Moses Carver Family Cemetery

<br>As an impressionable young boy, George Washington Carver looked on as friends and neighbors were interred in the Moses Carver Family Cemetery. The cemetery may contain as many as 40 graves dating as far back as 1835, but only 21 of the graves have inscribed markers today. Some unidentified graves were uncovered during an archeological investigation near the south wall of the cemetery in 1985, but it is unknown where other grave sites may be.<br><br> Moses Carver retained ownership of the graveyard throughout his life and interments could only take place with his permission. The east-west orientation of the graves suggests the Carvers held traditional views about the afterlife. The interred bodies were placed with their feet to the east in order to face the direction from which Christ's second coming was expected. The original entrance to the Carver Cemetery was placed near the center of the east wall. The pattern of grave clusters suggests close family ties among the individuals buried within each group.