LOCATION:
In Charlestown, South Carolina at 31 Legare Street.
DESCRIPTION:
Described as a comfortable, two-story
house, complete with a library, this house was built at the end of the
Revolutionary War, by war widow, Mrs. Hayward, who enjoyed living in Charlestown,
a busy place which must have been a southern woman's social and cultural
paradise. Her late husband's Rice Plantation was located in the countryside,
a distance from town.While the Hayward Rice Plantation today is long gone,
this house is in fine shape and currently owned by a private occupant(s),
who have experienced manifestations dating back to incidents which happened
on January 14, 1805.
HISTORY:
Her grown children would come and
visit her at her city home. Her favorite son, James, would come often
to visit her. While she hoped that James would run the Hayward Rice Plantation
some day, he preferred to read, hunt, but didn't have much interest in
planting, harvesting, or managing a rice plantation.
MANIFESTATIONS:
1) On the morning of January 14, 1805,
Mrs. Heyward went into the library to read. She saw James sitting at
his desk in the Alcove, holding his head in his hands. She was surprised
to see him, because he had told her the night before that he and his
friend were planning to leave early that morning to go quail hunting
out at the plantation. Pondering over this thought, she walked up to
where he was sitting to ask him why he didn't go hunting as planned.
When he didn't answer her, she reached out and touched him, and the
apparition that she thought was James faded into the air. She fainted
and a doctor was called. A little while later, plantation workers carried
Jame's body into the parlor. James had been killed instantly when his
horse threw him off, after being startled by the sudden appearance of
a cow, (while they were hunting), at the exact same time that Mrs. Hayward
saw him in the Library that morning.
Still Haunted?
Definitely yes!
Two hundred years later, the apparition
of James in his green hunting coat, still makes himself at home in the
house's library, still reading his favorite books, and sometimes gazes
out the window, as if he is deep in thought. The house's residents have
accepted him as being part of the house, and are not bothered by his
appearance.
(Privately Owned - Please respect owner's
privacy).
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