains as a very unusual blend of people from across the country,” said Spurlock. “

The proposal was approved in 2023, and work began to bring the Brown and Cabell families together in their final resting places earlier this spring.

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