The Colburn Family Legacy

For my “Old Charlestonian” project for my beyond the grave class, I chose to research Mary Rebecca Colburn and her family. One of the main reasons that I chose this family to research was because one of my good friends from Ohio is distantly related to this family which I thought was really cool. Mary was born on March 9, 1860 in Charleston, South Carolina. Her parents, Jane D. Colburn and John Henry Colburn, moved to Charleston in 1850 from Boston, Massachusetts. The Colburn family resided on Queen Street with her parents in addition to three other siblings, Sarah, James, and Thomas. While her father worked as a fire insurance agent for the city, Mary’s mother worked at home which was quite common for women to do back in the 1800’s.

The gravemarker of Mary Rebecca Colburn in the Unitarian Churchyeard 

Public library card for Mary Rebecca Colburn 

Unfortunately, Mary’s life was cut short on September 17, 1860 at six months old. She died as a result of congestion in her brain. Throughout her short life, her parents vigorously tried to find a doctor on the east coast of the United States that could perform a surgery to save their daughter. Mary was the first Colburn to parish and the first Colburn to be buried in the Unitarian Church Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina. Later on, her family members were buried alongside her in the Unitarian Church Cemetery. However, a few of the Colburn of later generations were laid to rest in magnolia cemetery which I found rather odd as there was no explanation as to why. On Mary’s headstone, her mother insisted that the words, “suffer little children to come unto me. And forbid them not” were present. I was able to find a majority of my information from the Charleston County Public Library and familysearch.org. 

The Magnificent Magnolia Cemetery

Last Friday, our class took a trip to the famous Magnolia Cemetery. Our professor has been talking about this trip the entire semester in class, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to visit.
When we first arrived at the cemetery, I was amazed at how large it was. I definitely had my expectations but the cemetery itself exceeded them by a long shot. A few years back, I was able to visit Scotland with my family and it would be safe to say that Magnolia Cemetery fit right in with other cemeteries that trip.

A photo of the overall landscape of Magnolia Cemetery 

After walking around the cemetery for a little bit, I discovered that the cemetery itself was enormous! There was a giant pond in what looked like one side of the cemetery, but in reality was right in the middle of the property. The cemetery itself was very walkable and open unlike any of the other cemeteries that we visited on past trips. Also, I found it interesting that the cemetery was grouped off into different sections (i.e. mausoleum row). The vegetation and plant life was also very vibrant in Magnolia Cemetery.

 The photo shown above is a very large grave sight in Magnolia cemetery. Right when I walked through the gates, I immediately noticed the grave marker and though it was very cool. Edward Walter Hughes was born on April 21 of 1864 and died June 7 of 1943. He is buried alongside his wife, Virginia Randolph Pickney who was born on October 8 of 1887 and died on December 8, 1917.

 This grave sight also caught my intention due to its uniqueness from any of the other grave markers that I have seen. Buried here are husband and wife, James Henry Parker and Julia Augusta Parker. James was born on January 4, 1843 and died on January 27, 1915. Julia's birthdate is not engraved, but it is noted that she passed away on December 22, 1947.

This Mausoleum was constructed by the Lipinski family. In 1998, Tara Lipinski won the gold metal for the US in figure skating. Prior to winning, she proclaimed that she would build a mausoleum if she won. Lo and behold, the Lipinski family mausoleum was constructed. 

The photo above shows myself and a fellow classmate in front of the Vanderhorst Mausoleum. Overall, I throughly enjoyed visiting Magnolia Cemetery and hope that one day I might be able to go back and see some areas that we were not able to get to on this visit.