Terry O’Neal and Team Uncover Forgotten Chloe Cemetery

Upcoming: A community cleanup at Chloe Historic Cemetery will take place Oct. 17-18, from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on both days.

• What: Volunteers will clear fallen trees, brush and debris left behind by Hurricane Laura.

• Where: The cemetery is located off Shane Road, off E Opelousas Street, on the English Bayou (at the end of Manchester Road).

• Contact: Program Director Jed Duhon, (337) 526-7815

Organizers share that volunteers will need boots, gloves and goggles. Hand clippers, shears and electric saws are requested if volunteers have any. Drinks and snacks will be provided.

This year, the Chloe African American Cemetery Preservation Association (CAACPA) began restoring and documenting the Chloe Historic Cemetery, a historic African American and Creole burial ground in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, near the rural community of Chloe and the town of Iowa along English Bayou.

Working to not only preserve the cemetery but also the history of the community buried there, the CAACPA leadership team includes descendants of families connected to Chloe Historic Cemetery. In fact, CAACPA President and Founder Terry O’Neal shared that her own genealogical search is what led to the rediscovery of the cemetery and formation of the preservation association.

How CAACPA Began

“After more than 25 years of tracing my ancestry, I discovered that my fourth great-grandfather, James Alphonse, who was identified in a 1943 newspaper article as the last living person enslaved by Major J.C. LeBleu, was buried at Chloe Historic Cemetery,” said O’Neal. “I also discovered that my great-grandmother, fourth great-grandmother, and several great-aunts and uncles were buried there. My mother, who grew up on the settlement with her great-grandmother, is also buried at Chloe.”

From CAACPA

“What makes this especially meaningful to me is that my mother passed away without ever knowing where her own grandmother and great-grandmother were buried.”

After discovering her family connections, O’Neal applied for and obtained the stewardship of the cemetery, founding CAACPA in March 2026 to help restoration and preservation efforts.

Terry O’Neal at Chloe Cemetery, From CAACPA

From her research, O’Neal shared that the Chloe Historic Cemetery is the resting place of families connected to the LeBleu Settlement and the early Black and Creole community of Iowa and Chloe, including formerly enslaved individuals, Creole and Native families, early freedmen landowners and generations who remained in the area after emancipation.

Efforts to preserve and restore the cemetery also uncover the stories and lives of generations of local communities hidden for decades by overgrowth and hurricane damage.

Though the team is still clearing the cemetery and discovering more graves, O’Neal shared that the estimated total is 150 to 200.

CAACPA has connected with 25 descendants representing several families whose loved ones are buried at Chloe Historic Cemetery, including the Miller, St. Mary, Carter, Taylor, Hunt, Alphonse and Randle families.

All Preservation Efforts 

The CAACPA team shares the following preservation efforts for the cemetery:

• Identifying burial locations through historical records, oral histories and responsible archaeological research
• Documenting the stories, family connections and historical significance of those buried at the cemetery
• Preserving and stabilizing existing grave markers and burial sites
• Placing respectful headstones or memorial markers for individuals whose burial locations are confirmed but currently unmarked
• Developing educational materials that share the history of the cemetery, the Chloe community and the lives of those buried there

Leon Tillman, a descendant, volunteering, from CAACPA

Other Progress for Chloe Historic Cemetery

Only in its first year of preservation efforts, CAACPA shares the following progress:

• LiDAR drone footage to better understand and document the cemetery grounds
• Collaboration with the Imagining Ann Project and the Loftin-Levingston Slave Records initiative at McNeese State University
• Anticipated assistance from the Louisiana Disaster Task Force with heavier clearing work
• The cemetery was added to the Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries.
• Dr. Senna Chapman of the Louisiana Division of Archaeology conducted a site visit and began GPS documentation and mapping of graves and cemetery boundaries
  • During the visit, volunteers and researchers relocated additional graves, including those from members of the Carter family
  • The visit also revealed evidence that the cemetery may extend beyond its previously recognized footprint
• Partnerships with the Louisiana Atakapas Eagle Tribe and BZ Farms & RV Park in Kinder
• Assistance from the Southwest Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Library in Lake Charles

How to Get Involved

CAACPA welcomes participation from descendants, historians, genealogists, educators, students, community organizations and anyone interested in preserving Chloe Historic Cemetery.

O’Neal shares that community members can support the project in several ways, including:

• Volunteering during cemetery restoration events
• Sharing family histories, photographs and historical information connected to the cemetery
• Assisting with genealogical and historical research
• Connecting descendants to the effort
• Contributing preservation expertise
• Financial contributions also support ongoing documentation, restoration work and future ground-penetrating radar surveys that will assist in locating unmarked and lost graves

Also explore how Friends of Black Bayou work to preserve Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge