Aka Forks AME Zion Church Cemetery

 

St. John AME Zion Church Cemetery on Find A Grave

Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties:   AA-2104

African-American and Slave Cemeteries in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 2004, Anne Arundel Genealogical Society, 2004, p. 205
Anne Arundel Land Record in 1949-Civil Court record #1146 in Liber 518 page 311
Tombstones range from 1922-2000
Contains WWI and WWII veterans
Approximately 37 known burials; however, a survey in 1990 indicated 50-75 graves. The cemetery contains many mounds, rocks and logs in lieu of tombstones.  There have been acts of vandalism and Satanic rituals performed here.  
The church was given its original location by the Friends (Quakers) and was formerly located just across the railroad tracks, also on Conway Road. According to Quakers in the Founding of Anne Arundel County, Maryland by J.R. Kelly, p. 73, on April 16, 1891 at the yearly meeting of Friends on Park Avenue in Baltimore, two parcels of land and appurtenances were sold to several trustees for the Zion African Methodist Episcopal Forks Church.  The book indicates “Col’d Friends Church, Trustees of Indian Springs A.M.E. Church, eighteenth century (Indian Springs Meeting House) through 1941. M.E. Church, 1792-?”  (See records for Hopkins Cemetery, #426).  In A Cultural Resources Overview, Fort George G. Meade, Anne Arundel County by New Smith Associates (1991), p. 117, the Hopkins Church (1873-1919) located on intersection of Boundary and South Roads, contained 18 known burials and belonged to Tract #7 which was acquired through condemnation.
The church serves the African-American community of Wilsontown. The present church replaced the former church, which was purchased by the U.S. Army for the expansion of Ft. Meade.  The church’s cornerstone indicates that it was organized on March 19, 1869 and built on May 5, 1942. The church’s name was changed to St. John A.M.E. Zion in 1967.
Court records list trustees of the Indian Spring African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America and colored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. This was an appeal to take land back which was denied.
African-American cemetery