2 Oct Scary Hammock Coast hauntings: Spooky tales from Murrells Inlet to Georgetown Each autumn, as the light fades earlier and the shadows grow longer, it’s not unusual to overhear locals from Murrells Inlet to Georgetown describe unusual and unexplained happenings that can only be interpreted as hauntings by spirits and ghosts whose energies remain trapped in a soulful and bygone era. Indeed, Hammock Coast hauntings can be eerily perplexing. For example, as researcher, storyteller and author Christine Vernon reported, strange occurrences have been happening for many decades at Litchfield Plantation. By the 1970s or 1980s, the Litchfield Plantation house had been transformed into an inn, where storyteller Christine Vernon says guests frequently called the front desk, asking management to please stop the incessant ringing of a bell. (No one — that is, no one in human form – was ringing a bell. Was it a ghost? Established by Thomas Hepworth in 1710, the property changed hands a couple of times before circa 1794, when politician Daniel Tucker took ownership. In 1797, he built a house there that still stands today. Upon his death that same year, his son, John Hyrne Tucker, inherited the plantation, which by 1850 was producing one million pounds of rice per year, according to “The History of Georgetown County South Carolina” by George C. Rogers Jr. After John died, his son, Dr. Henry Massingberd Tucker, inherited the plantation in 1859. As the local physician, Dr. Tucker traveled day and night to look after his patients. Since he often returned to Litchfield well after dark, he had a large bell installed at the entrance of the property to alert the gatekeeper of his nocturnal arrivals. Upon his homecoming, Dr. Tucker would gallop under the Avenue of Oaks that led to the manor house, where Vernon said his custom was to be served something to eat before he ascended the stairs to his bedroom and retired for the night. By the 1970s or 1980s, the plantation house had been transformed into an inn, where Vernon said guests frequently called the front desk, asking management to please stop the incessant ringing of a bell. Even after the mechanism was removed, complaints about sounds from a clanging bell continued. It seems that these Hammock Coast hauntings were becoming more and more common. Vernon added that she met a man who once worked at the inn. He told her about a frightening series of events that unfolded one night when he was the only person on the premises. Hearing the sound of a horse’s hooves galloping up the avenue, he looked out the window but there was only darkness. Then the front doorknob started jiggling. He opened the door, thinking a coworker or guest must have forgotten their key. Yet no one was there. The ghost of Theodosia Burr Alston is said to haunt the beach between Litchfield and Pawleys Island. As he closed the door, he heard heavy footsteps thumping up the staircase and a door slammed shut overhead. Terrified, he left immediately and quit his job the next day. He wasn’t the only one to experience one of these Hammock Coast hauntings. Other visitors to Litchfield Plantation say they have experienced the sighting of Dr. Tucker’s ghost in an upstairs bedroom, as well as apparitions of chambermaids. Nicholas McGirr, author of the “Afterlife,” wrote on his blog storiesinthecemetery.com that he “Caught Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) of a girl laughing and a woman trying to tell her something.” Additionally, Vernon said that paranormal investigators, using technology, picked up a conversation between two men who were standing on the porch, talking about their crops and the weather. Seemingly, Dr. Tucker’s spirit and others have never left Litchfield Plantation, which today is no longer an inn and is, instead, used as a venue for special events. Vernon went on to share the encounters of another spirit, thought to be the ghost of Theodosia Burr Alston, said to haunt the beach between Litchfield and Pawleys Island. Another example of Hammock Coast hauntings, it seems. Exploring the Legends of Hammock Coast Hauntings Born in New York into power and prestige, Alston was the daughter of Aaron Burr, who was vice president to Thomas Jefferson and killed Alexander Hamilton in an infamous duel. When the young Alston married Joseph Alston, wealthy owner of the Oaks Plantation, now Brookgreen Gardens, she moved to his home on the property in Murrells Inlet. This vastly different plantation lifestyle must have led the highly educated society doyenne to find rural life isolating, lonely and dull. Escaping to Charleston to move within elite circles or to the beach between Litchfield and Pawleys Island where her in-laws owned a house, she was able to navigate the unique situation in which she found herself. Throughout her life, Alston battled health issues, including a near-death experience while giving birth to her son, Aaron Burr Alston. Tragically, in 1812 the boy died and she was beside herself with grief. A blessed distraction from illness and a broken heart, she decided, would be to visit her father who had just returned to New York from living abroad in exile. In January 1813, she began her journey to see Burr by traveling with Joseph from the Oaks to Georgetown where she boarded “The Patriot.” Once the ship turned out to sea, Alston would never again be seen alive. According to Vernon, although the war of 1812 was still raging, speculation about Alston’s disappearance shook media outlets and it became the leading news story of the times. Vernon’s research shows that there are four theories that could possibly explain the vanishing. The first thesis, that pirates kidnapped Alston, is perhaps the weakest, as three different seafarers swore they made her walk the plank. Further, since there is little to no documentation of anyone ever walking a plank, the notion is more of a Hollywood invention than a reality. The second hypothesis is that Alston’s vessel was attacked by a British military ship. However, this assumption falls flat as there are no maritime records that list such an event. The third argument points to the “Wrecker’s Graveyard of the Atlantic,” where locals near the Outer Banks would light lanterns and strategically place them along the North Carolina coastline to lure ship captains into what they thought must be ports of call. Once the boats came ashore, this cunning, yet ragtag gang of thieves, invaded the vessels, killed everyone on board, took everything and let the ocean steal the remaining evidence out to sea. The fourth and most realistic idea suggests that a storm sank “The Patriot” and none of its passengers survived. Hammock Coast hauntings, it seems, have many possibilities for their origins. Although Alston’s father and her husband Joseph spent the rest of their lives in wretched agony, awaiting her return, they knew deep down that she never would. Perhaps “The Patriot” never made it further than this coast and that’s why Alston’s spirit is intertwined with the beautiful local beaches she loved and for which the Hammock Coast is renowned. More than two hundred years later, Alston became famous, once again, in the mega-hit musical “Hamilton.” In the song, “Dear Theodosia,” emotionally performed by the character of Aaron Burr, audiences hear: “You will Will come of age with our young nation/ … we’ll give the world to you/ And you’ll blow us all away/ Someday, someday.” It can be debated if Theodosia’s ghost actually haunts the shores of the Hammock Coast, but there’s little doubt that Hamilton’s “Dear Theodosia” packs an emotional impact that lingers long after the music stops. In the 1870s, the house at was said to have a rocking chair in the main bedroom that would mysteriously move back and forth by itself at night. Sightings of phantoms also abound in and around Georgetown, according to Kevin Jayroe, who grew up in an 1870s house on Bienvenue Plantation, his grandmother Pearl’s estate that the family purchased in 1934. He said since Pearl died in 1979, a rocking chair in the main bedroom can be seen moving back and forth by itself at night. Further, Jayroe’s current home, which was built downtown in 1739, is frequented with hauntings. One such spirit, he said, is alleged to be that of a French general who hid out within the house’s walls during the Revolutionary War. Tradition says that upon returning to his home country, the general was killed by a firing squad. Jayroe said he often hears footsteps commanding attention from above on the third story. Much later, in the 1940s, a lady named Julia worked there as a housecleaner. Jayroe reported that he regularly hears her humming and singing in a beautiful lilt. When he once called her name up the stairs, his dog, who is not skittish, started barking in that direction. Another occurrence at the house, he said, was when the hot water went out and he called a plumber. Traipsing down to the basement, they discovered that the dial on the heater had been completely turned off. “No one ever goes down there,” he said. “Something was playing a trick on us.” One house in Jayroe’s neighborhood has such an intense presence that the movers for a new family refused to go inside because they were terrified of the energy surrounding the home. Then there was the time when a Realtor went to show a different house downtown. There, Jayroe said, the agent was overcome with such a heavy sense of darkness that she broke down crying and was unable to follow through with showing the property. Additionally, Jayroe said, the Kaminski House – one of five museums in Georgetown’s historic district – often smells of the preferred cigars of the home’s previous owner, Harold Kaminski, who died in December 1953. Jayroe added that more than once, the alarm company has been called late at night with reports of someone walking around in the house. When volunteers went out to check the house with police, they found it was locked up tight and there was no one inside. And there’s another spooky Hammock Coast hauntings, certainly. The Kaminski House, pictured here in its early days, often smells of the preferred cigars of the home’s previous owner, Harold Kaminski, who died in December 1953. Whether skeptic or believer, pause and listen to the rustling of the tall pines and the slow sway of the Spanish moss whispering the stories of the Lowcountry’s collective past in preservation for posterity. To learn more about Hammock Coast hauntings, read Vernon’s works, “Ghost of Alice” and “Legend of the Grey Man of Pawleys Island,” found at local bookshops and on Amazon. Join her Marshwalk Tours on Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 5 p.m. To book, call or text 843-655-4470 or message Vernon on Facebook. Capture the spirit of Georgetown by scheduling an experience with Swamp Fox Tours, an educational classroom on wheels for students and adults, which includes ghost stories and is led by Jayroe. Call 843-527-1112 or visit bienvenuehomesc.com to learn more. A story about Hammock Coast hauntings would not be complete without sharing the work of Elizabeth Huntsinger, who offers a wealth of resources in her books, “Georgetown Mysteries and Legends” and “Ghosts of Georgetown,” downtown walking tours and her haunted presentation in the mansion at Hopsewee Plantation. Visit ghostsofgeorgetown.com and hopsewee.com to book. If you found yourself in Georgetown or Pawleys Island or Litchfield on Halloween – or anytime of the year, really – just remember these stories about Hammock Coast hauntings and wonder: Are these true? Or just figments of your imagination? By Sarah Rose for Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce and South Carolina’s Hammock Coast® 0 Hammock-All, Georgetown, Litchfield, Murrells Inlet, Pawleys Island
