Strange Stories from South Carolina (The Burnt Church and Edisto Island)

4/8/2025

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Pon Pon Chapel of Ease situated on Parker's Ferry Road has been witness to war and bloodshed for hundreds of years. Prior to the Revolutionary War, ten parishes were established in this coastal area of South Carolina that linked the important towns such as Savannah and Charleston.

Pon Pon Chapel of Ease restoration c.1975

One of these was St. Bartholomew’s Parish (now Colleton County). Chapels of Ease were constructed so families who lived far from main parish churches could gather and attended services. The Pon Pon Chapel of Ease located on a stagecoach route between Charleston and Savannah had frequent visitors.

This patch of land has seen warfare and bloodshed for hundreds of years, so it’s not strange that it’s has a reputation for being haunted.

Much of the parish was destroyed during the Yemassee War of 1715 (1715-1717). This war was fought between the British settlers and the Yemassee tribe and others from the surrounding area. Hundreds of colonists and traders were killed and settlements were razed. Those who survived fled to Charles Town where many faced starvation when food supplies ran low. The tide turned when the Cherokee tribe sided with the settlers.

On December 9, 1725, the Assembly of the Province of South Carolina permitted a church to be built here and it acted as both a parish church and a chapel of ease, a unique arrangement in South Carolina.

In 1754, the wooden structure was replaced with a brick one, and it burned down in 1801, and it subsequently became known as the Burnt Church. The structure was rebuilt between 1819 to 1822, and living up to its name, it burned down in 1832, however residents in the area continued to use its graveyard.

Col. Wells [i.e. Welles] Jones Brigade crossing the North edisto on raft before the pontoons were laid & charging on the enemy's works. The men shown on the left are crossing on a floating foot bridge. Sherman's march from Savannah to Bentonville. c/1865

In 1781, General Frances Marion ambushed 540 Hessians, British redcoats and Tories along Parker's Ferry road. They were defeated and withdrew back to Charles Town.

In 1959, Hurricane Gracie toppled much of the remaining ruins of the church, further eroding the structure. However, the two standing walls allow viewers to imagine how the chapel of ease appeared in its glory.

On October 8, 2017 Hurricane Matthew caused further damage.

The chapel is close to the Edisto River, where the plantations produced sea island cotton, which was exported worldwide.

Edisto Island is about an hour south of Charleston, and like many of those who lived in the Low Country they suffered the scourge of diphtheria, most of the victims were children. Prior to the Civil War little was known about the disease, except that the first symptoms were a sore throat and fever. A membrane forms in the throat, tonsils and nose leading to a swelling known as bull neck. Suffocation comes about when breathing becomes impossible.

During the summer months, burying the dead was essential when decomposition of the body started almost immediately. It was this practice which also spurred the fear of being buried alive, since sometimes pronouncements of death were premature and the person was only in a coma.

Stories abound of evidence of corpses found scratching the doors of mausoleums, or the interior lids of a coffin years after they were interred.

The church and cemetery can be found at a place called Burnt Church Crossroads — off SC 64 just outside of Jacksonboro.

The following are South Carolina ghost stories:

Dalzell
I was driving from Sumter going towards West Columbia on a Friday night around 10:20 p.m., so I took Highway 77 passing the bridges. I was driving by myself just listening to music on my phone and was laughing when I heard a little boy laugh inside my truck.

I looked through the mirror to see what it was, and I got goose bumps all over my body. My music turned off by itself, and my phone turned off too. I tried to turn my phone back, but it didn't turn on. Thirty seconds passed. Then it turned itself on again. This was the 3rd time this happened to me in 1 year.

Please be careful when driving through there at night (May, 2020).

A few weeks ago I was driving home until I stopped my truck at a stop sign. I took a right turn until I noticed something or someone standing in the middle of the road! I honked my truck horn and it opened it's mouth. All of the sudden my head lights went off. I was so packed with fear until I turned on the headlights back on, it still stood there looking at me as if it wanted something!!.

Pinewood
Ok so I went hunting in Pinewood, SC. A friend and I just put up a new deer stand. I went by myself and got there about 5:30 am. When I cut my truck off there was a beating sound on the hood of my truck. It was really foggy and I could not see anything but the beating continued until I decided to leave.

The ghost of an indentured servant is said to haunt the area where she was hanged shortly after giving birth to her son.

The Ghost of Wright Square (Savannah, Georgia)

Alice Riley (Ryley) met her end on a gallows erected in Wright Square in Savannah in 1735. Her crime was the murder of William Wise the man who bought her as an indentured servant from a group of Irish transports.

Local legend tells of Alice's ghost searching for her lost baby, wearing the tattered clothing she wore when she died. Her son is said to have died about a month after her execution.

There are reports of chills before the sighting of a sad, semi-transparent woman, however reference to Alice is sketchy and scarce. The man who bought the contract did exist, and arrived in Georgia in 1733.

On March 1, 1734, a man named William Wise was found dead in his house on Hutchinson Island, across the river from Savannah. His body was lying on a bed. His head, however, was in a large pail of water. He still had a neckerchief tied around his neck and it looked as if he had been strangled and drowned. His death was the first murder in the fledgling colony of Savannah.

Wise had arrived in December 1733, taking it upon himself to sail to Savannah after the Georgia Trustees in England balked at putting him on the charity list. He had a reputation for being somewhat shady, taking with him a young woman he passed off as his daughter, but who was in fact a prostitute. Instead of sending him back to England, James Oglethorpe put him across the river at the cattle farm.

Missing from Wise’s home when his body was discovered were two of his Irish indentured servants, Alice Riley and Richard White.

It turns out that Alice Riley along with her lover and fellow servant White, killed their abusive and degenerate master, William Wise. The two were eventually caught and sentenced to death. Riley’s execution, however, was delayed until she gave birth to her son.

The death of Fannie Heldmann c.1889

Fannie's Ghost
Fannie Heldmann came from a well-to-do South Carolina family, and was driven to despair over an arranged marriage or so it was said. She attempted suicide twice, and was successful the second time on December 31, 1880. She drowned herself in a shallow pool of water, where she could have stood up and saved herself.

She was engaged to be married and her wedding trousseau was purchased. It all started when during the summer of 1880 she nursed a sick, invalid relative through a long illness. This relative who lived in the country, ended up dying.

Upon returning to her parent's home she was described with "severe nervous prostration", which resulted in an "unbalancing of her mental faculties". Most of the time she was perfectly rational, and the bouts of insanity came only at intervals. Her parents had to keep an eye on her as she was hellbent on getting out of the house

On night she jumped out of the sitting room, locked her parents in the room and ran to a footbridge over the river, from which she jumped.

During the search for Fannie, her father who was an old man fell through the railroad trestle when he was crossing the river, and broke several ribs. Her father died three years later at the age of 73.

The reason for her suicide is questionable. Her fiancée was described as a young man, and considering her father was a man in his 70s, a business partner would more than likely be closer to his age. It was described where she was well-loved by her parents as their only child, and it's difficult to believe they would have forced her into an unwanted marriage. Fannie might just have been suffering from some type of mental illness, which drove her to this action.

It is said that Fannie's ghost haunts the cemetery where she was buried. Her grave is marked with a large concrete angel.