The Baynard Mausoleum of Hilton Head Island

“One marble door on hinges still hangs and works perfectly, the other has been broken away. Within are 21 sections for receiving coffins and six of these are occupied. Two of the coffins are of cast iron, formed to hold snugly the bodies of their dead,[...] The other coffins are all of heart pine and except for having been broken open by vandals in search of jewelry are still in good condition.””

— The State, Columbia, SC, May 29, 1927

the Oldest Surviving Structure on the Island

Atop Hilton Head Island’s highest bluff overlooking the Calibogue Sound was a grand antebellum mansion that for William Eddings Baynard and his betrothed, Catherine Adelaide Scott, was their dream of a life they could spend together and a place to raise their future family. 

 In 1846 Baynard began construction on a family mausoleum in the Chapel of the Ease Cemetery. It was without a doubt, the grandest and most impressive tomb seen on the island at that time.

Yet while the Baynard Mausoleum has somehow stood the test of time, tragically, its mission to protect those interred there has not been fulfilled, as today it sits under those moss-covered oak trees entirely empty– a victim to over a century of vandalism and theft– making this truly unique and historic structure the center to some of the island’s most infamous legends and ghost lore. A legacy that continues on to this very day.

ADDITIONAL LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Watch a news report on the discovery of bones in the believed empty Baynard Crypt.

Sources:

“Anthropology class uncovers 100-year-old bones on Hilton Head Island.” WTOC. Updated September 29, 2015. https://www.wtoc.com.

Carmichael, Sherman. Eerie South Carolina: True Chilling Stories from the Palmetto Past. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013.

Lauderdale, David. “Hilton Head’s Zion Chapel of the Ease makes national list.” (Hilton Head Island, SC). The Island Packet, October 19, 2017.

Matrana, Marc R. Lost Plantations of the South. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.

Miller, Riley. “The Ghost in the Stone: Spooky stories tell tales of Hilton Head Island's distant past.” WJCL. Updated October 31, 2022. https://www.wjcl.com/article/hilton-head-ghost-stories/41823578#. 

Perry, Grace Fox. “New Activity Taking Place on Hilton Head.” (Beaufort, SC). The Beaufort Gazette, April 9, 1953. Newspapers.com.

Roberts, Nancy. South Carolina Ghosts: From the Coast to the Mountains. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2019.

Taylor, B.F. “Exploring Hilton Head is Interesting Experience.” (Columbia, SC). The State, May 29, 1927. Newspapers.com   

Thomas, Richard. “Hilton Head’s untold history: Captain Jack Stoney.” Local Life. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://www.locallifesc.com/hilton-heads-untold-history-captain-jack-stoney/. 

Thomas, Richard. “Hilton Head’s untold history: Grave Robbers once roamed Hilton Head.” Local Life. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://www.locallifesc.com/hilton-heads-untold-history-grave-robbers-once-roamed-hilton-head/

Wilson, Patty A. Cursed in the Carolinas: Stories of the Damned. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2017.

Wooster, Lyman. “The Stoneys, the Baynards, and Their Mansion.” The Heritage Library, The Heritage Library Foundation. Accessed March 26, 2023. https://heritagelib.org/the-stoneys-the-baynards-and-their-mansion. 

Zepke, Terrance. Ghosts of the Carolina Coasts. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press, 1999.

The Rum Keg Girl

“Little Girl Buried in Rum Keg”

One of the most well-known graves at the Old Burying Grounds in Beaufort, North Carolina is that of a young girl who purportedly died at sea and was buried there in a keg of rum. Who the girl is we will never know, but her legend lives on and her spirit purportedly haunts the three-century-old cemetery to this very day.

This minisode is a companion to the episode, The Hammock House.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• Purchase the Feminine Macabre, Vol. 3.

Sources:

Brown, Nic. “North Carolina’s Old Burying Ground.” Garden & Gun. April/May 2015. https://gardenandgun.com/articles/our-kind-of-place-north-carolinas-old-burying-ground/. 

“Old Burying Ground.” Beaufort Historic Site. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://beauforthistoricsite.org/old-burying-ground/. 

WNCT-TV 9 On Your Side. “People and Places with Pierce: The Rum Keg Girl.” YouTube Video, 2:39. November 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMfHjC-QC1w.

The Sad Statue of Corinne Lawton

One of Bonaventure Cemetery’s Most Infamous Graves

After Corinne Elliott Lawton died in 1877, her parents commissioned a famous Italian sculptor to design the statue at her grave. The result still stands today in the historic Bonaventure Cemetery of Savannah, Georgia where the melancholy depiction of this beloved daughter has inspired a local legend about her death.

The Bride of Annandale

The apparition of a grieving woman purportedly haunts the Chapel of the Cross cemetery in Mannsdale, Mississippi. Legend says this ghost is Helen Johnstone.-- the victim of one of Mississippi's most tragic tales of heartbreak and loss. Days before her wedding in 1859, Helen's beloved Henry Vick was struck down in a duel. The Johnstone family promised to one day bury the grief-stricken young woman in the plot next to her lost love, but unfortunately she was not, thus resulting in the many claims that her spirit will not leave.

Cities of the Dead

One of the most significant issues that the early settlers of  New Orleans encountered was where to bury their dead. The city’s swampy location has an exceptionally high water table, so when graves were dug, water quickly filled the holes.  Caskets would float from their graves after heavy rains. The solution was not to bury the dead below ground, but rather inter their lost love ones in aboveground vaults. The result was beautiful cemeteries that have since come to be known as Cities of the Dead.

In New Orleans, there are 42 surviving historic cemeteries, with the oldest and most well-known being St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. The cemetery was established in 1789 and remains in use over two hundred years later.  Occupying only 300 square feet, a single city block, St. Louis No. 1 remains the final resting place for thousands, welcoming each new internment as the newest residents of the New Orleans’ cities of the dead.