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Farming For A Better Future, page 150
(Top) 1957 USGS Topographic Map of Hickory Hill Plantation and John Coffee Servants' Cemetery, Florence, Alabama Quadrangle (Above) 1971 USGS Topographic Map of Hickory Hill Plantation and John Coffee Servants' Cemetery, Florence, Alabama Quadrangle and parking lot on Cloverdale Road. The cemetery can be confused with another Coffee Servant's Cemetery on Gunwaleford Road, but that one belongs to the slaves of Alexander Coffee, John's son. According to research by Mr. Lee Freeman of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, the 1902 and 1904 deed records for the Coffee/Hickory Hill plantation exempt this cemetery from its sale. Everything was sold “except from this conveyance the land known as the Coffee family graveyard and graveyard for colored servants, with the right of way to and from said graveyard. Each of said graveyards containing 1 sq. acre, and the Coffee family graveyard having as the center of the graveyard the monument of John Coffee, together with the appurtenances thereto belonging..." The servants' cemetery is just west of the Coffee family cemetery, which is enclosed with a red brick wall. There are at least 140 burials at the servant's cemetery, only one of which is marked with a stone, which is illegible. Further historical research has revealed a few individuals who may be buried here including 18 people with the surnames Coffee, Jackson, Kemper, and Thomas. A newspaper article from the Florence Enquirer on November 22, 1840 tells of the death of three slaves by drowning. They were owned by Mrs. Mary Coffee and presumably buried at this cemetery. A historical marker was erected in 2018 to mark the cemetery and convey its history. Also, buried here is local African American landowner and former slave, John Kemper (18361920). Previously enumerated as “John Coffee," Kemper was noted on the 1920 census, just prior to his death, as a farming landowner in Florence off of Cloverdale Road. (Left) Photograph of a Former Slave and an Old Slave Cabin on the Coffee Plantation (Florence African American Heritage Project via Facebook.com) (Above) Possible Photograph of John Kemper, circa 1910, Taken from a Larger Image Published in the Florence Herald, May 7, 1969 (Findagrave.com, User Lee Freeman) (Below) Excerpt of 1920 Census Record Showing John Kemper Owning a Farm (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com) KEY B COMMUNITIES CEMETERIES CHURCHES B PLANTATIONS B SCHOOLS - (4678)