About this episode
Join host Kristin as The Grim unlatches the wrought-iron gate of All Saints' Church Cemetery on Pawleys Island, South Carolina — a romantic gothic acre draped in Spanish moss where Southern antebellum charm meets some of the most enduring ghost stories in the American South.Founded in 1739, All Saints Parish holds a central place in the history of Georgetown County. The church that stands today was rebuilt in 1917 using bricks salvaged from the Waverly Plantation rice mill, its grounds consecrated in the 1820s and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Beneath its moss-canopied oaks rest some of the Lowcountry's most storied names. Thomas George Pawley, the island's namesake, gifted the very land on which the church was built. Benjamin Huger, who as a child of eight watched Lafayette step onto American soil, grew into a congressman and host of presidents. Plowden C.J. Weston, one of the wealthiest men in the antebellum South, opposed secession yet followed Carolina into war and died before completing his term as Lieutenant Governor. Poet and novelist James Dickey, whose novel Deliverance burned his name into American memory, rests here alongside Governor Carroll Campbell Jr., who guided South Carolina through Hurricane Hugo's devastation in 1989.But the dead at All Saints do not rest quietly. A hand-painted sign at the cemetery entrance reads "The Holy Ghost is the only Ghost we welcome here" — a warning that feels less like comfort and more like confirmation. The most famous spirit is Alice, a seventeen-year-old girl whose brother tore a simple gold ring from her neck and hurled it into the marsh when he discovered her secret love for a young lumberman he considered beneath the family name. Alice died of yellow fever soon after, her last words a plea for the ring she had lost. Visitors today report feeling a tug on their own wedding bands as they circle her grave, and her pale figure is said to drift through her brother's nearby home, the Hermitage, searching still for what was taken.Beyond the cemetery gates, the barrier island itself carries its own spectral legend. The Gray Man, a cloaked figure of unknown identity, has walked the beach before every major hurricane to strike the South Carolina coast. Those who see him and heed his warning are said to return after the storm to find their homes standing untouched amid the surrounding ruin — a ghost who haunts not to frighten, but to protect.All Saints' Cemetery is a place The Grim considers among the most beautiful it has opened its gates to — a stage of Southern gothic grace where history, tragedy, and the supernatural gather beneath the same canopy of moss.Support the showSupport The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopesFind All of The Grim's Social Links At:https://www.the-grim.com/socialmed
