Ten Favorite Charleston Gravesites

As I await the delivery of my new book (update: it has been delivered), I thought I would create a blog post sharing 10 of my favorite graves that are part of "Stories from the Underground: The Churchyards of Charleston." Hundreds of graves are shown and written about in the 228-page large format, full-color hardback book (with a dust jacket too!). 

This will not be an easy list to compile! I include the graves in my book because I feel there is something interesting, special, and/or unique about each and every one of them. The 10 featured here are in no particular order. So, without further ado....

1. Catharine Simons Sarcophagus- Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul, 126 Coming St. 

This petite and elegant sarcophagus is next to the brick border wall to the left as one enters the churchyard. 

There are many things I like about this gravesite. The sarcophagus design is rare and expensive. I think this is the smallest one I've ever seen, befitting Catharine Simons who was just (as inscribed in the stone) "21 years, 3 months, 2 days" old when she died in 1852. I was unable to determine her cause of death. 

Other than "Catharine" and her age at death, the only other words are "Wife of William Simons." 

A large cross is on the top of the structure that is less than five feet in length and 27.5 inches wide (yes, I measured it). There are also inverted (or upside down) torches on the four corners. The torches are lighted. This symbolizes that while Catharine's life has been extinguished there is hope for eternal life in Heaven. 

This site was particularly difficult to research because there is very little to be found about the short time Catharine had on earth. Malcolm Hale at the Charleston County Public Library's South Carolina Room was a huge help in what little we did find. In an old genealogy book, Malcolm was able to find a Catharine Simons Hume born in 1830. She was the daughter of Dr. William Hume and Catherine Simons Lucas. There are many Humes and Lucases buried in this graveyard, and her father's grave is very close to Catharine's. 

Earlier in my research of this grave I went down a rabbit hole that this Catharine Simons may have been a freed slave, this after finding that name in another source. I thought if this is true, what a story we have here. But I am confident that what I later found out, with Malcolm Hale's assistance, is the true story of the young woman. 

2. Rev. Thomas John Young's Curious Symbol- St. Michael's Church, 71 Broad St. 

Years ago, before I started to research this book, I filed away this image at St. Michael's. A Jewish symbol on the grave marker of an Episcopal minister? What's the story there? 

Well, the story is that what is today called the Star of David has a history going back to ancient Egypt. The six-point star has been used since then by different religions, cultures and organizations, including the Masons. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler appropriated the star for his hate-filled purge of Jews in Europe. 

Rev. Young (1803-1852) may have been a Mason and may have had a hand in his tomb's design. The star has been called the Masonic hexagram and also the Star of Creation with its six points symbolizing the six days God took to create the universe. The six points of the star can also represent the six attributes of God: power, wisdom, majesty, love, mercy and justice. 

Another interpretation is that the star represents the Old Testament and the long cross on the tomb symbolizes the New Testament. 

When he died in 1852, Rev. Young was an assistant minister at St. Michael's Church. Educated at Yale and ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1827, he served for 20 years at other area churches before coming to this church. 

3. Henry Peronneau Sr.'s Medallion Portrait- Circular Congregational Church, 150 Meeting St. 

Circular Congregational's churchyard has one of the best, if not the best, collections of unique and rare grave marker artistry known as portraiture or medallion portraits. My book includes several examples. This one, made of slate, belongs to a man who was one of the wealthiest colonial Americans, Henry Peronneau Sr. (1667-1743). 

Born in France, Peronneau was part of the Huguenot (French Protestants) migration to Charleston and other cities in America. Though he helped found Charleston's Huguenot Church, Peronneau is buried at this church because, perhaps, his wife Desiree is interred here and they were members of Circular Congregational Church before the first French Huguenot Church was constructed. 

Peronneau made his fortune as a merchant, wine importer and rice planter. 

4. Alicia Rhett "Gone With the Wind" Actress- St. Philip's Church, 142 Church St. 

She had a part in one of America's all-time great movies but would shun future acting roles to stay home in Charleston. 

Alicia Rhett (1915-2014) gained worldwide fame playing India Wilkes in the 1939 classic film, "Gone With the Mind." This would be her first and last movie role. A Hollywood director spotted the 22-year-old Rhett in a play at Charleston's Dock Street Theatre. Taken by her Southern charm and beauty, he would soon offer her a part in "Gone With the Wind." 

But portrait painting would be the art form Alicia Rhett chose to pursue after her "GWTW" filming. She also worked in Charleston radio for a while. 

Rhett's art business thrived and her work remains in demand. Terrace Oaks Antique Mall on Maybank Highway recently advertised having one of her works. 

She lived to 98 years old, mostly in her Tradd Street home before moving to a retirement community in 2002. 

Her headstone in a corner of St. Philip's West Cemetery has no mention of "GWTW," instead the word "Portraitist" is the sole word reflecting her profession. She is buried next to her parents, Edmund Rhett (1877-1918) and Isobel Rhett (1890-1967). 

My book also connects with her many prominent Rhett ancestors in Charleston. 

5. Confederate Soldier Falls in a Final Battle- Coming Street Cemetery, 189 Coming St. 

Charleston's burial sites include thousands of Confederate veterans and many who did not survive the war due to battle wounds or sickness and disease.

At the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue's Coming Street Cemetery is interred a man who died in battle just weeks before Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Twenty-five-year-old Marx E. Cohen, Jr., a physician attached to an artillery unit of South Carolinians, volunteered for a dangerous mission on the first day of North Carolina's Battle of Bentonville (March 19-21, 1865). Cohen and two other soldiers were tasked with removing unexploded Union artillery shells fired into their lines. They were able to do so but were then shot down by Federals as they tried to get back to safety. 

Cohen's body was transported back to Charleston where his funeral was held at his parents' home on Ashley Street. 

His tall obelisk grave marker features crossed flags of South Carolina and the Confederate States of America. It also has the unique symbol of a cannon that is plugged so that it may never fire again. This symbolizes Cohen's death while part of an artillery battery. The inscription reads in part that he "died by volunteering the performance of a service in which he lost his life." 

6. Mysterious Manigualt Vault- French Huguenot Church, 136 Church St. 

Minimal identifiers create mystery about this large brick section of the small graveyard next to the French Huguenot Church. There is an "M" at each corner and a small rectangular stone that says simply, "Manigualt Vault 1729." Manigault is a very old and influential Charleston name. The year 1729 is when the family's American patriarch died: Pierre Manigault. 

Pierre and his future wife Judith were among the first Huguenot refugees to come to Charleston, fleeing persecution from Catholic-controlled France. 

The family's vault, like their Charleston history, runs deep. Forty people, mostly Manigault family members, were interred here from 1729-1874. 

7. Lost at "The Threshold of Womanhood"- Charleston Unitarian Church, 4 Archdale St. 

In the deliberately overgrown looking Unitarian churchyard can be found this columned pedestal with an epitaph that is as sad as they come. The slanted top of the column symbolizes a life cut short and that was certainly the case for 19-year-old Jessie Chapman who died in 1864. She passed away in Aiken, S.C. where her family likely had fled Charleston amid the protracted bombardment by Union forces. 

Jessie's obituary, likely written by her mother, ran in the Aiken newspaper. It reads, in part:  "On a quiet Sabbath morn the Angel of Death touched and closed the eyes of our dear Jessie...the darling and cherished object of loving brothers, to whom she was still the pet  

and child. She was just on the threshold of womanhood, but so buoyant, so pure and guileless.  The sweet bird-like voice we loved to hear is now, we trust, joining in angelic choirs. That fragile form is now clothed in robes of light and dizzying purity." 

Jessie's cause of death could not be found. Research suggests she was first buried in Aiken and received special permission in 1866 from Charleston Mayor Peter Charles Gaillard to be reinterred at the Unitarian graveyard with her sister Isabel. 

8. Building Charleston Brick by Brick: The Horlbecks- St. John's Lutheran Church, 5 Clifford St. 

One of St. John's most impressive burial sites belongs, fittingly, to a prominent family that knew a thing for two about building and construction. 

This churchyard is filled with German names, representing immigrants and their offspring who made important contributions to Charleston's development and growth. 

The Horlbecks certainly did their share. John (born Johann) Adam Horlbeck Sr. (1729-1612) came to Charleston from Saxony in 1764. His name is on one side of this pedestal (left) within the walled plot. John fought in the Revolutionary War. He and his brother Peter had a large and successful construction company. Together, per the inscription, they "erected many of the best public and private edifices of the time among them the Exchange," referring to the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon building that still stands today on East Bay Street. 

Sons John Adam Jr. (1771-1846) and Henry (1776-1837) expanded the family brick and construction business. In 1815, the brothers acquired Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant. They installed brick kilns on the property and by 1850 were making 4 million bricks annually and had 85 enslaved workers. 

9. Unique Section of Tabletop Grave Markers- St. Mary Catholic Church, 95 Hasell St. 

It kind of looks like a picnic area behind the St. Mary's churchyard. But no, these four structures are unique tabletop gravestones. 

There are a couple different thoughts about tabletops. They could be interpreted as an altar, reflecting the departed's strong religious beliefs. Others contend that these structures better protect the body below from natural disasters, vandals and grave robbers. 

Seven members of the Barbot family are remembered on this tabletop. They died between 1824-1898. 

The parents, Antoine and Marie, came to Charleston after fleeing the Caribbean island of St. Domingo during a revolt of enslaved people. 

The parents' names are inscribed on the top of the table and five of their children are listed on the bottom part. Matriarch Marie had this wonderfully long full name: Marie Cesarine Francois Antoinette Esnard Barbot. 

10. The Adger Advantage- Second Presbyterian Church, 342 Meeting St. 

The more than 40 different Adger graves in the Second Presbyterian churchyard may be unmatched in Charleston burial grounds in terms of name quantity. 

There are more than a dozen Adgers in this fenced plot. The largest gravestone in the back center of this photograph belongs to the family patriarch James Adger II (1777-1858). He came to Charleston by way 

of New York City where he lived for several years after emigrating from Northern Ireland at age 17 with his mother and siblings. 

Adger's huge marble marker (eight feet tall and half that as wide) represents a solid man of wealth, power and spirituality. His inscription is on the front and on the back is that of his wife Sarah Elizabeth who died two years before James. The Adgers had nine children, eight of whom lived long lives, a bit unusual for the times that saw so many young deaths.  

In Charleston, James Adger became a cotton broker, then an agent for a large Baltimore-based mercantile and merchant banking operation. In the 1840s he established the "Adgers Line," a packet steamship route between Charleston and New York. His Adger's Wharf is a city waterfront street name today. Adger's wealth was such that at one point he was considered the fourth wealthiest man in the United States. 

For more information on my new "Churchyards of Charleston" book, please contact me by email at birdseyeviewspublications@gmail.com and/or see these previous blog posts: "New Book at the Printer" and "New Book Nears Completion."  When my books finally are delivered, I will post the news here and on my other social media.