St. Augustine National Cemetery
The 807th Pioneer Infantry was one of the non-combat African-American units that served with the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) in France during World War I. A list of these units can be found at the AfriGeneas Military Research Forum and more information about the A.E.F. can be found at Wikipedia.
Urbanowicz
San Lorenzo Cemetery
Margaret Stafford Worth was the widow of Major General William Jenkins Worth. He is credited with ending the Second Seminole War in Florida and took Mexico City in the Mexican-American War. Later, he commanded the Department of Texas where he died of cholera in 1849. In 1857, his remains were reinterred in a monument dedicated to him at Worth Square in New York City.
Margaret Stafford was born 16 January 1799, the daughter of John Stafford and Margaret Denniston. Margaret and William were married 18 September 1818. They had four children: Mary, Margaret, Josephine and William S. (He also served in the U.S. Army.)
After her husband’s death, she returned to St. Augustine, Florida, where she died 21 June 1869. She is buried at the St. Augustine National Cemetery, which at the time of her death was the post cemetery for St. Francis Barracks. Her will was probated here on 30 June 1869, leaving all her property to her unmarried daughter, Margaret S. Worth. The younger Margaret bought a house in St. Augustine which she owned until 1904. Oldest daughter, Mary, married John T. Sprague who served General Worth as his adjutant during the Seminole War and later served as the Military Governor of Florida during Reconstruction. Mary Worth Sprague died in 1876 and is also buried here – not far from her mother’s grave.
References:
Originally published November 4, 2008.
Scattered around the grounds of the Mission of Nombre de Dios are several simple headstones marking the graves of members of various units of the United States Colored Troops. Each stone is the same size and design as this one for Simon Williams. None of the stones show birth or death dates – only name and unit. From Florida History Online:
During the Civil War thousands of enslaved Floridians escaped from their owners and found refuge in the Union-occupied towns of Fernandina, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Key West, where they were considered “contraband of war” and were not returned to their former owners. They found work on the abandoned plantations in the area controlled by Union forces, built fortifications, worked as teamsters for the Federal troops. As soon as Union policy permitted, more than 1000 self-liberated men from northeast Florida farms and plantations who settled into the swelling refugee camps outside the coastal towns, began joining three Union regiments organized at Hilton Head, South Carolina. Known originally as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd South Carolina Loyal Volunteers, these regiments were officially mustered into the Union Army as the 33rd, 34th, and 21st regiments of United States Colored Infantry. For the remainder of the war these once-enslaved black men fought to free their families and other Africans Americans from bondage, and to bring a permanent end to slavery in the United States of America. By the end of the Civil War, 186,017 African American men from all over the divided nation had enlisted as “Colored Troops” in the Union army.
According to the cemetery records in the files of the St. Augustine Historical Society, the following veterans of the United States Colored Troops are buried at the Mission:
James McKeon
Born in Co. Wicklow
Ireland in 1849
Drowned in
St. Augustine 1886
Though a stranger and far from home
and many friends.
Erected by his affectionate wife,
Margaret McKeon.
May his soul rest in peace.
St. Augustine.
Mission of Nombre de Dios
Mary D.
Weedman
Nov 20, 1860
Nov 3, 1898
Gone but not
forgotten
St. Ambrose Churchyard
JAMES P.
Son of
E. & A. M. Moreau
DIED
Nov. 28, 1877
AE 5 yrs & 10 dys
Photo from the author’s collection at Flickr.
MARY E.
Wife of
Rev. S. A. Jordan,
Died Oct. 29, 1895
Aged 26 Years
We’ll meet on that beautiful shore
Erected by the pupils of New-Augustine Colored School
Marble slab is lying on the ground.
Pinehurst Cemetery
Edgar Stuart Estes
Captain Medical Corps
Nov. 30, 1879 Dec. 6, 1935
His Wife
Julia Wall Estes
Dec. 31, 1953
St. Augustine National Cemetery
GONE HOME
Albert Weedman
Born
Oct. 26, 1867
Died
Mar. 30, 1909
St. Ambrose Churchyard
