Memorial Site on CofC Campus

Imagine walking on your campus and not knowing there was a memorial of someone there the whole time. Here at College of Charleston, there is a memorial of a woman named Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, that of passing by for a whole semester I never knew was there. I'm sure most students walk by this memorial everyday which is located in the heart of Cougar Mall and never pay attention to the fact that it is here.

Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson was the mother of the 7th president of the United States who died in the fall of 1781. She became ill with ships fever also known as cholera. Jackson was only 14 when she died. President Andrew Jackson, has wondered the whereabouts of where his mother's final resting place remains. On her maker, it notes that "Near this spot is buried, Elizabeth Jackson" who is most likely not.

 

After Elizabeth's death, she was buried on a hill in a simple unmarked grave. Andrew Jackson has been attempting years to find the location of her bones to bury next to his father but was unable to do so. Jackson was told by James H. Witerspoon of Lancaster that "Your mother is buried in the suburbs of Charleston about one mile from what was then called the Governor's Gate, which is in and about the forks of Meeting and King street Railroads." 

In 1942, Elizabeth Jackson's gravestone was moved to Charleston on the corner of King Street and Heriot Street. After controversy about the gravestone having weeds obscure it and being in an unsanitary area, small repairs were also done and the gravestone moved to the Cougar Mall where it has been placed since 1967.

During much of the 20th century, the unsolvable mystery of Mrs. Jackson's final resting place is less important. The mystery of the burial site is more than just a historical footnote.

A little about Jeff and Lillian

Meeting your grandparents can be such an amazing thing, but also knowing who your great grandparents are is life changing. When I was born, I never got to meet my grandparents OR my great grandparents. I've heard plenty of stories about both but more so of just my grandparents.

My great grandparents who are Lillian and Jeff Alston both passed away way before I was born. Jeff died around 1947 and Lillian died around 1986.  My grandfather, Jeff even passed away way before my mom was born. I've been doing a little research about them and couldn't really find anything. Here's when I went to family members who might've knew a little more!

My grandmother Lillian Alston was married to Jeff Alston. They had five kids together whose name were Mildred Scott, Norman Alston, Jessie Mae Ransom (who is my grandmother), Robert Alston, and Vera Alston. All of them are now deceased. It is known that Jeff Alston was from Johnsonville, SC as well as Lillian which is where they met. They later moved to Lake City, SC where Jeff was a landowner.

My great grandfather Jeff owned a farm and a store called Alston's Grocery Store and owned property on Moore Street in Lake City, SC. He had two workers who worked on the farm that they called Smooke and RJ. After Jeff died from cancer, Smooke and RJ no longer wanted to work on the farm without him so they both joined the service. Jeff is buried on Highway 52 going from Kingstree, SC where I am from to Lake City, SC.

As far as my great grandmother Lillian Alston, she was born around 1906. She didn't really work. She was more of a housewife but she did seasonal work such as tying tobacco. She was a very religious woman who would try to go to church every Sunday. She died from a heart attack and she is buried in Rest Lawn Cemetery in Lake City, SC.

Even though I didn't find much information about them, this project made me want to do deeper research to know more about them as well as my grandparents! I don't have any pictures because the ones my aunt did have got burned in a house fire.

Darty By The Grave

On Saturday, my class and I visited a Jewish Graveyard. While we visited this graveyard, we were in for a little surprise. There was a Darty right on the other side of the wall. A darty is a day time party and I have never heard of a Darty until I got here to College of Charleston.

However, while at this graveyard, I learned many things about how a Jewish graveyard differs from any other. It is known that Jews came in the late 1600s to the Americas. The United States is the first place in the world where Jews could own land and vote. People came from all over such as Spain and Portuguese. Here at this graveyard which is Coming Street Cemetery, K.K. Beth Elohim Est. 1762 there are about 800 people buried here but with only 500 stones. 10 Revolutionary War soilders and 21 Confederate soldiers are also buried here. People here are buried together, side by side but not on top of each other. When Jews died, they were buried pretty quickly.

There are many broken headstones here which I will post pictures below. They are currently working to restore the graves because many of them have collapsed. Also, one summer some kids spent their time restoring headstones after knocking over about 30 of them.

One interesting thing that stood out to me was the washing off your hands before leaving the cemetery. There was a fountain, and one thing I noticed was that only one other classmate and I washed our hands before leaving. Below, you will find many pictures of our Saturday's class visit. 

The pictures above are from what they believed to
be a spirit of Theodore Belitzer seen by someone
who was working in the grave one night restoring
the stones.

It is known that in Jews place rocks on graves to keep animals from walking over them so that the bodies can rest in peace. This all came about when hundreds of years ago, animals would dig up bodies and eat them.

These are a couple of pictures of some broken headstones

Ancestry Proposal

I am very excited to say that I will be doing a research Ancestry Project on my great grandmother Lillian Austin and my great grandfather Jeff Austin. I chose these two people to do research on because I never got the chance to meet them. Before I was born, they passed away. I am so excited to see what all research and background information that I can find on these two. Be sure to check back within a couple of weeks to see my updated blog post about my research.