"A Forgotten Veterans Cemetery on Maryland's Eastern Shore"
The John Wesley Methodist Church is located in Deal Island, Maryland. On a sunny Sunday in a small waterfront town located along the Chesapeake Bay, I stopped to look at this badly damaged little church.
I couldn't help but notice the overwhelming number of
veterans headstones - there was a wide variety of wars these heroes had served in. During my first visit out here it was very sad to see the torn and tattered small American flags, many of them lying on the ground. About 6 months later I went back, on Memorial Day 2015, and spent the day pulling weeds and cleaning the branches and debris away from the tombstones. Sadly, in many places the ground had sunken and some of the tops of the caskets were exposed and you could see them falling into pieces. After I'd cleaned up as much as possible I put a small American flag by each veteran's headstone.
I went home and looked online for more information but this is all I could find; a defunct Facebook page....."Efforts are under way to help preserve the only remaining African American Church, on Deal Island, Maryland. This Church is in desperate need of repair and if we don't act now the building will fade away." Unfortunately that Facebook page is no longer listed (Jan 2021)
An article written in February 2013 about this church and cemetery; "John Wesley United Methodist, too, exhibits some greater past that’s been forgotten, neglected. The church was once a cornerstone of the African American community on the island, but declining membership caused it to be shuttered, and a decade of neglect shows in the glass-less windows, the cracked and waterlogged cemetery vaults. A restoration effort appears not to have picked up much steam."
On Facebook I found this post by William G Wheatley: Deal Island John Wesley United Methodist Church Built on the land donated by Thomas Bradshaw Sr, Pastor Rev, Walter B Ward. The Daily Times Nov 14, 1969.
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