With Honor....

For Taphophile Tragic

AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION


Isaac N. Alexander
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army
Service # O-1175626
592nd Field Artillery Bn, 106th Infantry Division
Entered the Service from: Georgia
Died: 16-Dec-44
Buried at: Plot C Row 12 Grave 8

Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery

Henri-Chapelle, Belgium

Awards: Bronze Star, Purple Heart

While in Quaker Cemetery in my town of Camden, SC I found this small family plot, (the 3 markers one flat and 2 upright) and of course I noticed right away the 2 stones that were so similar side by side....so I had to investigate..and this is what I read the flat stone is Thomas Loryea Alexander and his wife Ellen Boykin, ...you may not be able to read he was a Brig Gen US Army.

Right beside them 

is their son born on Jun 14, 1920,
 Lt. Issac Newton Alexander's stone, and that led to me to the Henri Chappelle US Memorial as seen above and the burials of thousands of our fallen and the Lt. who died in the Battle of the Bulge in Ardennes sector.  It was the bloodiest battle of WWII.  The US Lost 89,000 men 19,000 Killed,  47,000 wounded and another 23,000 were captured!! Lt Alexander was in one of the assigned Artillery units, the 592nd, of the 106th Division, the "Golden Lions" an inexperienced unit out of Fort Jackson, SC he was part of the  HHB 155mm artillery guns units. His unit was overrun and eventually, though slowing the German advance down, they had to surrender...Mr Alexander was 24 yrs old when he gave his life in attempt to stop Hitler's advance into Europe.  His remains are buried in the Henri Chappelle US Memorial Cemetery, (anyone who is reading this from Blegium, I would love to see a photo of his marker)  THIS stone commemorats his life and service lays next to his what I have to imagine, grief stricken parents...here in my town Camden.

                                     He received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart

 

 


Bronze Star                                   Legion of Merit                                                    Purple Heart

TO the right of Issac Newton's memorial in Quaker Cem. is HIS TWIN BROTHER

Lt Col. Thomas Loryea Alexander Jr.  He received the Legion of Merit award, the Purple Heart ,the Army Commendation Medal and the Italian Medal of Valor

HE survived the war having been sent to  the North African Campaign

both born on June 14 1920

I have to imagine it was HE that erected the stones to his parents, and his fallen brother.
He passed away

March 19, 2006

One was taken right away and one lived to tell the story....

PEACE

Kindred Spirits

Something different for Taphophile this week comes from a trip I made  a couple of years ago to... 

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary outside Kanab Utah. 
You may have seen it on a tv show called Dog Town.

 Angel's Rest is the burial ground for the animals who pass away while at Best Friends...this gate at the cemetery entrance was made and donated by a caring animal lover.  This shot was taken through the window of the tour van...later we back for a closer look and had our lunch in a gazebo on the grounds.

Just finishing up lunch...

Ive never heard so many windchimes, its a beautiful serenade as you walk the paths to pay your respects to the animals that are buried here...

each grave is marked with a name and date...

The entire cemetery is completely Zen in nature and design.  Its simple, elegant, and a wonderful place to meditate, reflect, and absorb good energy--- which is fantastic, with all the "positive spirits" that have been released here you are completely at peace.  There is no evil in the heart of an animal...only pure sweet natural love and energy.

 Angel's Rest is quite large, and in fact its filled to capactiy...a new cemetery has been started in another spot nearby...THIS is a place I wouldn't mind being buried myself!!

and now a short video of the grounds.

Best Friends depends completely on donations to stay afloat so if you want to help out, volunteer, donate,  or ADOPT a PET, its a worthy cause I can vouch for them...they make a Difference!! They have all sorts of animals from Horses, dogs, cats, birds to pigs!

http://www.bestfriends.org/index.htm

PEACE

Memorable May 5, 1860 part V

for Taphophile Tragics
Boykin Mill Pond Tragedy Part V
May 5, 1860

.... this is the last Memorable May 5th post about the  Boykin Mill Pond Tragedy at least for now....due to a couple of reasons:

• firstly, you are now up to date (after reading this) with what Ive uncovered,
• secondly,  I'm running out of steam and its SPRING.... time to dig in the garden, hike, and get out of digging in the archieves every weekend for a while
• thirdly, because I'm at a wide spot in the road with my findings!! The leads I have now are many but they are vague and it will take me a while to connect all these dots.....

One victims name was listed as R J Huggins.  NOW this was a real stroke of luck...as most of you may know I am a volunteer photographer for Find A Grave.  I get requests to go photograph headstones up to a 20 mile radius of where i live. About 3 weeks ago I got a request for a grave in a cemetery near Bishopsville, SC.(a few miles away)  So off I went to get that photo. The deceased one I hunted was William James Barrett.  When I got there and found the grave it was a double headstone he and his wife... check out the wife's maiden name.

OF course the minute I saw this stone I saw that name HUGGINS the same last name of one of the Boykin Pond victims...when I uploaded the photo to Find A Grave for Mr. Barrett  the wife's headstone had not been requested, but as I normally do with a double stone,  I uploaded it to her memorial page also...and when I got to her memorial page I noticed there was a link to her Mother's  (who was a Huggins) memorial page....and that link took me to Mt Elon Baptist Chruch and I saw lots of Huggins listed in that cemetery! I had read that my Mr. R J Huggins was from Sumter county and MT Elon was in Darlington County...so I figured it was no use looking but I did....I clicked "show me all Huggins in Mt Elon cemetery" and there was a half page long list, I scrolled down only checking the death dates and ILL BE DAMNED IF I DIDNT SEE

 

To the Memory of
ROBERT JOSEY HUGGINS

Who died on the 5th of May, 1860  in the 20th year of his age,

one of the unfortunate number
drowned near Camden!!!

I couldnt believe my eyes!!

...with  more reasearch I learned this part of Darlington County, where he was buried, used to be part of what was called the OLD SUMTER DISTRICT but years later was divided  into different counties ...SO thats why my Sumter County search was in vain...as the old records had him listed in Sumter Co. but he was actually now in Darlington County!!

 SO thats number 13 found!! And in this case 13 is a lucky number as it takes me over the halfway mark!!

After many trips to the Archieves one fellow asked me "have you checked  a book called
 The History of Camden,  (Kirkland and Kennedy c-1905)?"
NO I hadnt!!!.....so I did and in Volume II Chapter 23, I found a COMPLETE LIST OF THE NAMES with a short passage about the tragedy and all the lives too soon taken from this Earth.
As you know I have already found 12 of long forgotten...and  without the aide of this remarkable list of names which it appears came from an official inquiry and the testimony of two of the Rail Road workers...one who was a hero and saved several people....
SO here are the ones I have YET TO FIND:

1. Selena Crobsy, of Camden (born in England)
2. Mary E. Hinson, of Camden
3. Benjamin F. Hocott, of Arkansas (student at McCandless School)
4. Sarah Ann Howell, of Camden
5. Jane Kelley, of Boykins (she may be in Rembert the others from Boykins were)
6. Louise McKeown, of Camden
7. Margaret McKeown, of Camden
8. John Oaks, of Camden
9. T. S. S. Richbourg, of Sumter (maybe he is in Darlington Co also?)
10. DORCAS PAGE, a free negro
11. PENDER CIPLES, a negro slave

AND I know you nearly died as I did when I saw the names of the 2 negroes! Finally a name to put to their watery fate.  I was told that Dorcas is probably a female name. There was a plantation here at that time owned by the Ciples family...called White Oak Plantation and many slaves took the  last names of their owners.  Hot lead to follow here is to find out if there  is a Ciples family cemetery, and if so were slaves  buried there? Most times when slaves were buried  the graves were marked only with a small field stone that could be carried and placed by hand...with no inscription since most slaves were illiterate--Ive been warned by other researchers not to have ANY hopes of finding the negroes burials or even a written mention in documents of any kind...:o( 

SO as I continue to follow the many leads-- too many to list here and bore you with, I close with this part V, but I promise to update with each one that I find...until then I leave you with this passage from the old Sumter Watchman article...

"Camden is shrouded in gloom, and many of its citizens overwhelmed by the most severe affliction and bereavement"

PEACE

Memorable May 5th Part III

For Taphophile Tragics!!

Boykin Mill Pond Tragedy Part III

From the Sumter Watchman...

The boat seems to have committed them to the boxom of the water, huddled together, mainly, in a mass. The water is supposed to have been about twenty feet in depth, thus thrown together in one clinging to the other, with that grasp which belongs only to those in a drowning condition, there was little opportunity for the males in the company to rescue the ladies or even to save themselves.

I do hope ya'll are not getting tired of this but its such a huge amount of information I didnt want to barely brush the surface...so my search continued for more of the Boykin Mill Pond drowning victims..I have come to the conclusion that I may never find them all...but as many as I do..I will celebrate the finding!!

------back to the original article....with the list of names it stated the following:
Miss Lizzie McKagen  and her brother Willie McKagen. 

 It was then that I remembered the reference to Lucius LeGrand as being a brother in law to the Isaac McKagen (and the article stated he was the brother to Lizzie and Willie.) Buried within  a few feet of Lucius and William Legrand (from  my story part 1) is J W P McKagen. A Confederate States of America stone is in place for him just feet away from Lucius LeGrand (the Master Mason)  and his brother...so I checked the Census for 1860 and found that JWP McKagen  was the father of Little Lizzie and Willie McKagen.

He had been mortally wounded in the Civil War, that came along a year after he lost 2 of his children on that memorable day

... in the 1860 census book of Kershaw County a notation was made on the McKagen family record stating that Lizzie and Willie were buried in the Legrand/McKagen family plot at Quaker Cemetery, having drowned that year in unmarked graves!! So maybe they lay in this wide space between Lucius and his brother, the CSA stones were added to many of the CSA soldiers graves many years later so JWP McKagen lays in this area but the stone is probably NOT over his body and there is another stone for H G McKagen in the left foreground. 

Elizabeth "Lizze"McKagen (1842- May 5, 1860) & Clarence William McKagen (1852 - May 5, 1860) lay here in unmarked graves.

SO two more found!!! IF I were a wealthy woman I would place a stone for them myself!

The old 1860 newspaper listed "Little Alice Robinson, (a sweet little girl) ..."

 the 1850 Census of Kershaw County showed Alice Davidson Robinson born 11 Jul, 1848 and the 1860 census had a notation,
Alice D Robinson, died in Boykin Mill Pond, buried Quaker Cemetery.....SO away I went back to search for little Alice Robinson...and I found her in section 15..

on the back of her stone it reads...snatched from her widowed mother's fond embrace, a brother's love and the Cherished Friend.

Little Alice Robinson was not quite 12 yrs old when she drowned in the murks of the Boykin Pond...

The Watchman article listed Miss Sarah Nettles as a victim of the tragedy...I searched for her on Find A Grave...but didnt find a Sarah Nettles, but when I searched all the Nettles in Quaker cemetery I found Lousia S Nettles Born Oct 25, 1842 d. May 5, 1860 !!!!!!!

SO my Sarah Nettles is Lousia Sarah Nettles...and she was buried in a family plot in section 4 along with more brave young men from her family who had enlisted in the Civil War that would break out soon after this tragedy..

Two more mere babes found....so this part III had me finding the resting places of 4 more of the dead....thats 11 of the 24 found!!!

from the article...

Piercing cries and shrieks, and calls for help, both from those on shore and those on the unfortunate boat, filled the air. Sisters and brothers, parents and children, relatives and friends, whose hearts were bound together by the nearest and dearest of earthly ties, and animated by the warmest and most tender affection, were there - some on the sinking boat and some on the shore. Oh how rudely were those confiding hearts torn asunder and ravished with wild and aching grief!

more to come in part IV...

this is the old Mill Building as it stands today...it has withstood the test of time and tragedy..

built in 1792, and Grits are still milled there today--if you google it you can order some Boykin Mill Grits!

                                                 

PEACE

Memorable May 5th - Part 1

Back in January of this yr I was at the old Quaker Cemetery looking for a grave to satisfy a photo request for Find a Grave.  I came upon this broken stone, I said "what a shame this is broken' and yet it was such a perfect stone in every other way and I read it...

Sacred to the Memory of My Husband

Lucius R LeGrand

aged 31 years

Who was drowned on the Memoralble 5th May, 1860

at Boykin Mill Pond

Since Im very familiar with the Boykin Mill Pond, about 10 miles outta town....I was intriqued immediately..and then right beside that stone was this one

WHAT??? A brother also drowned...May 5th, 1860? So of course that did it...I had to find out why these brothers drowned!!! So I googled it..

HOLY COW...here's what  I found:

SUMTER WATCHMAN EXTRA  FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT!

SPECIAL TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE TO KINGSVILLE FOR THE WATCHMAN

TWENTY FIVE PERSONS DROWNED

BOYKINS' MILL POND, NEAR CAMDEN

THE SCENE

MONDAY MORNING MAY 7, 1860 -- SIX OCLOCK

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT

UNbelievable!! Ive found 2 graves of 25 persons drowned in a mass drowning...

So it was that the old newspaper article declared it such a horrid tragedy...the news was relayed by telegraph and old Mr Whitherspoon took down the names of the dead and that list was published, 25 people DROWNED...IT was later learned that the number was 24....the grisly list saddened every heart as it was read. Listed were the 22 sir names of the now dead young girls and boys and at the end of the list was stated ....and 2 negroes! Pre Civil War....(DAMN-how inhumane is that? More on this at a later Date!)

So a picnic and party was on and about 50 or so of the prominent family members got on a flat bottom boat, they intended to pole the boat across the pond and back it was such a beautiful May day...out about 100 ft from shore in 25 feet of water, they got caught on a snag...The polers rocked it back n forth in an attempt to get free but------THE WOOD BOTTOM busted and the craft began to take on water,,,,most paniced and jumped sinking to the depts of the murky mill pond muddy bottom.....and it took their lives away...SO I decided to TRACK down the burial place and hopefully photo of each of the victims gravesites....next week part 2!!

For Taphophile Tragics

PEACE



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

History...is alive and well

SO Im researching this mass drowning that happened in my community... What you didnt hear about it??
Well thats because it happened back in 1860!! HA-

Meanwhile its so cool as you look for one bit of history you find 10 other bits that you had no clue about..(they dont teach this stuff in school)--Here in my area the Revolutionary and the Civil Wars get all the attention, yet real life history fills the cracks of this place...lots of other things happened ...yes the South was a battle ground and there is a-lot of that history here each and every battle has been recorded, studied, restudied, marked, and such..but to me its the human stories that never made the history books that are fascinating...like this one-
...back in early 1829...
Mr Thomas A Hopkin's mother held a grudge against Mr. Henry G. Nixon's father...she accused him of swindling her outta some land, and I reckon she passed her angry and revengeful story down and onto her son.  So Mr Hopkins called Mr. Nixon out to a duel.  The date was set and they kept it on the QT, least their families should try to talk them out of the fool hearted idea.  Dueling was considered a gentleman's way of restoring Honor to ones name and one's family name....
(this brings to mind Klingon Warriors from StarTrek)...
anyways the duel took place in Augusta a SC/GA border town on the public dueling ground. YEAH...there was such a thing. 

Mr Nixon was the pride of Camden having been born here in 1800 a native (the town was founded in 1787) and with his stellar education he was a lawyer, a SC Legislator, & past chairman of the committe to receive General Marquis de LaFayette, (who helped the budding United States to fight the War of Independence,) when he made his second (and last) visit to the USA in 1825.  LaFayette came to our fair town and dedicated Mr Baron DeKalb's ( a German Rev War Hero's) memorial we have streets named in both their honors and a very old and rather weird looking Cedar tree in our town called the LaFayette Cedar.

SO back to my story...Mr Nixon's father owned the Jackson Hotel....that stood on the corner of King & Broad streets...not far from the Quaker Meeting house and burial grounds.  Mr Hopkins knew his way around a pistol but Henry G Nixon needed a little practice, Im sure he was more adapt at legalese than shooting---so

Mr Nixon went to the Quarker Burial Ground to practice with his pistol, it was written that he fired off the 2 rounds from his dueling pistols aiming at the headstone (placed in 1822) of Scottish merchant Mr Neil Smith...and his wife Isabella....

and then on Jan 15, 1829 exactly 183 yrs and 6 days ago... Mr Nixon was killed in that duel when Mr Hopkins, shot first he fell dead upon the ground...and died with honor intact but his body in ruins...his bereeved father buried him near the Quaker burial ground where he had practiced for this event....in the Old Presbyterian Burial ground and the grief stricken father erected a fence of granite and iron around his sons burial spot.  It was only 2 short years later (1831)that Mr. Hopkins himself would die, they say of grief over his deed.  His grave has since been completely obliterated as a newly cut road encroached on the Swift Creek Baptist Chruch in Boykin, SC and graves were simply pushed aside to make way for progress...

The Jackson Hotel burned to the ground in November of that same yr and the The Nixon family left their beloved Camden in 1833 and went to Alabama and bought a plantation... I wonder how the Nixon plantation fared during Shermans bloody march through the South?
SO I went to the Old Quaker Burial Ground...and I looked for and found Mr Neil Smith, a merchant and his Wife Isabella's headstone...and wouldnt you know look what I found on the backside of that rock....

PEACE

This post is linked to
Taphophile Tragics.

The Old Stone Church-c1784

Instead of reposting this, I wanted to share it for Taphophile Tragics.

I seem to be falling farther and father behind with blogging...posting my own adventures and reading YOURS..but one does what they can and goes forward.  I am still about 2 weeks behind--so this trip was on March 12th. 
I think I mentioned the SC National Heritage Corridor in my last post and this is one of the historic spots one can visit off that corridor.  Its located between the towns of Pendleton and Clemson SC. 

The Old Stone Chruch building began in 1784-and it was as much a fortress as it was a place of worship since this was still a time of fighting between settlers and the Natives who already lived there. 

I love this stone work

John Rusk (check out the history of Texas the Rusk family was very influential in the history) who is buried here was one of the founding fathers of this chruch and this community.  The cemetery hosts the graves of many Revolutionary Vets, War of 1812 Vets, Civil War Vets, with the oldest grave being 1795.  I didnt find that one but I found many others--
This Chruch was used by the Hopewell Presbyterians until they moved to Pendleton and built a new more Antebellum style chruch. 

Rev war Vet 1891

Civil war vet 1918

1824 and 1837



These two stones are the markers of a German Immigrant Joseph and Elizabeth Whitner who fought for the Independence of the budding USA-and were members of this frontier church and community.

The cemetery has many big old Eastern Red Cedar trees standing throughout---I found this old grave to be interesting the story goes like this...

Eliza Huger (pronounced Hugee)

...according to a long told story, Eliza Huger, a member of a prominent Charleston family, moved to New Orleans. Even by the standards of that city, her actions were considered scandalous. The story tells that Eliza's brother shot her and her lover, while they were entwined in unholy acts (left to your imagination, and probably NOTHING by todays standards). Burial within the cemetery was allowed only on the condition that an enclosure be constructed around the site. Her grave lies within high stone walls at the Old Stone Church Clemson SC--Inscription reads:

                                                                 

                                                                      A Brother's Sorrow

dedicated

This marble to the memory

of his Sister

Beneath it are the remains

of Eliza Huger

whose Spirit returned to

Heaven



I couldnt read the dates on this marker, I can see October 9, but that huge crack has oblierated the year.... I tired online searches and came up with ZIP.  Legend says the cemetery allowed her burial only if the high stone wall was put around so as not to contaminate the surrounding ground near her
"soiled body"...and legend says the stone wall has been replaced many times as it keeps falling apart, and lightening has hit the marker and fractured it!