The Linden Visitor: Nine Summers of a Woman Nobody Claimed

The Linden Visitor: Nine Summers of a Woman Nobody Claimed

A staple rusted into a linden tree, a laminated photo stapled to bark in August 2019 - and a death certificate pointing to a grave in an unmarked east field from August 14, 1908. The county’s ledgers show a visitor signing as "M. Ramsey" who came every August for nine straight years and then stopped the summer Alice Ramsey died; who was M. Ramsey, and why did those visits end?

In this episode, we trace the paper trail found in county ledgers, an almshouse admission, Episcopal burial notations, and a birdwatcher's phone photo to reconstruct Alice Ramsey's last decades and the pattern of annual visits that shadowed them - can archival fragments tell us who visited her and why they vanished the year she died?

Person: Alice Ramsey Date: August 14, 1908 Location: east field at the Greer County poor farm Event: nine consecutive August visitor log entries signed "M. Ramsey" Author: Carl Perry (Greer County Historical Quarterly, spring 2021)

- A laminated photograph was stapled to a linden tree at the edge of the former Greer County poor farm and was noticed by Alan Draper in August 2019. - Alice Ramsey first appears in surviving records on March 3, 1899, entering the Greer County Almshouse at approximately age 42. - The poor farm burial record lists Alice's place of burial as the east field, a potter's field used for unclaimed residents, with no exact grave location or marker. - Visitor logs show a person signing as "M. Ramsey" each August for nine consecutive years beginning in 1899 and not appearing the summer of 1908 when Alice died. - Carl Perry published his reconstruction of these records in the Greer County Historical Quarterly in spring 2021 after visiting the linden in October 2019.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].