This week was short. I was unfortunately only able to go into the AHH office for 1 day this week. However, that did not stop me from getting work done. On Monday I was able to revise a few more of the itineraries. After that I continued, from home, researching the African American history of Hillsborough.  I was able to find a great deal of information on the local history.

Elizabeth Keckly is often known as the dressmaker and confidant of Mary Todd Lincoln. Before her relative fame she was a part of the Burwell School in Hillsborough. As a slave there she was often abused by the neighbors of the Burwell School. She was even forced to bear a son that was conceived with a local white man. Her son, George, would later die in the Civil War. Elizabeth Keckly isn’t the only famous African American with roots in Hillsborough and I look forward to continuing to gather that history.

The new assignment that I have on my radar is collecting information on those buried in the Margaret Lane Cemetery. The cemetery dates back to the 1800’s and the most recent burial was in 1931. After that the cemetery was largely neglected and was vandalized. There has been an effort to preserve what is still in the cemetery. There was also a monument erected in memory of those in the cemetery. Because many of the original graves are no longer marked, it will be more difficult to compile information on those buried there, but I have a great number of resources available to me. Hopefully I will be able to put all of this information together into some form of booklet that will be available to those visiting Hillsborough.