Solving the Jackson Mystery

Steps away from our "Charleston Beyond the Grave" classroom, the headstone of Elizabeth Jackson can be found. This marker indicates that the mother of the seventh President of the United States, Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, is buried around it...

 However, according to a 2011 The Post and Courier column, "Today, just off Cougar Mall in the heart of the College of Charleston’s campus, a granite marker stands and notes that Mrs. Jackson is buried 'near this spot'. But she most probably is not. This marker was moved there in 1967 by well-intended folks who wanted to rescue it from its original location about 2 1/2 miles uptown."

Elizabeth's headstone was moved to this specific spot in the Cougar Mall because a letter from  James H. Witherspoon in 1825 from Lancaster told her son, Andrew Jackson, that his mother was buried in "the suburbs of Charleston about one mile from what was then called the Governor’s Gate, which is in and about the forks of Meeting and Kingstreet Roads" (The Post and Courier).

Not much is known about Elizabeth besides the fact she passed away in the fall of 1781. Elizabeth fell victim to small pox or cholera herself after taking care of Revolutionary War soldiers that were also sick with small pox.

In regard to my research, Elizabeth's place of rest is still unknown yet there are multiple monuments honoring her including this gravestone in Cougar Mall, a monument in Old Waxhaw Cemetery, and more.

It is disheartening that Andrew Jackson spent so much time and effort for the lost cause of finding his mother's burial spot.