It’s difficult to capture the magnitude of the Angel Oak, a 400 to 500-year-old Southern Live Oak, on Johns Island. The tree is named after the plantation of Justus and Mary Waight Tucker Angel. The oak was part of an original land grant given to Abraham Waight.
I visited Charleston in 2019 to visit the cemeteries there. If you’ve visited Magnolia Cemetery, you will know there are several cemeteries in the area. As I was leaving Magnolia, I was driving down the side roads around the other cemeteries when I noticed Ethel Lance’s marker.
The grounds were being tended to, so I had to wait until the mowers moved away from the marker. Once I got out, I noticed that she was buried near several other members of the Mother Emanuel mass murders.
The other victims are buried in different cemeteries around Charleston and South Carolina.
Founded in 1681, the Circular Congregational Church is one of the oldest churches in continual use in Charleston. The burial ground, also known as graveyard since it is next to the church, is the oldest one in the city. The first burial occurred in 1695.
Many of the grave markers are made of slate and carved in New England. The tympanic markers illustrate the evolution of grave symbolism. Skull and crossbones were part of the earlier designs, but they evolved to angels and portraiture. The graveyard contains the most slate markers in a Southern state.
