South Carolina Ghosts , livre ebook

SOUTH CAROLINA GHOSTS
Other Books by Nancy Roberts
Ghosts of the Southern Mountains and Appalachia Ghosts of the Carolinas The Haunted South: Where Ghosts Still Roam North Carolina Ghosts and Legends Civil War Ghost Stories Legends
SOUTH CAROLINA GHOSTS

FROM THE COAST TO THE MOUNTAINS
NANCY ROBERTS
1983, 2019 University of South Carolina Press
Ebook edition published by the University of South Carolina Press, 2013
Published by the University of South Carolina Press Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/ .
ISBN 978-1-64336-035-5 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-64336-036-2 (ebook)
Front cover images
Adobe stock.
Design by Adam B. Bohannon
CONTENTS
The Ghost Hand
Summerville
The Mysterious Land s End Light
Near Beaufort
The Haunted Castle at Beaufort
Beaufort
The Hitchhiker of Route 107
Walhalla
Alice of the Hermitage
Murrells Inlet
The Crazy Quilt
Kershaw
The Blue Lady of Hilton Head
Hilton Head
The Convivial Spirit of Cool Springs
Camden
The Apparition at Anderson College
Anderson
The Gray Man
Pawleys Island
Danger House
Near Charleston
The Hound of Goshen
Newberry
There Goes Martin Baynard s Carriage!
Hilton Head
The Singing Portrait
Newberry
The Spirit with the Tradd Street Address
Charleston
The Ghost of Daufuskie Island
Hilton Head
The Phantom Horseman of Columbia
Columbia
THE GHOST HAND
S ummerville is one of South Carolina s most inviting towns with its tree-lined streets and picturesque old Victorian homes surrounded by banks of azaleas. Ken and Ann Royal thought about one of these houses for a long time. It was a large, ornate white house on Main Street and five years ago they finally bought it. Ken, who is an accountant, felt he wanted to make Summerville a permanent home. The Royals had no idea their dream house was haunted.
There is more than one story of a house with supernatural happenings in Summerville but this haunting is still going on, this month, this week, perhaps, even tonight. Ken and Ann s original disbelief in ghosts is changing.
The house was built by the McNairs, who lived here for many years. Mrs. Robert McNair died in it and whatever the cause of her demise there is no hint of foul play. Did she breathe her last in one of those high four-poster beds such as the one that now occupies the Royals front bedroom? It is very likely she did. Shortly after her death there were rumors that she had buried a tremendous sum of money somewhere on the grounds. If so, it has never been found.
In those days there was a stable back of the house and this area was later cemented over with four inches of concrete. If a treasure is buried there it would be most difficult to reach. After the McNairs era and before the Royals bought it, the house was rented briefly.
Ann is a warm, attractive woman in her thirties with a talent for homemaking. Her taste and decorator touch is apparent in every room for there are bright, cheerful colors and carefully selected antiques. But despite its homey look and the affection the family shares for this house, there are times when they have been badly frightened here.
Ten-year-old Sharon was the first to experience anything unusual.
One night Sharon called me into her room, says Mrs. Royal, and said, Mother, there s a man in my room. I thought she must be dreaming. I turned on her bathroom light and said You just had a bad dream.
No mother, I really saw him. He was standing here near my bed. She was badly frightened. I remember opening her closet door to show her no one was in the room because she kept insisting a man was there. It wasn t until later that I thought about that night.
It was after Ken told me of the footsteps in the hall. I was asleep and he was up late watching the Johnny Carson show. Then he heard someone walking in the hall and went out there to see who it was. A tall, dark figure was going into the dining room. Of course, he followed turning on all the lights, checking both the dining room and the kitchen but he could find no one.
My mother lives in an apartment upstairs and the next morning I told her about it. She sat down and said, Oh, Ann; I ve been wanting to tell you what happened to me but I was afraid you all would think I was crazy. I have seen that figure three times and he has touched me!
The first time I saw it, I was asleep with one hand resting palm upward on my pillow. Suddenly, I was awakened by the sensation of something ice cold in my hand. I turned my head and looked and resting in my palm were these two huge white hands in a position of prayer and a man in a black trench coat was leaning over me. His hands were only a few inches from my face. When I opened my eyes and stared at his hands he pulled them away and as I reached for my bedside lamp he disappeared.
As mother told me about it I could see by her face that she must have been terrified. What an experience!
One of the most recent appearances of the ghost happened on a night when my husband was working late, our daughter was out babysitting and our son Don was here at home watching television. It was about ten o clock and I thought I would go ahead and get my bath so I told him, If the phone rings, please get it for me. Then I went in to take my shower. I was drying my hair when I heard the dog just raising Cain. She was barking like crazy and I thought it was Kenneth coming in because sometimes she gets all excited when she hears him.
I didn t think any more about it but when I came out of the bathroom into the bedroom the dog was looking under the bed and barking as hard as she could. It gave me a very strange feeling and I went into the den to see if Ken had come home. Don was lying on the floor in front of the television asleep and when I called my husband there was no answer. He was not in the house.
The dog kept right on barking at something under the bed and by then I was thoroughly frightened. I thought, someone is under that bed and I m not about to go see who it is! I called Ken at the office and he had already left. One of the men that answered said, You talk to me and don t get off that phone because if there is someone in the house they probably won t bother you as long as you are talking to me on the phone. Ken should be home any minute.
I stayed on the phone and then I heard our German shepherd barking louder than ever. From where I sat I could see the hall. The dog was out there now barking and growling and soon I heard the den door open and shut. Whoever or whatever it was had left and the dog stopped barking. I heard Ken s car and when he came in we searched the house. Nothing was missing. Both of my diamond rings were on the top of the chest of drawers and if he had wanted to take them he could have.
That same week I was in the kitchen and my pantry door opened and then shut for no apparent reason. I was the only person in the house. As I stood in front of the sink I caught the movement of the pantry door out of the corner of my eye. It was slowly opening. I turned and just as I turned the door closed. One of the children must be playing a trick on me, I thought and immediately went over and opened it to see who was in there. There was no one.
But the most frightened I have ever been was one night a few weeks ago. I had gotten up about two o clock and walked down the hall to get something for my sinuses. I took a teaspoon and went back to bed. Right after I had gotten into bed and closed my eyes, I began to have this funny feeling that someone was watching me. Have you ever felt that way?
I opened my eyes and there he was-this dark figure. You don t see any facial features. It was at night and there was just enough light from the lamp outside for me to see this tremendous figure of a man, a man in a long black coat. He reached out a huge, white, stubby-fingered hand and I thought he was coming for my throat. It scared me to death! I screamed and screamed and as I did he vanished just as if he had gone down beneath the bed.
I ll never forget that hand as long as I live. He was standing right by my bed. We ve got this old Charleston four-poster rice bed.
The dog began barking and, of course, the whole house got up. We were sure it was a prowler. We checked the entire house, doors, windows, everything and nothing had been disturbed so we knew it had to be something here inside this house with us. But what could we do?
About three weeks ago mother saw him for the third time. One afternoon he appeared in broad daylight. She was sitting in her living room and caught a glimpse of a figure walking through her bedroom. By the time she had gotten in there no one was there and she told herself it must have been a shadow. But a few minutes after she sat back down, she saw something go back by the doorway. This time it was more like a black cloud but you could tell it was a person.
It was not until after we had seen the ghost that the people who had rented the house before we bought it called one night and said they had heard we had seen the ghost. I said to her, Well, before I tell you what I saw, would you please describe the ghost to me.
Her description was of a man in a long, black coat, a man with huge hands but she could never see the details of his face. Where his face should be was just a blur. It was exactly as I had seen and I had told no one the particulars. She was sleeping in the room right behind my bedroom