Theodosia Burr Alston

Over the late 19th century, everyone tried to attach a famous face to that empty grave.

The most persistent theory, and the one that people still bring up on the tavern tours today, is that the female stranger was Theodosia Burr Alston.

Theodosia was a brilliant, educated daughter of former Vice President Aaron Burr.

In late December of 1812, grieving the loss of her young son and desperate to visit her father in New York, she boarded a fast schooner named the Patriot to Georgetown, South Carolina.

Here's the congressman.

His first child was a daughter named Theodosia after her mother.

She was born in 1783 and survived to adulthood, but it was all downhill from there.

A second daughter, Sally, was born in 1785 but died at the age of three.

Two more children in 1787 and 1788 were stillborn.

And in 1794, his wife Theodosia died of cancer at the age of 47.

Now fast forward to 1812 and Aaron Burr's return to America from Europe.

He and his surviving daughter, the now 29-year-old Theodosia, hadn't seen each other since Burr had moved west when his vice presidency ended eight years earlier.

And she's adamant about that.

And the church girls return to New York as It's Theodosia Burr and the church girls are the best educated women in New York.

So in that sense, she's leading it.

But also, and Republican motherhood is part of this.