'Goose Creek Ghosts and Ghouls' stories told by Mike Heitzler

Goose Creek historian and former mayor, Mike Heitzler gives a presentation about Goose Creek area ghost stories Thursday, Oct. 25 at Summerville’s Old Town Hall.

Goose Creek historian and former mayor, Mike Heitzler said he never cared much for ghost stories; they bored him, but in recent years he began to wonder if the ghost stories that have been around for centuries actually have hidden meanings or a purpose beyond the story itself.

“That’s why these stories have perpetuated and existed for hundreds of years,” Heitzler said to a group gathered at the Summerville Preservation Society’s Old Town Hall on Thursday.

“And by golly; I think I discovered some of them,” Heitzler said. “That’s what we’re going to talk about tonight—the real meaning.”

His talk on “Goose Creek Ghosts and Ghouls” included five topics: Horrifying Goose Creek, The Specter of Mary Hyme, A Morbid Tale, The Trillium Angel and The Summerville Light.

“People say, ‘Mike, you must love history.’” Heitzler said. “I don’t love history. I love Goose Creek; I love Summerville; I love Moncks Corner.”

Many people know him as the longtime mayor of Goose Creek, but Heitzler was also a school teacher and principal in Berkeley County public schools. His passion for history and storytelling lead him to write several books about local history. He’s currently penning a book for every historical marker in Goose Creek.

Heitzler started his talk by laying a historical foundation of the Goose Creek area and described how planters from Barbados known as “the Goose Creek men,” settled in the city during the 1600s.

“Most families in frontier Goose Creek hail from Barbados,” he said. “It was the most horrifying society in the English speaking world.”

Heitzler said the Goose Creek men imported a repugnant slave-based society. He said they went through tens of thousands of Irish slaves and “treated them like dogs.”

He said those early years of brutality and suffering may have “implanted a frightful culture that haunts Goose Creek today.”

Heitzler shocked a few in attendance by revealing that some of the nation’s founders were deists. The fact was a key part of one ghost story he told about a young teacher being haunted after she read a book about deism-belief in a God who does not intervene in the universe.

“They believe in a God that’s part of nature and if you study nature you can learn about God,” Heitzler said

He said many people think Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, among others, were deists.

His next story made most people in the room cringe. According to local legend a young man met a beautiful woman outside of a church in Goose Creek. He began visiting her there every day until the two fell in love. He professed his love for her but she replied “no love of man can withstand time.” She then lured him toward her family’s crypt near the church building where he passed out in front of the vault.

“I don’t buy all of that,” Heitzler said. “But why was that story so important?”

Heitzler said that in real life there was a woman named Edith Coleman who was buried in that vault where the the young man was said to have passed out.

“They discovered that this lady had been buried prematurely,” Heitzler said.

There was a little boy who kept keys to the church and he kept telling people that he heard screams coming out of the vault after Coleman had been buried in her family’s crypt.

“Nobody believed him,” Heitzler said. “But when they finally opened it up, she had scratched her way out of the coffin but could not get out of the vault. And she died there in all that agony.”

Heitzler said in the 1800s there was a terrible fear of malaria because it would put people in a deep coma that made it appear as if someone had died.

Heitzler said people came to Summerville thinking the sandy soil would mean fewer mosquitoes, minimizing the risk of getting malaria. He suspects the ghost story stuck because fear of malaria and premature burial was so common.

Heitzler said what fascinated almost more than the ghost stories themselves is their ability to spread and be accepted as truth. Heitzler admitted that once he even made up a ghost story just to study how it would be perceived.

To his surprise, it wasn’t long before some “very credible people” started confirming that they saw the ghost Heitzler had described—the one that unbeknownst to them—Heitzler had actually made up.

“Isn’t it something how stories kind of take on legs of their own,” Heitzler said.

Lastly Heitzler shared a ghost story connected to a gory and tragic railroad accident that took place near present day Carnes Crossroads. In 1928 lumber mill workers would ride a train out to the forests, harvest the tall pine trees by day and return to their homes in the evening. On one early morning in January the train sped off despite the heavy fog that prevented the engineer from seeing clearly into the distance. The train collided with empty train cars on the track. According to a decades-old tape recorded interview with the engineer, two men who worked for the saw mill were killed. One was decapitated.

Ever since the deadly accident people have reported seeing a “Summerville light” near where the accident occurred. Heitzler said the legend is that one of the men who was killed, Laurence Smith, had a wife who would meet him every evening when the train returned. She used to carry a lantern to guide the two of them home.

People say there’s a “greenish glow” about the size of a basketball that hovers over the roads in the darkness and they believe it’s her ghost still seeking her husband.

“Trauma causes people to create some sort of a story,” Heitzler said. “A ghost story, a nursery rhyme, a fable or something that you can tell the story over and over again to help you assuage your feelings,” Heitzler said.

Heitzler wrapped up his presentation by encouraging attendees to do some research of their own.

“You all have ghost stories here in Summerville,” Heitzler said. What is the history behind your ghost stories? Why have those stories been around for hundreds of years? What service is it providing? What feelings? What therapy does it give your community? I challenge you to find that.”