On Saturday, March 22nd over 30+ SECU members and employees came together with staff from Keep North Carolina Beautiful and Keep Gastonia Beautiful for over 3 hours to participate in the revitalization of the former "Highland Community Garden" which was renamed the "Aunt Charlotte McClee Community Garden" in honor of Charlotte McClee. Volunteers removed many old decaying garden beds, old decorative bottles, iron works, painted stones that had seen their better days, and a variety of other materials from the garden area. Several new galvanized and metal raised garden beds were assembled and placed inside and outside the garden area and filled with dozens of wheel barrels and 5-Gallon buckets of a mixture including mature soil and Gastonia "Black Gold", in preparation for the upcoming garden expansion and the eventual seed and flower plantings. Despite several hours of arduous volunteer work, their was plenty of laughter, camaraderie, and group cheers when each of the gargantuan old beds were hoisted out of their old ground positions...not to mention smiles for the final group photo.

Who is Aunt Charlotte McClee?

“Aunt” Charlotte McClee was born a Slave in South Carolina in 1846 and died in 1957, at the age of 111. She came to Gastonia in 1870 “before Gastonia was here,” as Gastonia wasn’t founded until 1877, and became the first midwife. She delivered hundreds of babies, both black and white and saved many women's lives.

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Making her way to where Main Avenue now is, it was a much different vision back then when it was “only woods and a few log cabins.” In her yard, she had herbal plants she’d dry and use to heal sick people, for child birth, to make tonics, medicines and salves for pain relief. She loved flowers and loved to see wild flowers. "If I could just get out to see the flowers!" she exclaimed. "I would just like to ride along the road and see the wildflowers once more."

What a better way to acknowledge this historical woman than through a living memorial of flowers, herbs and love than in a community garden. Now, each year as seeds are planted, as children come to learn the art of gardening, as the folks of the Highland Community reap the goodness of the soil, they will feel the presence of "Aunt" Charlotte in this garden. She truly left a rich and lasting legacy in budding Gastonia.