Just outside Clemson sits an old stone church surrounded by more than two centuries of Upstate history.

At first glance, Old Stone Church looks simple. There are thick fieldstone walls, wooden shutters and an old cemetery spreading across the hillside. Spend a little time walking through the grounds, however, and the place becomes much more interesting.

A Revolutionary War general rests here. So does a Cherokee man whose unusual grave is marked by a pile of stones. Veterans from generations of American conflicts are buried throughout the cemetery. Then there is the broken marble grave surrounded by a crumbling stone wall and covered with hundreds of coins and small offerings.

That grave has inspired one of the Upstate’s strangest legends.

I recently stopped at Old Stone Church to explore the cemetery for myself. I went looking for some of the names I had read about beforehand. What I found was a place that deserves much more attention than just its famous “witch’s grave.”

Old Stone Church at a Glance

Location: 101 Stone Circle, Clemson, South Carolina
Built: 1797–1802
Original congregation: Hopewell-Keowee Presbyterian Church
Admission: Free
Best for: History, Revolutionary War sites, historic cemeteries and photography

The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is still maintained today. The building is also used for weddings, funerals, church services and other gatherings.

A Church From the Early Upstate

The story of Old Stone Church begins before the present building existed.

A Presbyterian congregation organized a small log meeting house in 1790 near the home of Ezekiel Pickens, son of Revolutionary War General Andrew Pickens. It became known as Hopewell on the Keowee or Hopewell-Keowee Presbyterian Church. Many of the people involved in the congregation were veterans of the American Revolution.

The original wooden church was destroyed by fire in 1796.

Rather than rebuild at the same location, the congregation chose property closer to the growing village of Pendleton. Printer John Miller donated land for the new church, and construction began in 1797.

This time, they built it out of stone.

Local stone mason John Rusk constructed the building, which was completed around 1802. The heavy fieldstone walls gave the little church an appearance that was remarkably substantial for what was still South Carolina’s frontier.

The congregation remained here for roughly a quarter century before moving to Pendleton during the 1820s. The old building remained.

More than 220 years later, it still does.

The Cemetery Is Actually Older Than the Church

One of the surprises at Old Stone Church is that the cemetery predates the building standing beside it.

People were being buried on the property before construction of the stone church was completed. That means you’re not simply walking around an old church cemetery. You’re walking through a burial ground that reaches back to the earliest years of European settlement in this part of the Upstate.

And some of the people buried here played enormous roles in South Carolina history.

General Andrew Pickens

One grave I particularly wanted to find belonged to General Andrew Pickens.

He’s difficult to avoid if you spend much time studying Upstate history. Pickens County bears his name, and his story is intertwined with the Revolutionary War in the South Carolina backcountry.

Inside a restored brick enclosure are the graves of Andrew Pickens and his wife, Rebecca Calhoun Pickens.

Pickens’ original stone records his birth on September 13, 1739, and his death on August 11, 1817.

But the most interesting part is the epitaph.

It describes him as a Christian, patriot, and soldier and says that his character and actions had become incorporated into the history of his country.

Standing in front of the actual stone makes those words considerably more powerful than reading his name in a history book.

The Pickens family grave site was restored in 2022 through work by the General Andrew Pickens Chapter of the South Carolina Society Sons of the American Revolution, with support from state and local organizations and private donations.

Revolutionary War History Is Everywhere Here

Andrew Pickens isn’t the cemetery’s only connection to the Revolution.

The original congregation included Revolutionary War veterans, including Pickens and Robert Anderson. The cemetery eventually became the resting place of soldiers and veterans from numerous periods of American history.

A newer marker outside the church commemorates the men and women who helped achieve American independence between 1775 and 1783.

It feels appropriate.

Old Stone Church was built by a community that was still living with fresh memories of the Revolution.

The Strange Stone Grave of Osenappa

Then there is a grave that looks unlike almost anything else in the cemetery.

Instead of an upright marble headstone, it is covered by a rough pile of fieldstones.

This is traditionally identified as the grave of Osenappa, a Cherokee who died around 1794.

South Carolina tourism information describes it as one of the cemetery’s oldest graves and says Osenappa is believed to have assisted the Patriot cause during the Revolutionary War, although exactly what he did remains unknown. He is also believed to be the only Native American buried in the cemetery.

That’s about where certainty ends.

And that’s what makes the grave fascinating.

There are plenty of opportunities to turn fragments of history into a dramatic story, but sometimes admitting that we don’t know is more interesting.

More than 230 years after Osenappa’s death, that simple pile of stones remains.

Then There’s “A Brother’s Sorrow”

If one grave has become more famous than all the others at Old Stone Church, it’s probably this one.

You won’t have much trouble recognizing it.

A low fieldstone wall surrounds a large broken marble slab. Hundreds of coins cover the stone. Visitors have also left flowers, jewelry, and other objects.

The inscription begins with three haunting words:

“A Brother’s Sorrow.”

Beneath the stone are the remains of Eliza Huger.

And somewhere along the way, Eliza became known as the “Witch of Old Stone Church.”

The Legend of the Witch

Versions of the story vary considerably.

Some say Eliza was considered a witch. Others say she had been rejected by respectable society. The wall around her grave supposedly wasn’t built merely to protect the burial site. According to the legend, it was constructed to keep her spirit inside.

Then came the lightning.

Stories claim trees around the grave were repeatedly struck by lightning and that Eliza’s marble marker eventually split apart.

For believers in the legend, this became evidence that something supernatural surrounded the grave.

The story has survived well into the modern era. Visitors still leave objects on Eliza’s grave today, as I saw during my visit.

But there’s a problem.

There isn’t good historical evidence that Eliza Huger was actually a witch.

Even historical-marker documentation discussing the grave carefully describes these accounts as stories that vary rather than established history.

So Who Was Eliza Huger?

This is where Old Stone Church becomes a good example of how folklore can gradually overwhelm history.

A very different story has circulated among local historians. In that version, Eliza came from the prominent Huger family and fell in love with a man her family considered beneath her social standing.

The couple supposedly fled to New Orleans.

Her brothers followed.

What happened there is difficult to establish with certainty. The story passed down locally says a confrontation occurred between one of Eliza’s brothers and her lover. A weapon was drawn, Eliza stepped between the men, and she was killed.

Her grieving family returned her body to South Carolina.

It’s a compelling story.

But it is important to distinguish local historical tradition from something we can prove through contemporary documentation. The dramatic details surrounding Eliza’s death have been repeated in different forms, just as the witch story has.

What we can still see is her grave.

And perhaps the most important evidence is carved directly into it.

A Brother’s Sorrow.

Whatever happened during Eliza Huger’s life, someone who loved her wanted those words to remain after her death.

Why Are There Hundreds of Coins on Her Grave?

This was probably the strangest thing I saw during my visit.

Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters are scattered across the broken marble. Flowers and other small objects have been placed among them.

The practice has become part of the modern folklore surrounding Eliza’s grave.

Various stories attempt to explain the coins. Some associate them with luck. Others attach supernatural warnings to removing something from the grave.

There isn’t much reason to treat those stories as historical fact.

What is interesting is that people are still participating in the tradition.

Whatever began here generations ago hasn’t disappeared. Visitors are actively adding another chapter to the legend.

And, of course, this is a historic cemetery. Look, photograph, and enjoy the story, but leave the grave and the objects other visitors have placed there alone.

More Than a “Haunted” Cemetery

It’s easy for Eliza’s story to overshadow everything else at Old Stone Church.

That would be a shame.

Within a relatively small cemetery, you can encounter the grave of a major Revolutionary War general, some of the Upstate’s earliest settlers, veterans from generations of American wars, an unusual Cherokee burial and a church built when this part of South Carolina was still frontier country. The official history of the site notes burials connected with conflicts ranging from the Revolutionary era through later American wars.

Even the building itself deserves attention.

Look closely at the uneven native stone, the heavy wooden shutters and the enormous walls. It doesn’t feel like a reproduction of an early American church.

Because it isn’t.

You’re looking at the real thing.

Preserving Old Stone Church

By the late 1800s, people were already concerned about preserving the aging cemetery. Descendants and other interested residents organized restoration efforts, and in 1902 Pendleton Presbyterian Church established a commission to care for the property.

Major repairs followed during the twentieth century, and preservation continues today.

The recent restoration of the Pickens family grave site shows that this isn’t history simply being allowed to weather away.

People are still taking care of it.

What to Look for When You Visit

Don’t just photograph the church and leave.

Give yourself time to walk through the cemetery.

Look for General Andrew and Rebecca Pickens inside their brick enclosure. Find Osenappa’s fieldstone-covered grave. Read some of the oldest markers. Look at the Revolutionary War memorial beside the church.

And eventually, you’ll probably find yourself standing beside the broken marble slab marked “A Brother’s Sorrow.”

That’s the great thing about Old Stone Church.

Someone interested in ghost stories can find something here.

Someone interested in the Revolutionary War can find something here.

Someone interested in genealogy, architecture, Cherokee history, cemeteries, or the early history of the Upstate can find something here too.

Visiting Old Stone Church

Old Stone Church is located at 101 Stone Circle in Clemson, South Carolina, between Clemson and Pendleton. There is no charge to walk the cemetery grounds.

The church itself continues to host weddings, funerals, religious services, and community gatherings, so visitors should remember that this is not simply a historical attraction.

Old Stone Church official website

Because this is an active historic cemetery, be respectful of graves, don’t move markers or objects, and give any services or private gatherings plenty of space.

More Than 200 Years of Upstate History in One Place

I originally thought the famous grave would be the most interesting part of Old Stone Church.

It wasn’t.

The real surprise was how much history is packed into such a small place.

General Andrew Pickens rests beneath a stone erected by people who remembered him not simply as a soldier but as a man whose actions had become part of his country’s history.

Nearby is Osenappa’s mysterious pile of stones.

Elsewhere lies Eliza Huger beneath a shattered slab covered with coins left by people more than two centuries removed from her life.

And overlooking all of it is the little stone church that has somehow survived since 1802.

The legends are fun.

But at Old Stone Church, the history is even better.