Gravestone Symbolism: George Lynes Sr.

We continue our look at Berkeley County gravestones and gravestone symbolism with this marker for George Lynes. Lynes (1807-1870) and his wife Lizzie are both buried in the Saint James Goose Creek Chapel of Ease in Strawberry. The Lynes family owned Foxbank Plantation, and George worked as an overseer on several other area plantations.

Photo by Camposanto on FindAGrave.

His original marker includes a cross and a crown. This Christian symbolism represents “the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4) to be received in Heaven. It may also represent the deceased’s victory over death through Christ.

Early in 2026, the original marker was cleaned and reinstalled inside of a new, stronger stone; the base of the original marker was beginning to crack and text was partially buried beneath the ground. The new stone has the same text as the old on the reverse.

The marker reads:
SACRED
To the Memory of
GEORGE LYNES Sen.
Born Dec. 8th 1807,
Died April 23rd 1870.
—
Father, thy passing spirit gently fled,
Sustained by grace divine.
O may such grave on us be shed
and make our end Like Thine.

Gravestone Symbolism: Paul Mazyck

Paul (1702-1749) and Catharine (1711-1749) Mazyck’s slate grave marker in Black Oak Cemetery is one of the oldest legible in the county. It was moved from Pooshee Cemetery during the Santee Cooper Project. The Mazycks may have been visiting Catharine’s stepfather at Pooshee when they died.

Photo by David DuBose.

The hourglass on the left of the marker represents the quick passing of time; the winged person, leaning on the hourglass, perhaps Death personified, was common on early 18th-century tombstones like this one. Next to the scythe is an ouroboros. Curiously, while three bones are carved on the stone, there is no skull to make a skull-and-crossbones. Columns bound the marker's text; whole columns like these often mean a life well-lived.

The marker reads:
In hopes of a Joyful Resurrection
here rest in Peace the Remains of
PAUL MAZYCK ESQ.
Who departed this Life the 18th
January 1748/9 Aged 46 years
and CATHARINE his Wife who
died the 17th of the same Month
aged 37 Years

#TextileTuesday and the Airing of the Quilts

This Saturday, October 3, is the Berkeley Modern Quilt Guild’s third annual Airing of the Quilts. In many places this is a spring tradition - freshening the quilts after they’ve been in use for the long winter - but the BMQG fall version makes sense too: who wants to use a quilt if it smells like the closet it was kept in all summer?

Ahead of the event on Saturday, we wanted to take a look at some of the quilts in the Museum collection.

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Our most modern (or most recently created) quilt is the “Burgoyne Surrenders” quilt hanging in the Museum lobby, which was made in 2025-2026 by the Berkeley County Quilters in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States' founding. This quilt pattern, also known as the “Burgoyne Surrounded,” is said to be inspired by the defeat of British General John Burgoyne in 1777 at Saratoga, New York. Burgoyne’s troops are represented by the center squares, surrounded by American forces. This pattern first became popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s, perhaps around the time of the centennial of the Revolution.

L23.12.8

Our next quilt is on display in the Indigenous South Carolinians exhibit. It is on loan from former Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians Spiritual Leader Loretta Clark Leach, granddaughter of Geneva Varner Clark. Geneva Varner Clark (1905-1975) was a matriarch of the Wassamasaw Tribe. In 1938, WPA photographer Marion Post Wolcott photographed Clark and three of her children. Varner identified as Native American, referring to herself as a “Summerville Indian.” The photos by Post are the only known photos of members of a Lowcountry Indigenous community housed in the Library of Congress.

95.9.1

Finally, the bicentennial quilt was recently removed from our temporary exhibit 1776/1976/2026 and returned to collections storage. This quilt was made by the Santee Circle Quilters (also known as the Santee Circle Home Demonstration Club) in 1976. The squares display different aspects of Berkeley County history and give the names of the sixteen quilters.

From the Director's Desk: Welcome, Leah!

This post was originally published on Facebook on September 21, 2026.

Leah pictured here hard at work on the Berkeley County Museum’s new WWII database.

Everyone say hello to Leah! Leah is our new intern/volunteer. She's working toward her history degree and has a special interest in World War II and the Cold War. She's working on compiling a Berkeley County World War II database like the one we have for World War I. When this collaborative project is complete, it will be added to the Museum website and available 24/7. See our WWI database here. Do you have a Berkeley County relative or family friend who served in the armed forces during WWII? Email collections@berkeleymuseum.org to share their story!

Leah is also learning about what it’s like to work in a small museum. From her work on the database, to gift shop inventory, to sweeping the floor, Leah is truly getting an immersive museum experience! We greatly appreciate her hard work and are excited to spend the semester with her.

Tony Small of Eutaw Springs

Tony Small was a Black man from the area of Eutaw Springs. He was likely born about 1760, but the exact date and location are unknown. It is also unknown whether Small was enslaved or free in 1781; more on this below.

The Battle of Eutaw Springs was fought on September 8, 1781. While now in Orangeburg County, this area was part of Berkeley County until 1910. The battle was the last major engagement of the Revolution to be fought in the Carolinas. Present at this battle was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, an Irishman serving as a British aide-de-camp and lieutenant. Fitzgerald, a teenager at the time, was wounded in the leg and left on the battlefield.

Lieutenant Fitzgerald and Tony Small by Dale Watson.

While it is unknown whether Small took part in any of the fighting at Eutaw Springs, he found the wounded Fitzgerald and helped him to safety. Small nursed him back to health and accepted a position as groom. Eventually, Small and Fitzgerald made it to Charleston, from whence they sailed to Ireland in 1782. Small would be Fitzgerald’s assistant and friend for the rest of his life.

Was Tony Small an enslaved person? His family is not listed among the approximately six hundred families in Paul Heinegg’s Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820. However, none of Lord Fitzgerald’s writings mention difficulty in removing Small from South Carolina or payments made to former enslavers. Very few records exist for Black people in colonial and Revolutionary South Carolina, so it is likely we will never know Small’s status before leaving the country.

A few years after the War, Fitzgerald and Small returned to North America and traveled together for eighteen months. They crossed Canada from New Brunswick to lower Ontario, where they then crossed into Detroit and made their way to the Mississippi River and down to New Orleans. From there, they returned to the British Isles. On this trip, it appears that Fitzgerald solidified his belief in equality and unity. In a letter, Fitzgerald writes: “I was going to send Tony to London to learn to dress hair, but when he was to go, I found I could not do without his friendly face to look at and one that I found to love me a little.” Upon their return, Fitzgerald began truly embracing the cause of Irish Unification.

The Fitzgeralds had residences in both Ireland and England. Small frequently stayed in Piccadilly, London, particularly after Fitzgerald’s death, though research is ongoing to learn more about his life while there. While in Ireland, Small married Julie, the nursemaid for the first Fitzgerald child. Tony and Julie had at least two children, Edward and Harriet.

Letter from ‘Anthony Small’ requesting the payment of £100 owed to him from the Fitzgerald estate, 1803. National Library of Ireland.

Lord Fitzgerald died in 1798 at the age of 34, arrested and mortally wounded for his support of a unified Ireland. Immediately after his death, Small and his family helped Lady Fitzgerald and her children flee to Germany to escape creditors. Small stayed closely associated with the Fitzgerald family until at least 1800, and asked for owed money in 1803. (In the early years of their friendship, Fitzgerald had mentioned that Small wished to learn to read and write, though if Fitzgerald was involved in the instruction is unknown.)

The Small family battled illness and financial difficulty in 1803; Julie Small advertised her services as a lady’s maid, noting that she spoke three languages: English, French, and German. In 1804, the following record appears in the parish books for St. Mary’s Church, Wimbledon: "Anthony Small, a Black, aged 40, buried.” If this is Tony Small, he was one year younger than Fitzgerald and buried about 8 miles from his home. He may have been looking for work when he died. There is a record of a will for ‘Mr Anthony Small, a manservant of London’ in the Dublin Prerogative Court Index, but no will exists, possibly a casualty of the 1922 fire at the Public Records Office.

The two Small children lived to have children of their own, but only Edward’s line continued after one generation. Many of Tony’s descendants live in New Zealand, where his granddaughter immigrated.

National Waffle Day

National Waffle Day is celebrated on August 24, the date in 1869 on which when Cornelius Swarthout of New York received the first U.S. patent for a stovetop waffle iron. The word "waffle" first appeared in the English language more than a hundred years earlier, in 1725; waffles had been a not-uncommon food, particularly among Dutch immigrants, but Swarthout's waffle iron added a shorter handle and clasp to make flipping easier.

We have several waffle irons in our Museum collection, though they all date to eras post-U.S.-patent. This simple cast iron waffle maker is likely the oldest, from the 1870s or 1880s. There are no makers marks or labels, and the pin is missing from inside the rotation area. The iron would be placed over the coals and then flipped halfway through cooking. See it on display in our 19th-century kitchen.

98.12.1

By the 1910s, General Electric and other companies were experimenting with electric waffle irons like we use today. This 1940s electric Sears Kenmore waffle iron was donated to the Museum in 1998. The Bakelite - an early plastic - handles are brittle but intact. The waffle iron worked when it was donated, but we haven’t tested it since!

Will you celebrate National Waffle Day with some of the treat?

National Lighthouse Day

On this day in 1789, Congress approved an act for the establishment and support of lighthouses, beacons, and buoys. Lighthouses previously maintained by the states received federal support. The original Morris Island Lighthouse on Charleston harbor, built in 1767, was one of the lighthouses turned over to the federal government.

August 7, 1989 was the first National Lighthouse Day, celebrated to mark the 200th anniversary of the original act.

This small painting of what looks like a lighthouse or distant boat (22.10.11) comes from the Dyson Collection. It is made with the Verre Églomisé technique, meaning the back of the glass is painted.

WWI Story: Dreyfus Obed Winter

Dreyfus Obed Winter, known as “D.O.”, was born in Moncks Corner in 1899. He was the son of David McKewn and Sarah Bessie Law Winter, both also born in Berkeley County; after David’s death, Sarah Dessie married L.P. Walling and ran a hotel in town for a number of years.

Winter registered for the draft in Moncks Corner on September 6, 1918. He was a student at the University of South Carolina at the time of registration. He was inducted into the Army less than one month later. Winter was a member of the SATC, or the Student Army Training Corps. This meant that he underwent military training while continuing to be an enrolled student. The training period was short-lived for Winter; World War I ended in November 1918, and he was honorably discharged from the Army as a private in December of the same year. He registered for the draft again in 1942 but saw no further military service.

Photo provided by Bill Skinner.

After the War, Winter pursued the medical field. By 1930, he and his wife were living in Sumter, where he listed his occupation on the census as “physician.” In 1974, three years before his death, Dr. Winter received a “meritorious award” from the Medical University of South Carolina for 50 years of service. The Winters had one child, a daughter Esther (1931-2013).

Dr. Winter passed away in Sumter in 1977 and is buried in Sumter Cemetery.

Artifact Spotlight: William Moultrie's signatures

William Moultrie is known across the country for his part in the American Revolution. You’ve likely visited (or at least heard about) Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. You may have even visited the cenotaph for the two-time governor in Saint James, Goose Creek churchyard. But did you know that the Berkeley County Museum has two different documents with his signature?

Both documents are land grants or land-related transactions. The older of the two, dated to September 1784, lays out 640 acres in the Ninety-Six District for Richard Gough. Moultrie, lieutenant governor at the time, signed the plat.

MSS1.10.28

The partial wax seal attached is presumed to be Moultrie’s, but it is unconfirmed. The plat is also signed by Deputy Surveyor Thomas Lewis and Surveyor General Ephraim Mitchell.

The second Moultrie signature in the Berkeley County Museum collection comes from 1794, when he was ending his first term as governor. This plat is for land in the "Washington District" of South Carolina, which included the modern counties of Anderson, Pickens, and parts of Greenville.

94.1.1

This signature came into our collection with a large wax Seal of South Carolina. The seal was first used in 1777; by the mid-1780s, the double-sided nature of the seal had become cumbersome, so a single-sided seal was introduced. The seal in the Museum collection is double-sided. The 1794 document shows shadowing, evidence of potential seal use, but it is unknown whether it was the double-sided version.

Both of these wonderful signatures are currently on display at the Museum. Find them near the Revolutionary War kiosk.

Thomas Walter: Patriot and Botanist

Thomas Walter was likely born in Hampshire, England about 1740; an aunt died there in 1784 and left him a house, from which he collected rent for the last 6 years of his life. It does not appear that he attended a major university like Cambridge or Oxford, but Walter likely received a formal education. By 1769, Walter was in South Carolina.

Over the next two decades, Walter acquired nearly 5,000 acres of land across the Lowcountry and Pee Dee, much of which was in Berkeley County. Though he spent time in Charleston, his home plantation was on the south side of the Santee River near Mexico Plantation and the Marion family.

Walter’s first wife was Anne Lesesne of Daniel Island, who unfortunately died within a year of marriage. Walter’s next wife was Ann Peyre, possibly of St. Stephen’s Parish, with whom he had four children; their marriage was also short, ending with Ann’s death in 1780. His third and final marriage, in 1781, was to Dorothy Cooper. They also had a daughter.

Around the time of Anne’s death, Walter began an earnest study of botany. Walter studied the plants within an approximately fifty-mile radius of his plantation and worked with fellow botanist John Fraser to study and collect specimens from the Midlands and Upstate. Walter’s botanical garden on the Santee was likely one of the first intentional botanical gardens in the English colonies of North America. Fraser took Walter’s research manuscript and samples from his collection to England in 1788. The manuscript was published as Flora Caroliniana, and the specimens are still housed at the British Museum of Natural History. Walter was the first to use the Linnaean system of classification for North American flora, providing brief descriptions for over 1,000 plant species. Since his death, eight plant species have been named in Walters’ honor. The Flora Caroliniana can be viewed as a PDF here.

Being an Englishman by birth, many assume that Walter was a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. This was not the case. Walter was a member of the committee for the Continental Association, actively recruiting for the Patriot cause by at least the autumn of 1774. In 1779, the botanist-planter was commissioned Deputy Paymaster of the Militia.

Walter also had an even more local connection to us here at the Berkeley County Museum, which is located inside Old Santee Canal Park. In 1786, Walter joined the board of a commission created to investigate and plan connecting the Santee and Cooper Rivers with a canal. The Canal would not be constructed until after Walter’s death, but he was involved in the early years of planning.

Photo by Mike Stroud, 2009.

Thomas Walter died in January 1789 after being ill for some time. His will listed 32 enslaved people, 7 oxen, 9 cows, 39 sheep, 19 hogs, 230 bushels of corn, 45 barrels of rice, and nearly 3000 bushels of rough rice. He was buried in his garden beside the Santee River. A historical marker for him stands outside of St. Stephen, and a road called Thomas Walter Circle can be found in Santee. Botanist H.W. Ravenel visited the Walter property in the 1850s, but unfortunately, "one or two . . . things, were the only memorials left of his botanical garden.”

Artifact Spotlight: "Columbia Calls" recruitment poster

The focus of today’s Artifact Spotlight is this World War I “Columbia Calls” recruitment poster.

MSS29.1.1

Convinced that the US entering the war was inevitable, Frances Adams Halsted wrote a poem, Columbia Calls, in 1916. After America entered World War I on April 6, 1917, Halsted donated her poem and accompanying image design to the U.S. War Department. Three months later, the New York Times announced plans to print 500,000 copies as a poster; over one million copies were eventually printed. This poster therefore dates to about that year.

The poster is torn on the bottom right and the corner is missing, but most of the text remains. The original poster was painted by Vincent Aderente.

The poster was found in the Museum’s map cabinet with no provenance or donation information - if you know the donor, please let us know! Unfortunately, our copy of this poster is in extremely poor condition and cannot go out on display.

Dianah Johnson of White House Plantation

To continue telling a diverse history of the Revolution, the Museum and Berkeley 250 are working to research the lives of the War's Berkeley County women.

Formerly enslaved at White House Plantation in Goose Creek, Dianah Johnson was a teenager when she "ran off" in 1780. In November 1783, Dianah embarked from New York City on the L'Abondance, a British ship used to transport formerly-enslaved Black Americans to Nova Scotia. Nothing else is known of her life, though there is a marriage of a Dianah Johnson and Mingo Leslie in New York City in 1783. The embarkation list for the L’Abondance shows Mingo Leslie's name listed directly above Dianah's.

The image here comes from the "Book of Negroes," a list of nearly 3,000 Black refugees leaving the United States for Canada in 1783. There are several Berkeley County names in the document; more research is ongoing.

WWI Story: Felix Ferguson

Private Felix Ferguson was born in 1893 or 1895 in Berkeley County, the son of Felix Ferguson and Keziah Brown. His exact birth year is unknown - his death certificate shows 1893, but his draft registration shows 1895. Before the military, he worked as a farmer near Whitesville.

In December 1917, Ferguson registered for the draft at Moncks Corner. By April of the next year, he was a private in the 371st Infantry headed to France; Ferguson listed his place of residence on the departure sheet as "Oakley Depot". He served until February 24, 1919 and was honorably discharged in March 1919. Ferguson was awarded three citations for gallantry in action near Trieres Farm (France) in September 1918, continuing to fight though he had trench foot.

Unfortunately, Ferguson's post-war life was short. He passed away in January 1920, less than a year after returning home. His cause of death was nephritis, with the condition "discovered soon after return from Army." While it's not listed as such, it's possible that Ferguson died of trench nephritis, an infection first recognized during the War. He left behind a partner and children.

Ferguson is buried at Beaufort National Cemetery; his headstone was installed there in 1937. His American Victory Medal and Silver Star are on display here at the Berkeley County Museum.


Timothy Withers of Goose Creek

To continue telling a diverse history of the Revolution, the Museum and Berkeley 250 are working to research the lives of the War's lesser-known figures, including women and enslaved people.

Timothy Withers was born in about 1757. It is unknown where Withers was born or if Timothy was his name at birth. He was enslaved by William Withers at one of his Goose Creek plantations, possibly Red Bank.

Though the Book of Negroes says that Withers acquired his freedom in 1779, it is more likely that he self-emancipated sometime between the death of William Withers in the autumn of 1778 and the sale of Red Bank plantation in December 1778.

Timothy Withers | 26 | Stout fellow
(from The Book of Negroes - Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester: Papers, The National Archives, Kew (PRO 30/55/100) 10427 pages 133-134.)

Withers joined up with the Black Pioneers, a British auxiliary military unit, perhaps when the group was in Charleston; his position within the Pioneers is unknown, but the jobs were often dangerous ones such as courier and scouting duties. The Company traveled with Colonel Sir Henry Clinton and were with him in New York City at the end of the War. It was here in November 1783 that Withers embarked on the Joseph, a ship used to transport formerly enslaved Black Americans to Nova Scotia. He was listed in the ship manifest as 26 years old, a “stout fellow,” and formerly enslaved by William Withers.

Nova Scotia Archives; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Nova Scotia Land Petitions (1765-1800); Volume Number: 20

Unfortunately, little else is known about the life of Timothy Withers. Withers made it to Nova Scotia, where he and other former Black Pioneers made lives for themselves in Annapolis County and the surrounding area.

In 1789, Withers and over 100 other formerly enslaved Black people were given property on the southern part of the peninsula. Withers, for having served with the Black Pioneers, was to given nineteen acres of farmland near Clementsvale and Digby. He was also to be granted a town lot. Whether or not Withers actually settled there is unknown; many of the names on the land grant application never used the land. A “Timothy Weathers” appears in Clements Township (now called Clementsport) census records in 1791, but it is unknown whether this is the Timothy Withers formerly of Goose Creek. More than 1,000 Black people who had evacuated to the Maritimes of Canada left for Sierra Leone in 1792; Withers may have been among them.

What's in a Name?: Moncks Corner

Today, a visitor asked, "When did they add the 'c' to Moncks Corner?" and we thought that would be a good blog post!

The short answer is that it was always there. The longer answer involves spelling standardization (whether people included the 'c' or not when writing about the town). But neither answer includes the monks at Mepkin Abbey, who arrived over 200 years after the town was first settled.

The area around modern Moncks Corner was historically occupied by Indigenous peoples. During the late 17th century, the first permanent white settlers were largely French Huguenots, many descendants of whom still live in the area. These Huguenots intermarried with English settlers.

In 1735, James Le Bas - grandson of a French Huguenot immigrant - deeded 1,000 acres of land to Thomas Monck. Thomas Monck was married to Joanna Broughton, daughter of future lieutenant governor Thomas Broughton; it’s possible he purchased the Le Bas land to be close to his wife’s family, who had land in the area. Monck named the land “Mitton.”

By 1748, a settlement had sprung up in the area of Mitton Plantation and was called Monck’s Corner, as seen in this South-Carolina Gazette real estate notice. This settlement was likely called “Monck’s Corner” because it was on or near the land owned by the Monck family. Mitton Plantation was near the fork or “corner” in the road out of Charleston; the left fork went toward the Cherokee Path and the Congaree River Road, while the right fork went toward the Santee River and Georgetown and points northeast. Moncks Corner doesn’t appear to have been planned - it just happened to spring up around the heavily-trafficked intersection.

It is unknown who the first permanent residents of “Monck’s Corner” were, though they were likely traders or those who benefited from trade. The first known marriage in Moncks Corner was solemnized in 1754 between Simeon Theus of the town and Elizabeth Mackey of Amelia Township (near Orangeburg). By the late 1750s, several stores and businesses were located in the town.

The apostrophe in the name came and went for decades, before (mostly) disappearing with the arrival of the railroad in the 1850s, as shown on this 1857 atlas. There was likely no postmaster in Moncks Corner between the end of the Civil War and 1873, when a post office was reestablished.

So where do the monks come in? In 1949, Henry and Clare Booth Luce donated a large part of the Mepkin Plantation property to the Order of the Cistercians of Strict Observance, more commonly known as “Trappists.” The Abbey is open most days and is a beautiful and historic place to visit.

WWI Story: Florence Inez Meyers

Florence Inez Myers was born in Cordesville in December 1899. In her youth, she attended Carlisle Academy in Bamberg. Her family were farmers.

In October 1918, Myers enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in Charleston. By the end of WWI, over 12,000 women served with the USNR. Myers was honorably discharged in July 1919.

After the war, Myers returned to Cordesville and farmed with her family. Within a few years, she had married and moved to North Charleston, where she shows up on the 1930 census with her husband and daughter. The Smiths lived in North Charleston through at least 1970, when Frank Smith, retired superintendent of Texaco, died.

Florence Myers Smith died in 1979 and is buried in Pinopolis.

Did you know Mrs. Smith? We'd love to have a photo to include in our database of WWI servicepeople.

Grave marker photo by Mike & Bushy Hartman on FindAGrave.

National Prune Day

June 15 is celebrated as National Prune Day. For more information, visit the California Prune website.

The South-Carolina and American General Gazette, Mar 13, 1777.

There are over a dozen varieties of plums native to North America. Early colonists would have had access to the wild American plum, Prunus americana, here in South Carolina. Prunus angustifolia, the Chickasaw plum, is native to the continent, but was likely introduced to South Carolina via Native American trade. Notice in the 1777 property ad that the orchard contains plum trees of both English and Chickasaw varieties. Henry Laurens also introduced French plum trees into the Lowcountry. As early as 1739, traders in Charleston were importing “Raisins of the Sun and Prunes” for the colonists’ enjoyment. (An interesting, non-prune-related note: importer William Welfit noted in the same July 1739 notice that he would take payment in “Good Rice, Pich (sic.), Tar and Deer Skins” in addition to “ready Money.”)

Horticultural experimentation with native plums occurred throughout the following centuries, but most larger cities and markets relied on important or non-native plums for their money-making. Not all plums are good for making prunes; both the wild American plum and the Chickasaw plum can be dried to eat, but other varieties are better for this purpose. Today, prunes most commonly come from the European plum.

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In the spring of 1904, Mrs. Mary Louise (Gaillard) Macbeth of Pinopolis ordered groceries from Welch & Eason in Charleston. She was accidentally sent six pounds of prunes! We don’t know if Mrs. Macbeth settled up with the grocers, but we do have several other receipts from the Macbeth family around the turn of the 20th century.

WWI Story: Ruth Evelyn Bunch

Ruth Evelyn Bunch was born in Town of St. Stephen, SC in February 1901. Her parents were Edward and Mary Bunch.

By the fall of 1918, Bunch had moved to Charleston. She enlisted as a Landsman, Yeoman (F), U.S. Naval Reserve Force in September; it's possible that she lied about her age, because the "The Official Roster of South Carolina Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the World War" claims she was born in 1899. Bunch was stationed at the Navy Yard in Charleston until Armistice Day.

Bunch was discharged as a Yeoman (F) 3rd class in June 1920. Her occupation is listed as "civil service stenographer" on the 1920 census, and she worked as a stenographer at the Port Terminal
through at least 1921.

1920 census entry for Ruth E. Bunch (line 73).

By 1930, Bunch was married to accountant Harry Walker and living in Atlanta. Harry Walker had also been in the service, a sergeant in the Quartermaster Corps. Their time in Atlanta must have been brief, because they were living in the Charleston area again by 1935 and through Harry's death in 1967.

Bunch lived a long life, dying in Florida in 1991.

Artifact Spotlight: Gaillard Map

This is part one in a new blog series called “Artifact Spotlight.”

Upon walking into the Museum, one of the first things people see is the Gaillard Map hanging proudly on the wall. This map was donated in 2005 by the late former Charleston Mayor J. Palmer Gaillard, Jr.

Donor J. Palmer Gaillard Jr. points to Lake Moultrie on the large map. The photo was taken prior to the donation in 2005.

The map was first created in 1926 by Gaillard’s father, the late J. Palmer Gaillard (1874-1962). The senior Gaillard was a civil engineer and land surveyor. He worked for Harza Engineering of Chicago to do extensive surveys of the land that would become part of the Santee Cooper Project. Santee Cooper hired Harza (and Gaillard) in the summer of 1938.

The map was updated over the years, with the final changes coming in 1955. Landmarks such as the Santee Cooper Lakes and the Tailrace Canal were added as they were constructed. Most of the names of people and properties shown on the map date to the 1920s, giving a snapshot into the area before the Lakes.

Stop in soon to see the 6-foot map in all its glory, and see how many names you recognize on it!