HGB Ep. 631 - University of South Carolina

This Month in History - Doug Hegdahl blown overboard (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

In the month of April, on the 6th, in 1967, U.S. Navy petty officer second class, Doug Hegdahl became a prisoner of war during the Vietnam conflict. Hegdahl was aboard the USS Canberra in the Gulf of Tonkin when he was knocked overboard. He had been on the teakwood deck around 4:30 a.m. watching the 5-inch gun mount firing in the dark. Hegdahl's recounting of what caused him to fall overboard was unclear, but it is believed that it was due to a blast of gun fire. He was not missed until the ship's morning muster later that day. After several hours in the South China Sea, the Naval petty officer was picked up by North Vietnamese fishermen and subsequently turned over to the North Vietnamese Army. Doug Hegdahl was the youngest and lowest ranking POW of the Vietnam War. He was imprisoned for two years. Initially the Vietnamese interrogators thought that Hegdahl was a spy, but he was able to convince them of his low ranking status in the U.S. Navy and that he truly fell off his ship. The guards began calling him "The Incredibly Stupid One", however, Hegdahl was far from stupid. He determined that acting stupid was to his advantage and the young petty officer actually had an incredible memory. Hegdahl used his gift to memorize the names, capture dates and personal details about all the 256 men he was imprisoned with. He used the song, 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' to help him memorize the soldier's information. The POWs had organized an unofficial chain of command amongst themselves in the prison. After two years, Hegdahl's superiors ordered him to accept an early release. Doug originally refused, not feeling right about leaving sooner than the other soldiers, but eventually agreed. The Vietnamese would regularly offer up POWs they wanted gone for propaganda purposes. After Hegdahl returned to the U.S. with two other POWs, he was debriefed and began listing the names of all the military men he had been imprisoned with. The information that Doug Hegdahl shared with the Nixon Administration was critical. It allowed the U.S. to put additional pressure on North Vietnam due the Geneva Convention's rules on the humane treatment of POWs. The information shared by the Navy petty officer second class, significantly improved the life of prisoners in POW camps. Doug Hegdahl may have been the lowest ranking POW to be captured during the Vietnamese War, but he is widely considered a hero of the major armed conflict.

University of South Carolina (Suggested by: Emily West) 

The University of South Carolina in Columbia is said to be the flagship university of the state. This is the home of the Gamecocks and was established over 200 years ago. What started as a small college has become a large university with over 35,000 students. The university features beautiful architecture and poignant sculptures. It also has several ghost stories. Join us for the history and hauntings of the University of South Carolina.

So, I know my first question is, what exactly is a gamecock and why did this university choose that as their mascot? They also have the school colors, garnet and black. Garnet is fairly unique we would think when it comes to colors. Not maroon or crimson, but garnet. First, a gamecock is a specially bred rooster, known for being very aggressive and strong. These are the birds used in cockfighting. If you have ever seen this kind of fight - you don't mess with a gamecock and frankly, I don't think you should mess with a rooster ever. They can be mean. Now, that's enough to make the gamecock a good mascot, but why did the university choose that? Apparently this goes back to the Revolutionary War. General Thomas Sumter, for who Fort Sumter was named, had a nickname and that was "The Fighting Gamecock." He was the last surviving general from the war as well. Since Fort Sumter is in South Carolina, it makes sense that the General would serve as inspiration for the school. But there is more to the story. Clemson is the chief rival to USC. Their mascot is the tiger. Back in 1902, the two schools' football teams were facing off against each other and Carolina was the underdog, They won an upset victory and some USC students made a picture that featured a gamecock crowing over a tiger that had been beaten. When the Clemson team saw this, they told the USC team that they better not carry it in the parade being held the following day. The USC student carried the picture and this set the stage for a violent confrontation. This was 1902, so this wasn't going to be fists. A couple hundred Clemson military cadets marched on the Carolina campus and they were swinging their swords around, calling for a fight. Forty Carolina students grabbed knives and pistols and hid behind a wall, preparing to confront the cadets. Thankfully, the police  and professors heard about this and rushed to the scene and they defused the situation. Everybody gathered round and they burned the picture together. All the students cheered, but the Tigers and Gamecocks wouldn't play a football game against each other for six years. The papers reported the Carolina students as being the Gamecocks and the mascot stuck. There is a tradition of burning paper tigers before every Carolina-Clemson football game now. No one knows where using garnet as a color came from, but it dates back to the 1890s. 

Back in 1801, the governor of South Carolina, John Drayton, wanted to bring harmony between the Lowcountry and the Upcountry of South Carolina. This division split the state into north and south. Charleston was the heart of Lowcountry and it was very powerful and very wealthy, trading heavily with England and the Caribbean. This was one of the most prosperous cities in America. Taxes were levied heavily on the town though and the first whispers of revolution would start here. 

The Upcountry wasn't affected much by England's taxes and had a more modest lifestyle and trade. These were farmers and traders of a lower class and this caused clashes with the richer Lowcountry. The Lowcountry were Patriots, while the Upcountry were Loyalists. There was actually armed conflict between the two sides before the Revolutionary War. William Drayton had been a prominent Lowcountry leader and he went to broker peace with the Upcountry. Initial attempts failed, but when the Cherokee Nation started to form an alliance with the Lowcountry, Upcountry leaders realized they would be in a big pickle. So they brokered a peace agreement until the war started. This rivalry still had a hold in 1801. So, Governor John Drayton - who was the son of Willaim Drayton - went to the South Carolina General Assembly and asked them to found South Carolina College. They agreed and passed an act to do so on December 19, 1801. There were initially nine students enrolled in a traditional classical curriculum when it opened its doors in 1805. The first president was the Baptist minister and theologian Reverend Jonathan Maxcy. The early plan was to build eleven buildings to form the campus. The first building served multiple purposes as an administrative office, academic building, residence hall, and chapel and still stands today. It is known as Rutledge College today. The President's House was the next to be built and was finished in 1807. The building that eventually will be DeSaussure (De sah soor) College was next and then the other eight buildings came over the next couple of decades. This grouping of buildings ended up forming a U-shape and this earned it the nickname "The Horseshoe." This has remained the central part of the university. 

These early years had the student body forming two literary societies: the Clariosophic Society and the Euphradian Society. These societies prepared students for leadership with a focus on oratory excellence. From the 1970s to 2013, the Clariosophic Society was shut down, but in 2013, it was re-activated. The Euphradian Society shut down multiple times through the years and would restart with the most recent being in 2010. The college was the leading institution of the South.

But being that this college was in the south, there is a history involving slavery and discrimination and and civil rights. The early buildings were made from slaved-made brick and slaves did the construction work. Maintenance and cleaning was also performed by enslaved people. The college supported secession and the Confederate side of the Civil War. Most male students volunteered, but there was also a system of conscription. The college ended up allowing students under the age of 18 to enroll, so that there were students for professors to teach. When the war was over and reconstruction was under way, The University Act of 1869 was passed to fund and reorganize the university with an amendment added by black representative W. J. Whipper, that would prevent racial discrimination at the university. Two black trustees, Benjamin A. Boseman and Francis Lewis Cardozo, were also added to the governing board. Most enslaved people needed remedial educations to prepare for college, so a normal school was added to campus to prepare them and the college also abolished tuition and other fees. On October 7, 1873, Henry E. Hayne, the Secretary of State of South Carolina, became the first black student when he registered at the medical college at USC for the fall session. This made the national papers and some white students left the school in protest. Because of this, within two years, most of the students were black. There are many monuments around the school inspired by these efforts. The most recent was unveiled in 2024 and features a 12-foot bronze monument with three of the first black students aftyer the campus had been closed off to blacks again: Robert Anderson, Henrie Monteith Treadwell and James Solomon Jr. Treadwell was just 16 years old when she filed the lawsuit that led to USC’s integration in 1963 and she became the first post-Reconstruction black graduate and first black female graduate in 1965. This monument stands near McKissick Museum on the historic Horseshoe. 

At the top of the Horseshoe is a Slavery Historical Marker. It recognizes the work of slaves in building the campus and shares that enslaved people lived in outbuildings, one of which still stands behind what is now the President's House. The Kitchen House and Slave Quarters Marker is near the President's House and identifies the last remaining kitchen and slave quarters on campus. There is  statue of Richard T. Greener who was the first African American professor at the University of South Carolina and he served during the Reconstruction Era.

Things changed in 1877 when the South Carolina legislature became all-white again and they closed the university and reopened it three years later as a white only agricultural college. The university's first black professor, had to leave. And this was just white men. Women weren't allowed at the university until 1893, but even then, they weren't allowed to live on campus. Mattie Jean Adams became the first female graduate in 1898. In 1924, women could finally live in dormitories on the campus and a quarter of the campus was female. In the spring of 1924, Irene Dillard Elliott became the first dean of women at USC. The Horseshoe was registered as a National Historic Landmark and the 11 original buildings there have survived fires, an earthquake and the Civil War. 

The university has grown extensively from its origins, not only adding thousands of students, but the property has added the student union, 24 residence halls, several academic buildings, the Longstreet Theatre, the Koger Center for the Arts, the Carolina Coliseum, the Colonial Life Arena, Carolina Stadium, the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center, the Greek Village, the Green Quad, the Honors Residence Hall, the Public Health Research Center, the Graduate Columbia hotel, School of Law building and the Darla Moore School of Business. 

A little lesser known fact about the university is that it has tunnels underneath it. These were steam tunnels that gave power to the university with steam pipes running through them and other utilities. There were rumors that they connected to the tunnels in the underground of downtown Columbia, but this isn't true. The rumor we are most interested in is that these tunnels are the lair of Mr. Third Eye. He has that nickname because he apparently has three eyes. And that's better than his other nickname, which is The Sewer Man. The first story of seeing the Third Eye Man dates back to November 12, 1949. Two students, one of whom was named Christopher Nichols, were walking past the Long Street Theater around 10:30 at night and they saw this man who appeared to be wearing silver clothing and he went down under a manhole cover. Then, about six months later, a police officer was on campus investigating a report of mutilated chickens near the Long Street Theater. He saw those and then he also saw a strange man with silver skin. This man turned and looked at the officer and the officer saw that he had an oddly colored face and he also had three eyes. A third encounter happened later when a group of students claimed to see this thing in the underground utility tunnels. The final story I saw had Mr. Third Eye charging students with a lead pipe in the 1970s. The police searched the tunnels, but they couldn't find him and from that point on, the tunnels have been off limits to students. There are those who claim that sightings continued into the 80s and 90s, but when we went to find these supposed newspaper articles about any of these sightings, we could find none. So this just may be a very elaborate bit of folklore for the campus. 

So let's get into some more realistic hauntings. Lonely_Set1376 wrote on Reddit, "I worked in McMaster College in the darkroom when I was at USC, and it seemed haunted. Several times a young woman would be working alone in the darkroom and come out freaking out claiming someone was in there with them, like that they saw out of the corner of their eye. Different women, who didn't know each other. I never saw anything but the building was really creepy at night when no one was there."

The South Caroliniana Library was constructed in 1840 and it is the oldest freestanding college library in the entire country. It is located on the historic Horseshoe at the intersections of Sumter and College Streets and holds one of the largest Southern manuscript collections in the nation. The American history collection here is also very important. The library was designed by Robert Mills in the Greek Revival architecture and features four Doric columns on the exterior. The interior has a second-floor reading room designed after the 1808 Congressional library that housed Thomas Jefferson's personal library in the second Library of Congress. Two wings were added to the structure in 1927. When the Civil War raged, much of the campus was damaged by occupation by both forces, but the library remained relatively unscathed. A great black leader in America, Richard Greener, served as a steward who protected the library after the war. The building served as the state house for a while after the war because the real state house had been burned down. Being this old and this important, it is not surprising that people claim that it is haunted. J. Rion McKissick was one of the most beloved presidents of USC and he died in office in 1944. He actually had been a student at the school during the infamous 1902 conflict that led to the first "tiger burn." McKissick would ride his bicycle across campus and guided the university during the World War II years. His ghost is said to haunt the library and the area around it. This could be because his grave is to the left of the front doors of the library.

A Confederate nurse is seen haunting the Horseshoe area that had served as a giant hospital during the war. People have taken to calling her Ms. Black. The legend behind her claims that she wasn't helping everyone. In fact, she was poisoning Union wounded. She eventually poisoned herself. She used wine to carry the poison and her ghost is said to wander the Horseshoe, carrying wine and offering it to people. 

The McKissick Museum was originally a library when it was built in 1940. It was built in the same spot that the first President's House was located. The library became the museum in 1984 and specializes in Southern folk art. The Visitor Center offers student-led walking tours, called University Ambassadors. President McKissick's body lay in repose here after his death. The museum was named for him and is also said to be haunted by him. Michaela Reilly, a class of 2021 University Ambassador, said, "My favorite ghost story is the story of James McKissick haunting the McKissick Museum at night. His grave is fairly close to the building. There are rumors that you can hear footsteps at night when no one else is around and that you’ll hear objects moving and feel cool breezes. It’s a lively building during the day, but when all the lights are off at night, it does look pretty spooky.” There are those that think this building is haunted by a former custodian instead. 

DeSaussure (De sah soor) College is the second oldest building on campus and was named for Henry William DeSaussure, who served in the Revolutionary War and later as a politician in both chambers of the South Carolina legislature. He was a part of the assembly that established the college and he was one of the first trustees of the college. The building mirrors Rutledge College in style. It served as a hospital during the Civil War, and was the site of the first medical school at Carolina from 1866-1873. During World War I, one wing served as the first women’s dormitory. Today, it is an upperclassmen dormitory. The University's website reports, "One wing was also used during the Reconstruction Era as a federal military prison. Several of our students are believed to have heard the footsteps and voices of the Civil War soldiers that haunt the building." 

The Spigner House is located at 915 Gregg Street and was recently renovated and is used by the campus as an events and conference center. There are beautiful expansive grounds and an uncovered limestone, brick and tiled terrace that spans the width of the front and wraps onto both side of the exterior with a conference room, two drawing rooms and a central foyer. The house was built in 1915 by J. Carroll Johnson in the Italian Renaissance Revival style for Thomas and Isabel Boyne. The land had been deeded to Isabel by her father. In 1937, the director of the Palmetto National Bank, G. Trezevant Pressley and his wife, Annie, bought the house. Henrietta Bailey was their niece and like a daughter to them and she lived with them during the Depression. When Annie died in 1959, she bequeathed the home to Henrietta. Henrietta gave the home to the University of South Carolina in 1963. Shadow figures have been seen in the house and people claim to get eerie feelings.

The Taylor House is located at 1525 Senate St. and was built for Thomas Taylor, Jr. in 1908 in the Neoclassical style. It was restored in 2024 to serve as the School of Law’s admissions office and event space. The house served as the Columbia Museum of Art from 1950 to 1998. The haunting here includes employees hearing noises upstairs and in the attic. There is never anybody in those locations when checked. The light in the attic has been reported to turn on and off in the middle of the night. Shadow figures have also been seen.  

The Longstreet Theatre is just down the road from the Horseshoe. The theater started off as College Hall when it was built in 1855. The plan had been to have this serve not only as a hall, but as an auditorium and chapel. The exterior is amazing, resembling a Greek temple with large Doric columns in front and a Neoclassical design. It wasn't easy to get built as 400,000 bricks designated for the building were lost when the Congaree River flooded, The contractor also had trouble getting glass for the windows. Then the original contractors went bankrupt and another company had to be brought in to finish the construction. Shortly after opening, in April of 1855, The college's president, James Thornwell, delivered a speech inside the building. That's when it was discovered that the acoustics sucked. The sound was like an echo chamber and most people couldn't understand what was being said. So the college knew that they couldn't use this building for its original intent. It also couldn't be used for academic purposes because it hadn't been built to have a bunch of classrooms.  So it just kinda sat there until the Civil War and then it was used as a military hospital. From 1870 to 1887, it was used as an arsenal and armory by the US Army. In 1888, it was renamed Science Hall and laboratories were set up. The basement was transformed into a gymnasium. An indoor swimming pool was added in 1939 and the name went back to College Hall. An engineering miracle in the 1970s transformed the building into a premier stage for live theater and it took its current name from school president Augustus Baldwin Longstreet. A remodel turned this into a theater in the round and it opened in 1977. 

People claimed that the building was cursed because of all the building issues. A storm even blew the roof off early on. And this is a theater, so it isn't surprising people say it is haunted. Add onto that that this was a hospital and part of it was used as a morgue and you have all the ingredients for ghosts. 

Jim Hunter is the head of the Department of Theatre and Dance, which now occupies the building and he said, "Down underneath the front steps...there are these brick catacombs down there. Those were the morgues because it was cold down there. And of course, there's all the ghost stories that you get from that. We've actually had the Ghost Hunters TV show here shooting overnight. This was quite a few many years ago. And of course, you know, they heard things." Visitors have claimed to hear odd noises and doors slamming and they have seen shadow figures. Disembodied footsteps cause the floors to creak. There are stories of the elevator doors opening on their own and of apparitions being seen in the late-night hours. Students will see someone standing in the dressing room and they'll look away and when they look back, the person is gone. The sounds of moaning and groaning are heard as well.

The campus does host ghost tours every spooky season and the university paper isn't shy about sharing ghost stories, so they clearly feel there are some unexplained things going on here. Is the University of South Carolina haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 570 - Aiken Rhett House

Moment in Oddity - Voo-per-tall  Sh-vaber-baun (Vader Braun) (Suggested by: Michael Rogers)

In Wuppertal Germany, there is a semi unique mode of transportation. There are many suspended public transit railways around the world, however the Wuppertal train is one of only two that actually operates upside down. Dubbed the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, it is the oldest elevated railway with hanging cars. The cars themselves are constructed with extruded aluminum and fiberglass composite. Each individual car weighs just under 25 tons. The train transports approximately 80,000 passengers every day and the entire route only takes about 30 minutes to travel from end to end gliding a distance of 8.3 miles. The route itself offers beautiful views of the Wupper River for 6 of those miles at a mere 39 ft above the water's surface. There are 20 stations along the course, some of which display Art Nouveau architecture. It is a very  popular mode of transportation for both locals as well as tourists.  For those without a fear of falling, the Schwebebahn provides an awesome adventure albeit admittedly alarming for some, and this manner of transportation, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Sinking of the HMS Formidable

In the month of January, on the 1st, in 1915, the British battleship HMS Formidable was sunk. The ship was out on exercises about 37 miles off the Devon coast. When suddenly the first of two torpedoes from German U-boat 24 hit the Formidable's number one boiler on the port side. The second torpedo hit the starboard side, near the bow. The explosions caused the ship to list heavily to its starboard side while large thirty foot waves crashed over the damaged ship. The captain, his second in command and a signaler stayed at their posts as the ship began taking on water. They sent flares and rockets off at regular intervals hoping to alert other ships for rescue. It is said that nobody panicked. While lifeboats were being lowered, someone played a ragtime song on the piano and others sang. Without warning, the ship gave an enormous lurch. With that, the Captain exclaimed, "Lads, this is the last, all hands for themselves, and may God bless you and guide you to safety". The captain then walked to the foreship with his dog and waited for the inevitable. Many lifeboats were destroyed as they were lowered while still others sank due to the size of the waves.  One of the lifeboats known as a pinnace, or small boat with sails or oars, was spotted from land by a girl and her parents. The alarm was raised and thus rescue efforts began. Of the nearly 750 men, only 199 were saved.

Aiken Rhett House (Suggested by: Savannah Marchione)

The Aiken Rhett House is located in Charleston, South Carolina. This is a partially restored house museum that can be toured and was a home that remained in the Aiken family for 142 years. Some of their furnishings remain as do some of their spirits. Our listener Savannah Marchione suggested this location to us and she joins us to share about the history of the house and her own paranormal experiences that she has had while touring the house. 

For us, Charleston is synonymous with great old mansions. The city is very similar to Natchez, Mississippi in that respect. This is a place you come to see these beautiful and distinctive mansions. They are all very different. We'll sprinkle in a few here and there throughout this episode. The Aiken Rhett Mansion isn't opulent anymore. It isn't even completely refurbished, but it has it's own distinct beauty in its unfinished state. One can imagine what it had been like at its prime in the early 1800s when grand parties were thrown here. This mansion captured our listener Savannah's heart. (Savannah 1 - Savannah shares with us the history of the house and how she got interested in it to begin with. The Aiken Rhett House is located at 48 Elizabeth Street in Charleston, South Carolina. The house was originally built by Charleston merchant John Robinson in 1820 as a typical Charleston double house. The Aiken Rhett House stands three-stories and has 23 rooms and was built from brick.)

Six years before John Robinson built what became the Aiken Rhett House, he built the house that still carries his name at 10 Judith Street. Savannah will share that this merchant ran into financial issues, but through it all, he held onto this house, which is considerably smaller than the Aiken Rhett House at just 6,000 square feet and two and a half stories with a raised basement. It features double piazzas and an iron staircase leading to the front door. This home was later owned by Commander Peter Stevens who led the Citadel cadets at Fort Johnson against the Union at Fort Sumter. It was Stevens who ordered the shots at the Star of the West, a resupply ship sent by President Lincoln to Fort Sumter. This act is considered by some to be the first shot of the Civil War.  

In 1825, Robinson lost 5 ships at sea and he was forced to sell the house to meet his financial obligations. So in 1827, Willkam Aiken Sr. bought the house. Aiken was an Irish immigrants who had gained a large fortune as one of the cities leading merchants and used the house as a rental property. When Aiken sr died in a sudden carriage accident, his holdings were split between Henrietta Wyatt Aiken ( Williams wife) and his son William Aiken JR. In 1833 when William Sr and Henrietta decided to officially moved in and started to renovate the home and creates one of the most impressive residences in the 19th century Charleston. William Jr was a business man, Rice planter, and distinguished politician, and governor of South Carolina. William Jr was one of the states wealthiest citizens. Will Jr and his wife would vacation in Germany and come home with fine art and furnishings for their home. In 1858 Aiken Jr commissioned his cousin Joseph Daniel Aiken to design and oversee the construction of an art gallery, the only one of its kind in the city. Alot if the object acquired by the Aikens on their travels remain in the art gallery room.

When William Jr. and his wife Harriet obtained the house, they began to make several alterations to the property. The main entry moved from Judith Street to Elizabeth Street and a new foyer was created. An eastern wing was added, as was a large dining room on the first floor with a ballroom added above it. The central hallway was closed. Several outbuildings were added with Gothic Revival styling and these imcluded a cow shed, chicken coop and matching corner privies because why have only one when you can have two and matching, I mean, come on, this is the south! of course, another slave quarters was added and this is the bad part of the Aiken history as William Jr. was one of the largest slaveholders in South Carolina. He had a plantation on Jehosee Island with 700 slaves. The house kept nineteen slaves. While Aiken supported the Confederacy, he was not in favor of secession.

William Jr died in 1887 in Flat Rick N. Carolina. William Jr left his property to his wife Harriet. She continued to live in the house until her death in 1892. Their daughter Henrietta ( william jr named his daughted after his mother) and son in law Major AB Rhett raised 4 sons and one daughter in the house. Upon Henriettas death, the house was divided between her children and their heirs.    Your able to take tours in the home. You can tour the basement, the first floor and second floor but the third floor is blocked off. You are also able to tour the grounds, the horse barn with the horse caregiver living above the horses and cars. And there's a slave quarters and kitchen, the kitchen was located on the first floor and the bedrooms were located above the kitchen. The Aikens had 20 enslaved African Americans living on property. Like most large houses in the south, this house had a bell system to call for help when they needed. When Henrietta wanted a bath, one of the head female slaves would have to get up to 10 gallons of waters from the well, boil it and carry each bucket of water from outside kitchen and up 2 flights of stairs to the porcelain claw bath tub. Two of the slaves who were at the house were able to become emancipated, but do to lack of the funds they decided to stay at the home and passed away in the house not to long after. The Aikens always had up to 3 horses at the house, even after the children had bought 2 Duryea Motor Carriage, and one still sits in the barn. There was one man who would take care of the horses and he was an older white gentleman who was a family friend, i wasn't able to find his name. You are unable to tour the upstairs of the horse barn due to it being unstable. The library held up to 275 books and William Sr kept the books in constant rotation with new books. 

Two of the sons I'on Rhett and Andrew Burnet Rhett Jr continued to lived in the house until the mid twentieth century. Frances Dill Rhett, whose husband was a direct descendant of Gov. William Rhett, donated the house to the Charleston Museum in 1975 and it opened as a museum.[6] The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.[1] Since 1995, Historic Charleston Foundation has owned and operated the Aiken-Rhett House as a historic house museum. I want to break in here to talk a little about the Nathaniel Russell House. If you are in Charleston, you have to tour this mansion. The free-flying, three-story staircase that is inside is an architectural marvel. The staircase supports itself as it winds up in a cantilevered way, meaning it is fixed at only one end. And it has lasted all these years. It is truly mind-blowing. The mansion is at 51 Meeting Street and was built by its namesake who owned 18 slaves. The rest of the mansion is very unique with geometrically shaped rooms and elaborate plasterwork ornamentation.

The Aiken Rhett house is to be considered a very haunted house. Some visitors think it's haunted by the spirits if the family members that once lived there. There have been some experience of people hearing footsteps coming from above them and in front of them. Doors have been heard and seen opening and closing on their own, their is no central air or heating in the house, so whatever the temperature it is outside it's going to be inside, the only room that has air and heat is the art gallery room, and the basement where you check in for the tours and the gift shop. Some people have seen a women crying in a mirror in the ballroom. People have taken pictures and have had ghostly figures standing on the room. There have been loud noises and echos from the upper floors and sometimes there's been a string wind and a loud commotion after feeling the wind and a lot of the times the noises come from the ballroom. There were 2 architects working in he the house in the late 80s, say they saw a women crying when they looked into a mirror in the ballroom. If you walk through the slave quarters you feel a heavy feeling of anger and unease as you walk around the bedrooms. People have said they seen dark and black figures walk past them or behind them and get a shiver down their back. A few people have said they have heard singing but can't make out what is being sung and it sounds like old gullah.

Savannah shared her unexplained experiences at the house, "Now I've had 2 experience while I was in the slave quarters, I felt as if a dark figure had been falling me as I walked from one end to the other end, so I kinda stopped and started talking and saying I just wanted to learn about the history and didn't want any trouble and didn't want to case any harm, and it felt like the figure backed off and seemed to go and into one of the other rooms. There are 3 rooms in the slave quarters. And one room seems very dark and like something bad happened or there was al ot of hate in that one room. So you can do a self guided tour, you get an email and you open the link and you get a voice recording of what route to take and of the history of the house and the family and what your looking at. So i had gone inside and upstairs into the bathroom where the tub is, i felt a woman's presence in the bathroom, I had my head phones in and I was listening about the tub and there was a pause in the recording to give you a minute to walk around, well there was nothing playing for about a minute and I heard humming and I figured it came from the recording, I had one headphone in, so the recording came back on and said something about the sink being from France and their was another minute or so pause and I heard the same humming again. I was by my self with no one else around me or near me, I was the only one in that part of second floor. I have asked some of the staff and of course most of them deny any Hauntings of the house or the area and a few of them get upset if you ask. There are 3 or 4 cousins of the Aiken family who are in the board of the house to make sure it stays at is. There has been very very minimal work to the house and it looks like it had when the original family had lived in it. And one of those cousins works in the house to help answer any questions people have about the family. And I got lucky one day when I had asked a lady who was probably in her mid 30s if she thought the house was haunted, and she 100% thought it was. She went on to tell me she had a few experience in the house. She had 2 different shutters slam on her as she was opening them for the day and there was no wind that day. And one experience that absolutely horrified her was when she was upstairs in the bathroom with the tub she heard the same humming I did and had a feeling it was Henrietta because that was her bathroom, so she walked out of the bathroom she was a blonde women walk out the doorway of the bathroom and into the hallway and she say the balcony door open and then saw the back of the women walk down the stairs and into the ballroom, so the lady tried to get half way down the stairs to look into the mirror to only see the a dark figure run across the bottom of the stairs and out the back double doors that led to the back yard and as she looked into the ball room she say the blonde women with no face and heard screaming coming from behind her, the lady said she rain out the front door so fast she forgot to like the door and went and sat across the street and waited for the other lady who was opening with her to arrive, she said as she sat across the street she could hear the doors opening and closing, she could hear it all since she had opened all the shutters on the second floor."

The Aiken Rhett House was a place of opulence and parties, but also one deeply connected to one family. Perhaps that is why there are spirits still here. Is the Aiken Rhett House haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 552 - Haunted Abbeville, South Carolina

Moment in Oddity - Swallowing Gum

As children, many of us were told, don't swallow watermelon seeds or a watermelon plant will grow inside your tummy. Or this one, don't swallow gum or it will ball up in your stomach and never be digested, or at minimum the gum would take seven years to digest. Now, gum has several ingredients that are digested easily. There are sweeteners and other flavoring ingredients and softeners like vegetable oil added so that the piece of gum doesn't get rock hard after the first few minutes. However, there are some ingredients that are not digestible. At one time, the base of chewing gum was sourced from the sapodilla tree which was not able to be digested by the human body. After WWII, the demand for gum increased to the point that the sapodilla trees' sustainability was unable to keep up with the production. The gum base evolution began with combining polymers that were both synthetic and natural. While it is still true that our bodies cannot break down the base of gum, our bodies ARE able to pass the undigestible portion, similar to how we pass corn kernels. And that fact reminds me of the game, 'First Corn'. If you know you know. Our bodies are capable of amazing feats, but the thought of having a huge, undigestible ball of gum stuck in our gut, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Davy Crockett Born

In the month of August, on the 17th, in 1786, Davy Crockett was born. Known by the nickname, "King of the Wild Frontier", Davy, or David as he preferred to be called, was born near Limestone, Tennessee. Growing up he became known as a great hunter and storyteller, an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. After being elected to Congress in 1827, he came up against President Andrew Jackson where he passionately opposed many of the President's policies, most notably, the Indian Removal Act. This hostility towards Jackson's policies caused Crockett's defeat in the election of 1831. He was re-elected in 1833 and then lost again in 1835. This motivated his subsequent exit to the Mexican state of Tejas, later to become Texas. In January of 1836, Davy joined the Texas Revolution and died at the Battle of the Alamo in March of that year at the age of 49. To this day, it is yet undetermined whether Crockett died in battle or was executed after surrendering, due to varying eye witness accounts.

Haunted Abbeville, South Carolina

The town of Abbeville in South Carolina is near the Georgia state line and hosted the last war council for Jefferson Davis. The Confederacy died in this town. The tree-lined square hosts many historic buildings and the town itself is filled with Victorian and Gothic styled homes. This all makes Abbeville seem like a quiet little town. But underneath that southern charm are ghost stories. Many buildings here are said to be haunted. Join us for the history and hauntings of the town of Abbeville, South Carolina.

A group of French Huguenots settled Abbeville (a bee vl) in 1758. The site was originally named John de la Howe for one of those Huguenots, but eventually John suggested the name Abbeville after his hometown in France. Revolutionary War hero General Andrew Pickens called Abbeville home and he owned a lot of property here including a fresh-water spring known as the Big Spring. Pickens donated the spring to the people of Abbeville to use as their primary water source. The town was incorporated in 1840. This town would become the birthplace and deathbed of the Confederacy. Secession Hill was the gathering place for secessionists and they met there on November 22, 1860 to make their plan to leave the Union. A month later, South Carolina seceded. When the war ended, Confederate President Jefferson Davis stopped at his friend Armistead Burt's home in Abbeville for a night. This was May 2, 1865 and in the parlor of the Burt-Stark Mansion, he held his last official cabinet meeting and dissolved the Confederate government. The tallest building in South Carolina is here, the Prysmian Copper Wire Tower. There are many historic buildings here and a few of them are reputedly haunted. That's probably why they host a ghost tour in the town during October. Here are a few of those places.

Abbeville Welcome Center

We should probably start with the town's welcome center, which is located at 100 Court Square. This building had housed the State of South Carolina Bank and its special because it is one of the few historic buildings to have survived fires that occurred in the 1870s. This is the starting point for the walking tours of the city and also is the home for the Greater Abbeville Chamber of Commerce. The Old Bank Building was built in 1865 and designed by S. Henry James. The lobby has a series of paintings done by artist Wilbur Kurtz in 1922. These paintings feature a hundred years of Abbeville's history from Gen. Andrew Pickens to Jefferson Davis' Last War Council Meeting. Nations Bank donated the building and paintings to the city in 1996. One ghost story connected to this building features the spirit of a young boy who likes to chase staff in the hallways, but he is usually seen as an apparition outside the building, staring down the street. A former volunteer at the Chamber of Commerce said of a ghost in the building, "He’s an older man, and we can hear him whistling all the time. A medium visited us one day several years ago and described the man as an older white man around sixty or seventy years old. She said he was wearing blue jean overalls and a white short-sleeved t-shirt. Each time he was seen, he was apparently sweeping or mopping the floor of the bank, so we were okay with that." - LaNelle, Marjorie. The Apparitions of Abbeville (The History & Mystery of the South Carolina Lakelands Book 2) (p. 98). Palmetto Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Abbeville County Museum

Our next location here is one of our favorite kinds of places to investigate and that is an old county jail. Today, this is the Abbeville County Museum and is located at 215 Poplar Street. The building was constructed between 1830 and 1850, making it the oldest building in town, and functioned as the jail until 1948. Rather than having half the jail house the criminals and the other half housing the warden and his family, this old jail kept prisoners on the second and third floors and the ground floor was reserved for the warden and his family. The top floor usually had the worst offenders and it is believed hangings took place up there. It really was the perfect place for them as the roof is crossed by thick wooden beams that easily could've had ropes thrown over them. After being the jail, it served as the county morgue for awhile and then was the Abbeville American Legion and dance hall. That was mainly in the 1960s. The building became the Abbeville County Museum in 1976. Staff members have heard disembodied footsteps. Mary Baskin Hutchinson was an Abbeville historian and she shared a story about a tour she gave to a medium. She took the medium up to the third floor and he separated from the group and went over to the corner and had what she described as "an animated conversation with nothing." The medium returned to the group and he told Mary that there was a spirit here of a black man and that he wanted to talk to Mary because he was afraid they were trying to put him out. The spirit identified himself as Earl Miller and said he was 28-years-old and that he had been there at the jail since 1905. So Mary talked to him and told him that he was welcome to stay and help watch over the museum, but she requested that he stay up on the third floor.

Bernibrooks Inn

Bernibrooks Inn is located at 200 W. Pinckney Street. This started off as the home William Brooks built for his daughter Maggie Whitfield Brooks in 1860. This was constructed in the Colonial Revival design and is a really large house and this was because he hoped Maggie would have a large family. Maggie had different desires and she never married or had children. She transformed the house into a boarding house for traveling railroad workers. Maggie lived in the house until her death at the age of eighty-seven. The house passed into other hands and it was not maintained. An elderly couple named Nichols were told they had to leave the house because it became unlivable. A family named Parnell purchased the house and just left it in its sad state. The Berni family bought it in 1993 and they renovated the house. The renovations took a long time, so they didn't open the Bernibrooks Inn until 2003. It seems that it closed in 2016, so you can't stay here any longer. The haunting experiences started happening when the Berni's started renovating the house. It is believed that Maggie haunts her former home. The first thing that happened is that they found a penny at the top of the stairway. This isn't necessarily weird, but pennies started showing up everywhere. Some of the pennies were found outside too. Not sure the specifics of pennies in this case, but a book written about the ghosts in Abbeville has a whole chapter with a very elaborate story about a Confederate soldier who stayed at the boarding house and Maggie would say to him, "Penny for your thoughts?" and he would respond that he didn't like pennies because they had Lincoln on them and then they would laugh. It was a cute story, but uh...Lincoln wasn't on the penny until 1909.

John A. Harris House

The John A. Harris House is located at 200 South Main Street. This site was originally owned by former Governor Patrick Noble who governed in the 1840s. He built his summer home here. That house was demolished and John A. Harris built his home here in 1896, which was designed by Atlanta firm Bruce & Morgan. That firm had also designed Tillman Hall at Clemson University. John Harris was the former president of Abbeville Mills. These included the Abbeville Furniture Co. manufacturing plant and The Abbeville Cotton Mill, which was the first mill in Abbeville. His home was built in the Victorian style with a wide wrap around veranda and portico supported by slender columns. The house stayed in the family for many years. John's grandson Grant Harris had a friend named Debra come to visit him. When she entered the house, she told Grant she just had the weirdest sensation. When she was coming up the front steps, she felt a presence walk past her and there was an icy chill to this feeling. Grant told her that it was probably his grandfather John as this type of thing happened often. The house was put up for sale and we're not sure who owns it now, but it is in need of a lot of love. 

The General's House  

The General's House is also known as the McGowan-Barksdale-Bundy House and is located at 211 North Main Street. The nickname refers to two former owners who were generals, Confederate Brigadier General Samuel McGowan and World War II General William E. Barksdale. McGowan is the man who had the house built in 1888 over the foundation of his prior home that had burned down. He had moved to Abbeville in 1841 and purchased a Gothic Revival home from a widow, which burned in 1887. Atlanta architect G.L. Norman designed the house in the Queen Anne Victorian style and features towers and turrets. A beautiful unique feature in the interior of the house is a multicolored interior window with a cross over a landing on the stairwell and the sun shines through it perfectly. There is a root cellar and a basement that has eight rooms. The main floor has four rooms, a library, kitchen/dining area, large living hall and a parlor. A grand staircase leads up to the second floor which has a central hall and four bedrooms off the hall. The attic is on the third floor. The last owner was J.D. Bundy and he deeded the house to the Abbeville County Historical Society in 1989. The house is today a museum focused on military history that has added three servant cabins to the property and a train caboose.

An anonymous journalist visited the house with a photographer friend and they got a tour from an elderly caretaker. When they got up to the second floor, the journalist heard an audible cough. The journalist mentioned to the caretaker who was taking them through the house that they probably shouldn't disturb the person on this floor. The caretaker asked the journalist what she was talking about because they were the only people in the house. Then she heard the coughing again. Marjorie LaNelle writes in her book "The Apparitions of Abbeville: The History and Mystery of the South Carolina Lakelands" what happened next, "'See?' I said loudly and insistently. 'There IS somebody up here!' I hurried to the front room where the door was open. 'It's coming from in here!' As I looked into the room, I saw the bed was neatly made and the room was tidy. It had a bed and a chest of drawers alongside a desk and chair. But there was no one in the room - at least no one that the human eye could apparently see! 'That there's the room where William McGowan died,' said George as he pointed to the room with his walking cane. 'He was General McGowan's son,' he added. 'Died of pneumonia,' said George. 'He was only thirty-nine years old.'" People claim to see the ghost of William McGowan looking out the upstairs round window. The scent of cherry tobacco has been smelled. And that phantom cough has been heard by other people as well.

Trinity Episcopal Church

Trinity Episcopal Church is located at 200 Church St. The church started in 1842 in a clapboard building. In 1858, it as decided that the congregation needed a fine building for their services and they hired architect George E. Walker from Columbia to design the church. He found inspiration in the Gothic cathedrals in Europe and it shows. This is a beautiful church with a tall front column with a soaring spire topped with a cross. The cornerstone was laid on June 27, 1859 and the church was built from handmade bricks. The interior features handmade woodwork. The really glorious part of this church though are the 19th century American stained glass windows. The father of stained glass painting in America, William Gibson, designed the chancel window that is entitled "Suffer the Little Children." Another window is from the 20th century and was crafted by J&R Lamb Studios and depicts the Holy Family. There are interesting legends connected to the church. One legend claims that the chancel window was intended for a Northern congregation, but couldn't get through a Union blockade of Charleston during the Civil War and so the church adapted it to their church. There is nothing to support this and is thought to have been specifically crafted for the church. The church has a bell that was gifted to the church by a member named J. Foster Marshall who was a colonel that died in the Battle of Second Manassas. During the war, a Confederate officer saw the bell and thought it would be handy to melt it down and make a cannon, but thankfully the bell wasn't made from the right kind of metal, so it was saved.

There was a woman visiting the town with her daughter and they were walking down the street towards the Trinity Episcopal Church when all of a sudden the young girl broke away from her mother and ran towards the church and then she went inside. Her mother caught up to her and found her in the vestibule talking to something the mother couldn't see. Her daughter came over to her very excited and proclaimed, "Mother, I want you to meet my new friend Elizabeth. She wants us to help her." The mother saw no one, so she ushered her daughter out of the church. But the daughter was set on helping Elizabeth, so the mother visited the church several times with her daughter over the next couple of weeks and eventually she too could see Elizabeth. Elizabeth told the mother her problem and there was an attempt to cross her over, but it didn't work because the spirit of Elizabeth is still seen and felt in the church. People see a woman sitting in the front pew, wearing an old-fashioned dress. The sounds of disembodied weeping are heard as well. If the spirit is approached, it vanishes. The Elizabeth in this story is thought to be Elizabeth Marshall. Her husband Drew joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War and Elizabeth would come to the church everyday with the couples son and sit in the front pew and pray for the safety of her husband. Unfortunately, Drew was killed at the Battle of Second Manassas in 1862. For some reason, Elizabeth was accused of being an informant and so her son was killed in retaliation. She tried to attack the soldiers who did this and it is thought she was then murdered herself.

The Belmont Inn

The Belmont Inn is a classic hotel featuring modern amenities and a restaurant and bar that was originally known as the Eureka Hotel, which was built in 1903 for $30,000. The first floor was open to salesmen selling their wares and served mostly people traveling on the railroad. Regular patrons were also vaudeville entertainers who would perform at the Abbeville Opera House. Fanny Brice became a regular. She was comedian who created The Baby Snooks Show and the 1968 film "Funny Girl" is loosely based on her life story. Brice started in burlesque, joined the Ziegfeld Follies, performed multiple times on Broadway and recorded several records for Victor and Columbia Records. The Eureka Hotel became the Belmont Inn in 1920 and ran as that until 1950, when the inn became a semi-residential home for the elderly. That lasted until the 1970s and then it closed for several years. In 1984, it was restored and reopened as a hotel with 25 rooms. It closed again for a while and passed through a few hands and is today owned by Jim Petty and his wife Susan Botts and Susan is happy to tell people that her establishment is haunted. The claim is that this is the second most haunted hotel in South Carolina.

The inn is said to be haunted by a former bellhop named Abraham who worked with the original opening crew. He likes to walk up and down the hallways and jiggle the doorknobs. People have seen him still in his bellhop uniform and a few guests have claimed that Abraham jumped into bed with them to suggle. The website Drugstore Divas stayed at the inn and wrote, "I was laying in bed in The Belmont Inn in Abbeville, SC and heard noise outside in the hallway. Instead of immediately thinking it was other guests, I thought it was Abraham, the bellhop. The dead bellhop. Who haunts the hotel. So when I heard footsteps in the hallway, my first thought wasn’t other guests walking back to their rooms after a night out on court square. My first thought was Abraham must be checking the doorknobs." There are other spirits here as well. One of these ghosts carries over from the opera house where she was performing, but she took ill and returned to the Belmont Inn where she was staying and she died in her room. A woman in a black Victorian era dress with a lace veil over her face and black gloves has been seen on several occasions near the registration desk. One person who saw her said that this spirit passed right by her and disappeared into the wall and that this ghost appeared to be floating before that. The guest who saw her wasn't afraid, just surprised. She is thought to be completely residual. Rooms 5 and 12 are said to be the most active if you book this hotel.

Another spirit likes to hang out on the stairs. Marjorie shares this story in her book that she was told by a couple who stayed at the hotel, "On a late evening in December, I attended a year-end awards ceremony for my place of employment that was held in the dining room on the second floor of the Belmont Inn. My husband and I entered the hotel through the side door on the basement level and took the elevator to the main floor. The bartender directed us to the elevator and stairs and said the choice was ours as to which one we would like to utilize. He then stated that there would be directional signs to point the way once we reached the second/main floor. We chose to utilize the elevator. Once we reached the next level and stepped off of the elevator, I noticed a tall, well-dressed lady wearing a long, baby-blue Victorian dress. One could tell that it was tailor-made, as it fit her hourglass figure perfectly. She was also wearing a rather large, matching, wide-brimmed hat that tied around her chin. Lace gloves covered her hands, and she was holding a closed white parasol. She simply stood at the foot of the staircase as if looking frantically for something. As we passed by, she turned and seemed to look straight through my husband and me as if we were not even there. The look on her face was that of panic and sadness. She then turned her head to the right as if to look up to toward the top of the grand staircase, one step at a time. It was apparent that she had lost something very valuable. I uttered a friendly Southern, “Hey, how are you?” and we continued walking toward our destination. My husband gave me the strangest look, and he asked me who I was talking to. “That reenactor at the stairs,” I answered, and he gave me yet another strange look, but he didn’t ask any more questions as we followed the directional signs and finally reached our destination. The incident puzzled me during our dinner engagement, and my husband insisted I was seeing things, because he hadn’t witnessed any such lady. I couldn’t help but wonder if she ever found what she was looking for, but I hope she did. Over and over in my mind, I wondered about what I had seen. I just summed it up as a reenactor or actress who was about to head to the neighboring opera house for her performance in a play. That must be what it was, I continued to try to convince myself. After dinner, I excused myself for a restroom break before we headed home. At that time, I met one of the concierges of the establishment. When I asked him about it, he explained to me that there is a ghost story in the hotel about a lady who lost her most valuable necklace and still, even in the afterlife, searches for it. “She has been seen here a lot.” He giggled. “I haven’t seen her, but a lot of people say they have! She’s usually right around the grand staircase,” he concluded." 

Abbeville Opera House

And since we mentioned the Abbeville Opera House, we should feature this location next. The theater is located at 100 Court Square #102. The Abbeville Opera House was designed by architect William Augustus Edwards and opened in 1904. This was part of a government complex that included a courthouse. The building is three stories and made from red brick with brick sunburst around the keystones and the parapet has raised central portion. The interior theater has three levels: orchestra section, balcony and upper gallery. There are box seats on each corner and large Corinthian columns flank the theater from orchestra floor to ceiling. The stage area is 7,500 square feet and there are twelve dressing rooms. While updates have been made to the lighting, the old system is still here for historical interest. The first restoration of the theater came in 1968 and brought the seating up to 420. Everything was changed to red upholstery on seats, red carpeting and red velvet curtains with gold trim.

The theater wasn't officially dedicated until 1908, but the first production took place back in 1904 and this was "The Clansman." Other plays put on here included "The Great Divide" and "Ben HUr" with real horses in the production. Vaudeville was in its heyday and Abbeville was a popular stop off for traveling companies. Theater greats like Jimmy Durante and Fanny Brice played here as did the Ziegfield Follies. The place was so popular that the Southern Railroad ran special trains to accommodate the hundreds of people who came to Abbeville for the plays. Speeches were hosted here as well with one of the most famous being by William Jennings Bryan. The theater eventually became the home of the Abbeville Community Theater. Today, the theater hosts plays and music concerts by tribute bands and other musical performances.

David Eller was an Abbeville Tour Guide and he shared about the ghosts at the opera house. The first one to take up residence is believed to be a construction worker who died during the construction in 1904. He fell to his death from the top of the theater into the parking lot. He likes to bang pipes and hang out in the dressing rooms and he is blamed for making props disappear. The second is the young woman who had been staying at the Belmont Inn. She was touring with a company from New York to Atlanta and they had a stop over in Abbeville. This actress inhabits the house side of the theater and she has a special seat in the third balcony. They leave a light on for her - which is more than likely the traditional ghost light of all theaters - and leave her chair in its place and empty. If they move the chair, her spirit becomes quite angry and bad things happen during the production. People have claimed to see her apparition out of the corner of their eye. (That chair that they leave open is an original chair and the only one not updated into the cushy comfy chairs that now are part of the seating arrangement.

Abbeville seems like it should just be a quaint little southern town, full of charm and areas for peaceful ruminations. But clearly, its reputation as one of the most haunted towns in South Carolina seems to have some support. Are these buildings in Abbeville haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 545 - USS Yorktown

Moment in Oddity - Henry "Box" Brown (Suggested by Dennis Gibbons)

Back in the early 1800's there was a man by the name of Henry Brown who was born enslaved on a Virginia tobacco Plantation. When the owner of the plantation died, Henry's family including his parents and seven siblings, were divided up among several slaveholders. At the time, he was 15 years old and was sold to work in a tobacco factory in Richmond. Brown was allowed to attend the First African Baptist Church where he met his future wife, Nancy who was enslaved at a neighboring plantation. Nancy was controlled by an abusive man who sold her and the couple's 3 children while Nancy was pregnant with their fourth child. Henry was shattered by the loss of his family and was determined to escape his enslavement. He enlisted the aid of friend and free Black man, James C.A. Smith Jr. Henry Brown wanted to flee north and a plan was devised to build a crate that Brown would hide inside of while being shipped to Pennsylvania, where slavery was almost non-existent at the time. On March 23rd, 1849, Henry crawled into the crate which was around 3 feet long, 2 1/2 feet deep and 2 feet wide. The wooden crate had three air holes drilled into it by which Henry could breathe. He was taken to a shipping company where his travels began. The uncomfortable expedition took a total of 27 hours by wagon, steamboat and train, eventually being released from the confines of the crate at the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Upon exiting the box, Henry sang a hymn he had written, based upon Psalm 40 of the Old Testament. Following his escape from slavery, Henry received the nickname, Henry 'Box' Brown. There were many methods enslaved people attempted to escape to a better life, but a method of being shipped in such a small box over many miles certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Death of Jean Moulin

In the month of July, on the 8th, in 1943, French Resistance leader Jean Moulin (Mulan) died while being transported to a concentration camp. Moulin was considered the face of the French Resistance. He stood up to the Germans during the occupation of France during World War II. The Gestapo arrested him in June of 1940 as a suspected communist and they tortured him. He attempted to cut his own throat and was taken to a hospital and then released. Moulin smuggled himself out of France in September 1941 and headed to London where he met up with Charles de Gaulle who lead "Free French." He parachuted back into France in 1942and organized the resistance movement. Moulin was betrayed by one of his people and the Gestapo arrested him again. They interrogated and tortured him. He was nearly dead from the torture when he was loaded on a train to be taken to a camp in Germany. He died from his injuries. The French consider him a hero and have named many streets, schools and universities for him.

USS Yorktown

We just returned from a road trip through the Outer Banks of North Carolina and along our way, we stopped in Charleston, South Carolina. We've seen the USS Yorktown from afar before, but on this trip, we boarded this magnificent aircraft carrier twice. She was one of twenty-four Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II. Today, the carrier is a museum that not only houses the museum of the Medal of Honor Society and artifacts from her service, but there are rumored to be several spirits on board. Join us as we share the history, hauntings and our experiences on board the USS Yorktown.

Charleston Harbor sits between Charleston and Mount Pleasant and is bordered by Daniel Island, James Island and Sullivan's Island. In 1670, a colonial expedition set sail from England and wound up in present-day Charleston Harbor. They founded the city and called it Charles Town in honor of the King of England, Charles II. The town was originally settled on the west bank of the Ashley River on Albemarle Point and then it relocated in 1680 to Charleston Neck, which was a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. These two rivers joined to form Charleston Harbor with an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean. Charleston has seen its share of pirates, sailors and slave traders as a port city. The dark waters hold many tales. Dolphins are plentiful and the buildings and ships that border the bay hold a vast amount of history.

The first thing one notices at the harbor is the USS Yorktown. This is the “Fighting Lady,” a legendary WWII aircraft carrier and she is massive and impressive. Patriots Point opened in 1976 after the Patriots Point Development Authority was established. The grounds feature the Patriots Point Museum, Cold War Memorial, Medal of Honor Museum, Vietnam Experience Exhibit, the USS Laffey (a destroyer) and the USS Yorktown. This USS Yorktown wasn't the first aircraft carrier to hold that name. As a matter of fact, five ships have had the name Yorktown, which was inspired by the Revolutionary War Battle of Yorktown. The 1781 battle was decisive and led to Cornwallis' humiliating surrender. The first Yorktown was built in 1839 and was a 16-gun sloop. She wrecked in 1850 on a reef near the Cape Verde Islands. A steel-hulled gunboat was the second Yorktown. She was decommissioned in 1919. The next Yorktown would be the first aircraft carrier to hold the name and this was commissioned in 1937 and she served gallantly through to World War II. 

The carrier was described as invincible as it managed to outmaneuver many torpedo attacks. The Yorktown also managed to survive a Japanese dive bombing attack. Multiple bombs were dropped and none hit their mark...except for one of them and it was a devastating result. That bomb went through the Flight Deck and exploded below deck, killing and injurying many sailors. The carrier went to Pearl Harbor for repairs and quickly turned around and headed to the Battle of Midway. The success of the Pacific Fleet was high at the beginning, but the USS Yorktown would be hit by three massive bombs that caused her to stall movement. She finally got going later, but another attack came in and two torpedoes hit her port side. She lost power again and began to list and she was abandoned. There was an effort to save her later, but that didn't work and she now sits on the ocean floor.

And that brings us to USS Yorktown (CV-10), which had her keel laid in December 1941 at Newport News, Virginia with plans to name her Bonhomme Richard, after John Paul Jones' frigate from the Revolutionary War. Jones had named it thus to honor Benjamin Franklin and his pen name from Poor Richard's Almanac. After the loss of the other Yorktown carrier, it was decided to rename this carrier USS Yorktown and that took place on September 26, 1942. The USS Yorktown was commissioned in April of 1943. She was an Essex-class aircraft carrier and measured 872 feet in length and able to displace 36,380 long tons. The carrier was propelled by four steam turbines and four screw propellers. She could carry up to 100 aircraft. It was decided to have Eleanore Roosevelt christen the ship and she at first refused because She had christened the other Yorktown and obviously it had sunk so she figured they wouldn't want her to christen this one too. But they did and they convinced her to do it. So there is this long speech going on before the christening and all of a sudden, the Yorktown launched itself. This was seven minutes before it was scheduled to do that and it had no help. There were several cables holding the carrier that don't let go by themselves and no one could explain how this happened. Eleanor jumps up when she sees this and hurls the bottle of champagne at the ship and it proceeds to bounce off of the ship, but she is quick and adept and catches the bottle. She throws it at the ship again and this time it busted like it was supposed to, averting any future bad luck.

The Yorktown performed some shakedown exercises and then headed for Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal and arrived on July 24, 1943. Life on board was like being on a floating city. Sailors were served four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight rations. The Navy recommended a diet of between 3500 and 4500 calories a day since these were fighting men. Most sailors put a lot of weight on while they were out to sea. Our tour guide shared with us all that was needed to make chocolate chip cookies for the entire crew. About 10,000 cookies took 112 pounds of chocolate chips, 165 pounds of flour, 500 eggs, 100 pounds of granulated sugar, 87 pounds of shortening, 12 pounds of butter, 3 pounds of salt, 3 cups of vanilla, a quart of water, 1.5 pounds of baking soda and 75 pounds of brown sugar. There were usually three or four dentists on board. Same for barbers. There were a couple of stores where sailors could buy snacks or toiletries. The Yorktown won awards for its food and was one of the few ships to have ice cream Savannah shared this fun story about George Bush Sr. (Savannah Ice Cream)

Joseph "Jocko" Clark was the first Captain of the Yorktown and he was the first Native American to graduate from the Naval Academy. USS Yorktown's first assault operations took place at the Gilbert Islands in November 1943. In January, she was fighting at the Marshall Islands and then off for four months of Central Pacific raids. In June of 1944, Yorktown took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. This battle was the largest aircraft carrier battle in history. The US Fleet had 15 carriers with 900 aircraft. US Navy fighters shot down down nearly 400 Japanese aircraft in what was called the Marianas Turkey Shoot. The Yorktown herself destroyed 37 enemy planes and dropped twenty-one tons of bombs on Guam. At the end of 1944, a typhoon sank three of the American destroyers and the USS Yorktown took part in the rescues of their crews. In January of 1945, the USS Yorktown was able to break through to Japan's inner defenses and soon she was launching strikes on the Tokyo area. 

In March, the Japanese managed an assault on the Yorktown and while most of it was rebuffed, a bomb did get through and hit the signal bridge and passed through the first deck and exploded near the ship's hull. This punched two large holes in her side and killed five men and wounded twenty-six others. She continued on though with her raids. She spent several weeks bombing Okinawa. Then she pounded Tokyo some more. August 13, 1945 was the last day she bombed Tokyo. Two days later, Japan said they would surrender and it did so on September 2, 1945. The USS Yorktown earned eleven battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.

After the war, the Yorktown sailed for San Francisco Bay and dropped off her crew and then went to Guam to pick up more sailors to bring home and she returned again to San Francisco Bay. In 1947, the Yorktown was decommissioned. She would be reactivated again in 1952 and conduct training operations rather than combat missions during the Korean War. The carrier was modified throughout the latter 1950s and was reclassified as an antisubmarine warfare aircraft carrier. She conducted special operations during the Vietnam War and concluded her last tour of duty in July of 1966. Yorktown's next big assignment was recovering Apollo 8 after it splashed down from its mission of being the first human spaceflight to reach the moon. It orbited the moon 10 times before returning to earth. The USS Yorktown was officially decommissioned in 1970 and donated to the Patriot's Point Development Authority and today is a museum.

Also at Patriot's Point was the Allen M. Sumner-class, USS Laffey, which was known as "the ship that would not die." This destroyer was named for Seaman Bartlett Laffey who received the Medal of Honor for risking his own life in March 1864. He took a 12 pound howitzer mounted on a field carriage with him and his crew into a heated battle and stood by his gun, despite the enemy fire which cut the gun carriage and rammer. The enemy was turned back. The destroyer was launched in 1943 and had a crew of 336. The Laffey was part of the D-Day invasion at Normandy. She resisted the most intense kamikaze attack in history on April 16, 1945, which is how she got her nickname. The Laffey managed to shoot down several fighters, but she was hit by four bombs, six kamikaze crashes and strafing fire. Thirty-two of her sailors were killed and 71 wounded. Many of the deaths came from one of the 40 mm gun mounts. We got the experience what it was like to be a part of that moment with an interactive exhibit with sights and sounds. It's amazing to think of 11 men standing in this very cramped space loading up bullets and this one took a direct hit from a kamikaze, which killed them all. There have been reports of a shadow patrol aboard the destroyer, which people have seen from the Yorktown at night.

There were a couple of strange incidents on board. Somewhere between the Fighter Pilot Ready Room and the Bomber Pilot Ready Room, a pilot named Lieutenant Hummel disappeared aboard the Yorktown in 1944. The entire ship was searched and he was never found. And a pilot named Smokey Stover seemed to predict his death. He was worried as he gathered his things for a large battle called "Operation Hailstorm. He stopped a chaplain and explained what was so heavy on his mind. He said, "I had this peculiar dream. Last night the dream was all about the mission and in the mission, I actually fly, but I get shot down by the Japanese. They find me, they take me back to the island where they marched me around the island, interrogated me, and then executed me." The chaplain said, "That's a dream, not a premonition. If you stick to what you do best, you'll be fine." Stover flew the mission and he was right. he got shot down and bails out in the water. Nobody could rescue him because of the ongoing battle. No one knows what happened to Stover, but at the end of the war, the Japanese Center reported to the United States that at that battle, they took seven Americans out of the water and marched them around the island, interrogated them and then executed them.

The Yorktown seems to have several spirits hanging around. For years, people have reported strange activity and shadow figures. There were 141 deaths on the Yorktown with only five of them a result of direct enemy fire. The first death was an assistant pharmacist who died from a lice infestation. He had an allergic reaction and all the scratching killed him. There was another death in the Catapult Room. In the 1960s the cable of the catapult snapped. One sailor heard the snap and he jumped down from his bunk and that saved his life because the cable went right through where he had been. Another sailor wasn't as lucky. He ran to the phone to report the issue and the cable hit him and well, the cable went through the phone and through him.

Brian Parson was an electrician who worked on the ship after it became a museum. He was staying in a designated room for people working on the ship where they could have privacy as scouts regularly had sleepovers on the carrier. One night, Brian was lying in his bunk when the door to the room slammed open and hit the wall. He figured it was some scouts pranking him, so he jumped up quick to catch them and when he looked out into the hall, he saw no one. Keep in mind that he also hears no one running away, which would be something one could clearly hear on a metal ship. There were also chains on either side of the hallway to bare anyone from coming down the hall and those chains weren't moving. If some scouts had ducked under them or jumped over them, they certainly would have been swinging. Even stranger, a tour guide was telling this same story to a group outside the door and they heard a loud banging on the door even though no one was in the room.

Brian also had experiences with a shadow figure that everyone has nicknamed Shadow Ed. (p.84) And a visitor to the Yorktown shared this experience with Shadow Ed. (p. 85)

And then there is Shadow Sam in the pea coat. (Shadow Sam)

We went to a dark area of the ship where many people have felt a heavy feeling and that they are not welcome. Women in general feel unwelcome on the ship. Occasionally people have heard an audible voice say "move" and felt cold spots in this area. A couple years ago, some investigators set up a ghost grid pointing down the hallway. They heard a loud bang and see nothing. They were filming everything and the next day they were looking at the video and noticed that something passed through the grid. What was interesting is that this seemed intelligent because the bang came from another direction and distracted them from watching the grid. So they didn't see the movement at the time. Very much a military tactic.

Scrappy was a dog that became the mascot of the carrier. The crew found the Airedale wandering around Pearl Harbor and adopted him. They named him Scrapper Shrapnel or Scrappy for short. He had a custom made helmet and life jacket. There is this cute picture of him in a Grumman F6F Hellcat in 1943. Our guide tells us about Scrappy haunting the carrier. (Scrappy)

Bruce Orr wrote "Ghost of the USS Yorktown and in there he shares the experiences of a docent named Lori. (p. 65-66)

There are various planes and helicopters on the Flight Deck. One of these was the SH-3G Sea King, which was an anti-submarine helicopter that served during the Vietnam War. The Sea King was also the type of helicopter that recovered the Apollo 8 crew. One day, a female visitor to the Yorktown looked inside that helicopter and saw a man wearing a World War II uniform. She mentioned this to a nearby docent who rushed over to the helicopter because no one was supposed to be inside the aircraft. He too saw the World War II pilot and he noticed that he was translucent. As to why a World War II pilot would be in a Vietnam War era helicopter is anyone's guess.

At one time there was another ship moored here at Patriot's Point called the USCGC Comanche. The Comanche was a cutter that had been commissioned in 1934. She mainly served as an escort through the waters of Greenland. During World War II, the Comanche was part of an escort group when one of the ships was hit by a torpedo from a German U-Boat. This was a former merchant ship called the Dorchester. It quickly sank, within 20 minutes. The blast had killed many men and those that survived were now in the icy waters, many without life jackets. The captain had told them to sleep in life jackets and they hadn't listened because they were hot. Of the 902 aboard the Dorchester, 672 died. The Comanche rescued 97 survivors and the rest of the survivors were picked up by other ships. Four of the dead were two Protestant reverends, a Catholic priest and a Rabbi. They all sacrificed their lives by giving away their life jackets to sailors and keeping everyone calm. They were all given Purple Hearts and Distinguished Service Crosses posthumously. That wasn't the end of the story for this tragic event. The Comanche seemed to have carried spirits to Patriot's Point with it and this was paranormal activity was witnessed by a Boy Scout troop. (p. 67) Those red lights, of course, were on all the life jackets. This bathed the Comanche in an eerie red glow. The Comanche was destroyed in 1989 by Hurricane Hugo as she was sunk as an artificial reef. Divers sometimes still see the red lights.

Military ships see a lot of death through accidents and war. The Yorktown was considered the Lucky Y because she didn't see many deaths. 141 deaths isn't many considering the action she saw. Other ships could lose as many as 600 crew in just one battle. Some attribute this luck to Jocko having the ship blessed by shamans. They claimed that this ship wouldn't see any more deaths than its predecessor and that number was exact. CV-5 had 141 deaths, just like this Yorktown. But even with that luck it seems that spirits do linger. Is the USS Yorktown haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 362 - 1837 Bed & Breakfast and the Old Jail

Moment in Oddity - Spider Webs as Bandages (Suggested by: Scott Booker)

Many of you listeners are probably afraid of spiders. So the idea of a spider web bandage might not be appealing. But the truth is that they make a great natural way to protect and heal wounds. The idea of using spider webs for bandages started in ancient Greece and Rome. They would first clean the wounds with honey and vinegar and then ball up spider webs to cover the wounds. THis would dry out the wound quickly. Spider webs were perfect for a number of reasons. They are rich in Vitamin K, which promotes clotting, they have natural antiseptic and anti-fungal properties as well. On top of this, the webs are very strong since they are made from silk produced from the body proteins of the spider. If you would like to give this a whirl, you need to find a newly spun web with no insect corpses in it and no spider as well. Ball up the web and stuff it into your wound and cover with a sterile cloth to secure it. You can use warm water to remove the hardened web later. A team at the University of Nottingham developed a synthetic material that resemebles spider silk. It took five years. This spider silk is also not allergenic or inflammatory. But you have to admit the thought of using spider web as a bandage, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Berlin Wall Comes Down

In the month of November, on the 9th, in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. Yes, it pains us too to realize that this event happened thirty years ago...man we are getting old! Many of you listeners probably remember this time, which really wasn't so long ago, that the country of Germany was split in two with East and West Germany being separated by an actual stone wall with barbed wire. Construction of the wall began in August of 1961. East Germany was headed by Communists and they wanted to keep what they referred to as "fascists" from coming into East Germany and undermining their socialist state. What it actually did was imprison the people of East Germany, many of whom tried to escape. The East German Communist Party announced on November 9, 1989 that their citizens could cross the border whenever they wanted and that evening, a newly freed people did what President Ronald Reagan told the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to do, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" People hammered and picked at the wall, breaking off chunks. Bulldozers and cranes moved in and took care of the rest. What followed was the greatest street party in history as 2 million people went from East Berlin to West Berlin. A Berliner spray painted on the wall, "Only today is the war really over."

1837 Bed and Breakfast

The 1837 Bed and Breakfast in Charleston, South Carolina is the former home of a cotton planter. The style of the home is a great example of the Charleston Single home. Although this was not a plantation, it still had slaves that lived on the third level and there are stories that claim that a mother and father were sold off to another planter, leaving their nine-year-old son without his parents. He may have tried desperately to find them and ultimately lost his life. Ghost stories claim that he is still here at the house, acting like a poltergeist pulling pranks on visitors and perhaps even appearing as footsteps on the bed spread. While in Charleston, we couldn't pass up the chance to visit the Old Charleston Jail. This was Diane's second visit and Kelly's first, and we got to do an investigation there! Join us as we share the history and investigation at the 1837 Bed and Breakfast and the Old Charleston Jail!

The neighborhood where the bed and breakfast is located was developed in the 1840’s and was called Harleston Village because the original owners of the land were the Harleston family. This was a family that had been in Charelston a long time. A golf course had been on the land too called Harleston Green. The 1837 Bed and Breakfast was thought to have been built in 1837, but after a visit from some descendants of the original owners, it was discovered that the house was built in 1798. Of course, they didn't change the name because that would be marketing suicide. The builder of the house was Henry Mockenfuss, a German immigrant who built many properties in the area. The house was built in the Federal-style and as a single house, which was popular in Charleston. The standard Charleston single house was built with a narrow side that ran two- or three-bays wide with a gable end along the street and then a longer side that was perpendicular to the street and running five-bays. The design worked well here because the main part of Charleston was laid out with long, narrow lots. Single houses all had the same basic layout inside with the house being one room wide inside. There would be two rooms on each floor with each floor designed the same way. There would be one room to the side and one to the rear of the house. Many of the houses had multiple porches, or what they call piazzas, in Charleston.

The next owner of the house was thought to be Martin Hurlbert, a schoolmaster. He sold it in 1818 for $3,000 to Nicholas Cobia, a cotton planter. In 1842, Nicholas’s wife, Ann, leased the house to Miss Margaret Cobia along with two slaves known as “Mary” and “Nancy.” Eventually Ann's nephew, Henry Cobia, inherited the house along with a slave named “Fanny” and her six children. In the early 1900s, the former mayor of Charleston, William Schirmir, owned the house and he converted it into a boarding house, connecting the carriage and kitchen house to the main house and adding a rear third story. During World War II, the house served as an apartment building for ship builders at the Navy Yard. In 1956, the house was turned into a beauty shop on the first floor and probably rented rooms above. In 1983, Sherri Weaver and Richard Dunn bought the house and converted it into the bed and breakfast it is today. The bed and breakfast has its dining room, kitchen, and parlor on the first floor of the main house. There are three guest rooms on each of the second and third floors. And there are rooms in the carriage house with two on the bottom and one on the second floor. We stayed in one of the first floor rooms in the carriage house. We were greeted by Mohamad who owns the inn with his wife Lynn. (1837 Inn Welcome) 

The house is beautiful and very welcoming inside with the kitchen and dining room being an open concept design. The formal parlor of the main house contains many of the original design elements like the red cypress cornice, wainscoting, and the black marble fireplace. During renovations the cypress was stripped from a scaffold with heat gun, sanded and oiled with tung oil. The front door opened into a small entry way that has the narrow stairs leading up to the other levels. The medallion on the ceiling in the entry hall is original and it took four days to clear the old paint away with a dental tool during renovations. Portions of the plaster cornice had been cut years ago to put in a partition and had to be replaced and rebuilt with plaster.  The plaster is original and has been mixed with horsehair as we have discussed in other episodes. The wood floors are made from wide planks of heart of pine. The house boasts that these planks are amongst the widest in the city with one in the dining room measuring 14 inches wide. Mohamad gave us a little tour outside as he took us to our room. (1837 Tour)

We settled in a bit and then decided we would try to get some communicating going with any spirits at the house. The ghost stories about this bed and breakfast seem to center around just one ghost and he is known by the name George. The backstory for George is not verified, nor does anyone know if any part of the legends are true, but here is what people claim is the story about George. George's parents worked inside the house and they lived on the third floor. George worked out in the stables and ran errands. He had time to play, so life didn't seem so bad for him taking into account that a nine-year-old boy didn't know anything other than slavery. For some reason, the cotton planter decided to sell off George's parents and keep George. One can imagine how upsetting this was and there are two versions of how George reacted. In the the first, George hears that his parents are aboard a slave ship in Charleston Harbor. He leaves the house and manages to find an empty row boat and starts rowing towards the ship. In the process, he falls out of the boat and drowns. In the other version, George runs away and is eventually captured and thrown into the barracoon in the heart of Charleston. A barracoon was a barracks like building for housing slaves. While he was in there, he could have gotten sick and died or his owner might have retrieved him and he lived a very short life back at the house. Whatever happened, people are pretty sure that a nine-year-old boy is running around the bed and breakfast in the afterlife. 

Guests have heard the incessant rocking of a rocking chair outside their rooms that only stops when someone shouts, "Stop that rocking, George!" No one has seen George, but they hear his footsteps. He likes to shake guests beds and he opens and closes doors. He turns the TVs on by themselves too. There are other noises that might be caused by something else and this usually entails hearing the crack of a whip. Chandeliers tend to sway on their own too. Most of the activity is said to occur on the third floor. We feel like we did get some kind of communication with a spirit. (1837 Investigation 1) Okay, right there I thought I heard a whisper, I'll replay the original section (1837 Whisper) and now here it is amplified (1837 Whisper Amplified) We think we hear a breath and then "I'm so mad." It makes sense because we were dancing around asking about his parents. We continued with trying to communicate and I did a Facebook Live and while I was outside showing the Bed and Breakfast, Kelly got a little emotional talking to who we thought was George. The communication really seemed to break down over that. (1837 Investigation 2)

The next morning we went to breakfast, which was delicious and very filling! (1837 Breakfast)

So you heard on that exchange that we had the opportunity to investigate the old jail. This was up in the air as it has been for Bull Dog Tours and the jail for a couple of years. Listeners might recall that Diane visited with a couple of listeners two years ago because we thought it would be closing. Our listener Myra has joined us on investigations at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and the Exchange Hotel and she contacted me a couple days before the trip to say we could get in to the jail. Joy met us there and we were joined by another young couple who had never been to the jail or investigated before. We cannot remember their names, but the male was a police office who also was a person of color and he had a couple of experiences that unnerved him a bit with feeling very dizzy and a little ill on a stairway. There was a set of stairs that seemed to affect Myra and Kelly too. As Diane told Mohamad and Lynn, she didn't experience anything that she would equate to a haunting. This was her second time there with nothing unusual happening, so for her personally, she can't say the jail is haunted.

Joy was a wonderful guide! She shared experience stories and took us into every area of the jail, even some places she disliked going. One of these was a room where Mike Brown of Pleasing Terrors used a Ouija Board. We got to see what the warden's living area was like. He was here with his wife and children and they sometimes had boarders too. All of this 12 inches away from Death Row. The place smelled so bad you could smell the scent blocks away. Imagine living there! (Charleston Jail Joy) So you heard that we all felt an unusually cold spot. That was it for Diane feeling anything in the building.The tour continued and we have a few of the highlights here. (Charleston Jail Joy 2)

HGB Ep. 119 - Folly Beach

Moment in Oddity - Dr. Suess House
Suggested by: Listener Ren Davenport

Located in Willow, Alaska is one of the most amazing homes. The whimsical architecture of this multi-tiered house has led it to be dubbed "The Dr. Suess House" by locals. Construction began on it around 2002, but it stood mostly unfinished for 10 years because the owner passed away during construction. During that time, the house played host to non-Suessical characters. There were no Whos, no Horton, no Cat-in-the-Hat, no Thing 1 and Thing 2, no Sam I Am, no Lorax, no Grinch and such. Rather there were derelicts, drug addicts and partying teenagers using the place for their festivites. In 2012, a new owner started the construction again and it still needs to be finished. The structure has 12 levels, but these are not your traditional stories as found with most homes. Each level is set-up like its own individual house and they are stacked on top of each other. The structure at each level gets smaller, so that the top level is basically a tiny overlook. Riding the rail line from Anchorage to Fairbanks gives one a great view. Finding an architectural wonder in the middle of Alaska certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Shot Heard Round the World

On this day, April 19th, in 1775, the Revolutionary War began with the "Shot Heard Round the World." The war began when 700 British soldiers were sent with orders to destroy colonial military supplies in Concord, Massachusetts. What these British troops didn't know is that their orders had been revealed through some colonial spying by the Sons of Liberty and the Patriots were prepared. They moved the supplies and then prepared for battle. Dawn broke in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19th and shots rang out. The colonial militia was outnumbered as they only had 500 men and they were forced to retreat. The British took the opportunity to look for the supplies. While they were busy doing that the colonists reformed their group and met the British at the north Bridge in Concord, where they drove back the British. The Siege of Boston would soon follow, but it was this day in history when the American War for Independence got started.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem about this historic moment:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Folly Beach (Suggested by listener Dee, research assistance from Sharon Spungen and April Rogers-Krick)

The barrier island of Folly Beach, South Carolina appears picturesque with its images of waves lapping against the sand. Locals refer to it as the "Edge of America." Below the surface of painted sunsets and beautiful beaches lies a dark history of mysterious and tragic losses. Folly Beach really has it all from shipwrecks to the Civil War to pirates. Blackbeard himself took cover at Folly Beach. A native tribe also died out here. Is it this colorful history that has led to rumors of hauntings? Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Folly Beach.

Much of what we know about Folly Beach comes from its close geographic and cultural connections to the city of Charleston, South Carolina.  The name Folly is thought to have come from the Old English translation of the word, which means a clump of trees or a thicket.  This name appears to be historically appropriate for the island.  The main channel into Charleston harbor in the 1700 and 1800’s brought the ships past the northern side of Folly Island.  For some ships, the trees on Folly Island may have been the first they had seen after a long voyage across the Atlantic.  The island is also at times been labeled Coffin Land or Coffin Island on some historical maps.

The significance of this name is still under debate for several reasons.  Some believe that it is due to the fact that ships entering Charleston harbor would drop off sick and dying people on the island to avoid becoming quarantined.  Others think it came about from a shipwreck that occurred off the coast of Folly in 1700. Many of the bodies of those onboard washed up on the beach.  The final inconsistency with the name Coffin Island is that documents also show that name being used for Morris Island as early as 1749.  

King William III issued a land grant for the area to William Rivers in 1696. Mr. Rivers was unable to do anything with the land grant, so he sold it. Folly Beach passed through the hands of several owners who never lived there, but the true owners of the island had been there for many years. The Bohicket tribe called this land home. The Bohickets were a sub-tribe of the Kussoe or Cusabo who lived in a village near Charleston Harbor. By the late 1600’s this tribe had completely disappeared.  Even today it remains unclear what happened to them.

By the eighteenth century, pirates would hideout along Folly Beach and maraud among the surrounding coves and inlets near Charleston.  They would wreak havoc and commandeer innocent trade vessels. Edward Teach or Edward Thatch became the notorious pirate known as Blackbeard. He was an English pirate who terrorized the Caribbean Sea during the Golden Age of Pirates. This was a time period during the earlier 18th century. His main ship was the Queen Anne's Revenge. For Blackbeard, image was everything. He made sure to be pictured as a fearsome man with a feathered tricorn hat, pistols, knives and swords. To add to the image, in person, Blackbeard would appear as a terrifying man with smoke and fire emanating from his beard and around his head. He got this effect by weaving matches and hemp into his beard.

Originally, Blackbeard had served as a privateer during the War of Spanish Succession working aboard an English ship in the Spanish West Indies. When the war ended in 1713, Blackbeard turned to piracy. He learned from other pirates and eventually was given his own ship by Benjamin Hornigold. His ship the Queen Anne's Revenge was originally the La Concorde, a French slave ship, and he added 40 cannons to it, to make it the mightiest ship on the sea. He named it for the queen of England and Scotland. He blocked the port of Charleston and looted several ships before the town encouraged him to leave by giving him a chest of valuable medicine. Blackbeard's ship ran aground on a sandbar near North Carolina in 1718. The wreck was discovered in 1996 and confirmed in 2011 as that of Queen Anne's Revenge.

Blackbeard went legit after this causing many to believe he wrecked his ship on purpose. Governor Eden of North Carolina pardoned him and then soon enlisted him in crooked dealings. Blackbeard would continue to loot, but share his treasures with the Governor. Two Royal Navy sloops caught up with Blackbeard and a fight ensued with the pirate almost escaping. In the end, the military got their man leaving him with twenty sword cuts and five bullet wounds before cutting off his head and throwing his body to the sea. Legend claims that the body swam around the ship three times before sinking into the murk. The head was presented for proof in order to collect a bounty. Most of our modern day ideas about pirates are inspired by Blackbeard, the most famous pirate in history.

A tragedy occurred in the next century. In 1832, a sailing ship, the Amelia, was en route from New York to New Orleans when it was wrecked. As the story goes, 120 passengers survived and were cast ashore at Folly Beach. However, because it was believed cholera had broken out among the passengers, they were left at Folly Beach to fend for themselves instead of being brought to the mainland. On November 9, 1832 Charlestonian’s burned the wreck and cargo. While stranded on Folly Beach twenty of the survivors did die from cholera.

During the Civil War, because of its close location to Charleston, Folly became a stronghold for Union soldiers.  In 1863, Federal troops began occupying the relatively uninhabited island.  The federal troops constructed the first system of roads on the island.  This allowed ambulances to transport wounded soldiers and for communication purposes.  The troops built various forts and batteries on both the northern and southern ends of the island.  A commissary depot, known as Pawnee Landing was built to aid in the unloading of troops and supplies.  There was virtually no actual fighting on the island.  An exception to the no fighting was on May 10, 1863.  Confederate forces attacked federal pickets on the left side of Little Folly Island.  The fighting was light, as the confederate forces were conducting a reconnaissance mission, aimed mostly at gathering information and taking prisoners.

Folly Island’s major contribution to the Civil War was its use as a base, housing troops and equipment, and for the presence of an artillery battery located at the northern end of Little Folly. Rebel commander Warren Ripley had less than 2000 men in Charleston while Union General Alexander Schimmelfennig had 6000 on Folly and 8000 at Port Royal and Hilton Head.   The island was used as a staging area for the battle of Morris Island which took place from July to September 1863.  Fort Wagner a confederate fortification that guarded the entrance to Charleston harbor was located on Morris Island.  From the artillery battery on Little Folly, the federal troops shelled Fort Wagner and deployed troops to capture the fort.  With the capture of Fort Wagner, the federal troops were now in position to shell Fort Sumter.  On August 17, 1863 the shelling began and quickly reduced Fort Sumter to rubble. The troops moved their artillery from Big Folly to the captured fort, and renamed it Battery Meade.  Still they were unable to force a confederate surrender.  Folly Island and Morris Island remained occupied by federal troops until the end of the war.

The Civil War ended and Folly Beach Island lost its use. The forts and beaches were abandoned until people realized that this was a nice beach area near the city. A pavilion was built in the 1920s and rumor has it that this helped usher in an era similar to that of the time of piracy where pirates enjoyed the isolation of the island. Bootleggers made good use of the island for their hideouts and dropping off liquor. Building and habitation really launched in the 1930s as temporary camps became cottages and then homes and then finally, tourist attractions were added like the Folly Pier, which became a musical headquarters. Big Bands came to play including Maurice Williams' and Glenn Miller's Bands. George Gershwin came as well and while he was here, he composed the classic musical Porgy and Bess that contains the classic line, “Summertime, and the living is easy,” in 1934 while staying at 708 W. Arctic.

A wooden bridge and tollgate was built to aid with the influx of day visitors. A toll of twenty cents per person or fifty cents for a carload was charged.  Friends would fill the car to capacity and beyond to avoid the high toll fee.  Residents paid $3 a month to come and go as they pleased.  At this same time, goats were being used to keep the grass under control.  It became a popular game called “kid-snatching” to try and steal a goat and get it pass the toll and off the island without getting caught.  What they did with the goat once they were back in the city is unknown.

It wasn’t until 1936 that Folly became a township all unto its own.  A jail, if you can even call it that, was erected.  It consisted of a mere cage in the marsh where the Sandbar Restaurant is now located in present day.  Any man arrested for drunken or disorderly conduct was locked away with the mosquitoes and heat, and left to sober up for a few days under the awful conditions.  Later the jail was moved into a more central location with a better environment.

The 1940’s coupled with World War II saw an increase in population and needed housing on Folly.  In 1942 the island initiated an air raid system.  The siren would sound on Saturday at noon.  This happened every Saturday until the late 1990s. As visiting the beach for vacation became more popular in the 1940’s through to the 1950s there was an increase in musical entertainment on the island.  A magnet for famous groups, top performers of the day played the prier.  Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, The Ink Spots, Dinah Shore and many more performed for large crowds of beach goers.  The 1950s saw many black bands entertaining the throngs of white beach goers.  Folly Beach like all southern beaches was segregated.  The only blacks allowed on the beach were maids, entertainers, or workers.

In 1959, Hurricane Gracie pommeled the island and what was known as Rainbow corner, a colorful cluster of buildings nestled in a grove of palmettos right on the ocean.  One of the most popular dancing and drinking spots on the island.  It was completely destroyed and had to be demolished.  Roads and bridges were improved as utilities were upgraded and the Edge of America seemed to be just a bit less isolated. The first surfboard made it to the beach in the 1960s and Ocean Plaza was built with amusement rides and games and a boardwalk that stretched 1,700 feet. There were shops,food vendors and even rollerskating. This truly was the golden age of Folly. Today, it is a local vacation destination and home to a few thousand people. Part artistic retreat, part eclectic community, but all sun, beach, and ocean.

With the kind of history that has occurred in and around Folly Beach, it is no wonder that there are claims that the town is haunted, particularly its beaches. One possible reason for hauntings at Folly Beach could be linked to a mysterious discovery in the 1980s. Construction workers were digging on the island when they found 14 bodies at the western end of Folly Beach. The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology was called out to handle the dig and investigate and they figured out that the bodies belonged to members of the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment. The 55th Regiment was joined on Folly Beach by the soldiers of the 54th Regiment that was made popular in the movie Glory. Archaeologists were shocked to find that 12 of the skeletons were missing their skulls and other body parts. And even stranger was the fact that the bodies didn't have battle wounds. Were the bodies buried this way and why? It's one of the great mysteries of the Civil War. Many of the soldiers who died at the Union Field Hospital were buried in unmarked graves on the island and are reputed to haunt the island.

On the western side of the island, some residents have experienced paranormal activity that includes the smell of burning flesh, disembodied voices and one resident claimed that an unseen small child was jumping on their bed in the middle of the night. It only makes sense that a fearsome pirate like Blackbeard would still be here in the afterlife. His spirit has been seen walking the beaches near where he was killed, particularly near Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. Twenty passengers died at Folly Beach after they were left abandoned. For this reason, it is believed that many of them haunt the island.

Does the spirit of Blackbeard still walk the beaches in the afterlife? Are the beaches here crowded with more than just the living? Is Folly Beach haunted? That is for you to decide!