Haunted Plantations of the South by Richard Southall

Author:Richard Southall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal, ghost story, true ghost story, true haunting, haunted location, haunted plantation, haunted south
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

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North Carolina

Bellamy Mansion/Bellamy Mansion Museum

Wilmington

Bellamy Mansion in Wilmington, North Carolina, was built by physician and plantation owner Dr. John Dillard Bellamy. The twenty-two room Greek Revival mansion was built between 1858 and 1861. Bellamy Mansion was not a plantation house, since it was located in Wilmington, North Carolina; rather, it was an urban base of operations from which Dr. Bellamy managed no fewer than three large plantations, which included Belvedere, Groveley, and Orton Plantations.

Bellamy Mansion was also used as a refuge when Dr. Bellamy and his family did not want to stay at one of his plantation houses. Because of its central location to all of his plantations, Bellamy used the mansion as his primary residence.

On March 1, 1865, less than four years after the construction of Bellamy Mansion, Union General Joseph R. Hawley forced Dr. Bellamy from the mansion and used it as field headquarters for several months. Due to the Civil War and a yellow fever outbreak, Bellamy and his family had to alternate living between his other rural plantation houses for four years until they were finally able to return to Bellamy Mansion.

Today, the Bellamy Mansion Museum is open to the public for guided and self-guided tours. Inside, visitors can see some of the original furnishings owned by Dr. Bellamy and his family. There is an art gallery that features several local and regional artists in a variety of exhibits. The mansion is used for a number of local functions and fundraisers. The Bellamy Mansion Museum can also be rented for special events.

According to various sources, several ghosts are believed to haunt Bellamy Mansion, including family members, Confederate and Union soldiers, and specters that have yet to be identified.

Soon after Dr. Bellamy’s wife, Ellen, died at the mansion in 1946 at the age of ninety-four, people said that her ghost had been encountered in the second-floor bedroom in which she died and throughout the rest of the mansion. Ellen has been seen peering out her bedroom window, and it was confirmed that no staff or visitors were inside the mansion at the time of the sighting because the mansion was closed for the evening.

Another paranormal event that may be attributed to Ellen concerns her wheelchair, which is on display at the Bellamy Museum. Over the years, it has been said that on several occasions, her wheelchair has been found in locations throughout the mansion other than the area where it is on display. As with the apparition, the wheelchair’s movement has always taken place late at night after the mansion is closed.

A third manifestation that can be attributed to Ellen Bellamy is located on the third floor, where an older couple in period clothing has been seen standing by a large, decorative window. The description of the old woman is consistent with the apparition of Ellen that is seen looking out of the second-floor bedroom window.

Children laughing and playing have been heard on the first floor of the mansion. On a few occasions, two or three children have been seen playing on the porch and in one room on the first floor.

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