The Mystery Headstone at the College of Charleston

Walking through Cougar Mall, I had never noticed the headstone. I never heard about it, and no one had ever mentioned it. The headstone of Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson resides right outside the Robert Scott Small building. There is even a little pathway that goes right by it.

Much like the other monuments in Cougar Mall, I never paid much attention to it. I always believed it was some random monument for some random person. Where did it come from? Why is it on the College of Charleston campus? Is she really buried there?

Headstone in Cougar Mall

Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson was the mother of Andrew Jackson, our 7th President of the United States. During the Waxhaw Massacre, the Jackson family was placed inside a church with over one hundred wounded people. The Jackson family took this time to tend to the wounded as much as they could.

After the Waxhaw Massacre, Andrew and his brothers Hugh and Robert decided to join a patriot regiment, however, Hugh died soon after. Andrew and Robert were one day captured as prisoners of war, and if it was not for their mother, they would have died of smallpox had their mother not requested a prisoner exchange. Find more background information here.

Elizabeth Jackson tended to wounded and sick soldiers during the Revolutionary war, and her actions can be described as heroic and selfless. She died in Charleston in 1781. 

DAR monument

In the grave marker in Cougar Mall, it does say she is buried “near this spot,” however, I am unsure how true that is.

The marker is originally the product of service members who were honoring Elizabeth Jackson. The service members picked the original spot near King Street based on a letter sent to Andrew Jackson in 1825 claiming that is where his mother had been buried.

However, in 1947 some service members claimed the grave marker was not being tended to. There were weeds and shrubbery concealing it from view, and it gained a lean because of people using it as a bench when waiting for the bus.

Eventually, the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated a separated monument to Elizabeth Jackson in a completely second park, but the uneasiness of the unkept original marker was still there.

Local historians finally moved the marker, here, at the College of Charleston. Where it now resides in one of the most beautiful college campuses in America. Find more historical background here.