Unknowns - Southland Cemetery - El Jobean, Florida, USA - Graves of the Unknown on Waymarking.com

Located in Charlotte County is a burial ground now known as the Southland Cemetery. It was formerly known as the El Jobean Cemetery and before that it was known by locals as the "Convict Cemetery".

From around 1888 until approximately 1923 this location was used as a burial ground for the leased, mostly black, prisoners used by the local turpentine companies as forced labor. It was common practice at the time to use these convicts in slave conditions, abusing, starving, flogging and murdering them. Their bodies were buried here.

From 1923 until 1966, El Jobean Cemetery was used by locals, again mostly blacks, for internment utilizing wooden markers which have long ago deteriated and been lost. There are no records indicating who has been interned at this site only that the last burial was in 1966. The burial ground was mostly left and abandoned after that.

In 2009 an Eagle Scout project cleaned up the location, placed signage and preserved the site. Since then a series of homemade grave markers have been placed throughout the site to indicate that unknown persons are buried in these approximate locations.

It should be noted that this site may have been used prior to the 1880's as a burial site. References have been made that a Spanish Mission was in this area in the 1770's and that Spanish-Indian fisherman may have been interned here.

Burial Location: Southland Cemetery Available Times for Viewing: Sunrise to Sunset

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the headstone. A waymarker and/or GPSr is not required to be in the image.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   11/11/2018 BoomersOTR visited it