Street Smarts or Book Smarts? Francis Capers Had Both

Francis Withers Capers was born on August 8, 1819 in Savannah Georgia. He was the oldest son of Bishop William and Susan MeGill Capers. He is known for his distinguished careers in both academics and in the military. This unique and dynamic combination of skills allowed him to live a very successful and notable life.

Francis W Capers' education journey began with the completion of school into the college level. He attended Randolph Macon College in Ashland Virginia, but graduated from your very own College of Charleston in 1839. He was college president, completing his degree with the highest rank of honors.

Post graduation was when Capers began his impressive career as an educator. Francis taught math at the College of Charleston for some time, before becoming one of the founding professors at The South Carolina Military Academy, now known as The Citadel. He was part of the original faculty there as a professor of mathematics, and began there in 1843. However, he resigned in 1848 and moved to Kentucky where he furthered his career in education. In Kentucky he taught as a professor at Transylvania University.

Francis Capers, although from Georgia must have felt a connection with South Carolina, as he returned there from Kentucky to take the position of Superintendent of The Citadel. He held this position for 6 years, or from 1953 to 1959. Capers once again left South Carolina, embarking on another academic career path.

Francis Capers was the founding Superintendent of The Georgia Military Academy, located in Marietta. He remained the Superintendent through the start of the civil war. He provided drill instructions to the schools cadets, in hopes to train them well for the war, producing strong Confederate soldiers. He served at several Georgia training camps.

Capers was appointed Brigadier General of Georgia troops on November 11, 1861. General Capers' most significant war contribution involved him commanding a brigade guarding the coast and halting the advance of Union troops into Georgia. He also used his brains to engineer the building of defensive works. He built the defenses at Reseca and oversaw construction of many other efforts.

After the war Capers ran a private school in Augusta, Georgia until once again returning to South Carolina after he was appointed professor of mathematics and civil engineering at the College of Charleston in 1869. He was president from 1880 to 1882 and retired in 1889. His death followed shortly after on January 12, 1892.

Francis Withers Capers is buried at Bethel United Methodist Church, located in Charleston, South Carolina. His grave is no where near extravagant. In fact, it is quite bland considering how interesting and significant of a person is buried there. His grave has only a small symbol, a cross with a circle around it. This depicts perfection and eternity in the afterlife, while the cross is a general symbol for Christianity.

 I find this to be interesting, the simplicity of Francis W Capers' grave. It takes more detective work to figure out and see what kind of person is underneath that stone, and what all they had to offer in their lifetime. I am glad I had the opportunity to uncover and discover all about the great General and Professor, Francis W Capers. I hope all of you reading this blog post learned something too!

Jail Sentence: Eternal

There are more than just tourists passing through the walls of the Old Charleston Jail. After learning about the horrible conditions inmates suffered through, one would think those spirits would flee the premises. However, as tour guide Paulette Foley told us, there are still many spirits that inhabit and haunt what is claimed to be "Charleston's most haunted building."

Our tour guide Paulette Foley with Bulldog Tours explained to us off the bat how she was simply looking for a part time job and did not believe in ghosts whatsoever. Little did she know, after joining the team she would experience her first supernatural encounter only days after. Here are some photos of the room Paulette experienced a cement piece of the wall fly across the room, only to miss her head by fractions of an inch, inexplainable by anything other than the supernatural. 

In order to understand these spirits frustrations, we must first understand the buildings history. The Charleston jail, was not merely a jail, but a federal prison. Built in 1802, it was one of the first five federal prisons built in the United States. The aim for this type of punishment was to eliminate public humiliation and torture to become more civilized. People believed that long term incarceration would solve crime.

The prison was built to hold 150 prisoners, but it was always horribly overcrowded. The prison was closed in 1939 when the federal government came for inspection. They closed the place down in 48 hours because they deemed it unfit for humans. There was no indoor plumbing, no electricity, and many bugs, reptiles, rodents, and bats infesting the building. A journal entry from a guard at the prison describes the crunching of bugs he would hear under his boots, as he made his rounds at night by candle light. 

Throughout its 137 years of operation, 14,000 inmates died, 600 of those by execution. The prison held men, women, and children. The majority of people died of neglect and incredibly poor conditions. Surprisingly there were not many suicides or murders within the walls of the prison. This is likely because the inmates did not have the energy to kill themselves or others, they were just barely making it by, day by day. 

During our tour we were taken to the spot where hangings would occur. I learned that the youngest hanging was of a 15 year old boy for attempted murder. This jail also housed the first female in South Carolina to receive the death penalty, Lavinia. She was publicly hanged and is famous for not only haunting the jail, but also for her last words, "if anybody has a message for Satan give it to me now and I'll deliver it to him." July 7, 1911 was the last hanging done in South Carolina outside the Old Charleston Jail. The hanging took 39 minutes, and after that the state declared it inhumane. 

How Hangings Occured

The Room That Lavinia Haunts

Overall I had a great tour and learned a lot about the history of the building as well as the history of some of the spirits that still make their presence known to this day. It was so neat to be able to see the actual rooms where some legendary spirits roam. I even enjoyed the spook that our tour guide gave us. The eerie, dark, and empty rooms set the stage for a great haunted evening. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here. This type of tour is right up my alley, or should I say jail cell!

The Deceased of Dayton

There are some pretty important people buried at The Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum. This cemetery is located in my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, and founded in 1841. It is a beautiful cemetery, and rather different from the cemeteries and graveyards we have been routinely going to in downtown Charleston.

The Woodland Cemetery is spread over a great amount of hills. This is quite different than Charleston's flat terrain. The cemetery also is home to over 3,000 trees, and no, none of these are palm trees like the ones found in Charleston! I like to climb to the very top of the biggest hill, where there is a gazebo that gives you an awesome view. This gazebo is the highest point in Dayton, Ohio.

I have personal experience with the crazy hills the cemetery is built upon. My high school cross country team used to take busses to the cemetery, which was only about ten minutes from our high school, and complete a hill workout there. It was a bit odd my first year on the team, running around the cemetery. Definitely slightly eerie change in scenery.

When I visited the cemetery over break, I was sure to finally locate the graves of the famous Wilbur and Orville Wright, inventors of the airplane, as well as the famous poet, Paul Dunbar. The Wright Brothers are buried with the rest of their family. Many people have brought shells from North Carolina to place around their grave, because they first flew their plane successfully there.

I also took several photos of grave markers that caught my eye because they were something we learned about in class. I took photos of types of grave markers that I particularly understood the meaning of because of this class, as well as any symbols that I recognized from prior posts or assignments. On top of this I simply took photos of grave markers I found interesting or unique.

Enjoy the series of photos taken at my trip to The Woodland Cemetery!

Cross Country's One Hill of a Sport!