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.

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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.