The Rest of the Story...



SO I got the STORY......This is kind of an update to my post to Taphophile Tragics last week...the small grave with the name Little Maxcy Gregg..first some background to help make sense of the name...



Maxcy Gregg, from the Web.



Maxcy Gregg born in Columbia, SC in 1814 son to Col John Gregg was educated at the South Carolina college graduated head of the class then practiced law with his father and was active in local politics and law.  He entered a military career in 1846 but saw no action in the Mexican/American War. He had many interests such as astronomy, botony, ornithology, and language so he was a scholar. He was one of the signers of the delcaration of secession for the State of SC in Dec 1860 and fought at Fort Sumter (the shot heard round the world, the first conflict of the US CIVIL WAR) so he was a statesman right from the get go.  He later died with honor when a rifle ball the size of a marble entered his side at the battle of Fredericksburg, VA and hit his spine and he died 2 days later.  His body was returned to Columbia at rest in Elmwood Memorial Gardens...

 

NOW THE CONNECTION: During times of OLD people were often named after famous persons or leaders they held in reverance...like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, or Maxcy Gregg in this case...

ALexander Leslie McCandless was born in NJ in 1820...but

somehow he ended up an orphan in the Charleston orphan house and was taken from there and given an education...he graduated from South Carolina College in 1838...(I'm assuming he met Maxcy Gregg at College)

Later he began teaching at the Orphan Society School in Camden at age 18, and was headmaster of the school from 1839-1846...

He married his beloved Frances Agusta Coleman in 1847.  They taught at the Orphan Society School where Leslie was known to be as hard as Fannie was gentle as he had a reputation of being physically violent toward his young charges passing out whippings whenever the opportunity arose.

SO when the Civil War broke out Leslie McCandless left his job at school as the enrollment dwindled due to the enlistment of many of his charges into the CSA (Confederate States of America).  The rough n tough school master enlisted with Boykin's Rangers, Co A 2nd SC Calvary, but was later discharged not being of a soldierly disposition...after his discharge he moved to Atlanta with his family but soon returned to Camden...alone! Fannie stayed and never lived with her husband again.  She opened a school for girls in Atlanta and died in 1889.  Her body was sent back to Camden to eternally lay next to her beloved first born.....
Little Maxcy Gregg McCandless
  Sept 9th 1849--May 21, 1850
in the Old Quaker Burial Ground. 

Fannie and Little Maxy"s gravestones 

 Typhoid Fever took many during those days... although I dont know that is what Little Maxcy died of just a hunch....now we know the rest of the story.

The McCandless Family-- The tall obleske  on the left is Leslie McCandless, then Fannie, Little Maxy, Linnie McCandless Wilson, and in front left is Kate Leslie McCandless, and to the right Sidney Coleman McCandless.

THIS post is linked to Taphophile Tragics

PEACE

The Story Left Behind...

For Taphophile Tragics

... regular dixxeland readers (all much appreciated) know I am a Photo Volunteer for the Find A Grave website..and anyone can do it...its a wonderful network of people helping people with ancestry, research, and fact finding,  and  it's a huge vault of information.  I have enjoyed all the trips to the various cemteries Ive visited over the past almost a year since I started...One of the local cemeteries that I get lots of requests for photos is Quaker Cemetery  c-1759...I also combine birding with the photo shoots, since this old cemetery has Large Live Oak trees throughout.  Birds seem to love it here.

So Ive veiwed many cemeteries containing all kinds of stones...I like the old style stones best...although a few are hard to read some are in very good condition considering the age! This stone is over 200 yrs old and is still very legible!!

Ive believe in family plots it's a good idea for the Living, and after all that is what cemeteries are for, a place for the living to remember the ones who paved the way for us, they have left their legacy for us to carry on...I consider a walk around a cemetery to be a walk through the pages of family history and Community, State, and Country history....one can find great grand father, grand father, and father resting alongside or nearby and a spot for son awaits...time keeps moving forward one falls by the way so another may pick up the torch and carry it into the future.

Every stone tells a story, its up to us to find out what that story is...I enjoy doing more research to uncover the story, get the facts, and this little grave has me intrigued so I want to try and find out what is the story here?  Since Maxcy Gregg was a great Civil War Brigadier General and was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg, VA Dec 15, 1862, that makes me wonder who this tiny grave belongs to and why the name Little Maxcy Gregg?

Unsolved mysteries abound!!

This post is linked to Taphophile Tragics Meme

thank you for visiting!

PEACE