THOMASVILLE — A local women is hoping to restore the old Midway Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in the efforts to honor those laid to rest there.

The church, located off Midway Road, once served as a worship ground and school for slaves around the 1800s, according to old newspaper articles. Over 250 slaves are said to have attended the church.

After being closed for more than 15 years, the church became abandoned and engulfed in overgrown greenery and debris.

Amanda Yates, co-organizer of the CME conservation project and local photographer, discovered the church when she was out taking photos and was immediately prompted to find out more information. 

“It (the church) was beautiful by my standards because I love anything that’s falling down,” she said. “When I saw it, I thought it was really sad, and I hated that whatever happened obviously didn’t happen the way that it should have, because only a few headstones were uncovered. I feel like I got really lucky when I stumbled upon it.”

Yates’ interest in the church led her to start the CME Conservation Project, which is dedicated to putting Midway CME Church back on the map as a historical landmark.

Her goal is to clean the cemetery grounds and raise money for a plaque that will properly honor those laid to rest at the cemetery site.

“I feel like the importance of the plaque would be a general overall explanation as to who all lies out there and how they’re significant to the city of Thomasville, because ultimately this town was built on their backs,” she said. “The plantations, the farms, all of this that Thomasville is known for was made possible because the slaves that lived here. They played a significant role in Thomasville’s history and I feel like they should have the honor and the respect that they’re due, just as much as these beautiful plantations that are maintained.”

Aundre Walker, groundskeeper of the church, also has been working to restore the cemetery grounds for the past three years by recovering more than 40 graves from bushes.

“It’s not good to forget no one, but sometimes you don’t know what went on,” Walker said. “You really can’t tell the story, so I heard a lot of stories.”

Walker said that he has a sentimental connection to the church as he himself used to attend the church and also has relatives buried on the cemetery grounds.  

While there isn’t any documentation on how many graves are on the property, Walker said there are approximately 150 graves beyond the woods of the cemetery grounds that are over 200 years old.

“It’s a lot of history there,” he said. “You’ve got WWI and WWII soldiers out there.You’ve got soldiers fallen from the Civil War, but when they put them in the graves they didn’t put them in a box. They didn’t give them the recognition they needed.”

Walker said the church is one of the oldest slave grounds in Georgia, which is why it’s important to transform it into a historical site.  

“I would like the people to see the history of where slaves almost made it from out there,” he said. “I would like for when people come to Thomasville they can want to see a historical landmark.” 

So far, three non-profit organizations have agreed to help with the project and 22 volunteers have signed up to help clean the cemetery grounds. Yates said the focus for the first few months of the project is to collect funds and supplies to prepare for clean-up days. 

“There’s so many little things that we’re going to need before I can organize a clean up day, so I’m thinking tentatively clean up days would start around October when the weather starts to cool down,” she said. “My ultimate goal is because this all got started around Juneteenth for it to be finished by Juneteenth next year,” she said. 

Yates has organized a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for equipment and the plaque. So far $520 has been donated out of $5,000 Yates is hoping to raise. 

“With these funds, I have faith the community is going to pull through and make it happen,” she said. 

She has also been keeping up with tombstone documentation on FindAGrave.com to further her goal of honoring those in the burial site.

“If we can’t make this (the project) happen, we at least created a spot of history when it comes to documenting the graves on FindAGrave and we are committed to bringing some of those people to light. When people think of cemeteries, they think of dead people. They don’t really attach it to these people had lives and loved ones,” she said. 

Yates is hopeful the project will succeed but needs more help from the community. She said anyone can sign up to help or donate if they visit www.facebook.com/MidwayCMEChurch.