The Grave of Elizabeth Budd-Graham

The grave of Elizabeth Budd-Graham is somewhat of an enigma to Tallahassee residents and visitors. Rumors of her witchcraft make the grave a popular destination for anyone visiting Tallahassee’s Old City Cemetery, making it the most visited grave in the whole cemetery.

In 1889, the real Elizabeth Budd-Graham passed away when she was only twenty-three (23) years old. She left a husband (Alexander Graham) and two young children. Elizabeth was the daughter of David and Florence Wilson. She was born in 1866, married Alexander in 1887, and then died in 1889 from heart disease.

Her grave is a sumptuous example of funerary architecture. It’s a tall obelisk with ornate carvings, surrounded by a low stone wall. The stone is grey French granite with the vases being granite. It would have been one of the more expensive tombs in Tallahassee in the late 1880s, showcasing her family wealth and esteem. It also follows the popular funerary design of the 1880s, making it a great example of funerary of the Gilded Age. Her obituary can be read here

The epitaph is from a passage from Edgar Allan Poe’s Lenore:

“Ah! Broken is the Golden Bowl.

The spirit flown forever!

Let the bell toll!

A saintly soul

Floats on the Stygian River;

Come let the burial rite be read

The funeral song be sung;

An anthem for the queenliest dead

That died so young

A dirge for her the doubly dead

In that she died so young.”

The rumor of Elizabeth being a witch was not begun until decades after her death. There is no extant documentation that associates Elizabeth with any witchcraft. Yet the theory is that she is a ‘double-dead white witch’ who bewitched a wealthy man into marrying her, and when she passed he built this elaborate tomb to her. This is mostly from the poem on the tomb and the gravestone face direction.

Believers of Elizabeth’s witchery claim that Poe’s poem alludes to her power via a few of the lines. The lines “the spirit flown forever” and “floats on the Stygian River” are meant to imply that a witch’s spirit is unable to ‘cross the Stygian River (of death)’ and is trapped between life and death. The line "for her the doubly dead“ intimates that a witch must be killed twice while “the queenliest dead“ refers to a witch being ‘Queen’s of the Dead.’ Most likely, the inscription came from a popular poem and nothing else.

The gravestone does face west, which believers of Elizabeth’s tie to being a witch point out as a sign of disgrace. The claim is that all Christian burials face east. This is untrue; her grave does face west but this is not a sign of ill-respect. Many other tombs in the cemetery also face west as it was once quite common. The motif at the top of her obelisk denotes “no cross, no crown” which is actually a sign of good standing and respect.

For more information about Tallahassee’s Old City Cemetery, click here

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