Moment in Oddity - The Chicken Church of Java (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)
Gereja Ayam (guh RAY juh, I am), also known as the "Chicken Church," is a bizarre, bird-shaped structure nestled in the hills of Magelang (Mah guh long), Central Java, Indonesia. It was built in the 1990s by a Christian man named Daniel Alamsjah (Ah lams YAH), who claimed he received a divine dream instructing him to construct a holy house of prayer in the shape of a dove. Despite his original intentions, the massive concrete building ultimately resembled a giant chicken hen, earning the building its famous local nickname. Alamsjah (Ah lams YAH) designed the sanctuary to be fully inclusive for people of all faiths to pray, and he even operated a rehabilitation center on-site before financial troubles forced him to abandon the project in 2000. Left to decay in the jungle for years, the structure went viral online around 2015 due to its proximity to the famous Borobudur (burr-OH buh DOOR) Temple, which is the world's largest Buddhist temple. Since its inception, the dove inspired house of prayer, 'Chicken Church', has turned into a thriving tourist attraction. The structure is complete with underground prayer rooms, a view-point in the crown, and a cafe in the rear of the **cough** chicken. Churches congregate in all sorts of buildings, but a church that was designed to look like any type of bird, certainly is odd.
Haunted Beaufort (BEW-fert) County, South Carolina
Beaufort County is a typical southern coastal area with old live oaks dripping with Spanish moss and antebellum architecture. The county incorporates 68 islands that include Port Royal Island, Fripp Island, St. Helena Island, Lady's Island, Parris Island and Hilton Head Island. These are part of the Sea Islands that stretch from South Carolina to upper Florida. Beaufort County sits in the heart of the Lowcountry and Gullah Geechee culture and Civil War sites and historic buildings are very much a part of the area and this has led to ghost stories. Join us for the history and hauntings of Beaufort County, South Carolina.
Our listeners are probably familiar with many of the legends and superstitions of the South and the Gullah Geechee people. The Gullah Geechee are a distinct African American ethnic group living mostly along the coasts of the Carolinas and are descended from people brought over in the slave trade from West and Central Africa. They are best known today as the creators of sweetgrass baskets and they have their own distinct Creole language. Their burial customs have been adopted by others in the South, such as covering mirrors or turning them over when someone dies and at the grave, bottles and dishes are smashed to break the chain of death in the family. To protect themselves from evil spirits, the Gullah put folded newspaper inside their shoes because the spirit must read every word before they can control them. Same idea with a broom by the door. Evil spirits have to count the bristles before they can enter the home. General Southern folklore adheres to painting the underneath of a porch roof with haint blue and they sometimes include painting the trim and shutters the same. The South believes in opening a door after someone dies so that the spirit is set free. And speaking of doors, it is unlucky to open the back door for the first time entering a house because only the front door is protected from evil.
The county seat of Beaufort County is Beaufort, which is part of the largest municipality in the county, Hilton Head Island. The city actually sits on Port Royal Island and was chartered in 1711, making it the second oldest city in South Carolina, right behind Charleston.
But long before that, there were several small indigenous tribes in the future Beaufort County, the Coosaw, Yamasee, Orista, Escamaçu, Edisto, Wimbee, and Kussoh. Spanish Captain Pedro de Salazar explored the area between 1514 and 1516, and both the Spanish and French would found settlements, Santa Elena and Port Royal Sound, during the 16th century. But these failed. The British would have better success with the city of Beaufort. They named it for Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort. Ship building would be a main industry with slavery running a close second. Ironically, the Union would occupy Beaufort during the Civil War and it would become a haven for runaway slaves. Beaufort is now a popular tourist spot as it is surrounded by natural beauty. The islands here all have their own legends and ghost stories and we are going to touch on a few of them.
Hilton Head Island
The island was first sited over 350 years ago by William Hilton. When he landed, he found the Yemassee tribe here, which had migrated from Florida. He also found these mysterious shell rings that no one has ever been able to figure out the significance of. These rings measure up to 240 feet across and as much as 9 feet high.
John Bayley was granted several of the islands here and they were called Bayley's Barony, with the future Hilton Head being named Trench's Island. Alexander Trench collected the land lease fees and was a property agent for Bayley. John Barnwell was the first settler to come in 1717 and he established a plantation. Another planter named William Elliott arrived in 1790 and he established Sea Island cotton, which produced record crops. Many more settlers would come and they would build the Zion Chapel of Ease and Cemetery. On November 7, 1861, the Island became the scene of the largest amphibious landing by U.S forces until D-Day. The Union landed with more than 12,000 soldiers and they captured both Fort Beauregard on St. Philips Island and Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island. After this, formerly enslaved people were granted land and they built a small self-governing town that attempted to grow the Sea Cotton. Unfortunately, the boll weevil would destroy the crops and Hilton Head was mainly abandoned for a long time. The 1950s would bring tourism and the first resort was built and in 1983, Hilton Head Island was incorporated as a town.
Zion Chapel of Ease
The chapel that used to be here no longer remains, but its churchyard is still here and features the Baynard Mausoleum. The chapel was built in 1786 and was connected to the Episcopal St. Luke's Parish. It was tough for islanders to get to the church and so these Chapels of Ease were built to give congregants a local place to worship.
There are four Revolutionary War patriots buried within the cemetery. Charles Davant is one of them and he was killed near the chapel in 1781 by Captain Martinangel’s Royalist militia. Davant had been a planter and he was the only military casualty for Hilton Head Island during the war. After being shot during a patrol, he managed to ride his horse back to his plantation, known as Two Oaks, where he died from his wounds. The Captain would get payback when the Bloody Legion assassinated him near Christmas in 1781 while he lay sick in his bed. The chapel’s first permanent priest was Reverend Philip Mathews who arrived in 1811 and served as the St. Luke’s Parish rector until 1828. Union troops occupied the chapel in 1862 and by 1868, nothing of the Zion Chapel of Ease remained other than its cemetery. The cemetery contains thirty-four markers, including the Baynard Mausoleum, and two cast-iron fences. Many of the markers are marble tympanum headstones with a willow and urn design and some of these gravesites also include a footstone. Five of the gravestones within the cemetery are marked by the carver’s name or initials. Three of these stones were carved by members of the White and Walker families, who were prevalent stone carvers in Charleston from the 1790s to the 1870s.
The Baynard Mausoleum was built for the family of William E. Baynard in 1846. This is the oldest remaining structure on Hilton Head Island. Baynard was born on Edisto Island in 1800 and inherited Spanish Wells Plantation from his father and he purchased Muddy Creek from his uncle's estate. He did really well with planting Sea Island Cotton.
William married Catherine Scott and they had eight children. He died in 1849 at what is today called the Baynard Ruins, but had been the Braddock's Point House. How he came to own this property is a matter of legend. The house had been built by James Stoney in 1793 from tabby and was once a grand antebellum plantation overlooking the Calibogue Sound. Braddock's Point Plantation had been in the Stoney family for four generations. Stoney challenged Baynard to a high stakes poker game and he ended up betting the title to Braddock's Point. He lost the hand to Baynard, who became even wealthier with this new property. Baynard was only 49 when he passed. His funeral was at Zion Chapel of Ease and the funeral procession featured a black-draped wagon-hearse followed by Baynard's formal black carriage and other carriages carrying family and friends. It was the most impressive funeral cortege ever assembled on the island. Catherine followed him five years later, she was only 42. She had actually been five months pregnant when William passed. Neither of the Baynards are still in the mausoleum as vandals broke through the once beautiful marble doors and threw the caskets into the marsh. That procession has fed into ghost stories. Islanders claim to still see a shadowy procession making the same long winding trip to the cemetery on some nights, particularly when stormy and foggy.
The Blue Lady of Hilton Head Island
The lighthouse on Hilton Head Island isn't a beautiful work of architecture. It is a 95-foot skeletal iron tower. The lighthouse is known as both the Leamington Lighthouse and the Hilton Head Island Rear Range Lighthouse and was completed in 1880. This is one of only a few surviving lighthouses in the state. The site still has the vintage brick oil house and a water cistern.
Adam Fripp was the lighthouse keeper in 1898 when a devastating hurricane hit the island. On August 31st, this second hurricane of the 1898 season hit the southern end of Hilton Head Island. Port Royal received over 10 inches of rain and Savannah was heavily damaged. Fripp dedicated himself to keeping the light going, but it proved too much for him and he had a heart attack. His daughter Caroline was with him and she managed to get him to the lighthouse keeper's cottage. She then took on the job of keeping the light going, while also running back to the house to check on her father. He didn't make it and Caroline was left heartbroken. Some stories claim she died of exhaustion a few days later. Another story says she fell over the railing of the lighthouse in the storm. Website after website and even the New York Post claim that on rainy, windy nights, Caroline can be seen wandering the grounds of the original lighthouse complex wearing the same blue dress she died in. So she is known as The Blue Lady. The light keeper's quarters were moved to Harbour Town in the 1960's and stories claim the Blue Lady haunts this location too. The only probelm is, we couldn't find a lighthouse keeper named Fripp. And that's a famous name in the islands as there is a Fripp Island. Paul Schwarzer was the lighthouse keeper from 1891 to 1905. So he didn't die during the hurricane - which we made sure actually happened. So who is this Blue Lady? We'll never know.
St. Helena Island
Like Hilton Head, St. Helena Island was claimed by the Spanish, colonized by the French, reclaimed by the Spanish, and then Britain occupied the island until the American Revolution. The Union victory at the Battle of Port Royal enabled freed slaves to take over land abandoned by white landowners.
In 1862, abolitionists provided donations to set up the first school for blacks in the Southern United States and this became Penn School, which grew into a 50-acre campus with multiple buildings and in the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made several visits to the campus and he composed his “I Have a Dream” speech while staying at one of the cottages onsite. the Penn Center is now part of the Reconstruction Era National Park. A welcome center and museum offers tours and exhibits. At the southern tip of the island is Land's End.
St. Helena Chapel of Ease
These are just ruins today. This was another Chapel of Ease in Beaufort County. It was built from tabby between 1742 and 1747 and served the members of the Parish Church of St. Helena. Most locals referred to the church as the White Church because the oyster shells and lime caused the structure to appear to glow white.
On November 4th, 1861, Sunday services were interrupted when a messenger brought Captain William Oliver Perry Fripp news of the impending invasion of nearby Beaufort by Union troops. The planters left the area during the Civil War and the church was used by Northerners who came to help the freedmen and by 1868, Methodist freedmen were worshipping there. A forest fire in 1886 damaged most of the structure and it was abandoned. The chapel is said to host disembodied prayers and singing.
Fripp Mausoleum
The Fripp family were early colonists here and they had built and upkept the chapel. Their mausoleum still stands in the cemetery and contained the remains of Edgar Fripp and his wife Eliza. The mausoleum was built by Charleston stone-cutter W.T. White.
Union soldiers broke open the mausoleum during the Civil War, looking for treasure. That door remained damaged for awhile and it was decided to brick up the entrance. And here we find a legend. Workmen started bricking up that entrance and returned the next day to finish and they found most of the bricks removed from the entrance and stacked up next to the mausoleum. They believed a ghost had down this and they left the job unfinished. The door remains only half-bricked up and the vault is now empty. A ghostly form of a woman wrapped in a white veil has been seen walking through the cemetery. She is sometimes seen carrying a child.
Lands End Light
As one drives out to Land's End, heading towards Fort Fremont, one will pass the hanging tree. Stories claim that runaway slaves were lynched on this tree to serve as a warning for any slaves thinking they might try to escape.
Some people have claimed to see something strange when they come out to the hanging tree at night. They park, turn off their headlights and then they see a light in the distance that looks like a flashlight beam or a lone headlight. As this light gets closer, it gets larger and larger, but seems to get dimmer. If it speeds by, it leaves the witnesses feeling a burst of static electricity. This phenomenon is said to be reliable and appears almost nightly. No one knows the cause, but there are those that think its an optical illusion caused by cars down the road. A legend does claim a school bus slammed into the hanging tree killing several children, but there is no documentation for that. Others claim the light is caused by the souls of the slaves hanged from the tree. The Land's End Light has been responsible for a couple of deaths in the past when people have tried to chase down the light.
Fripp Island
In the 17th century, King Charles deeded the island to Captain Johannes Fripp and so the island was named for him. He had defended Beaufort from the Spanish and the French. The Fripp family established Sea Cotton plantations before the Civil War.
In 1854, severe storms and ocean breaches split the original landmass into three separate islands: Fripp, Pritchard’s, and Capers. By the 1820s, the island was primarily used as a private hunting and fishing preserve. In 1960, developer Jack Kilgore discovered the isolated land and planned a private island community and it now is a spot where tourists like to vacation. There are many legends connected to this island as pirates liked the secluded nature of the island and its tidal creeks.
The Lovers of Fripp Island Beach
This legend is connected to Blackbeard. He had managed to orchestrate a blockade of Charleston for a week in the spring of 1718. Several townspeople were taken hostage, as were people from plundered ships in Charleston Harbor.
One of these ships was the Crowley and aboard that ship was a beautiful young woman. Blackbeard was captivated by her and he took away with him to Fripp Island. Blackbeard tried to whoo her, but she wasn't interested. She told him that she loved another and was betrothed to this other man. This angered Blackbeard and he sent some of his men to kill the man, with orders to bring back his hand. The hand was presented to the girl and she was so distraught that she threw herself into the sea and drowned. On the nights of full moons, two figures can be seen frolicking on the beach together and people believe that these are the lovers reunited in the afterlife.
Port Royal Island
The sound was named Port Royal in 1562 by the French Huguenot Jean Ribault (Ree bo). He established Charlesfort just to the south of Port Royal Island and left 30 men there. That didn't last long as the settlers killed their leader and returned to Europe the following year.
The Spanish occupied and in 1670, the British laid claim to Carolina. They were out with the Revolution and during the Civil War, Port Royal was used as a Union coaling and repair station after the Union won the Battle of Port Royal. The city of Beaufort is on this island. The island is mostly agricultural today. There are plenty of things for tourists though too with restaurants and shopping and iconic movie locations for films like Forrest Gump, G.I. Jane, The Big Chill, The Fugitive, Forces of Nature and The Prince of Tides.
Old Beaufort Arsenal
The city’s Visitor Center is housed in the old Beaufort Arsenal, built in 1798. The building was designed by Colonel Thomas Tailbird and constructed from tabby-and-brick and painted yellow. Many visitors ask about the re-enactor seen passing through the gate. The staff have to explain that they don't do re-enactments. Apparently there is a leftover soldier from the Civil War who likes to nod to visitors before disappearing.
Haunted House at 810 Ribaut (Ree bo) Road
This was shared by the Beaufort District Collection from a woman named Cora Newcomb in January of 2007, "One thing you may find interesting about the house [810 Ribaut (Ree bo) Road] – we thought the house was haunted. Not a bad ghost. None of our animals liked to go up the stairs. Our dog would not go up the stairs unless we were at the other end telling him it was okay. Even if they did go up the stairs, they would go around the edge, they would not go not go straight up the stairs. So this made us think there must be ghost in the house because the dog could obviously get up the stairs easily, but he just wouldn’t do it unless we said it was okay. Sometimes right in the middle of the stairs, it would be kind of cold. So we thought it was a ghost. Usually people who have ghosts in their houses say that when they are packing up to move or are doing something that is disruptive to the ghost, that is when they will show themselves. So, we were packing up all our belongings to move and one night I was walking down the hallway on the second story to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night when there appeared to be kind of white, misty shape in the hallway. I really wasn’t paying that much attention to it because I was half asleep, but I noticed it and I walked through it and after I walked through it and was in the bathroom, I was like, 'Did I just see a ghost?' It was definitely something misty and white in that hallway."
Joseph Johnson House or The Castle
The Castle is one of Beaufort's most celebrated historic homes. The home was built in 1859 by Dr. Joseph F. Johnson and constructed from brick and covered in a faded plaster. There are seventy-nine windows so this home had a lot of light and ventilation.
The style is Greek Revival and Italian Renaissance with six massive columns along the front veranda. The interior had twenty-three rooms and eight fireplaces. The nickname "The Castle" comes from the fact that the Beaufort River flows alongside the property, creating a moat effect. The Johnson family moved into the house in 1861 when it was still incomplete as the Civil War was under way and decorative features were blocked by the Union. The Union used the house as a headquarters and military hospital with the summer kitchen being utilized as a morgue. There is a really weird legend connected to The Castle about a dwarf named Gauche (gowsh). His spirit is said to wander the property. The backstory is that he arrived with Jean Ribaut (Ree bo) and his Huguenots in 1562. He apparently had been a court jester seeking a new life. His life ended here from either brawling with other colonists or he died of disease. However, the Danner family said that the restless spirit of Gauche (gowsh) himself had told them that he was killed with a pike in a fracas near the Danner’s home, which was The Castle. Lily Danner was the daughter of Dr. Johnson and she had inherited the house. Gardeners claimed to see the spirit and Dr. Johnson himself saw this short statured person walking outside the home. Lily Danner reportedly saw the ghost of Gauche many times when she was a child. She said he would join her at tea parties that she held for her dolls in the basement. The spirit was described as being dresses in colorful jester’s garb. The ghost tapped out coded messages in 16th-Century French and, according Lily " … always swears and uses words the same way. He has no opinion of anyone. He called one of the family members a hellion one night."
House guests have reported that Gauche (gowsh) is somewhat of a poltergeist, moving furniture and opening and closing doors at night. Mysterious bells are also heard. It is also legend that Gauche leaves his red hand prints on the windows of the home. The Danners had to find someone who could translate Gauche’s archaic French so they could communicate with the ghost.
The Beaufort District Collection shared, "In a June 1940 interview in Harper’s Bazaar magazine, however, a 'Mrs. Danner' (no first name given) attested that Gauche himself was never really visible, but that it was 'only by table tipping that we find him. Whoever taps, it’s always the same person who answers.' The ghost taps out coded messages in 16th-Century French and, according to Mrs. Danner, '...always swears and uses words the same way. He has no opinion of anyone. He called one of the family a hellion one night. She never listened in after that.' Mrs. Danner’s brother called Gauche 'a rough little customer.' The Danners had trouble understanding Gauche at first. Only by writing down the tapping code and finding someone who could translate Gauche’s archaic French could they eventually communicate with the ghost. In Tales of Beaufort, Nell S. Graydon told of how Gauche spoke out (in English) to a Castle house guest one stormy evening. Here is a transcript of that conversation:
GAUCHE: This is Gauche.
GUEST: What are you doing here?
GAUCHE: I live here — in the cellar.
GUEST: Why?
GAUCHE: It reminds me of my English home that I will never enter again.
GUEST: Will you let me see you?
GAUCHE: No, I do not show myself to fools."
The home stayed with the Johnson lineage until 1981. Then I found these stories. In 1969, according to a Beaufort Gazette newspaper article, "At 6:00 p. m., November 8, 1969, Mrs. Howard Danner of East Street opened her oven to remove the roast her maid had placed there that afternoon. The oven was empty, and there was no trace of the roast anywhere in the kitchen! Mrs. Danner had just taken the maid home and had left the house door unlocked for that short time. According to the report of Beaufort city police officer G. D. Smith, 'Either a very hungry person entered the house while Mrs. Danner was gone or it may be surmised that the ‘Ghost of the Danner House’ (that is, Gauche, the Huguenot Ghost) became hungry and absconded with the practically cooked roast, being unable to withstand the temptation and waiting for it to cook.' The roast thief — spectral or human — struck again the following night at the 707 North Street home of Mrs. Isiah Thomas. Mrs. Thomas, unlike Mrs. Danner, had taken the precaution of locking her door leaving her roast unattended. When she returned from a visit with nearby relatives, her supper was missing, too! L. H. Martin, the police officer reporting this incident, wrote, 'when (Mr. and Mrs. Thomas) returned hungry and ready to feast on the roast, the roast was gone.' There had been no evidence of forced entry."
Wigg-Barnwell House
The house was built for Sarah Reeves Gibbes as a wedding gift in 1816 by her brothers. She married William Wigg Barnwell and thus the name. Philadelphia artisans designed the three-story square house that features a two-story veranda on the front with slender classical columns.
Sarah was the great-granddaughter of Tuscarora Jack Barnwell who was the leader of the bloody 1711-1712 expedition against the Tuscarora Indians of North Carolina. And yes, that last name means she was a cousin of her husband. During the Civil War, this was a hospital and so people have seen the ghosts of soldiers outside the house and the interior features strange noises. There is also a story that the home was apartments for awhile and a young woman was murdered inside and her ghost still hangs out here. We couldn't find any evidence of a murder.
John Mark Verdier (vair dyay) House
The house was built by John Mark Verdier (vair dyay) in the 1804 and is also known as the Lafayette Building. He was a wealthy planter and he enjoyed entertaining the town. The interior of this house had a new style to us. It's called Adam style and was named for Scottish architect brothers Robert and James Adam.
This is a neoclassical style with a single uniform scheme and simplified the rococo and baroque styles. The Adam style in this house was modified with a center hall and a drawing room on the right and dining room on the left. There were two additional rooms behind this and a divided stairway leads to the second floor that had a large ballroom. That ballroom eventually had the first telephone installed in Beaufort. The mantels were carved with allegorical figures, sheaves of wheat and fruit and flowers. During the Civil War, it was used as a headquarters. Verdier died at the age of 71 in 1857. Heirs of Verdier owned the home until 1940 when it was bought by a committee for the Preservation of the Lafayette Building. That committee founded the Historic Beaufort Foundation in 1967 and they use it as their headquarters. People can tour it as it is also a museum. Staff and visitors report ghostly sounds of ringing phones, cold chills and objects move about on their own. Ghost lore claims that Verdier's son died in a violent duel and that he haunts the house as well. The Beaufort District Collection Connections found a letter from a woman named Claudia Stuart who wrote her brother of this duel that was held near Beauifort at Pigeon Point. She wrote, "A very tragical affair came off there last week. John Verdier the son of old Mr. John Verdier whipped on one of George Cuthbert’s negroes, and sent by him a very impudent message to his master. George went over to Verdiers place and had a fisticuff, in which Verdier was worsted. A few days after he sent to George Cuthbert and dared him to meet him, armed at Pigeon’s Point. G.C. went there with a double barrel gun and a pair of pistols. J. V. advanced with his pistol aimed at G.C. who told him that if he/Verdier/advanced another step, he would shoot him with his gun. Verdier continued to advance and G.C. shot him in the leg; he fled but immediately aimed at George again who shot him a second time in the body. Verdier is now lying in an almost hopeless state. Upon examining his pistol it was found not even loaded. What could have possessed him, who can tell!"
The Sea Islands are beautiful and full of history. Beaufort County is just a small section of these islands and clearly seems to have some strange things going on there. Are these places in Beaufort County haunted? That is for you to decide!
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