Shaded lanes open ahead of you in Elmwood Cemetery, the historic rural cemetery of Columbia, South Carolina. Established in 1854 and expanded in 1921, this place folds the city’s stories into shaded lanes and older, heavily wooded grounds. As you step in, notice that an older section is set aside and includes a portion devoted to Confederate dead, a quiet marker of the conflicts that shaped this region.
The site was recognized on a national level when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Walk slowly and you’ll find the stones of people whose lives touched wider histories: Christie Benet (1879–1951), who briefly represented South Carolina in the United States Senate in 1918; Daniel Bragg Clayton (1817–1906), a Southern Universalist minister important in spreading Universalism in the Southeast; and Athalia L. J. Irwin (1862–1915), a Universalist minister and the first female editor of The Universalist Herald. You’ll also pass the grave of Walter Clinton Goodpasture Jr. (1917–1942), a United States Marine Corps captain during World War II, and his wife Mary Brennen Goodpasture (1921–1942), who were two of the 492 victims of the Cocoanut Grove fire, and Walter Higbe (1915–1985), who played in five Major League teams from 1937 until 1950, including the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Picture Walter Higbe, a five-team major leaguer, resting somewhere among these headstones.