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A Soil Rich With Death · The Grim: Haunted Cemeteries & Graveyard Tales

• 0:14
  Good morning and welcome to the grim.
• 0:17
  I'm your host, Kristin, on today's episode, we opening the gate and entering your Tarion church cemetery located in Charleston, South Carolina.
• 0:27
  So grab your favorite mug cozy up.
• 0:29
  And let's take a dig into history.
• 0:32
  It's officially fall grim listeners, and we are ready to dig into some of the spookiest graveyards yet well, some might not consider Charleston, South Carolina for Halloween.
• 0:41
  There's many reasons you should.
• 0:43
  It's one of the most haunted cities in the south for one.
• 0:47
  For the second, it's also home to you.
• 0:48
  Tarion church cemetery.
• 0:50
  One of the most haunted cemeteries in the south.
• 0:53
  We've mentioned, uteri ensures should briefly before.
• 0:57
  More of a haunting within, but we haven't given away all its secrets just yet.
• 1:02
  You Tarion is a stop on one of the many holy city ghost tours.
• 1:06
  That absolutely is a must.
• 1:07
  If you're in the south during fall, if there's any city that doesn't get enough attention and the paranormal community, I think Charleston is it.
• 1:16
  Then again, maybe in some other opinions, it does.
• 1:19
  Charleston itself, although a shipping port, was first and foremost a pirate haven.
• 1:24
  Making murder, looting, stealing, and Jack Sparrow, where they shenanigans and normal activities.
• 1:29
  Upon my first visit to Charleston, I really had no idea of it's pretty spooky and morbid past.
• 1:36
  The first oddity is the city is actually built off compacted garbage.
• 1:40
  Because it sits below sea level in low country.
• 1:43
  And if that doesn't seem odd enough for you, it's also built on the dead.
• 1:48
  Mass graves and citizens from Charleston's past are now one with its soil in the holy city, but not engraves, but everywhere.
• 1:56
  if it's built off a dead and compacted garbage, why is it nickname?
• 2:00
  The holy city.
• 2:02
  Charleston has more churches within the city limits than any other city in America and allowed its residents religious expression, more than any other city normally would back in its history.
• 2:13
  With roughly over 400 churches, a variety of denominations, including a pissed couple Baptist Quaker and Jewish, all squeezed into historic limits.
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  It's impressive.
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  To preserve this skyline of staples in Charleston.
• 2:27
  The city also has a ruling that buildings are not allowed to be taller than the tallest church steeple.
• 2:33
  Giving it an older, historic and unique feel, but let's get back to business.
• 2:38
  Euterian Church Cemetery unsurprisingly flanks the Euterian Church of Charleston that was founded in 1787 on a valley Euterian since 1819.
• 2:49
  It's one of the oldest Euterian churches in the United States and the oldest in the South.
• 2:55
  The cemetery is, however, locked every evening, so no nightly strolls are allowed, but I highly recommend taking a tour to get the most out of the grounds.
• 3:03
  The church originally was started in 1774 due to the overflow from the first independent church of Charleston.
• 3:10
  What listeners need to remember is this was still during the time of England's rule in the American colonies, meaning religious freedom, although accepted in Charleston, wasn't by English rule.
• 3:22
  Anyone believing in faith outside of the Church of England was labeled a dissenter so essentially, the Euterian church was first established as the church of dissenters in the beginning.
• 3:32
  While the church was established in 1774, it wasn't actually used as a church until 1787 because of the Revolutionary War.
• 3:42
  Which, during the war, the church didn't exactly get shown any kindness from the British being used as a stable.
• 3:48
  After the war and many repairs, the church finally was used as a church.
• 3:53
  Luckily for the church and the cemetery at the time, Charleston was one of the wealthiest cities in America, meaning the church and cemetery saw improvements, remodeling, and in 1852, a redesign by architect Francis Lee in the Gothic cathedral style we see today.
• 4:11
  Charleston is now a city with perfectly maintained historic homes that make you feel like you're walking through a photo for a southern living rather than a city.
• 4:20
  So when you enter Utterian Cemetery, you feel as if you have unlocked the gate to the secret garden of the south.
• 4:26
  The gothic graves overtaken by magnolias, palm trees, and other various plants can be quite startling.
• 4:33
  The only thing maintained are the old brick pathways leading through the grounds, richly filled with death.
• 4:38
  The look is on purpose, giving the grounds to the dead and letting nature take its natural course.
• 4:45
  This take, however, doesn't really assist those looking for particular graves, or to even know whose grave you're visiting, but the overall experience is absolutely worth it.
• 4:55
  The cemetery uniquely was designed by a woman, Carolina Gilman, a first on the grim.
• 5:01
  Gilman was the wife of Samuel Gilman, the minister of the Archdale Street Unitarian Church, and she became a local legend.
• 5:08
  Originally born in Boston, Gilman met her husband in the north, and they promptly moved to Charleston right after being wed.
• 5:15
  Among the wealthy and in society, the couple conformed to the southern lifestyle and took on household slaves regardless of being from the north.
• 5:24
  Carolina, however, became an accomplished writer and publisher during her time.
• 5:29
  In 1832, she founded the Rosebud, one of the first juvenile weekly magazines published in the United States, and didn't stop there.
• 5:37
  Her husband, which was normal with the times, expected her to maintain the household and become a mother, which she did..
• 5:44
  The Gilmans had seven children, three of whom died in infancy.
• 5:48
  Carolyn also helped with the church and this led to her assistance in designing the cemetery.
• 5:53
  Her writing accomplishments, although bestsellers, were quite contradictory, due to them being about maintaining a household and being subservient to a husband.
• 6:02
  Yet instead she was a writer, publisher, and had slaves to perform her household duties and not herself.
• 6:09
  She obviously was more favored in the South due to having slaves, and also advocated for confederacy during the Civil War.
• 6:16
  Northern readers couldn't relate to her though, which cost her popularity in the North.
• 6:21
  Carolina, although advocating vocally for a woman's place in the kitchen and home, herself couldn't quite agree.
• 6:27
  quite conformed to her own standards.
• 6:29
  She expressed at times how she experienced injustice and she was made to feel like an oddity because she was an author and a publisher, but never stopped writing.
• 6:39
  Her husband Samuel passed away in 1858 and is buried within Unitarian Cemetery.
• 6:45
  Carolina lived on for many years, outliving almost all but one of her children, till she was 94 years old.
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  She passed away in 1888 in Washington, D.
• 6:56
  C., but is buried next to her husband within.
• 6:59
  memorial inside the cemetery stands for not a grave, but in memory for United States diplomat and scholar in international law, Edward Henry Strobel.
• 7:09
  Strobel, not well known today, was a Harvard graduate born in 1855 from Charleston who went into politics and made a very impressive mark in history.
• 7:19
  He was first appointed as the secretary of the lead nation to Spain, serving till 1890.
• 7:26
  During his service stationed in Madrid, he used his experience and notes to pen a book on the Spanish Revolution that was published in 1868.
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  From 1893 to 94, he served as the Third Assistant Secretary of State in Washington, D.
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  C., then as the U.
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  S.
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  Minister to Ecuador in 1894, and then to Chile in 1894 to 1897.
• 7:50
  Then finally, in 1898, he returned to the United States to Boston and then became the Bemis Professor of International Law.
• 7:57
  Yet politics weren't done for Straubel just yet.
• 8:00
  He had ended up taking a leave of absence in 1903 and headed to The Hague.
• 8:04
  Where he represented the Kingdom of Siam at the International Peace Court.
• 8:09
  After, instead of returning to Boston, he went to Bangkok to become the American Advisor in Foreign Affairs to the government of King Tlalocorn of Siam.
• 8:19
  He was instrumental during the treaty negotiation between Siam and France in 1907, playing an important role.
• 8:27
  His international travels would plague Strobe's health.
• 8:30
  For the last two years after a visit in Egypt, he dealt with illness after being bitten from an insect.
• 8:36
  Finally, still in Bangkok, he passed away on January 15th of 1908 from blood poisoning.
• 8:43
  Strobel, instead of being returned to the United States, was cremated in a ceremony almost a month later on February 5th, where the King of Siam himself lit the funeral pyre.
• 8:54
  Strobel, although not within the grounds, his memory lives on in his hometown of Charleston and his service in international affairs.
• 9:02
  Another resident of Uterian Cemetery from a political family known for stirring the pot is Charles Otis.
• 9:10
  His father famously was penned saying, Taxation without representation is tyranny.
• 9:15
  Charles, originally from Barnstable, Massachusetts, was only in Charleston for six months when he then passed away tragically at the young age of 17 from yellow fever in 1794.
• 9:29
  His headstone was carved from John Gere of Boston, Massachusetts, which, when you see his headstone, you feel transported back to a New England graveyard from its style and carvings.
• 9:41
  When wandering the grounds a planter on top of a grave excluding dates belongs to Mary E.
• 9:46
  Lee.
• 9:47
  Lee, like many residents within, first might be unknown, but actually was a famous woman writer in her time.
• 9:55
  Mary Elizabeth Lee, born in 1813 to a wealthy family in Charleston, didn't start school till she was ten from bad health, but her love of books and poetry took She rapidly then learned in her studies and loved learning new languages.
• 10:11
  She wrote for the Southern Rose, Grams Magazine, godney Lady Book and Southern Literary Messenger under the pen name M.
• 10:20
  E.
• 10:20
  L.
• 10:21
  and A Friend.
• 10:23
  Lee also published a volume called Social Evenings or Historical Tales for Youth in 1840 that was regarded as the best in the collection from Massachusetts Board of Education, School Library Association.
• 10:37
  Sadly, Mary E.
• 10:38
  Lee's health in September 23rd of 1849 was spent, and she passed away.
• 10:45
  Her mother is also buried beside her and her father is thought to be somewhere within in an unmarked grave.
• 10:52
  Many visitors to Utterian Church Cemetery are there for one main reason.
• 10:57
  They're hoping to get a glimpse of Annabelle Lee.
• 11:00
  Now before I go further, I must say this, because I didn't when we covered Annabelle the first time.
• 11:05
  This is a highly controversial haunting, burial, and story.
• 11:09
  Many takes, thoughts, and annoyances come with it, and it's hard to really know if it's false or all true in quite the story.
• 11:16
  Annabelle Leigh Ravenel is said to supposedly be a resident of Utterian Church Cemetery, but there's no evidence that she actually is.
• 11:24
  Miss Leigh's legend or tale, however, is famous and believed to be the muse for Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem, annabelle Leigh.
• 11:33
  Poe's life's famously tragic and prolific in death is one for the ages.
• 11:37
  But back to Miss Lee, and how did a Southern Belle get tied up with the father of gothic fiction?
• 11:43
  Poe, in his earlier years, was enlisted at West Point and sent to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.
• 11:52
  During his brief time, it's rumored a legend started that a Southern Belle from a wealthy family named Ravenel fell in love with a sailor.
• 12:00
  The lovebirds, forbidden due to their mismatch in social status, would meet every night inside Euterian Church Cemetery, down the street from her family's mansion.
• 12:09
  Her father discovering the couple forbid their match and locked up his daughter in her bedroom.
• 12:14
  During her imprisonment, her sailor was given orders to be stationed away from Charleston, that according to some legends was due to Mr.
• 12:22
  Ravenel's bidding.
• 12:24
  Sent away, the southern belle known as Annabelle Lee took ill with yellow fever that was quickly killing the population at the time.
• 12:31
  Before they could reunite, Ms.
• 12:33
  Lee passed away without her love.
• 12:35
  Her father, determined to keep them away in death just as much as he did in life, purchased six graves within Utterian Church Cemetery, but wouldn't say which one his daughter is buried in.
• 12:46
  Her father then turned away the sailor at her funeral and wouldn't allow him to say his goodbyes to his beloved, thus creating the unrecreated love tale of Annabelle Leigh and Edgar Allan Poe.
• 12:58
  Many believe Poe to be the sailor in the legend and say she is the muse for his aptly named poem Annabelle Leigh.
• 13:04
  Which Poe did serve at the same time that Miss Lee took her suitor and also was then stationed elsewhere when she was imprisoned by her father.
• 13:14
  It's important to note Poe also served under a false name of Perry and not his real name.
• 13:19
  Many aspects of Poe's timeline add up to the story and it's very possible it could be true.
• 13:25
  Then again, it's really hard to say.
• 13:28
  Many historians also state the poem is truly about his late wife.
• 13:32
  But then again, his childhood sweetheart also attempted to claim it was about her as well.
• 13:37
  It's a lot of story and a lot of perchance more than fact, however it's claimed Poe might be haunting the grounds at night near midnight attempting to meet his love.
• 13:46
  Many claim a young woman thought to be Annabelle haunts the grounds instead, lovesick, looking for her forbidden love.
• 13:54
  Annabelle isn't the only spirit claimed to haunt the cemetery.
• 13:58
  Two of America's first serial killers are also residents, Lavinia and John Fisher, the couple owned the hotel Six Mile just outside the city of Charleston around 1819.
• 14:09
  The Fishers were a well liked attractive couple who first seemed innocent, but after too many visitors went missing after stopping at their hotel, their neighbors took notice.
• 14:19
  Lavinia was seduced, drugged, and lured travelers into her parlor, then opened a trap door where they would then be sent to her husband John Below.
• 14:27
  A little Sweeney Todd, anyone?
• 14:29
  The problem was the local authorities had a lack of evidence.
• 14:33
  The townsfolk, though, had enough, and a lynch mob took form.
• 14:37
  They first, before going to the Fishers, seriously considered Hotel 5, down the street, to be the guilty party and went there.
• 14:45
  Yet, proven innocent, they quickly marched on and arrested the Fishers.
• 14:49
  Both Lavinia and John were never proven to be the murderers, but everyone in town knew they were guilty.
• 14:55
  The odd detail about this story is that married women were not able to be executed according to the law back in Fisher's time.
• 15:02
  The video was convinced that only her husband John would hang, but the townsfolk quickly figured a way around this small detail.
• 15:11
  The two, while being held in jail, attempted to escape, but the rope that John first used to get out with broke, leaving Lavinia still inside.
• 15:19
  He then refused to leave her and let himself only to be recaptured.
• 15:23
  On the day of their hanging, February 19th, the two put on a show for Charleston.
• 15:28
  They both now became celebrities, drew a huge crowd for the affair, walked hand in hand to the gallows.
• 15:34
  But when the time came to climb the scaffolding, Lavinia started to unravel, refusing to proceed.
• 15:40
  The constables were forced to drag her to her fate.
• 15:43
  She then pled with the crowd to save her, and then slowly realizing they wouldn't, started to scream profanity at them, and then the governor.
• 15:52
  Famously saying, cease.
• 15:53
  I will have none of it.
• 15:55
  Save your words for others who want them.
• 15:57
  But if you have a message you want sent to hell, give it to me.
• 16:01
  I'll carry it.
• 16:02
  They first hung John and then were able to hang Lavinia, who was then a widow and no longer protected by the law.
• 16:08
  Women were notoriously not seen as murderers, especially married women, and the Fisher story intrigued many because of this.
• 16:16
  The Fishers, however, fell into obscurity and are seldom spoken about today, but are, in fact, one of the first known serial killers in America.
• 16:25
  Lavinia is said to haunt the Old Exchange in Charleston and, at times, the cemetery.
• 16:30
  She can be heard bitterly screaming into the night, relearning she, indeed, was going to also hang for her crimes.
• 16:38
  Many visitors also claim to experience seeing a groundskeeper within the cemetery, even though the grounds are unkept, making him an odd sight.
• 16:47
  He's seen pushing a lawn mower in the grounds, but no noise is heard on multiple occasions and by several visitors.
• 16:55
  Even in death, he takes pride in the grounds of Euterian Church Cemetery.
• 17:00
  A lady in white is also claimed to be on the grounds at night and thought to be Mary Wittich.
• 17:06
  Mary's husband was a smoker and plagued by breathing problems.
• 17:10
  Taking ill, he was due to visit a doctor in Baltimore via ship, but died before he could make it.
• 17:17
  His wife, Mary, was informed of his death, but oddly never contacted the coroner in Baltimore, so he was buried in an unmarked grave.
• 17:26
  Mary had good reason, however, for not getting in touch, as she, too, died on the same day as her husband.
• 17:32
  Some say Mary died of a broken heart, or it's just a creepy coincidence.
• 17:37
  Visitors claim to see Mary searching for her husband within, wondering why he's not buried beside her, as his plot still to this day remains empty.
• 17:47
  It might not be a perfectly manicured southern living photo, but the gothic griefs of Charleston's residents past are charming, spellbinding, and its soil rich with death, bringing the living closer to the dead when within, and a solemn reminder that no one lives forever.
• 18:04
  So if you find yourself in Charleston or looking for a break in the hustle and bustle of the historically unique city, take a break in Euterian Church Cemetery to be charmed from its unique grounds, graves, residence, and secret garden.
• 18:19
  The gravegrind for Euterian Church Cemetery was an iced caramel latte from Highfield Coffee Roasters.
• 18:25
  For more honorary grinds in the area, please visit the grind.
• 18:30
  com.
• 18:31
  For now, we're closing the gate on Euterian Church Cemetery.
• 18:35
  We hope you enjoyed our dig into history.
• 18:37
  If you did, leave us a review wherever we're haunting your podcast queue, or subscribe today to join us next time when we open the gate on The Grimm.