Analysis of Remains from Mount Olive Cemetery, Portsmouth, Virginia

Abstract

Mount Olive is an African American cemetery organized by seven individuals representing the Mount Olive Club of Portsmouth in 1879. The cemetery is today owned by the City of Portsmouth and through the efforts of the African American Historical Society of Portsmouth, Inc. efforts are being made to preserve the 6.93 acre cemetery. It is part of a cemetery complex that also includes Mount Cavalry, apparently assembled by Samuel Fisher beginning about 1894 and today encompassing 3.05 acres; Fisher’s Cemetery, also created by Samuel Fisher and consisting of 0.58 acres; and a potter’s field that was acquired by Norfolk County in 1882, eventually passing to the City of Portsmouth. The properties are inventoried by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources as the Mount Cavalry Cemetery Complex, 124-5125 and has been determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.