A ‘Lady in White,’ murder, mystery lights: Here are ghost stories of the Grand Strand
What do Halloween season and the Grand Strand have in common?
Plenty of urban legends and ghost stories that may give you goosebumps and send your mind wondering about the historical tales of Horry and Georgetown counties. Here are glimpses at a few of the area stories that have been told for decades:
The Bigham family of old Marion County, now known as the Florence area, was associated with many murder trials in the early 1900s, and it wasn’t just any murder trials — it was trials accusing the family members of killing their own kin.
Ruth Bigham, the wife of Cleveland Bigham, is said to haunt the Murrells Inlet area, known at the time of her death as Sunnyside, an area near the creek just off the main drag.
In her white dress, she was on a daily walk and her husband and his friend William Avant were boating offshore. The story holds that Cleveland Bigham convinced Avant that Ruth was a ghost and that Avant should shoot her. Avant allegedly pulled the trigger and killed Ruth.
Another woman with a Murrells Inlet connection is Alice Flagg, the bride in search of her engagement ring. Known to many to be buried at All Saints Church in Pawleys Island, Flagg is actually buried at the Hermitage in Murrells Inlet, a summer home of rice planter and Methodist minister James Belin, who later gave the property to Flagg’s father, Dr. Allard Belin Flagg II, according to S.C. Picture Project.
Flagg, also known as “The Lady in White,” was an upper-class young girl who had a lower-class boyfriend, which her brother did not approve of, so he demanded she end the relationship. Flagg went against her brother’s will, becoming engaged and wearing the ring on a necklace. While at boarding school in Charleston, Flagg became sick and was brought to the Hermitage. Her brother discovered the necklace, ripped it off and threw it into the creek, legend tells.
She begged and begged for the ring, but her brother never gave it back before she died. Now she is said to haunt the grounds of the Hermitage.
The decades-old legend of the Lucas Bay Lights is an Horry County tale about lights that can be seen on Gilbert Road from a Civil War-era mother searching for her infant, who was lost in the flood.
Though there are many versions of the story, one thing is for certain — the area is very dark.
A lucky charm if you see him ahead of a hurricane, the Gray Man is known to linger along Pawleys Island-area beaches before a storm heads toward the area. If spotted, the Gray Man is known to protect your property from the storm.
Stories of who the Gray Man was when he was alive have a few different origins, including one theory that he was a victim of the Storm of Sept. 27, 1822, which made landfall near Charleston when he was trying to get home to his family.
This story was originally published October 3, 2019 at 1:15 PM.
