This video shows the location of the grave for George Alexander Hackett in Laurel Cemetery of Baltimore now located in Johnsville, Maryland. Captain George A. Hackett was a freemason, arabber and Stepfather of Henrietta Vinton Davis. I located the cemetery seeking his grave.
A path will take one straight west to the back of the cemetery. To the left or south are two trees. Walk between those trees and the grave of Rachel Henderson and her son Joseph Henderson will be on the right or east.
Walk further south to the location of a grave marker which is a large obelisk which has fallen over. That is the grave of George Alexander Hackett. Hackett had a mile long funeral train from downtown Baltimore where the Bethel AME Church was once located to the original site of Laurel Cemetery, a site occupied by Edison Crossing Shopping Center since the late 1950s. His obituary in 1870 appeared on the front page of the Baltimore Sun. His picture was carried in the parade celebrating the passage of the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution as a result of his efforts towards that endeavor.
I didn’t just walk up and find George Hackett’s grave. This was my second attempt at locating the cemetery. The first time I drove through the neighborhood where it is and drove right past it. The area is over grown with trees in a suburban neighborhood.
The second time there I had been informed by one of the residents how to find it. Then I walked through the area where the two pillars are and continued straight west to the back past all the grave markers.
I had been there all of five minutes. Overwhelmed with the possibility I would never find the grave I turned around and considered giving up. After starting to walk eastward, suddenly I heard a rustle off to my left. I looked toward the sound and noticed several deer began to take off running in a southwest direction away from me.
As I stood there in amazement that I didn’t notice them when I first walked in and they didn’t notice me a small still voice said to me, “turn in here.” So I did.
Walking through what essentially is a wooded forest littered with fairly elaborate grave markers and not knowing what I was looking for I walked towards the area from where the deer fled.
First looking left not knowing what to find then looking right I continued on. As I got to a certain area that voice told me again to turn in here between two small trees. Walking a similar meandering path looking left then right until suddenly a miracle happened. I stood at the marker for the man who I came to see…Captain George Alexander Hackett.
