Exploring A New Religion And Culture

As our class walked down the party filled coming street we passed a large white wall that without close observation you could just pass right by. After a few steps we gathered around a small cast iron gate and entered the Hebrew cemetery or Coming street cemetery.

Not a church or flower in sight!

Once inside we saw two women both dressed in white one was Anita Rosenberg and the other was Randi Serrins. Rosenberg looked at us as said "Stand anywhere I'm sure they won't mind." She laughed slightly and began to spout knowledge like a fountain.

Standing there I began to notice many differences between this Hebrew cemetery and mine back home. For starters the church is not connected to the cemetery. Rosenberg stated, "When this cemetery was built Jewish priests considered themselves to be unholy if they entered a church next to a cemetery." I was astounded at this information then as we were walking around I noticed there were no flowers!

After talking about the many stories of ghosts and disaster that had happened in the area and to the cemetery it became clear how much pride both of these women had in their cemetery and I understood why. Three hundred years of history in one place and friends and relatives buried there.

The Star of David as seen here
was found everywhere in the
Cemetery.

While walking through the cemetery I saw two main symbols one familiar and the other new. The Star of David I was familiar with and knew the relevance it had to the Jewish culture. The other however I was not so familiar with, the Rabenic blessing. These two symbols were everywhere throughout the cemetery.

After seeing the cemetery and talking to both of our guides I felt a lot more knowledgeable about the Jewish religion just from seeing their cemetery. Anita and Randi knew what they were talking about and near the time we left Randi said, "This cemetery has been here through disease, hurricanes, and several wars." And as good as they are taking care of it this cemetery will be here for many more years.

Rabinic blessings were a
common symbol.

Graveyard Scavenger Hunt!

On the night of September 23 our class set out on a hunt to find ten different styles of grave markers in the Charleston area. On our journey we walked through Cathedral Church and Saint Patricks Catholic Church graveyard. These are the different types of markers I found.

This example of a Die on base found in Cathedral
Church and belongs to Mary Reeves. 

This is a bedstead grave marker found at Cathedral
Church. This grave belongs to Samull Pickens.

This is a Column grave marker also found at Cathedral
Church. This grave belongs to a Christopher and the last name
I couldn't exactly make out because of the weathering

This Cross grave marker was found in Cathedral
Church but the name I couldn't make out.

This Sarcophagus is at Cathedral Church as well
it sits along a wall under a tree. I couldn't find the
name nor any dates for this person. 

This lawnmarhker type grave marker was found at
Cathedral Church and belongs to Sally Warfuel.

At Cathedral Church there was also this huge
Mausoleum! This belongs to the Johnston family.

This Obelisk was stood tall in the entrance of the
graveyard at Cathedral.

     


 

This is a headstone found in Saint Patricks graveyard.
It was either in a different language or so weathered
I couldn't tell.

This marker was super unique and told a story but it
had gotten so dark no one could read it!
It is a box marker but almost a ledger it
was so thin.

Tales of the Graves With A Legend

Walking into class and sitting down had never felt more electric. This evening Dr. Harwood had brought in Ruth Miller a renown tour guide and author to tell us about the people that migrated to Charleston.

As she began to speak I quickly realized how passionate and wise Miller was. She started by telling us a funny story about how she began to like graveyards and the history behind them.

Ruth Miller energetically teaching our class. 

"I had been a tour guide for a number of years," she started smiling from the memory. "I had a bus full of morticians on one of my tours and we were on our way to a church. Well when we arrived at the church they were more interested in the graveyard! We stayed there for thirty minutes or longer and they taught me more than i taught them!" A funny start to a very energetic woman beginning the journey of knowledge for what she loved.

As the history part of the speech began Miller told us many interesting facts about Charleston. One fact that she drilled into our heads throughout the lecture was that "Winners always write history books." As she continued with her interesting speech this became more and more true.

One of the central topics of Miller's speech was the fact that there are twelve marked 18th century graves and she explained that religions didn't bury other religions in their own graveyards. She continued to explain the twelve original denominations in Charleston and how they came about.

Dr. Harwood and Ruth Miller after her speech 

Miller energetically engaged the audience with many questions and her upbeat personality the entirety of her speech. Telling us about the owner of the Carolinas Anthony Ashley Cooper was one of the more interesting facts I learned. I also enjoyed Miller's statistics such as Charleston exporting more than seventy percent of the worlds rice and that forty percent of all slaves in the colonies were in Charleston.

Writing several books about graveyards, churches and slavery Miller knew every fact perfectly. One of the things that will stick with me that she said is "Bodies, bodies everywhere!" She said this and explained that everywhere you walk in Charleston you will be walking on someones grave.

Being visited by Ruth Miller was truly an amazing experience and i throughly enjoyed it in its entirety. Thank you Dr. Harwood and Mrs. Miller for organizing this speech.

Hello everyone this week we are taking a look at our first graveyard with our groups! Our group of me, Graham and Maddie chose Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston.
We had a pretty fun time taking pictures and researching our church and the main post is on Maddie's page so everyone check it out.