Ghosthunting North Carolina

by Kala Ambrose

  Imagine how Eleanor must have felt, a new baby and practically defenseless, waiting each day in such dangerous territory, cradling her small daughter while everyone rationed the dwindling supplies. White understood this and more, realizing that his dream of starting the first settlement in the New World and bringing his daughter with him had led to her destruction.

  White searched through the entire settlement, and the only clues he found was the word CROATAN carved into one of the trees and the letters CRO carved in a second tree nearby. He had asked the group to leave a sign should they be forced to move further inland and suggested that they use the sign of a Maltese cross carved in a tree should they be under attack and forced to flee for their lives.

  Seeing only the word Croatan carved on the tree, his hope was that the settlers had joined the Croatan people, whose chief had been friendly to White. He hoped that they were safe with them where the Croatan people lived on nearby Hatteras Island.

  As he asked the ship’s captain to sail to Hatteras Island, a hurricane formed in the Atlantic near the North Carolina coast, damaging the ship. The captain then ordered that the ship immediately return to England for repairs, denying White’s request to sail to Hatteras Island. White returned to England with a heavy heart. By this time, he was out of money. White was never able to return to the New World to find his daughter and granddaughter.

  The lost colony of Roanoke remains a mystery to this day. Theories have arisen throughout the years over what happened to the colonists. Here are a few: a hurricane swept over them, destroyed the settlement, and washed all the colonists out to sea; the hostile tribe killed them all, buried their bodies, and destroyed the settlement; the settlers, angry at what they perceived as White’s desertion or death, and now hungry, alone, and cold, set out to live elsewhere and died along their journey, or they left and went to live with the Croatan tribe.

  Supernatural explanations have also been raised, including werewolves attacking the group and turning the colonists into werewolves; or as they abandoned the settlement, the native tribes destroyed the camp and cursed it in order to keep others from returning. One theory posits that aliens arrived on the shore and took all of the colonists with them onto their spaceship.

  The most plausible theory is that the colonists hung on for a while at the settlement, but as the cold winter blew in, they knew that between the low food supplies, angry natives, and freezing temperatures, their chances of survival were slim. Since White had befriended the chief of the Croatans, most historians believe that they reached out to the Croatans and went to live with them on Hatteras Island. This explains the Croatan message left behind on the tree for White to find.

  In 1709, John Lawson, an explorer from England, reported that he spent some time with the descendants of the Croatan tribe, who were now referred to as the Hatteras Indians. This would have been about 120 years after the birth of Virginia Dare. The explorer reported that when meeting the tribe, several of the people had very light skin and gray and blue eyes rather than brown. He reported that he had not seen this among any of the other natives he had encountered in his explorations. They told him that they were of English descent and that they had the ability to “talk in a book,” which meant that they knew how to read.

  More than 300 years after Eleanor and Virginia Dare’s arrival in Roanoke, a North Carolina man, Hamilton MacMillan, reported that he lived near a tribe of Native Americans who claimed that their ancestors were from Roanoke. MacMillan reported that they were able to speak English and that many of them had light skin, blue eyes, and light-colored hair, and that their bone and facial structure was different in comparison to the other native tribes in North Carolina. Some people believe that this is the Lumbee Tribe, who showed English habits of living. Some of them had facial hair, including beards, which Native Americans traditionally do not have. Researchers continue to discuss and debate the lost colony of Roanoke. The most recent theory is that the settlers argued during the months after White left, some believing that he would never return and others holding out hope. The opinion is that the group broke into two parties and went their separate ways, some heading toward Chesapeake Bay, where they had originally intended to settle, and the others partnered up and assimilated into the Croatan tribe.

  Historians have traced this theory, and there is some evidence that a group of settlers did arrive in Chesapeake around this time. In 1607, John Smith and the Jamestown colonists settled in the Chesapeake area, and Smith engaged in conversation with the Native Chief Powhatan. Smith reported that Powhatan did not like new people entering his area and when they did, he attacked and killed most of them. In a conversation with Smith, Powhatan mentioned committing the murders of a group of settlers. When asked when this occurred, the date coincides with the time that a party of settlers might have arrived from Roanoke if they had left in early winter. Powhatan showed Smith proof of the colonists’ existence with trinkets he had saved from the massacre. They included a musket barrel, buttons, and pieces of iron. Other historians are quick to note, though, that Smith liked to embellish his stories, as did Powhatan, and that it is likely that Powhatan had obtained the musket barrel and other pieces by trading with other tribes, and used these artifacts to intimidate and scare colonists like Smith.

  Visitors to the Roanoke settlement can see the small remnants left behind by the colonists. Ghosts are seen walking around where the fort stood and often appear standing along the beach, perhaps hoping to see a ship on the horizon bringing much needed supplies and reinforcements. Theories suggest that one of the ghosts may be the colonist George Howe, who was savagely attacked and killed by the natives while he walked the beach looking for crabs. Other ghosts may include the 15 men who were left behind to guard the settlement and murdered by the angry natives.

  During my research of the Lost Colony, I had the opportunity to speak with Anne Poole, cofounder and research director of The Lost Colony Genealogy DNA and Archaeology Research Group. Anne and I were able to discuss many of the haunted sites in North Carolina, as she also leads the Carolina Ghost Hunters, which researches paranormal events around the state. Anne arranged the overnight ghost hunt in the state capitol building during the night that my research group, The Rowan Society, attended and had paranormal experiences of our own.

  I spoke with Anne about her ongoing research and archaeological work at the Lost Colony area with cofounder Roberta Estes. The two women work with a team of archaeologists from England who are studying the site, and together they are determined to solve the mystery of what happened to Virginia Dare and the Lost Colony. They’re doing some incredible research, including using DNA from the descendants of the colonist families in England in order to test families in North Carolina who may be genetically linked.

  For Anne, researching the Lost Colony became a passion for her at the age of ten, when her parents first brought her to the area to show her the history of North Carolina and the Lost Colony. She was hooked on the mystery from that point and has dedicated a generous portion of her time to researching the history of the Dare family and the other colonists. I asked Anne which theory she subscribed to as to where the colonists went, and she feels they stuck together and went to live with the Croatan tribe. She said from a logical standpoint, they were strangers in a new world, and there is safety in numbers. They were facing the unknown, as well as hostile native tribes, swamps, poor maps, high heat and humidity that they had not been exposed to in England, as well as the threat of alligators, bears, wolves, poisonous snakes, and other predators. She went on to explain that there’s also the evidence of Croatan written on the tree. She pointed out that if the people had headed to Chesapeake Bay, wouldn’t they have written the word Chesapeake on the tree? It certainly makes the most sense of all.

  Little physical evidence remains of the colonists from Roanoke. An eerie stillness hangs in the air and in the surrounding woods.

  As Anne and I continued to chat, the most interesting thing occurred. I saw a Native American m
an standing behind her in spirit. The more she talked about the Lost Colony and the Croatan, the stronger his energy became. His presence was so strong that I felt compelled to mention this to Anne. I described the Native American man to her and told her that I felt he was a protective guide for her, and beyond that, I had the impression that he was helping her on her quest to find the evidence of the Lost Colony. As I spoke to this man in spirit, he told me that Anne is a descendant of the Lost Colony and that it is part of her destiny to assist in finding what happened to the colonists. It appeared to me that he intends to stay with her on every step of this journey until it is complete. As I shared what I had seen with Anne, it surprised her a bit, and then she shared with me a story of a place she had been only a short while back where she had been giving a lecture on the history of North Carolina. After the talk, a woman approached her and said that she had seen a Native American man standing behind Anne during her talk. My having seen the same spirit during my conversation with Anne served to confirm this even further. It certainly left me with the understanding that Anne may very well be the person to discover the evidence that so many have looked for, as I believe her to be one of the descendants of these colonists.

  Finishing up my conversation with Anne, I thanked her for her time, and we discussed holding a ghosthunting event in the future for other paranormal researchers and interested people who wish to explore North Carolina. She also confirmed for me the history of what I had found in my research about the Lost Colony. She then shared that she had experienced some supernatural experiences in some of the other places I was writing about, including the Mordecai House in Raleigh. While Anne and her daughter were there, her daughter had a ghost touch her and blow in her ear while they were in Mary Turk’s room on the Mordecai House tour.

  There’s so much still to uncover about the Lost Colony of Roanoke. One thing is for sure: when you visit the Lost Colony area, it feels eerie and isolated. It looks open and unprotected, and the woods surrounding you feel dangerous. The area remains much the same as it was when the settlers arrived, and you’ll get a good idea of what it was like to live at that time.

  I enjoyed the natural beauty and scenic views of the area. At the same time, I tried to imagine what it was like to be Eleanor Dare, pregnant in a new world and facing starvation, exposure to the elements, and the constant threat of being attacked and killed by natives. I also wondered how John White had been given the position and responsibility of being governor, as research shows that he was an artist by trade.

  As I tuned in to the energy around the area, I thought I would sense fear, but it felt more like nervous tension, like anxiety. The daily struggle of waiting, hoping, and wondering if help would come or if an attack by the natives would occur each night would be so much to bear on a daily basis. The area has a haunted, lonely feeling that still remains today. With that much anxiety, fear, and death, it’s not surprising that ghost stories continue to be reported in the local area.

  The Roanoke Island Historical Association presents an outdoor drama each summer portraying what happened to the settlers of the lost colony. The scene is striking, set outdoors on the area where the settlement once stood, using the Atlantic Ocean as the backdrop.

  In my conversation with Anne Poole about the surrounding area, she shared with me another haunted story, which she has personally experienced on Roanoke Island. It began on Mother Vineyard Road, where the oldest grapevine in the United States is reported to exist. When the colonists first arrived at Roanoke, they reported that the island was covered with wild grapes, which may have been scuppernong vines. Mother’s Vineyard is a private location that has continued to produce grapes from this vine for more than 400 years, surviving explorers, colonists, the elements, and the Civil War. Over the years, locals and visitors have reported seeing a ghost man with an eerie glow riding a bike on this road. When the man appears, many report also hearing a cat scream and the ringing of a bike bell. They also describe some of the activity as “hoodoos.” Hoodoos are small, dark creatures that appear as shadowy figures and are sometimes mischievous. Many locals believe that the ghost riding the bicycle is a hoodoo. All of the people who encounter this hoodoo energy describe it as feeling ancient and intensely overpowering.

  Anne was called in to investigate the hoodoo with her paranormal research group, and she interviewed several witnesses who personally attest to seeing the ghostly man, including two college students. During her investigation, Anne sensed the presence of a woman in the area who she describes as a granny type character. The woman appeared to be a caretaker, watching over the land and the Mother Vineyard. While she didn’t experience the hoodoo while investigating, she did come away with the impression that the area is haunted by several beings.

  When you plan your visit to the Lost Colony of Roanoke, remember that the actual area is quite bare. The Lost Colony is open to visit, but there is not much here at the site. Mother’s Vineyard is private property and not open to visitors, but you can drive down the road to see if a hoodoo appears to you one night. The nearby town of Manteo offers accommodations and restaurants. While you’re this far out on the Outer Banks, you might also enjoy driving another half hour to Rodanthe, where the movie Nights in Rodanthe was filmed, starring Richard Gere. The movie was based on the book of the same title by Nicholas Sparks.

  Beautiful Nell Cropsey Still Waits in Elizabeth City

  Elizabeth City’s most famous ghost is the beautiful 19-year-old Nell Cropsey, who mysteriously disappeared from her home along the Pasquotank River in 1901. Nell had moved to Elizabeth City in 1898 with her family from Brooklyn, New York. She was reported to be very attractive and had a long line of male suitors in town openly desiring to court her. During this time, she was dating Jim Wilcox, the son of the local county sheriff. For months Nell had been waiting for Jim to ask her to marry him, but he appeared to being making no move toward asking for her hand. In an attempt to provoke Jim into popping the question, Nell began flirting with other men in order to make Jim jealous.

  One evening Jim stopped by to see Nell at the Cropsey family home. Nell’s sister reported that Nell and Jim began arguing about Nell spending time with another man. As the argument grew more heated, Jim asked Nell to step outside of the house onto the front porch, where they continued arguing into the late evening. Before heading off to bed, the sister went to check on them on the front porch, only to find no sight of Nell or Jim. A few moments later, a neighbor came running up to the house shouting that someone had been in the backyard trying to steal the Cropsey’s family pig.

  The hunt began for Nell. Police searched the city and throughout the county for a month, and even dragged the river behind the Cropsey home to look for her body, all to no avail. During this time, her father received a strange letter postmarked Utica, New York, which said that Nell had seen a man trying to steal the family’s pig and that when she had tried to stop him, he had hit her on the head with a stick and carried her off in a rowboat. The letter also marked an area in the river where Nell’s body would be found.

  It was more than 37 days before Nell was found floating in the Pasquotank River. Her grieving mother had kept a nightly vigil for her daughter and would walk around the backyard each night for hours. One moonlit evening while standing in the backyard, she saw something white floating in the river and called for help to have it pulled from the water. It was the body of Nell, located in the area where the mysterious letter from New York had said it would be found.

  Nell’s body was placed in the nearby Cropsey boathouse, and the autopsy was conducted there on-site. The coroner found that she died not from drowning but from blunt force trauma to her head. Jim Wilcox was charged with the crime and sentenced to death, but a mistrial was declared by the North Carolina Supreme Court due to public interference with the investigation, including the organization of a lynch mob that wanted to take matters into its own hands.

  Jim was tried again in a different county for the crime, convicted of second-degree mur
der, and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He only served a few years of his sentence before being pardoned by the governor due to the political connections of his family. Upon his release, he immediately returned to live in Elizabeth City until his death by suicide.

  Reports state that Nell’s home in Elizabeth City is haunted by her ghost, which has been seen in her bedroom, on the front porch, and along the river. The home is a private residence and is not open to the public. A walking ghost tour is held each October in which you can hear the full story of Nell’s ghost sightings and see other haunted areas of Elizabeth City.

  CHAPTER 5

  The Enslaved Ghosts of Somerset Place Plantation

  CRESWELL

  In 1865, more than 850 enslaved people worked at Somerset Plantation. At that time, the plantation grounds included more than 100,000 acres of farmland, woodlands, and swamp land.

  “PAST, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The Past is the region of sobs; the Future is the realm of song. In the one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They are one—the knowledge and the dream.”