by Bruce Orr
The man who told me this story says that this was a popular legend in Pinopolis back in his younger days. Many folks would try to prove their bravery by staying the night in the old cemetery outside Wampee, and he was included among the ranks of those who would defy Headless Annie.
One night, his father left him and some friends there at the cemetery. Home was in walking distance, and everyone knew one another in the area back then. Nowadays you have to be more concerned about what the living people can do to you. There are plenty of evil ones around who are still breathing, but back then they were more concerned with what the dead might do to you if they got their hands on you.
The Old Nazareth Cemetery. Courtesy of KOP Shots.
Headless Annie is said to haunt the cemetery at night. Courtesy of KOP Shots.
The young man was in his early teens, as were his comrades. They were full of themselves, as most young men are, and of course were trying to top one another’s “what if Annie comes” strategies. After all, how much trouble could a headless ghost be? She couldn’t see you to chase you.
The boys had been dropped off outside the cemetery, and after working up their courage, they went inside it. Not long after they got inside, the trees began to sway back and forth, and the wind began to howl as if a storm was on its way. The boys began to look around for some shelter, and that’s when they noticed something very peculiar about the wind and the approaching storm: it was only happening inside the cemetery. Everything on the outside of the little graveyard was perfectly still. Not a single tree was swaying. Not even the moss hanging from the old live oaks was moving.
The youngsters decided that if this was what was happening before the sun went down, they did not want to take any chances on what might happen after sunset. According to the storyteller, they opted not to meet Headless Annie that night and hurried out of the cemetery and back home before she made her presence known.
THE PLANTATION HOUSE AT WAMPEE
The grounds of Wampee Plantation and the house itself are considered by many to be the most haunted places in Berkeley County. As the previous story indicated, you have to first get past the cemetery and Headless Annie to even get into the gates leading up to Wampee. Once inside the gates and outside of Annie’s reach, there are even more restless spirits walking the plantation grounds.
Many Native American tribes inhabited Berkeley County. The Cherokees were quite predominant, but there were many more tribes, such as the Etiwans and the Wassamasaws. Even today there is a section of Berkeley County known as Varner Town that includes descendants of the Etiwan, Catawba, Edisto and Cherokee tribes. The town is located near Carnes Crossroads, near the city of Goose Creek. Several Indian Schools were established in the community, including the Varner Indian School, established in 1939 and closed in 1963. The Varner Town Indians are all that remain of what was a vast and diversified Native American culture that covered the county. There were at least twenty-five different tribes identified by the colonists starting with the letter “W” alone, such as the Wando, Wantoot, Wappaoola, Westo, Wisboo and Woosah, just to name a few of them. These tribes, like countless others across North America, were uprooted and moved by colonization. Such is the case with the Wampee House.
In 1696, Baptists established Wampee Plantation in St. John’s Parish. Several houses were erected on the property, and the current house was the third in the series. It was built about 1822, when the plantation was prospering through the cultivation of rice. The property was owned by Charles Macbeth, who happened to be the mayor of Charleston during the Civil War. The current house is much smaller than most of the plantations of St. John’s Parish due to damage from a tornado during its construction. As the house was being framed, the tornado struck and broke off the framing at the sills. This forced the builders to saw off the broken timbers and build the house much smaller than originally planned.
Wampee House before restoration. Courtesy of Library of Congress Archives.
Wampee House as it appears today after extensive restoration by Santee Cooper. Courtesy of KOP Shots.
In 1939, several Indian burial mounds were discovered on the Wampee Plantation grounds. The burial mounds, or tumuli as they are called, contained evidence that indicated that the occupants interred there more than likely had been killed in battle with early colonists in the area. According to accounts, the positioning of the bones indicated violent trauma. There were both male and female bones located. These are believed to be members of the Etiwan tribe. In 1955, a member of the excavation party, William “Bill” Wiley, wrote a paper entitled, “Tumuli in the Pinopolis Reservoir.” In his paper he eloquently reminded us of the injustice done to the Native Americans at Wampee.
[T] he Etiwans evidently continued their retreat westward and established a new frontier across the Wassamassaw, which goes beyond the confines of the Pinopolis reservoir (Lake Moultrie). Eventually the Etiwans, as well as practically all other Indian tribes in the low country, were driven out or exterminated. We in America who now condemn aggressor nations across the sea should remember that our forbears also were aggressors when they ruthlessly drove out and destroyed this native people. What a pity there is no one left among the race of Hiawatha, and no hand to lay a wreath upon these graves. There is no indication that there will ever be erected a shaft perpetuating the memory of the Etiwans who fought and died to save their own homeland.
The Etiwan Indians in these mounds apparently died defending their homeland against the colonists whom they saw as intruders. Legend has it that in one of these tumuli a young Indian woman was found in a crouching position. She apparently died in battle, as did her male counterparts. She died defending her homeland, a place she did not want to leave. And she didn’t.
According to legend, a young Indian maiden can be seen wandering about the Wampee House and the grounds surrounding it. This began immediately after her burial mound was disturbed by the excavation performed by the archaeologists. Unlike the stereotypical imagery Hollywood has placed in our minds, she is not dressed in deerskin and buffalo hides. She is dressed in flowing blue robe and slipper-like footwear. The robe is said to resemble silk chiffon. The blue is said to resemble the blue water hyacinth flower that grows in marshy areas near Lake Moultrie. It is also called the Wampee Flower. The young maiden is also said to have a complexion like a porcelain doll.
For many years, Wampee House stood abandoned and desolate. It’s windows were shattered, and the house stood seemingly in ruins. In his book Plantations, Pineland Villages, Pinopolis and Its People, Dr. Norman Sinkler Walsh stated that during his childhood and early teen years he found the Wampee House “a somewhat dangerous place to explore.” He went on to describe his last adventure there as a child:
I was not aware of any ghost stories about Wampee when I was growing up in Pinopolis. This changed, though, when I was twelve years old. On one exploratory visit with my friends, I led the way onto the porch and opened the door. I was amazed to see a woman’s figure on the stairway landing, between the first and second floors. The figure stood near a window on the stair landing. She had a pale, indistinct face and was wearing a transparent, chiffon-like flowing garment. I don’t remember being afraid; however my friends and I left in a hurry, and I never went back.
Others have also encountered the “Blue Maiden.” The location has since been restored by Santee Cooper, a water and electric utility company. Lake Moultrie was built on the majority of the plantation grounds along with several other former plantations. In April 1934, the governor of South Carolina signed the bill to create the South Carolina Service Authority commonly known as Santee Cooper. The project created two lakes, Moultrie and Marion. It took more than two years to complete. In order to build the lakes to create the power, more than twenty historic plantations were destroyed.
Santee Cooper acquired Wampee by eminent domain. Basically the state needed the property and seized it without owner’s consent in order to use it for the betterment of the state by creating a public utilit
y. The owners at that time, the Cain family, were extremely upset that they were forced to surrender the property. The Cain family filed a lawsuit against Santee Cooper stating that Wampee Plantation was not critical to the construction of the hydroelectric plant. In 1945, the South Carolina Supreme Court agreed with the Cain family and returned Wampee to them. Santee Cooper was determined to have the property and made a very lucrative offer to the Cain family, far greater than the $12.19 per acre others had received. The Cain family accepted. Wampee was the only surviving plantation house of the project, and Santee Cooper renovated the house for use as lodging for visiting dignitaries and for business meetings.
More than 177,000 acres of land were appropriated requiring Santee Cooper to obtain the titles to 1,326 tracts of land. The result today is that Santee Cooper provides power to 1.7 million South Carolinians.
Since restoration, many have stayed in the Wampee House and had run-ins with the apparition. A former caretaker encountered her as she was putting away dishes. She noticed a figure outside the window, and when she looked out, she observed a clear image of a young Indian woman standing on the front porch. The Indian maiden was staring straight at her and vanished right before her eyes.
Rachel Bayless Smith is the granddaughter of one of the former caretakers. She grew up hearing the adults talking in hushed tones about unusual occurrences in the old house. She did not put much stock in the legend until one evening when she was walking by the house. As she passed, she got an uneasy feeling that she was being watched. As she stopped in front of the house, she looked up and saw a woman in a flowing blue gown looking at her through a second-floor window. The woman simply faded into thin air as if she had evaporated.
When researching this story, my daughter and I went to the location to take some photographs. Neither of us encountered the Blue Maiden, but we did encounter one of Santee Cooper’s security officers. The gentleman advised us that he has not seen the Blue Maiden but did admit that the grounds get very interesting after dark. He stated that although he did not see the young Indian woman, he did have an encounter with another apparition on the grounds. While patrolling the area in the wee hours of the morning, he was surprised to see what he believed was a Native American on horseback near one of the gates. The figure simply guided his pony to the edge of the woods and vanished. He said that he never would have believed anyone else telling him the story had he not experienced it himself.
Several people have experienced other phenomena in the house. Ms. Smith stated that one night, when her grandfather was caretaker, a severe thunderstorm rose up on the lake. As the storm raged on, there was a knock on the door to the caretaker’s house. He answered it to find three men completely drenched. When he invited them in, they told him that they had been out on the lake and had been surprised by the sudden storm. They said that they had been having difficulty finding their way to shore in the dark until he saw the lights of the first house and used them as a guide. They said that they arrived at the house and beat on the door, but no one answered. The three men then walked to the second house and knocked until their host answered. Ms. Smith’s grandfather was astonished and said that the first house was Wampee House and that no one lived there. In fact, he had turned out all of the lights hours before, and there was no one there to turn them on. He was just as equally shocked when he observed the lights on in the locked house when he investigated after the storm.
Many believe that this incident was caused by a second spirit inhabiting Wampee House. This apparition is believed to be that of a pirate who wandered off while unloading a ship at nearby Stony Landing. It is believed that he died lost and wandering in the woods trying to find his way back.
Many report hearing doors open and close inside the house. Some Santee Cooper board members can attest to that. In a 1997 article in the area newspaper, the Post and Courier, Santee Cooper board member Mac Walters described his experiences in the house one night:
He awoke in the middle of the night and felt a presence that forced him to keep his eyes closed. His body was straight and his hands were clasped across his torso in a funeral fashion. He could not move. The sounds of doors opening was interrupted by an alarm at 4:30am. It was set for 6:30am. He never went back to sleep and heard doors opening the rest of the night…Five weeks later, he wrote about his stay at Wampee. Saying he still had not gotten over that night and would resign from Santee Cooper’s board if he had to stay there again.
A similar incident was relayed by the current caretaker, Sandy Gibson, to reporter Dan Brown of the Berkeley Independent newspaper. This involved two individuals who, one would believe, would not be easily frightened. Mr. Gibson states that in about 2000, Santee Cooper was shooting a promotional video and had former Super Bowl legend Terry Bradshaw and Detroit Lions center Steve Mott staying at the house as guests. He says that Bradshaw called him at about 10:00 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. that night and told him that Mott refused to stay in the room and was scared to death. Gibson asked what they saw, and Bradshaw told him to just come and get them. Gibson said that he arrived to find Mott shaking like a leaf and packing his clothes. Gibson said he told Bradshaw that he would put Mott up in a hotel, and then Bradshaw also started packing, stating, “You don’t expect me to stay here by myself, do you?” Wampee House managed to frighten a four-time Super Bowl winner away. Perhaps he encountered the disembodied head floating above him, as a visiting New York businessman claimed happen to him one night. Whatever it was the two NFL players encountered, they never revealed it.
Coffins and their occupants being prepared for relocation and reburial. Courtesy of Library of Congress Archives.
One of the six thousand individuals whose graves where removed and relocated. Courtesy of Library of Congress Archives.
One last incident occurred many years back on the same grounds. The same young man who had been searching the graveyard for Headless Annie in the earlier story was forced to ride through Wampee one night on his ten-speed bicycle. As he was peddling through, something stepped out of the bushes behind him. He stated that he heard it begin moving toward him, and as it ran he began to hear claws striking the path. Adrenaline kicked in, and he began peddling faster, especially when he realized that the creature was bipedal—it had two legs and claws, not four. The young man said that he never looked back and kept peddling for home, with the creature chasing him. He stated that he turned into his drive, leapt off the bicycle and ran up the stairs and through the front door before his bike ever stopped rolling. He was inside with the door locked before the bike ever hit the ground.
He never found out what was chasing him and said that he never wants to know. Perhaps it was just a young man’s overactive imagination on a dark, starless night, or perhaps it was one of the long-dead Etiwan Indians shape-shifting into something a little more sinister as he continues in death to protect the lands that were once his in life.
What makes Wampee Plantation the most haunted place in Berkeley County? Perhaps the fact that it is the only survivor in the Pinipolis area of a long-passed era that makes it that way. Or perhaps a contributing factor is the desecration of a few Indian graves.
If the graves are the issue, take into consideration that during the Santee Cooper Project, more than ninety-three cemeteries were relocated. That means that more than six thousand graves were disturbed. The individuals were dug up, removed and then reburied elsewhere. Without modern equipment such as ground-penetrating radar, it is quite certain that many were left behind to be covered by the lakes. This is what former state senator James Hammond believed and documented in several narrative poems in 1961. Likewise, Native Americans believe that the desecration of a grave is a sacrilegious action and disturbs the eternal rest of the one interred. In some belief systems, it forces the spirit to return and wander the earth eternally. Such may be the case with the Blue Maiden at Wampee. If true, then she is not alone. There are about six thousand others wandering the area with her.
KECLEH-KUDLEH
THE CHERO
KEES’ HAIRY SAVAGE
As stated in the previous story, Native American tribes once flourished in Berkeley County. Their history, tales and legends have long been lost to time due to the simple fact that they were spoken and not written. Spoken stories tend to eventually fade into obscurity. Written stories last for posterity.
We are fortunate that in 1821 a Cherokee silversmith named Sequoyah created a Cherokee syllabary, allowing the Cherokee people to read and write their own language. This was the first time in recorded history that a member of an illiterate people independently created a writing system. This allowed the Cherokee people to save their legends and stories in written form so that future generations knew them as their ancestors did. The fact is that by creating a writing system, Sequoyah actually saved Cherokee folklore.
The Cherokee people believed in many different entities, from gods and immortal beings to the Little People that lived in the forest. The Little People were similar to European leprechauns or fairies. They were about knee high and had long hair that dragged the ground, like with trolls. They could be mischievous, but they also liked children and helped them find their way home if they became lost. If treated respectfully, the Little People and the Cherokee coexisted well. If they were slighted and treated disrespectfully, they could be very dangerous and could bring illness and even death to those who offended them.
Another hairy, but much taller, creature that the Cherokees were familiar with was called Kecleh-Kudleh, which translates into “hairy savage.” He was a very large creature completely covered with hair. He also had an awful smell. His stench often preceded him.
Many Native American tribes, such as the Cherokees, were once indigenous to Berkeley County. Courtesy of Library of Congress Archives.
