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Community Corner

A New Headstone, a Renewed History

The Scotch Plains Baptist Church and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority unveiled a new headstone for a former slave of Plainfield.

A small but significant piece of Scotch Plains history was restored last Sunday. and the members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated unveiled a new headstone for Caesar, a former slave buried in the cemetery, on Feb. 27.

According to a program distributed by the church at the ceremony, Caesar was born in 1702 and enslaved as a child. Isaac Drake, a farmer in Plainfield whose estate has become The Drake House Museum on West Front Street, was Caesar’s owner. Caesar joined the Scotch Plains Baptist Church as a slave in the year of its founding, and was a parishioner for more than 50 years. He was granted his freedom in his late 1960s, 10 years after Drake’s death. As a freed man, Caesar served as a teamster during the revolutionary war, and drove a supply wagon to troops at Blue Hills Fort and Camp in Plainfield. According to the Plainfield Historical Society, he was also Plainfield’s first recorded black resident.

The program also stated Caesar died in 1806 at the age of 104, and he was buried in the Scotch Plains Baptist Churchyard cemetery. The headstone, once among the tallest in the cemetery, broke from its base in the past few decades. Community members wishing to pay tribute to Caesar had difficulty locating his place of rest, prompting the need for the marker’s restoration.

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“I became interested in Caesar about 20 years ago when I first came on staff at the church,” Reverend Chaz Hutchinson said. “People would look for Caesar, and the top of his stone leaned against the building. No one was sure where he was buried.”

Five years ago, the church partnered with the Scotch Plains-based chapter of the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), an international service organization that is the oldest Greek-lettered organization established by African-American college-educated women, to raise money for a new headstone. The sorority became involved with the project at the request of one of its late members, who shared Caesar’s story with the group.

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“One of our sisters, Claire Minnis, who died a few years ago, told us about Caesar and how he’s been buried in the cemetery,” AKA president Angela Driesbach-Rose said. “She was a member of the church, and she wanted us to try and restore the headstone. It’s been in the works for a while; this year has been the first year we were able to do it.”

The new stone was partially funded by a HEART Grant from the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the women of AKA, who budgeted for the project.

Reverend Hutchinson said he believed the project held great significance within the community. “It’s important that we don’t forget slavery took place in Scotch Plains,” he said.

Hutchinson added that the new headstone will keep Caesar’s story alive, and remind residents of the role he served in shaping Scotch Plains. “Somebody who would easily be lost to history without that stone is worth the tribute,” he said.

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