Lesesne Cemetery on Daniel Island, SC
I am posting the following letter about a project to reclaim and restore the Lesesne Family burial plot on Daniel's Island SC.Please follow the threaded messages to the end.
September 9, 2000
Dear Lesesne family member,
You can trace your family's roots in America to Isaac Lesesne, who arrived in Carolina in the last decade of the 1600's.While we cannot document with certainty the birthplace of Isaac Lesesne in France, we know that he, along with fellow Huguenots seeking relief from persecution of Protestants in his homeland, settled on Daniel Island in the French Orange Quarter, and prospered there.
For almost 300 years Daniel Island remained virtually untouched by the growth of Charleston.If you looked to your left as you crossed the Cooper River Bridges to Mount Pleasant, you might have noticed a stretch of green beyond the Wando River's mouth.Daniel Island was still asleep, a mix of woods and farm fields, and descendants of Isaac Lesesne slept there too, in a family cemetery known to few and too overgrown for seekers to locate.
With a new century, the world has come to Daniel Island, and to the Lesesne family cemetery.Your ancient family burial ground is now part of the City of Charleston, which annexed Daniel Island only a few years ago.The cemetery's beautiful vantage on the Wando River is within view of Governor's Park tennis center, where the Family Circle Tennis Classic will be held each April beginning in 2001.A trail from the new Town Center on Daniel Island will lead visitors past the cemetery.
Our family has the opportunity to record Isaac Lesesne's story and that of the Huguenots in the Orange Quarter.As you have guessed, the remaining stones in the cemetery are damaged.Two lie in the marsh of the Wando.Others are broken or worn, although you can read a few, like "Sarah Lesesne, born 1728."
As a descendant of Isaac Lesesne, [Sr.] you are part of a family with a strong practical heritage.Like his fellow Huguenots, Isaac made his land work for him.When the Charleston Museum researched the Lesesne plantation in 1986 before the Mark Clark Expressway was constructed, archaeologists learned from their findings that Isaac produced buckets, barrels, and miniballs, and sold lime.He [his son, Isaac Lesesne, Jr.] had a store on Broad Street, participated in colonial politics, and made contributions to various organizations.Isaac [Lesesne, Sr., the immigrant] fathered eight children and provided well for them in his will.
We, the descendants of Isaac Lesesne of the Orange Quarter, on the Wando River, Daniel Island, South Carolina, will now in a small sense bring Isaac Lesesne back to life.Mt.Pleasant's suburbs have put out runners to cover miles of former countryside. Now, Daniel lsland's time has come too.And now our family's role as Huguenots in this remarkable historic place is going to be center stage--with our help.
I have circled the Lesesne cemetery on the enclosed master plan for Governor's Park. (The name has been modified since it was printed on the plan.) The Hiker Biker path is approximately 45 yards from the cemetery while the closest courts are about 60 yards away.The City of Charleston plans to place historical markers along the path describing the native Americans, settlers, and slaves who lived and worked on the shores of the Wando.The Lesesne cemetery will be the only restored and narrated site on the pathway which will carry visitors to the new tennis complex.
The Family Circle group already has an office in Charleston as they prepare to move their annual tournament from Hilton Head to Daniel Island.The first Family Circle Tournament at Governor's Park is scheduled to begin April 14, 2001.We all hope that by that date, our family cemetery will have received these gifts from the generosity of Isaac Lesesne's descendants:
1.a ground-penetrating radar survey by Brockington Associates, the recommended archaeological surveyors.The markers in the marsh will be moved to locations suggested by the survey.
2.a 14-toot obelisk of sandstone with bronze plates on its base chronicling laaac Lesesne's establishment of his plantation and his success as one of Charleston's founding Huguenots.The text will be taken from the Charleston Museum study of 1986, Home Upriver.The monument will be designed and made by John Slayton, whose most recent project has been the refurbishing of the grand steps on Gabriel Manigault's city hall.
3.Two mitered corners of stone and picket fencing that will establish for visitors a sense of the original boundaries of the cemetery as indicated by the survey.The fence will also to be designed by John Slayton, as recommended by Historic Charleston.
Planning the Lesesne cemetery project over the last 18 months has been educational and challenging.I've walked the site with my husband Dan and my children, Emma and Daniel, and tried to envision the ancestors who wrested a home from the ancient forest beside the Wando River.I've wondered at their stamina in creating industries.I've speculated about the hardships of rearing eight children in the early 1700's.And I've wished that more were preserved about the extraordinary Lesesne ancestors.
I hope that you will visit our Lesesne cemetery and find that it evokes such thoughts for you.I have enclosed pictures of the site taken last January, before clearing began.
And I hope, too, that you will want to be part of the stabilization and definition of our Lesesne burial ground on Daniel Island.The Historic Charleston Foundation has generously granted our family cemetery status as one of its projects.Thus, all contributions will be tax deductible.All photographs, historical research, surveys, and any other documentation of the Lesesne cemetery will be shared with the Historic Charleston Foundation for its archives.
As a project of the Historic Charleston Foundation, our Lesesne family cemetery will enjoy the support and oversight of that valuable organization, which can be credited with Charieston's extraordinary record of preservation.Katherine Saunders, our Project Director at the Historic Charleston Foundation, and I both hope that you will contribute to the cost of the Lesesne Family cemetery project.
The total cost is $15, 000. 00.Once the cemetery is defined and stabilized, its integrity is ensured for the future through the craftsmanship, quality of materials, and records that will endure.
To make your contribution, please send a check made out to:
Historic Charleston Foundation
Mail your contribution in the enclosed envelope addressed to: Historic Charleston Foundation, Lesesne Family Cemetery, P.O. Box 1120, Charleston, S.C. 29402.
Please contribute today!I look forward to seeing you among the Lesesne family guests at the dedication of the Governor's Park on Daniel Island next spring.
Yours,
//signed Erica//
Mrs. Daniel S. Lesesne, 111 (Erica)
68 Warren Street
Charleston, S. C. 29403
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