The site of what is now referred to as the Kipps Colored Cemetery was originally known as the "Slave Cemetery". In 1784 Jacob Kipps purchased the land, but it was not until the 1885 that has son Moses Kipps recorded the plot of ground as the Kipps Colored Cemetery. Interest in the area was sparked by The Smithsonian Institute’s archeological study of the Emmanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery in New Market. Devon Dillinger said to Bill Vaughan during the study “isn’t it terrible what happened to the Kipps Cemetery”. He took Bill Vaughan to the site of the 130 year old former slave cemetery formerly owned by the Moses Kappa family. The burial site sits on a quarter of an acre of land currently owned by Roger Martin. Soon after Bill Vaughan took his long-time friend Junior Steptoe (these men were friends since childhood and their fathers were best friends before them) to see the site with only few identifiable headstones. The cemetery was in need of a fence to separate the animals from the burial grounds. Additional needs included, mowing and general maintenance and a memorial headstone to identify individuals buried there. Roger Martin, owner of the property, agreed to support the efforts to restore the area. Roger Martin erected a fence to keep the cows out prior to Junior Steptoe and Bill Vaughan starting their mowing of the cemetery area. Bill Vaughan also contacted Bill Good, a local historian to help learn more about the people buried in the cemetery since so many of the headstones were damaged either by the animals, time and weather. After more than a decade of research 84 individuals were identified using old newspaper articles, courthouse records, the local funeral director and Elmer Kipps, thee great nephew of Moses Kipps who was the last of his family to own the cemetery property. In reviewing the history of the cemetery several facts are known including the fact that Moses Kipps and descendants of the Kipps family owned this land, and allowed both free colored men and slaves to be buried on this property. In 1889 Moses Kipps provided additional land in the same area to enlarge the cemetery. Thee last person buried in this cemetery is Thomas Strother, World War I veteran who died April 1968.

 

To ensure that the cemetery received better care a team of volunteers including Dwight, Steve, Doug and Lee Kipps, Junior and Martha Ann Steptoe, Edith and Leon Butler, Bill and Pat Vaughan started mowing and maintaining the property. Alvin Tinker or Tinker & Frye Memorials in Mt. Jackson cleaned and repaired some of the stone markers. In 2002 the group also started a fundraising effort to erect a  memorial to honor all those known and unknown who are buried in the cemetery. The Rotary Club, local Boy Scouts and community members contributed fund. 

 

*Text taken from Bryce Mountain Courier, October 2002, and conversations with Dwight Kipps, Junior Steptoe and Bill Vaughan.