JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A community center, a pool and a park now cover parts of what was once one of Jacksonville’s first Black cemeteries. And for the families and historians still searching for loved ones buried there, Mount Herman Cemetery is far from forgotten.
Jerry Urso, Grand Historian for the Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge of Florida and a historian with the James Weldon Johnson Branch of ASALH, has spent years researching the cemetery. He has found documents connecting 100 people to the Grand Lodge who were buried at Mount Herman. But when he went looking for them, he found almost nothing.
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“I was shocked that there was nothing there but the Emmett Reed Center, a pool and a park,” Urso said.
A founder lost in the ground
One of the people Urso is searching for is Reverend Penn Brooke Braddock. Born around 1848, Braddock was one of LaVilla’s earliest residents, a founder of St. Paul’s AME Church and a member of the Grand Lodge. He is also a founding member of Harmony Lodge Number One, predating the Grand Lodge’s establishment in 1870.
Urso wanted to honor him in a simple way.
“Penn Brooke Braddock was one of the first members — he actually predates the Grand Lodge,” Urso said. “In 1870, he is a founding member of Harmony Lodge Number One, so I thought it was important to clean his tombstone.”
But Braddock’s tombstone cannot be found. His face has become a symbol of the roughly 1,200 people believed to be buried somewhere on this land — most of them lost to history.
Veterans buried and forgotten
Mount Herman Cemetery is also the resting place for dozens of United States Colored Troops — soldiers who served in the Civil War and went on to become founding members of the Grand Lodge.
The inability to locate their graves has left a deep wound in the community.
“People were hurt, because people want to bury their dead,” Urso said. “We want to go on Memorial Day and put flags up for the veterans, especially the members of the USCT that were the founding members of the Grand Lodge.”
The only reason many people know the site is a cemetery at all is because of one man: Thompson Williams, whose grave marker is embedded in a sidewalk.
A gilded-age trailblazer uncovered
Urso’s research has brought some answers for at least one family. A plot belonging to the Fagins family — once hidden behind an overgrown tree line — has been identified.
Idella Fagins, Urso found, was a prominent figure in LaVilla during the Gilded Age and turn of the century. His research uncovered roughly 20 real estate transactions in her name. She owned a two-story building and was actively buying and selling land throughout the era.
“Her investments shaped LaVilla during the Gilded Age,” Urso said.
If her home were still standing, it would be located on Lee Street.
More than a cemetery
The Grand Lodge of Florida building, constructed in 1912, still stands today — a repository of LaVilla history. It is also a reminder of how many of the community’s founding figures remain unaccounted for.
“As more information emerges, it’s not just a cemetery — it is a historical cemetery with many people that contributed to the future of LaVilla, Durkeeville and overall Jacksonville,” said News4Jax anchor Jenese Harris, who has been following the story.
Urso continues his research, uncovering new details about the people who built this historic community. For now, Reverend Penn Brooke Braddock’s face remains the symbol of the 1,200 souls still waiting to be found.