Pressley Family Cemetery, Williamsburg County, South Carolina

From Margaret Jane's older brother, John Gotea Pressley:

Margaret Jane Pressley, daughter of John B. and Sarah Pressley, grew up to be a handsome girl, and one of as nearly perfect character as I have ever known. After receiving such education as could be acquired in the schools of the neighborhood, my father took her to Columbia and left her at a boarding school for young ladies kept by Dr. Zimmerman and his wife. About the last of January and after she had been at school scarcely a month, my dear sister was stricken down with a disease of the brain.

James McCutchen, my mother’s cousin..., was then at the S.C. College. As soon as he learned of her illness he started for Williamsburg and traveled night and day to bring the news to father. My brother, James, and I were in Charleston, he at the Medical College, and I on a visit. We heard of her illness and went up, he first and I on (I think) the next train. None of us got to Columbia in time to see my dear sister alive. Dr. James P. Boyce (D.D.) showed us great kindness, he took her to his house, and for our sakes made his splendid house a house of mourning. God took my sister to her home in Heaven on the 3rd day of February 1855. We brought the receptacle of her pure spirit home and laid it away in Boyd’s Old Field (The Pressley Family Cemetery).

Margaret Jane's stone was carved in Charleston, South Carolina, by W. T. White, a well-respected stone carver of the era. His work is found throughout South Carolina and into North Carolina. He carved stones for freemen and slave alike.