Lowcountry Ghosts: Stories of Alice Flagg, Confederate Blockade Runners, and Haunted Beads

By Lynn Michelsohn

What Lowcountry ghosts haunt the maze of marshes and ancient rice fields along South Carolina's Coast near Myrtle Beach? . . .
~ Does lovely Alice Flagg still live in The Hermitage at Murrells Inlet more than 100 years after her death?
~ When ghost ships appear far out in the marsh, do they represent lost fishermen? pirates? Confederate blockade runners?
~ Are threatening spirits haunting Miss Genevieve's beads taken from a long-forgotten grave?
Find history, mystery, and romance in these three gentle ghost stories (10,000 words, nine illustrations, 94 pages in paperback, including a selection from Lynn Michelsohn' book, "Gullah Ghosts") from Lynn Michelsohn's longer work, "Tales from Brookgreen: Folklore, Ghost Stories, and Gullah Folktales in the South Carolina Lowcountry."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lynn Michelsohn
• Release date: Dec 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465801203

Lynn Michelsohn

Travel, history, and folklore often come together in Lynn Michelsohn's books. Ghost stories associated with particular historical locations especially interest her, as do fascinating characters and quirky facts about places she loves--the South Carolina Lowcountry, the American Southwest, and the Galapagos Islands. A Message from the Author: I write for three reasons. First of all, it's fun. Secondly, it keeps my brain alive and functioning as I learn new things. Finally, and probably most importantly, it keeps me out of my sons' hair (I just know I could run their lives, if only they would let me!). Several years ago, I closed my long-time New Mexico practice in clinical and forensic psychology to devote more time to writing--and beachcombing. My husband, a former attorney, and I now divide our time between Santa Fe and Hutchinson Island, Florida, where our two adult sons visit us regularly (but not often enough). Wow! This writing (and beachcombing) is really great! I recommend it to all of you who have ever thought about starting that memoir or article or novel. Kindle makes publishing incredibly easy, and who knows, you might even sell a few hundred thousand copies (I haven't yet)! After years of living in Roswell with its sometimes offbeat attractions and history--the Roswell Incident, for example--writing "Roswell, Your Travel Guide to the UFO Capital of the World!" gave me the chance to share these interests with visitors to the Land of Enchantment. Next I wrote a book about a distinctly different region, one I have loved since my childhood spent knee-deep in the marshes and saltwater creeks of the South Carolina coast. "Tales from Brookgreen: Folklore, Ghost Stories, and Gullah Folktales in the South Carolina Lowcountry" recounts stories from Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina's popular tourist attraction near Myrtle Beach. I am happy to see that the three shorter collections of tales from this longer work are quite popular on Kindle: "Lowcountry Ghosts," "Gullah Ghosts," and "Crab Boy's Ghost." Recently I released two new short collections, "Lowcountry Hurricanes" and "Lowcountry Confederates" in a new series called "More Tales from Brookgreen." I hope to add more lowcountry ghost stories and folktales to the series soon. Did you know that Herman Melville, of "Moby-Dick" fame, wrote a series of articles describing the Galapagos Islands? Neither did I until recently. I've had fun putting Melville's articles together with wonderful photographs taken by my son Moses in the Galapagos Islands, and writing introductory material to create a book for the modern visitor to the place Melville referred to as "The Encantadas." We call the book "In the Galapagos Islands with Herman Melville" and hope this glimpse into the "Enchanted Isles," written over 150 years ago, will enrich the visits of today's travelers. I've also put two shorter ebooks from it on Kindle that feature even more of Moses' great photos: "Galapagos Islands Birds" and "Galapagos Islands Landscapes." Recently I've gotten interested in researching the famous New Mexico outlaw Billy the Kid, especially the time he spent in Santa Fe. Did you know that more movies have been made about him over the years than about ANY OTHER individual? I have already completed one short book, "Billy the Kid's Jail," and one longer book, "Billy the Kid in Santa Fe, Book One: Young Billy." It is the first in a non-fiction trilogy exploring Santa Fe of the 1870s and 1880s and the time Billy spent there. I'm currently working on "Book Two: Outlaw Billy," describing his stay in the Santa Fe jail during the winter of 1880-1881. It's hard to avoid detouring into writing more about Santa Fe itself as I often get lost in reading local newspapers from that era. So many fascinating details!

Book preview

Lowcountry Ghosts

Stories of Alice Flagg, Confederate Blockade Runners, and Haunted Beads

Selections from

Tales from Brookgreen:

Folklore, Ghost Stories, and Gullah Folktales

in the South Carolina Lowcountry

by

Lynn Michelsohn

Published by Cleanan Press, Inc.

Roswell, New Mexico USA

Copyright 2004 Lynn Michelsohn

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

The White Lady of the Hermitage

Ghost Ships

Historical Digression: Confederate Trade Routes

The Wachesaw Ghosts

About the Storytellers: The Hostesses of Brookgreen Gardens

About the Author

A Selection from Gullah Ghosts

Other Books by Lynn Michelsohn

Preface

These are some of the stories told by two charming Hostesses at Brookgreen Gardens in the South Carolina Lowcountry during the middle of the Twentieth Century (described in the chapter, About the Storytellers: The Hostesses of Brookgreen Gardens). They are excerpted from my longer work, Tales from Brookgreen: Folklore, Ghost Stories, and Gullah Folktales from the South Carolina Lowcountry. I hope you enjoy them.

Lynn Michelsohn

Return to Table of Contents

The White Lady of the Hermitage

"What can you tell us about the ghost of Alice Flagg?" a curious visitor asked Miss Genevieve one sweltering afternoon. Miss Genevieve rarely told this story in my hearing. Perhaps she considered it her brother’s story, as he still lived in Alice’s home. But when asked, she certainly complied.

When I first came to this area with my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clarke Wilcox Sr., in the early part of this century, we lived in a house called the Hermitage on the creek at Murrells Inlet. Some say it was built in the 1840s by Dr. Allard Belin Flagg, one of the grandsons of Rachel Moore Allston Flagg who entertained both Lord Cornwallis and President Washington here as the Mistress of Brookgreen (you remember her). Others say the Hermitage was built even earlier. Whatever its age, local people far and near declared to us that the Hermitage was haunted and had been for generations. And they were right. We came to know our resident ghost as a lovely and harmless apparition. We always called her the White Lady but my brother Clarke has done some research and says she is Alice Flagg.

In the mid-1800s Dr. Allard Belin Flagg (really II, because he had had an older brother of the same name who died as an infant, although no one ever used the II but called him Dr. Allard to distinguish him from the many other Flagg relatives who were physicians) was the owner of Wachesaw Plantation, just up the Waccamaw Neck from Brookgreen. In those days rice plantations along the Waccamaw River were the richest in the world. Rice planters considered themselves the aristocracy of the nation.

Like most rice plantations on the Waccamaw Neck, Wachesaw Plantation was narrow in the north south direction but wide in the east west direction. It stretched from low and swampy rice fields along the Waccamaw River, through higher pine lands, to the cool breezes of the seashore at Murrells Inlet, and on over to the sandy beaches of Flagg’s Landing, which we call Garden City Beach nowadays.

Dr. Allard built his home on a point of land surrounded by the saltwater creeks and marshes of Murrells Inlet. (By the way, the creek is the saltwater channel through the marsh that fills with ocean water twice a day as the tides rise and fall.) There, shaded by ancient live oaks hung with moss, surrounded by thickets of myrtle and sweet bay, Dr. Allard escaped the heat and pestilence of his swampy rice fields. Because of the much-desired solitude it provided him, Dr. Allard named his home the Hermitage.

Although most homes on the seashore were merely summer retreats, the Hermitage was large and gracious, especially by today’s standards. Rooms downstairs were light and airy with high ceilings and lovely polished pine floors. Upstairs bedrooms had lots of windows for cross ventilation. A large front porch facing the water caught sea breezes and afforded an ever-changing view of creeks and marshes that stretch to the two barrier islands of Flagg’s Landing and Magnolia Beach, separated by the narrow mouth of the inlet, and of vessels of all sorts that wound their way through those creeks, as they had for centuries.

Later in life Dr. Allard married and raised a family (Miss Dusenbury can tell you more about various members of his family another time. All of these stories are