Coming Street Cemetery/ KKBE!!

This past Saturday me and my graveyard studies class met at the coming street cemetery for a tour and a lesson on the history of the area.  This cemetery is associated with the Khal Kadosh Beth Elohim, which is a Jewish synagogue.   Our guides on the tour were none other than the Anita Moise Rosenburg, and Randi Serrins, who were excellent to listen to.

The coming street cemetery was established one hundred and fourteen years ago in 1762.   An impressive fact about the cemetery is that it is the "oldest standing Jewish cemetery in the south."   The cemetery is also different from the other ones we have visited because it has been the only cemetery that isn't connected to the church itself.   This is due to the fact that Jewish faith believes that life and death should not be together.

There are many interesting people buried in the Jewish cemetery which makes it so exhilarating to visit.   Also, "each and everybody in the cemetery is 6 feet underground".   There is a total of 800 bodies buried in the Jewish cemetery.   This includes 8 soldiers from the war of 1812, 12 revolutionary war soldiers, 20 presidents of the congregation, 6 rabbis, and 2 soldiers from the Seminole wars in Florida. So the cemetery is very diverse!

With so many bodies buried in just one acre of land, the church has families buried all in one grave which, saves a lot of space!

Fun facts of the Cemetery!!

1.  There is a cenotaph of a confederate soldier Theodore Belitzer.

2. A cenotaph is a grave marker for a person although the body is buried elsewhere.

3. We were told that the Cemetery is haunted by a ghost that our tour guides have images of!

4. In the cemetery we saw alot of pebbles left on graves which symbolizes protection over the grave.  This goes way back to when people buried bodys in rocks to protect the body from animals.

All around the tour was a very educational experience and very interesting to learn the differences of Jewish cemeteries!

A plague of the name and date established of the cemetery.

This was the tour guides picture of what they described as the ghost!

This above is the cenotaph of the confederate soldier,  Theodore Belitzer.

This stone gives an example of the symbol of leaving pebbles on gravestones.

This was is a ledger of Maxine "Mackie" Triest Freudenberg.

The photo above was taken 60 feet up in a tree that is no longer in the cemetery.

Scavenger Hunt!!

Here are 10 different headstones that were found on our visit to the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Patrick's Catholic Church.

Pedastal tomb located at the cathedral church of st. luke
Matthew Sully Reeves

Slanted on a base located at the cathedral church of st. luke
belonged to Charles Lee and Marina Jenkins.

Elevated box tomb located at the cathedral church of st. luke
identity unknown.

box tomb at cathedral church of st. luke
Belongs to Berret Thomas.

Tomb located at the cathedral church of st. luke
identity unknown.

This is an Obelisk located at cathedral st. Lukes
the identity is unknown due to weathering.

Die in socket found at cathedral church of st. Luke
These belonged to Lynwood Cresse Magee, and Marie Cannon Magee.

Ledger found at Cathedral st Lukes
identities: unknown.

slant headstone found at St. Patricks Catholic Church
last name Schacht.

Foot stone located at St. Patricks Catholic Church
This belongs to Lila Barksdale Pickens who died in 1942

Speech From Ruth Miller!!!

The one and only Ruth miller came to my classroom and gave a great speech!  Mrs. Miller gave a very detailed description of colonial charleston.  A very interesting fact was that charleston was the "richest city in Colonial America".  This was due to the fact that Charleston had a very large slave port that was thriving during this time.

Charleston is home to many 18th century graveyards which are from the colonial era.  More 18th century graveyards than all of America." although there was a large slave port here in the current 18th-century graveyards "there are no African Americans buried." this was due to the fact that the slaves were not seen as humans and were not given proper burials especially with white people.

Then Ruth Miller proceeded to talk about property in the family from the 18th century. During this time women had almost no rights. If a man owned property and he suddenly died his wife would not be given any of the land. The land would be given to the firstborn son. Women hardly were able to do anything, they were also not given the right to vote. Women were expected to serve their husbands at the house with cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the kids.

Charleston was the richest colony for many reasons. Charleston had the largest rice production and slave port in all of colonial America. These both made Charleston filthy rich. This is why Charleston was known as the rice bowl of the world.

Interesting Fact: The man who wrote the Christian song amazing grace, John Newton was also a slave trader, which contradicts the song. Although this is true his song still to this day remains to be one of the most popular Christian songs.

Ruth Miller was exceptionally interesting to listen to!

Ruth Miller and Patrick Harwood

200 Year old church In Charleston SC

A Charleston church with over 200 years of history.

In my Beyond the Grave class we did a first impressions of Charleston churches as a group project.

My group choose the Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston. We choose this church because it was closer to campus and the views of the church are very elegant. The church offers something different at every angle.

Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston is located at 342 Meeting St. Charleston, SC 29403.

The community of Presbyterians were dissenters from the Church of England who worshiped together in the White Meeting House on Meeting St. The congregation included English, Irish, Scottish, French Huguenots and Independent Presbyterians. Twelve families withdrew from the White Meeting House and established the First (Scots) Presbyterian Church, which was modeled after the Church of Scotland.

The architectural style is Jeffersonian Classicism built by architect brothers, James and John Gordon. The church is brick covered with stucco, on one of the column the brick is exposed and can be seen. The building is rectangular and features two tiers of windows. The original plans included a church steeple, however, it was never completed due to structural issues. The church was topped with a simple square tower with a lantern.

The graveyard wraps around this church. The size of the graveyard flows well with the size of the church and the community.  It is not very big but contains so much history.  The plots are not too close together and there is a variety of grave maker and sizes. There are some makers that are bigger and more elaborate and others are smaller. The graveyard was open when we went to take pictures and a video, however, the church was not open but we were still able to get many good pictures.

view of Graveyard

Front of the church

entrance of graveyard

behind the church

interesting monuments