Ghosts of Georgetown by Elizabeth Huntsinger Wolf

Author:Elizabeth Huntsinger Wolf
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Folklore/Ghosts
ISBN: 9780895875303
Publisher: John F. Blair, Publisher
Published: 1995-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

The Wedge is located beyond the turnoff

to Hampton Plantation State Park on U.S. 17.

Old Gunn Church

DRIVING DOWN the paved road that winds through the Pee Dee River portion of Georgetown County is like stepping back in time.

This area has a remote and mysterious air, heightened by the fact that one can drive for miles, through towering pines, without seeing another soul. Just off the road, in an area that is now completely isolated from human activity, an old church once stood that was the center of the plantation community. Although, only the foundation of the church and a lonely belltower still remain in this dark and desolate place, spirit voices can still be heard echoing from walls that crumbled long ago.

Along the road through this area are small, modest wooden signs that announce romantic-sounding names such as Nightingale Hall, Dirleton, Arundel, Chicora Wood, and Springfield. Each small sign marks the entrance to the plantation of a former Pee Dee River rice baron. Behind every name lies what was once a closely knit society of antebellum wealth. Most of these rice barons were Episcopalian, and the church played an important role in day-to-day life.

In the early eighteenth century, when the Pee Dee River area became established as an elite and thriving plantation community, Prince George, the Episcopal parish to which it belonged, divided.

The Pee Dee community became the center of the newly formed Prince Frederick parish. The Prince George parishoners built a new church in Georgetown, but the Prince Frederick congregation continued to worship at the old church on the Black River.

As the community grew, a new church for the Prince Frederick parish was begun in 1859 in the midst of their own spreading lands.

In mid-1860, progress on the new church’s construction received a terrible blow. When Union ships blockaded Georgetown harbor, precious goods shipped from Europe for the church’s completion were lost in the confusion.

Work on the church came to a complete halt later in 1860 when the head architect, Mr. Gunn, slipped on the high, incredibly steep roof and fell, screaming, to his death. The unfinished church, its massive bell tower rising above the tree tops, was temporarily abandoned.

Damage incurred during the war years added to the work that would be required to complete the structure.

In the decade after the Civil War, there wasn’t enough money left in the once-prosperous community to complete construction of Prince Frederick’s Church. However, donations from wealthy New York businessmen and other churches enabled work on the ill-fated church to conclude.

With their large and exquisite church completed, the planters of Prince Frederick parish now had a fine church of their own.

For a time, the church flourished. It was especially known for its choir of exceptionally talented voices. The choir, which practiced at dusk nearly every night, could be heard from miles around.

Sadly, though, the church soon fell on hard times. Antebellum days had ended, and poverty forced many formerly-rich rice planters to move away to find other ways of life and livelihood. The remaining parishioners could neither fill their lovely house of worship nor afford to keep it up.

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