The origin and date range of the cemetery are vital, as is the legal status of the land. The earliest deed record for the cemetery is from 1883, when the land was sold by J. H. Batte, a white man, to the “colored Baptist Church known as Canian Church”. The deed notes that the church was already on the land being sold, and specifies that the land was to be used for a church and school. The earliest remaining markers date from 1882, so it is clear that the cemetery and church were already in existence when ownership of the land was transferred to the black community that lived there.

The church and cemetery served as the heart of the community until the decline in the mid-20th century, due to a few factors. Rural schools in Texas were closed in the 1940s and 1950s, and the construction and later expansion of the Bryan Air Base displaced some members of the community. In addition, Canaan Church was destroyed by a tornado in the 1950s, and was never rebuilt. Although the cemetery was cared for and burials took place well into the 1970s, the size of the community slowly dwindled and the number of residents able to care for the cemetery shrunk.

As pointed out by McDavid, Feit, Brown, & McGhee ("African American Archaeology in Texas: A Planning Document" [2013]), African American sites in Texas often receive less attention than Euro-American sites by archaeological practitioners. This is related to shortcomings within the practice of assessing African American sites in the context of cultural resource management (CRM) which can be traced to two primary reasons: a dismissal of the research value of mass-produced artifacts which became prevalent following the Civil War due to the assumption that these artifacts have the same meaning as at Euro-American sites and archaeological practitioners’ unfamiliarity with the theoretical frameworks and methods used in African Diaspora archaeology. While this academic trend is changing, with increasing scholarly recognition of the importance of post-Civil War African American archaeological sites, unfortunately, the history of this academic discrimination has resulted in a significant under-representation of freedom colonies in the historical narratives of Texas.

Canaan Cemetery represents a vital historical narrative for heritage in Texas and the United States. The cemetery can be used to track the establishment and growth of numerous freedom colonies in the area and tells the story of Texan communities across the state following the Civil War, throughout Reconstruction, and over the course of two world wars and the Great Depression. These stories demonstrate how individuals formed communal bonds, how they negotiated their identities and roles in wider society while demonstrating their own agency, and how the choices they made helped form communities that exist and thrive today. These historical narratives are important educational tools, not only for the local community but for the wider world.

With the commencement of cleanup efforts at Canaan Cemetery, the ADMBV Project began to document and preserve the physical remains of the cemetery. Visual surveys performed by the project archaeologists identified a large number of objects associated with burials, such as the broken remains of glass bottles used to mark burials. The majority of these artifacts are small, broken pieces of glass that were at risk of being picked up as trash or washed away. As cleanup efforts continued, it was determined by the project archaeologists that the artifacts remaining on the surface should be collected and documented to ensure their preservation. These preservation efforts were incorporated into a larger project, which established the following research goals:

• Establish an archaeological map of Canaan Cemetery including all burial markers, artifacts, and suspected burials.

• Identify, document, collect, and catalog all artifacts on the surface of the site.

• Collect oral histories from the descendant community.

• Create photogrammetric (3-D) models of all grave markers for digital preservation purposes.

• Create a genealogical map of the cemetery.

• Compile all data into a publicly accessible narrative to represent the history of this period in the Brazos valley, including teaching and public outreach resources.

Burial practices specific to African American communities are difficult to discern for the 19th and early 20th centuries for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, the marginalized nature of the community as a whole translated to a lack of recognition in the historical record. What few details can be gathered regarding burial practices in Texas can be discerned from scarce obituaries and other news articles, and oral histories.

There is some suggestion from oral sources that communities in the Brazos Bottoms had local traditions that called for different items to be buried with the deceased, but it is difficult to locate direct reference to this practice in the historical record. What can be confirmed, however, is the traditional items that were left on the graves – medicine bottles, toys for children, cigarettes, and occasionally dishes that were used in life by the deceased were broken over the grave. The evidence of these practices is still visible in some of the burial grounds in the Bryan area, although it is rare, and not found in most. These grave goods are particularly ephemeral, and vulnerable to removal, especially by individuals with the best of intentions who believe they are removing trash from the grave site.

The active church community, prior to its destruction in the 1950s, took care of the cemetery and would have removed any trash or other objects not meant to be at the site. Care for the cemetery was traditionally undertaken by the descendant community of those buried there. This was intensified if the cemetery was associated with a functioning church with an active congregation. Gatherings were organized so that community members could come together and work to maintain a burial ground, an example of which is found in an announcement in the newspaper Hearne Democrat from 26 May 1977:

“Don’t forget that our local Wilson Chapel Cemetery is meeting to work and beautify their cemetery on May 30. All those interested please come and help”.

Therefore, these artifacts were intentionally placed and left at the site; these types of artifacts in archaeology are referred to as grave goods.

As of Spring 2022, the project has identified 215 total burials, 144 known and 71 unknown, representing 53% of the current site. The headstones include stone markers with floral designs, concrete markers with personal information roughly inscribed or stamped into the face, and stone obelisks. Forty burials are marked with temporary metal grave markers with no associated stone or cement headstone and only 17 are in good enough condition to be identified. There are also at least 15 burials marked with small concrete foot stones with a small inset which also cannot be identified. It is likely that these temporary metal markers and small concrete foot stones served as economizing markers for burials, however, unfortunately, we may never be able to identify each burial by name.

There are also at least 8 burials that use unique grave marker styles, which to our knowledge, have not been archaeologically documented at any other burial sites in Texas: petrified wood. One burial in particular is marked with an elongated petrified wood headstone, a shorter petrified wood foot stone, and is surrounded by a metal curb. It is difficult to inscribe this medium so we might never know who these burials represent, but it is highly likely that these fossils were collected from the riverbeds along the nearby Brazos River.