Who else out there is a taphophile?

I am, and I have quite a few friends who are. We are not afraid to admit it.

A taphophile is someone who has a deep passion for cemeteries, gravestones and the history and art they represent.

We also call ourselves tombstone tourists.

We enjoy learning about the lives and stories of people in the past.

I recently visited a cemetery and found the grave of Margaret Liddy Moran Fitzgibbons.

The following history was shared by her great-grandson and passed on to the local historical society:

Margaret was born in 1836 in a small coastal village in Ireland. During the Great Potato Famine, she ended up in a poorhouse in Ireland. She somehow was able to secure passage to the United States, landing on Ellis Island when she was about 20.

In 1859, she married her first husband, John, who was a ships carpenter on a Confederate blockade runner in Charleston, South Carolina.

During this time her husband was imprisoned on a Union prison hulk ship. Margaret, after about a year and half, was advised there was a prisoner exchange conducted in Wilmington, North Carolina. She could come and bring her husband home.

But when she got to the location, she found out that yellow fever had been present on the ship and that her husband had died and was buried at sea.

Well, poor Margaret at the age of 30 had survived the Great Famine, the poorhouse, crossing the sea, immigration into the United States, the Civil War and had now become a widow.

In 1866, Margaret married her second husband, who was with the 17th U.S. Infantry. In 1870, the infantry was stationed at Fort Sully in the Dakota frontier. Margaret came along as the wife of a soldier and the company laundress. Michael and Margaret had three children. In 1882, Michael died while protecting his youngest child from a horse-drawn wagon accident.

Two husbands passed and three children to care for but Margaret didn’t give up. She married her third husband, who was a former Army major and then lived out her life at Fort Randall, South Dakota.

Margaret died in 1918 at about the age of 82. She is buried between her last husband and her son in an unmarked grave at Pleasant Lawn Cemetery in eastern South Dakota. It is unknown why no headstone was ever placed at her grave. Over 100 years later, Margaret’s great-grandson is in the process of purchasing a headstone and having it placed on her burial site.

Graves help to tell the history of our county. Margaret’s life tells of personal survival, endurance and strength that it took for all the pioneers who settled in the Dakota Territory.

Next time you don’t know what to do, become a “grave hunter” and search out some local history.

Mary Tobia is an occasional writer for the Times News. Reach her at tneditor@tnonline.com