Patrick Robert "Parker" Sydnor (1854-1950)

U-95

Born enslaved on one of William Sydnor's plantations in Halifax County, Patrick Robert “Parker” Sydnor became literate at a freedmen’s school after the Civil War. A preacher and farmer in his youth, he began crafting grave markers in the 1890s and remained active until the 1940s. Sydnor won renown as a skilled stonecutter and engraver who made his work widely accessible. His designs and inscriptions memorialized the lives of African Americans across Southside Virginia. His home, the nearby Patrick Robert “Parker” Sydnor log cabin, is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

Department of Historic Resources, 2014

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Angelita Reyes, “Appeal for the Patrick Robert Sydnor Log Cabin Site to Meet State-Wide Significance on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places,” 27 August 2012. Lynn Rainville, “Grave Matters: African American Cemeteries in Virginia,” The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies Newsletter, 26 January 2010. Patrick Robert Sydnor Death Certificate Patrick Robert Sydnor Log Cabin National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form Paul Saunier Jr., “87 Year-Old Tombstone Maker Mixes Own: Finds Market for Homemade Markers Good,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 13 September 1946.