Immortal 600

I decided to do my Old Charlestonian research project on Thomas Pinckney, but this Thomas Pinckney is famous for his work in the Civil War, versus the most famous Thomas Pinckney who was famous in the Revolutionary War. I wanted to do my research project on him because I have always loved to research veterans, and I love researching the Civil War.

 So, researching Pinckney was a match made in heaven to me. I saw his gravesite at Magnolia Cemetery when I went with the group for our blogpost. I fell in love with the location of it and the simple design, but to me it was breathtaking and elegant. His family plot houses his second wife and their daughter. As well as a memorial for his first wife (unsure if she is buried there) and what I am guessing is one of the six children he had with Mary (his first wife) and in the back of the plot is another gravesite, but with my picture it is hard to read and I found no further information.

As mentioned before, Pinckney was a part of the Civil War 4, he was Captain in Hampton’s Legion Cavalry Battalion,^th South Carolina Cavalry regiment Rutledge Division, Co. D&E, St. James Mounted Riflemen. His unit fought at Black River, Combahee River, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, North Anna, Haw’s Shop, Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg.

His unit surrendered on April 25, 1865 at Durham Station, North Carolina. He followed in his grandfather’s footsteps when joining the military, but after the war he became a farmer.

During his time in the war, he was a POW, a part of the controversial “immortal 600” where they were forced to be human shields near Charleston on Morris Island. The reasoning for this was for the Union general to get his own revenge on a Confederate leader.

He was born on August 13, 1829 in Charleston County to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Phoebe Elliott. His grandfather was the governor of South Carolina and Ambassador to England. He did not know his grandfather because he was born about a year after his death. 

After having six children with Mary Stewart, she died, and he remarried Camilla Scott and had one child, Josephine. He died in South Carolina on November 15, 1915.

Thomas Pinckney comes from one of the most elite families known. As stated, his grandfather is the most famous being the governor of South Carolina and the mbassaador of England, but he also has more to his family. With members in The Revolutionary War and War of 1812, there were many war veterans within the family. This family also has its name signed into the constitution.

And they also had someone being the ambassador of Spain. The ambassadors worked with Presidents Washington and Jefferson. This family was very wealthy. But, Thomas also built his own empire. His is known to be one of the last greatest rice farmers and he devoted himself to his plantation

The only thing everyone can enjoy about this Election

Too much to see in Too little time.

Graves for what seems miles long, ones that are as tall as trees and ones that seem to have taken the same number of years as the person resting there. Seeing a cemetery like this or even hearing about it makes some people's skin crawl.
Me? My senses seemed heightened. I look out at all the grave markers and I think about the cool things I can find and the people I can research and find out about their lives. This trip made me so happy and I was running around like a little girl in a candy shop finding new grave markers, seeing some bigger, seeing some that are more interesting.

The landscape of this cemetery is kind of weird. It seems like families just bought a square piece of land and added some stone with their family name carved into it. Then, they were stuff as many grave markers into it as possible. These family plots would be everywhere and seemed to go on for days. The bridge with over the little pond made me feel petite with how much you could see of the cemetery.
The amount of trees were uncountable and they were all beautiful.











Grave Marker Number 1
This is a mausoleum that was so pretty, I jumped out of the car to look at. This is for the Lipinski family. Since it was locked, I was unable to receive any more information, but this is an amazing grave marker.
















Grave Marker Number 2

The next one is a huge masterpiece that had caught my eye and I just had to go look at it for minutes. This is the resting place of Jacob Birt and his wife Ann Elizabeth Birt. They had lived in the 19th century. Jacob had died in 1876 at the age of 65, and his wife died on 1898 at the age of 60.

Grave Marker Number 3

This is probably my favorite marker I have ever seen. I went to it and had been star-strucked. It is a beautiful piece that just took my breathe away. It is a resting place for the Pinckey family. Including the Captain Thomas Pinckney who fought in the American Civil War. The plot also includes his second wife Camilla Scott Pinckney and their daughter, Joesephine. Also in the plot is his first wife Mary Elliot and their daughter.

Visiting this cemetery is something that I think everyone should do. I also love how much history is here and how much each person meant to society. I loved every minute I was there and will go back soon to visit and look more once the bugs are gone.

Scavenger Hunt, Symbols, and Grave Markers, Oh My!

Hurricane Matthew decided to tear through downtown Charleston and surrounding areas. The Bethel United Methodist Church stood strong and was sitting beautifully and proudly when the class took the short trip to the Graveyard Monday October 17.

Brrreaakiing news!! Time for a quick history lesson on this gorgeous church.
This church has always been situated on the corner of Pitt and Calhoun in the downtown district of Charleston South Carolina since 1797.
Since this church is so old, it is known as a National Historic Landmark. It was a church that held blacks and whites for service until 1876 when the black congregation was moved to the older structure and the whites began their services in the new building.
That's it for tonight. See you next time!

 The two pictures to the left and right shows a grave marker found. This is a cradle style grave marker. The person asleep here is Charles H, Muckenfuss. The symbol is a cross through a crown, as pictures in the picture to the right. This symbol means victory and Christianity.

 The next two are the home of Olin B. Davis. Her headstone is a typical headstone with an amazing craving of a rose. The rose symbolizes beauty.

These two are the home of Lousia M. Reeder. She has a mix between a headstone and a ledger. This is because it seems the headstone has fallen. The symbol is a wreath which means victory in death.

This is a grave marker of a headstone. The one resting is Anna Chrietzbng. its symbol of a dove with a wreath means peace

This is the headstone/ledger for William Frederick. His symbol is a tulip which means love and passion

 This is the resting spot for Eva Lee Warren. Her symbol on this masterpiece is a branch of roses which means beauty.

 This is the place where Elizabeth M. Moore sleeps under her die on socket grave. She has an angel on her marker which symbolizes her path to heaven.

 This beautiful headstone which is the home of James F. M. Lord has a beautiful tree on it which symbolizes Woodmen of the World

This is the home of Francis W. Capers who has a lawn marker which the symbol of a cross.  The cross means Christianity.








ALL SYMBOLS WERE FOUND WITH THE HELP OF THIS LINK.

Roses, Real Estate, Orphanages, & Influenza

Its 1900. Emil Schweiger was born. He is the first child of two immigrant parents to be born in the United States. Being that his parents were born in Alsace, a part of France that went between France and Germany for very many years, he spoke both German and French. And then moving to the United States, he then learned English. Once it was time for him to start working, he worked in an iron foundry and worked his way up to being a supervisor and gained an abundance of money. He was a super cheap, so he saved all his money.
 With the money, he had saved up, he bought a bunch of property in Middle Village, Queens, NY. Then, he sold off the property, creating a real estate business. With his workers, he made sure that all of them got equal number of hours to keep their families fed and well during the Great Depression. One of the hobbies he had taken up was gardening and over time he bred his own species ofroses,which were bred in my backyard at my old house in New York.
Sadly, my mom did not receive his gardening skills, and kill them off. He died in 1977 from Colon Cancer and was cremated. His ashes went between my grandmother and my great aunt until my great grandmother died.

Margaret Bach was born in Germany/France in Alsace in 1905 but then moved to the United States. She lived with her family until she was put into an orphanage when her mother died in 1918 due to influenza. She never saw her father after that. Her older sister took her in whenever she married until Margaret married Emil. Due to her being poor for most of life, she treasured things that aren’t normally treasured. She had two tea sets that were very special to her. When she died, it went to my grandmother, and then went to my Aunt. When my Aunt moved down south (like my family) she gave one set to my mother. Margaret died in 1990 with a congestive heart failure. She was buried with Emil’s ashes at a family plot in Farmingdale, NY.

Emil and Margaret lived an amazing life together. They had married in 1920 and moved into beautiful home in Queens, NY and had three children. Walter Schweiger in 1924, had four children, and died in 1997. Elaine Fryer, my grandmother and the amazing woman I was named after, in 1931. She had 6 children including my mother, and she passed in 1995. And finally Laurel Rasmussen in 1945, she has 4 children and is currently living in Bethpage, NY with one of her daughters

The tea set my family owns

my great-grandparents on their wedding day.

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The family plot is at St. Charles cemetery

in Farmingdale,NY and is home to my great-grandparents and my grandparents. Once my great Aunt dies, she will join with her husband’s ashes.

Now I lay me down to Sleep...

On September 19, the class took a nice little walk into a brewing storm to look at two local Church Cemeteries in downtown Charleston.

The first church we visited was the The Cathedral Church of St.Luke and St. Paul. This is where most of my photos were taken due to the threatening weather. My first impression of the trip was how disrespectful I felt walking through the sleeping bodies. After about 10 minutes, I was very fascinated by the cemetery that all of my worries were forgotten.

The second church we visited was the St. Patrick Catholic Church. This was a cemetery that made me happy, well at least the OCD side of me. Like stated before, the threatening storm cause me to not take as many pictures. I will say that the design of the cemetery was simple, yet beautiful. I love how the grave markers were mainly all the common headstones, but they were all very very unique and gorgeous. I was very intrigued, which is another reason I forgot to take photos.

Here are the photos from that night. Captions explain the grave marker.

This is a Box Tomb.

The Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul

This is a mausoleum.

This is a cradle.

This is a bevel.

This is the most common, just known as a headstone. 

This is a headstone

This is such a beautiful grave marker.
 The craving on the stone and the detail of the cross.
 Truly breathtaking. 

This is an urn or pedestal tomb.

A headstone with beautiful carvings.

Beautiful carving of a rose on a grave marker.

A very extraordinary of a mausoleum where the name of the family
resting here isn't even craved into the tomb.

A broken column which represents how the life has gotten cut off very suddenly.

A beautiful craving on a headstone.

A ledger keeping the spirit inside of the tomb
Love how the cravings are very heard to see.

St. Patrick Catholic Church Photos

A ledger made to look like a headstone laying on the ground.

Another craving that is breathtaking on a headstone.

Meeting my first ever Taphophilia

Hello,

One of the scariest places on Halloween happens to be Ruth M. Miller's favorite place to investigate, graveyards. Being a local Charleston historian, Miller took the time to come visit our class on September 12, 2016. The passion Mrs. Miller had shown was truly breathtaking.

Book Exchange.

Starting off her presentation with how she first fell in love with graveyards. She was working at the St. MichaelsGraveyard in Charleston, South Carolina. She states that a “bus full of morticians” had come to the cemetery and instead of following her and her tour, they went directly to the Cemetery to look at the grave markers. She also states “I learned so much about the graveyard and fell in love”. She had lost them in the area and they took her on a two-hour tour of the grounds. Oh, how the roles had change. Oh, how that sparked a passion within Miller.

Then, she starts to explain all of the graveyards and cemeteries in the area. She told all of us how there is a Quaker graveyard in the downtown area that is now  a parking garage due to the growing city and the tourism scene. Thanks to the historians, there is a plaque that states that there was at one point a graveyard, which you can find on the fence in a form of a dedication. This was also the oldest Quaker cemetery south of Philadelphia.

         

          Miller also talks about the grave markers of Charleston. “We have the best collections of the 18^th-Century graveyards, with the best carvers”, states Miller. Since Charleston was the richest city in 1770 with no stone to carve, everyone had ordered from England and other for the stone. Making Charleston better than New York and Boston. This is because, she states, “We had the population of Boston, richer tan New York in 1770.” And we also “had freedom of speech”.

          Some interesting points she had stated. Meeting St in Charleston was named this because of “the church meeting homes”.

St Michaels has two signers of the Declaration of Independence.

When Ashely Cooper announced freedom of religion, “he never knew that he would bring golf over” to the United States.

Charleston has the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the United States.