Return to Ghost Island

“Have you every heard of Ghost Island?” asked Bernard Hamilton, who grew up in Ashleyville. “When I was about 12 years old I took a nighttime boat ride there with my buddies. We left the dock behind Brown Cemetery in a mosquito fleet type boat and rowed ourselves to the island,” said Hamilton.
The eerie sound of dolphins exhaling out of their blowholes while feeding along the banks of Old Town Creek set the boys’ hair on end and provided the perfect ghostly stage for their adventure. Once on the island Hamilton remembers the remains of a concrete structure but there was not enough of it left to give the young fellows the indication that it was probably once a burial vault for an early Lowcountry family. So what was this structure and how did this hammock island in Old Town Creek get to be known as Ghost Island?
The basis of every fantastic urban or local legend is a true story waiting to be told. Numerous references to Ghost Island by locals raised the level of curiosity. With a name like Ghost Island, it had all the makings of quite a tale. References to Ghost Island began to emerge while researching Pleasure (sometimes referred to as Pleasant) Grove, Maryville, and the “New Bridge.”
One of the first references was in a Feb. 13, 1898 News & Courier article: “The World A Wheel” describing a “ride, which Charleston cyclists should take.”
“One of the principal points of interest near Charleston is a place which few have seen. It is known as ‘Ghost Island,’” reads the article. “The place is situated just about one hundred yards off the bank behind Maryville. The little island is about 200 feet square and contains an old vault, which takes up the bulk of the high and dry part of the little place. Within this vault, a portion of which has fallen in, one will find about 75 coffins, in which the bodies are in a state of semi-putrifaction. Some of the coffins have brass name plates, proving that the occupants were deposited there as far back as 1790, just after our country became independent.”
Then an April 19, 1903 News & Courier article gave a lengthy detailed narrative of a voyage by Captain Leo and Mate James on “The Hearse” to “An Island in the Ashley River Where They Sleep.” The introduction speaks to a controversy over the name of this island- “Tomb Island” or Ghost Island” and reads like something prepared for a Halloween event.
“Even afar off the moaning of the wind through the trees could be heard … There wholly concealed from view and apparently forgotten of all men stood a brick structure. A marble slab in front of it announced that it was erected June (unable to read date in the article), 1803. A massive oak door facing to the southwest was ajar. And within the vault could be seen one coffin after another arranged in ghastly formality about the walls.” The article continued to detail the above and below ground vaults, the coffins, and the contents!
By 1906 the lore of Ghost Island was too much for “curiosity seekers” and a series of articles ran in the Evening Post from April to May describing a ghoulish scene of desecration inside the vault. The island was the Lining family’s burial ground. A marble tablet over the door bore the name of Charles Lining and the year 1803. (Where did the 1790 date come from in the 1898 article?) In May of 1906 an article ran declaring: “Ghost Island Cleared – Desecrated Tomb Destroyed and Bodies Decently Buried.”
The article closes with: “Ghost Island will no more appeal to the spirit of gruesome curiosity and it will probably be a long time before anybody seeks its secluded shades.”
Donna Jacobs is a local author and historian. Do you have any old West Ashley stories you’d like to share? Contact her at westashleybook@gmail.com.