The Gower Memorial Cemetery Research Project
Gower Memorial Cemetery
East Covell Road between N. Douglas Boulevard and N. Post Road
Edmond, Oklahoma
East Covell Road between N. Douglas Boulevard and N. Post Road
Edmond, Oklahoma
From 2020-2022, Cordelia Steen Chapter had the privilege of working with the Gower family to conduct genealogical research on those interred at Gower Memorial Cemetery in Edmond, Oklahoma. “Gower," as we have fondly dubbed this historic one-acre Black cemetery, was founded by John and Ophelia Gower. The couple, former enslaved persons from Tennessee and Louisiana, were living in Kansas with their three oldest children prior to moving to Oklahoma for John to participate in the Oklahoma Land Run of April 22, 1889. The family settled on 160 acres in Lincoln Township, Oklahoma County, in an area known as “Nonsey," now within the boundaries of Edmond. Nonsey was a community where a number of Black Land Run participants settled, as well as Civil War soldiers who served with the Union’s Colored Troops, and others drawn to the area for the land and a better way of life.
The cemetery, on the National Register of Historic Places since 1991, is significant in that it is “the last remaining physical evidence of one of the rural areas in Oklahoma settled primarily by African Americans, and one of the few sites in Oklahoma associated with the rural settlement of African Americans prior to statehood.” (National Register of Historic Places, Continuation Sheet, Section 8, p. 2, included in Volume I, A-G, with Introduction.)
The project, with more than 1500 pages of genealogical records of the 122 identified individuals buried at Gower, was presented to Gower family member Sherrod Wall, and representatives of the Edmond Historic Preservation Trust, the Edmond History Museum, the University of Central Oklahoma Archives and Special Collections, and the Oklahoma Historical Society. All of the organizations will be placing a link on their respective site.
It has been our great honor to bring this cemetery and the information of those buried there to light.
It has been our great honor to bring this cemetery and the information of those buried there to light.
The Gower Memorial Cemetery Research Documents
Click on each volume to access documents
The Gower Memorial Cemetery Research Pictures
The Gower Memorial Cemetery Maps
(Also included in Vol I: Allensworth, A. - Guillory, L., with Introduction)
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 1, n.d.
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 2, ca 1988
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 3, n.d.
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 4, n.d.
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 5, 1994
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 2, ca 1988
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 3, n.d.
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 4, n.d.
Gower Memorial Cemetery Map 5, 1994
The Gower Memorial Cemetery on Find A Grave
Over the course of this project more than 100 updates were made to the entries on the Find A Grave website for Gower Memorial Cemetery. We look forward to continuing making additional updates as new information comes forth. To visit the Gower Memorial Cemetery on Find A Grave, click here.
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