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. These ghosts are likely not any of Dr. Bellamy’s ten children, as all except one infant lived well into adulthood.
There are two other hauntings connected with the mansion that are not believed to be attributed to the Bellamy family. During General Hawley’s occupation of Bellamy Mansion, more than one Union soldier was known to have died on the site. There are reports of an apparition that appears for a few seconds of a Union soldier standing at attention near the house. It is possible that he was a guard stationed in front of the main entrance to the mansion.
The apparition of a second Union soldier is accompanied by a young woman standing outside the mansion near a window on the first floor. This particular soldier does not appear to be the same as the soldier stationed at the front entrance. Rather, it is likely a Union soldier having a secret rendezvous with a local young lady, which was not uncommon during the Civil War. Near this area, separate EVPs of male and female voices have been recorded, which are believed to be the Union soldier and his companion.
Finally, many people have seen the ghost of what has become known as the Man in Black. This apparition has been described as an older man with long dark hair and a long black beard. He is always seen wearing a well-tailored black business suit. This does not fit the description of Dr. Bellamy, and it is uncertain exactly who this man was when he was alive. He could have been a business associate of Dr. Bellamy or even a visitor to the mansion while it was occupied by General Hawley.
Foscue Plantation
Pollocksville
In the late 1700s Simon and Nancy Foscue purchased a 500-acre tract of land just north of present-day Pollacksville, North Carolina, and established Foscue Plantation. On September 22, 1801, Simon Foscue Sr. deeded the property to his son, Simon Foscue Jr. It is likely that the plantation was a wedding gift to Simon Jr., as he married Christina Rhem on April 30, 1801.
In 1824, Simon Foscue Jr. built a larger three-story brick plantation house near the site of the original two-story house that his father had built. As with the first house, Foscue Jr. arranged to have each brick for his mansion made by hand on the site of the plantation. This ensured that there was a fresh supply of bricks that were personally inspected for quality.
In addition to being a successful planter, Simon Foscue Jr. was appointed justice of the peace for Pollacksville, North Carolina, by Governor Hawkins in 1813, a position that he retained until shortly before his death in 1830.
Simon Foscue Jr. willed the property of 500 acres and twenty-five slaves to his son, John Edward Foscue, upon his death in 1830. John Foscue, in turn, willed Foscue Plantation to his wife, Caroline, when he died in 1849.
Foscue Plantaton continued to thrive as a plantation after Caroline took control. Records indicate that she increased the acreage of the plantation considerably. To manage the larger site of Foscue Plantation, she had also increased the number of slaves to forty-eight by the beginning of the Civil War. After the Civil War ended, the Foscues were fortunate enough to hold onto the property, unlike many other planation owners who lost everything. The Foscues have kept the property and mansion in the family to this day.
Today, Foscue Plantation has been carefully restored to its original condition to allow visitors to fully experience the property as it was during the nineteenth century. Foscue Plantation is open to the public and has guided and self-guided tours of the mansion and surrounding property. Foscue Plantation can also be reserved for special events such as weddings and reunions.
The ghosts of former slaves are believed to haunt the third floor and attic of the Foscue Plantation House. Visitors to the house have heard the sounds of cries and heavy chains rattling from the attic, even though the door leading to the attic is locked from the outside. Although unconfirmed, there were rumors that Foscue kept slaves in the attic on occasion.
Grimesland Plantation
Grimesland
In the 1760s, Dempsie Grimes moved to North Carolina from Virginia, where he founded Avon Plantation shortly after his arrival. When he was barely out of his teens, Dempsie’s son William purchased over a thousand acres a few miles downriver from Avon and started his own plantation that he named Grimesland.
Upon his death, William passed the plantation to his son, Brian Grimes, who continued the tradition of being a planter. Brian Grimes Jr. was born on the plantation on November 2, 1828, and in 1844, when he was only fifteen years old, he enrolled into the University of North Carolina. Being a gifted student, Bryan Grimes Jr. graduated college in 1848 at nineteen years of age. As a graduation gift, Bryan Grimes Jr. was given Grimesland Plantation with over one hundred slaves to tend the fields. He spent the next twelve years making Grimesland one of the most profitable and well-respected plantations in the state.
Bryan Grimes Jr. found himself becoming drawn into the political arena as the tensions between the North and the South escalated. In May 1861, Bryan Grimes Jr. was one of the signers of the ordinance that made North Carolina’s secession from the United States a reality. Shortly thereafter, he enlisted into the Confederate army, where he was given the rank of major. During the Civil War, Grimes Jr. bravely fought at such battles as the Seven Days Battle, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Fort Manassas, the Battle of Spotsylvania, and the Battle of Gettysburg. By the end of the Civil War, the seasoned veteran had achieved the high rank of brigadier general, one of the highest ranks ever awarded to an officer.
After the Civil War, Bryan Grimes Jr. and his wife, Charlotte, returned to Grimesland in 1867 to rebuild the plantation and raise a family of their own. While at Grimesland, Bryan Grimes Jr. and Charlotte raised a total of ten children. Bryan resumed where he left off prior to enlisting, and again Grimesland became very profitable. Grimes shared a large portion of the plantation’s profits with his community and with the University of North Carolina on a regular basis.
On August 14, 1880, while riding back from attending a political convention in nearby Little Washington, North Carolina, Grimes’s buggy was ambushed by an unknown assailant. The man pulled his gun on Grimes and shot him at close range, killing him instantly. A teenage boy who was riding with Grimes at the time of the attack was not harmed and returned the buggy with Grimes’s body back to Grimesland Plantation. Although a man by the name of William Parker was arrested and tried for Grimes’s murder, he was found not guilty of the charge. In honor of the bravery, dedication, and loyalty that Bryan Grimes Jr. showed in support of the southern cause, Little Washington, North Carolina, changed its name to Grimesland, North Carolina, in 1893.
After Grimes’s death, the property was sold a handful of times in the early twentieth century and then became abandoned for several years. In 2004 or 2005, a private individual purchased Grimesland Plantation and painstakingly renovated the plantation house, the barn, and the slave quarters to their original condition. Although Bryan Grimes Jr. played a very significant part in the Civil War and in North Carolina’s history, please keep in mind that Grimesland is privately owned. Out of respect for the owner’s privacy, it is advisable not to approach the property without prior permission.
According to a number of sources, there are believed to be two separate hauntings that may be associated with Grimesland Plantation.
The ghost of a young girl has been seen and photographed hiding behind a tree near the main plantation house. She appears to be five years old and seems to have a fun-loving, carefree demeanor. The little girl has light brown hair and wears a light-colored dress. Although her identity is not known, she could be the ghost of Zilpha Ann Grimes, daughter of Bryan Grimes Sr., who died in 1822 at three years of age. More likely, the ghost is that of a daughter of a visitor to Grimesland.
Another ghost that has been seen at Grimesland is that of a woman looking out a window on the main floor of the plantation house. This woman has been seen by individuals for nearly a century. It is believed that this apparition is the ghost of Bryan Grimes Jr.’s wife, Charlotte, who died in 1920 in Grimesland, North Carolina.
Harmony Hall Plantation
White Oak
Colonel James Richardson acquired a 12,000-acre plot of land near present-day White Oak, North Carolina, from King George II for his service in the French and Indian War. Although the actual date of this transfer of land is uncertain, there is documentation of Richardson’s ownership of the property prior to 1768. Richardson had specifically requested this particular area because he and his brother were once shipwrecked near Cape Hattaras, North Carolina, and spent several months repairing their ship before they could return to their home in Stonington, Connecticut.
Once Richardson acquired the property, he immediately began construction of a two-story gabled plantation house, which remained in the Richardson family until his grandson Edmund Richardson sold the property in 1865 and moved to Texas.
Documentation of ownership was lost for several years, but property records dating to 1874 indicate that a man by the name of Layton purchased Harmony Hall. The plantation stayed in the Layton family until 1962, when the property was donated by N. Arthur Layton to the Bladen County, North Carolina Historical Society as a memorial to the Layton family and Colonel Richardson. Layton also wanted to ensure that the plantation’s history would be preserved for generations to come.
Today, Harmony Hall has become a time capsule of sorts. In addition to the house, the property has a log cabin, chapel, two country stores, a corn crib, and several other period buildings that were transported from other parts of the state and restored as much as possible to their original condition.
In at least one of the buildings, the sound of two men in a heated discussion has been heard. The first reported occurrence of this took place in 1971 when a volunteer was cleaning a room late at night. Since then, there have been dozens of reports of the two men talking, as well as miscellaneous apparitions in various buildings on the campus. The apparitions include a young man in period clothing that is believed to be James Richardson.
Mordecai Plantation
Raleigh
When Joel Lane moved to this area in the 1760s, long before Raleigh had been established, he purchased 5,000 acres of land to start a plantation for his new family. He was very crucial in the development of this part of North Carolina, including the development of Wake County in 1770. Once Wake County had been established, he sold 1,000 acres of his plantation to help found the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1792.
Joel Lane realized that his oldest son, Henry, would one day inherit the plantation, so Joel built a large plantation house for Henry in 1785. Today, the Mordecai Plantation House is the oldest residence in Raleigh, North Carolina, still on its original foundation.
Not having a son, Henry Lane willed the plantation to his oldest daughter, Margaret. Margaret married Moses Mordecai Jr., and he took ownership of the property and renamed it Mordecai Plantation. One of the first things Moses did after taking over the plantation was to make additions to the original plantation house. In 1824, Mordecai hired state architect William Nichols to add four rooms, completely converting it into a Greek Revival mansion.
Moses Mordecai Jr. became a well-known lawyer in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area and was a member of the 1805 Court of Conference. After marrying Margaret, Moses focused less on his duties as a lawyer and more on his responsibilities as a planter. He also spent a considerable amount of time on his political career, and by doing so was eventually elected to the North Carolina State Legislature.
Moses and Margaret Mordecai had three children: Henry, Jacob, and Ellen. After Margaret died in 1824, Moses married her younger sister, Ann. Henry took control of Mordecai Plantation upon Moses’s death. Following in his father’s footsteps, Henry also became interested in politics and was elected to the North Carolina State Legislature.
Today, the Mordecai Square Historic Park is managed by the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department of the City of Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition to the Mordecai House, there are three other historical buildings that have been brought to and reconstructed at the three-acre park. These include the Allen Kitchen, Badger Iredell Law Office, and St. Mark’s Chapel.
Since before the property was opened to the public, there have been rumors of several ghosts that are connected with the Mordecai Plantation House. On Sy-Fy’s Ghost Hunters, TAPS featured Mordecai Plantation in episode five of the second season of the series.
Other than the Mordecai House, the most significant building at the park is the house where seventeenth president Andrew Johnson was born in 1808. The small wood structure was originally described as an outbuilding or detached kitchen that had been converted into a small living quarters. The house was not originally built near the Mordecai Plantation, but through a succession of four moves, the one-story building was finally placed at Mordecai Park in 1975.
The most active haunting at the Mordecai House is that of Mary Willis Mordecai, daughter of Henry Mordecai. Mary married William Turk on January 12, 1881, at the Mordecai House, where they raised two children. Mary died in 1937 of a brain hemorrhage. After her death, people began to believe that she haunted the plantation house.
According to most accounts, Mary’s apparition is seen in the drawing room wearing a light gray dress. The sound of a piano playing softly has been heard coming from the drawing room where Mary’s apparition is seen. A few notes of piano music have been recorded as an EVP by various paranormal investigators, but not to the point where a melody or song can be identified.
Smith-McDowell House
Asheville
A several-hundred-acre piece of property was given to Colonel Daniel Smith for his service during the Revolutionary War. Soon after settling on the property, Colonel Smith’s wife gave birth to their first son, James McConnell Smith, who was one of the first Caucasian children born west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. When his father died, James Smith took over the plantation. After taking control of the property, James became a wealthy planter and owned two plantations consisting of approximately 30,000 acres, a store, hotel, and mine.
In 1840, James Smith built a four-story Federal-style mansion as a wedding gift for his new wife, Mary Patton. Although not a plantation house in and of itself, James conducted a great deal of business concerning his two plantations from within the mansion. When his family wanted a break from plantation life, they often retreated to this mansion.
When James McConnell Smith died in 1856, his son John Patton Smith inherited the house and the rest of his father’s assets. When John died the next year, his sister Sarah Lucinda Smith McDowell and her husband, William Wallace, purchased the house and the 350 acres surrounding it for $10,000. From this point, the house became known as the Smith-McDowell House.
The Smith-McDowell House has become well known for the ghosts that are said to haunt it. The most prominent ghost connected with the Smith-McDowell House is known as “the Dark One” by local residents and paranormal investigators. Investigators and visitors to the Smith-McDowell House have taken several photographs of the Dark One. Generally, this ghost is encountered near the old cistern of the mansion. Sometimes a shadowy apparition can be seen, and on more than one occasion, an image of this shadowy form has been captured on film or digital cameras. Although rare, some people even have felt the sensation of being touched or pushed when the Dark One makes an appearance.
There have been EVPs recorded of a man calling out a name as if he were searching for somebody. Some believe that the Dark One is sentient and calls out the names of people trying to communicate with him. Most believe that the Dark One is the spirit of a slave owner looking for lost slaves but that he was not a member of the Smith or McDowell families.
Another more benevolent ghost is believed to be connected to the kitchen of the Smith-McDowell House. The sound of a woman singing has been heard from the empty kitchen at all hours of the day and night. The apparition of a woman believed to be that of Mrs. James McDowell Smith is sometimes seen in conjunction with the singing.
Although not connected to the singing woman or the Dark One, there have been reports of period music heard throughout the entire house. This is generally described as piano music with no known source. The music style resembles hymns or music that was popular in the years preceding the Civil War.
Stagville Plantation
Durham
Richard Bennehan was born in northern Virginia in 1743. When he was twenty years old, Bennehan moved to Petersburg, Virginia, to work as a merchant. Through hard work and dedication to detail, Bennehan became a well-sought-after merchant, and people would go out of their way to see him when they needed to buy supplies and other materials. In 1768 another merchant offered Bennehan a one-third partnership in a store located at a plantation in North Carolina.
Later that year, Richard Bennehan moved to North Carolina to manage the store at Snow Hill Plantation, which was located about eighteen miles from Hillsboro, North Carolina. For the next several years, Bennehan saved almost all of the money he raised and purchased 1,213 acres to establish his own plantation, which he called Bennehan Plantation. Although the actual date of construction is unknown, the two-story Georgian-style plantation house at Stagville Plantation is believed to have been built between 1787 and 1790. Through more purchases of surrounding properties, Richard Bennehan expanded his plantation to over 4,000 acres and 40 slaves by 1799.
In 1776, Richard Bennehan married Mary Amis and had two children, Rebecca and Thomas. Thomas was born in 1782 and took over the plantation when his father died in 1825. Thomas never married, but spent all of his time dedicated to the continuation of the Bennehan Plantation until his death in 1847.
Rebecca Bennehan, born in 1778, met and married Duncan Cameron, son of Reverend John Cameron, in 1803. In 1807, they moved to Stagville Plantation, which was still under the management of her brother, Thomas. After Duncan and Rebecca settled at Stagville, the Bennehan and Cameron families combined their wealth and property. Between four plantations, a mill, stores, and other land holdings from the two families, by 1860 the Bennehan and Cameron families owned over 30,000 acres and well over 900 slaves, which made it one of the largest plantation complexes of any of the Southern states.
Another building crucial to Stagville Plantation’s success is the Great Barn, which was built in 1860 by slave labor. The barn was built to store mules, horses, and farming equipment used to till the land and harvest the crops on the plantation. Slaves were known to have worked at the Great Barn at all hours of the day preparing the farm equipment and mules for the fields or putting the equipment up for the evening.
From 1851 to 1860, a series of slave cabins was built near the main Bennehan House at Stagville Plantation. Collectively, these slave cabins were known as Horton Grove and are different from all of the other slave quarters in North Carolina. First, the slave quarters were two-story structures unlike slave cabins on other plantations, which were all one-story buildings. Second, the slave quarters at Horton Grove were insulated, which provided better living conditions for the slaves. As Stagville Plantation grew, so did the slave community, eventually filling Horton Grove with slave quarters constructed by the slaves themselves, most of whom had no formal education or training in carpentry.
After the Civil War, Stagville Plantation was divided and sold a number of times until the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company acquired the plantation and much of the surrounding property. In 1976, the company donated the property to the state of North Carolina, which preserved many of the original buildings through a series of restorations. Today, Stagville Plantation is open to the public and allows visitors the opportunity to learn about the history of not only the Bennehan and Cameron families, but also what life was like on an antebellum plantation in North Carolina.
The slave quarters at Horton Grove appear to be the epicenter of the paranormal activity at Stagville Plantation, as there are at least two separate hauntings connected to the area.
The apparition of a teenage African American girl has been seen standing at the entrance of a slave cabin at Horton Grove. People who have seen this girl claim that rather than being oblivious of her surroundings, she tends to look directly at those who see her and even has taken a few steps toward them before disappearing. She has also been experienced on the second floor of the slave cabin.
Another ghost closely linked to the slave quarters may not be connected with the teenage girl. For years, people passing by the mansion and the slave quarters have claimed to have seen a small light in the upper window of both buildings. The candle-like light has been seen even when there was no electricity connected to the mansion.
Although the slave quarters are where most of the paranormal events take place, the Great Barn is also believed to be haunted. For decades, sightings have been reported of the ghost of a large adult African American man standing or sitting in the barn’s loft. People who have seen him describe him as being reclusive or frightened. It is possible that he was one of the slaves at Stagville Plantation or even a runaway slave.
Sometimes the alarm system of the Great Barn has been set off, even though nobody had been found trespassing. It has been said that on one occasion a police officer was called in to check for trespassers after an alarm at the Great Barn was triggered. When the officer went inside the Great Barn, he saw a large-built African American man. The police officer took a few steps toward the trespasser only to find him disappear in front of his eyes.
The Bennehan House also has its own share of ghostly activity, although most of what occurs inside is auditory in nature. Throughout the mansion, the sounds of footsteps and voices in conversation have been heard. Paranormal investigators have reported on various websites that they recorded EVPs of some of the voices. The mansion has also had an abundance of poltergeist activity. Furniture has been found rearranged overnight in many of the rooms, especially on the first floor of the house. Smaller items in the house have been misplaced, only to be discovered at a later time in their original locations. These events are sometimes accompanied by sudden drops in temperature of several degrees.