Alice of the Hermitage

Author: Harry Caldwell

Alice Flagg’s alleged grave marker

Since the 1950’s there have been tales of a young woman named Alice Flagg searching a hermitage for her lost engagement ring. The strange this is that Alice Flagg died in 1949. The Hermitage, located in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, does not seem like a place a ghost would be found. It is a quiet peaceful place where Alice spent her early years life living with her wealthy older brother and mother. There is simply nothing haunting about the home where Alice grew up, or so it seems.

Alice’s family expected her to fall in love and marry a wealthy man equal to her status. They did not know she had already fallen in love with a poor lumberman and recently became engaged to him. When her brother found out, he was overly vexed. Alice was sent off to boarding school, but soon after she fell extremely ill. When she returned home, she was bedridden, but her brother noticed the ring hanging around her neck. As Virginia Lamkin explains in her article called  “The Hermitage's Alice Flagg” , the ring was tossed into the nearby marsh never to be seen again. Shortly after Alice died. Some people may say she died of her sickness known as malaria, but many also think she died from heartbreak. Alice was buried on the plantation because a decision could not be made on where to bury her. She was buried in a glass casket wearing her favorite white dress that she wore when she met her lover.

Shortly after her death, a woman and her son came to visit the Flagg family. During their stay, the boy asked his mother who the pretty girl in the white dress was in his room. A resident overheard the boy and his mother, and she recognized  the girl he described as Alice Flagg. A couple weeks pass, and Alice appears in the garden to a family.

Alice has been appearing to people over the past sixty five years. Sometimes she is seen wandering through the garden in the light of the moon, presumably looking for her lost engagement ring, and other times she is seen sitting on the windowsill of her old room. People to this day are intrigued by the beauty, kindness, and grace of this ghost when she appears at the hermitage she cared so much for. Like many ghost stories, the story of Alice Flagg is rooted by heartbreak and forbidden love.

Works Cited:

Lamkin, Virginia. “The Hermitage's Alice Flagg.” Seeks Ghosts, 1 Jan. 1970, seeksghosts.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-hermitages-alice-flagg.html.

Roberts, Nancy & Roberts, Bruce. “Ghosts of the Carolinas.” Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2013. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/850529.

For even more information than this article provides visit:

 Roberts, Nancy. “South Carolina Ghosts: From the Coast to the Mountains.” Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2013. Project MUSE. https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/850541. This essay by Nancy Roberts explains a time when she and her husband went to the hermitage in search of Alice Flagg’s grave.

“The Hermitage - Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.” South Carolina Picture Project, www.scpictureproject.org/georgetown-county/the-hermitage.html. This essay, written by an unknown author, describes the story of Alice Flagg as a folklore and historical legend.

Evelyn, Jamilah. “This Ghost Story Has a Certain Ring.” Community College Week, vol. 15, no. 24, June 1998, p. 18. EBSCOhost, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=786675&site=ehost-live&scope=site. This essay, written by Jamilah Evelyn, is written as documentation of a ghost story. Evelyn wrote this story to inform readers about the supernatural encounter she had with the ghost of Alice Flagg.

Alice Flagg of the Hermitage

Faith Cayruth

Alice’s Grave

Ghost stories can sometimes be grueling and creepy; they can give you nightmares even. Very rarely do you hear of any ghost stories that don’t have some horrifying story to go along with it. Alice of the Hermitage’s ghost is one of the exceptions. This story is about a sad, young teenaged girl who was in love with someone whose social class wouldn’t allow her to be with. She doesn’t haunt just because she wants to scare people, she haunts the earth in search of her beloved engagement ring.

Alice lived with her mother and brother in Murrells Inlet in South Carolina near the coast. She lived in a house that still stands today called The Hermitage  , which was built by her brother. Alice came from a family of wealthy doctors, so understandably when she fell for a lumberman who was beneath her wealth status, it was frowned upon. Alice paid it no mind, she loved him regardless of his economic status and ended up accepting an engagement ring from him. When her older brother and mother caught wind of this, they forbade it and told her to take off her ring. She did as they asked but in turn, she concealed the ring by tying it to a ribbon around her neck and hiding it underneath her shirt. Eventually, she had more disagreements with her mother and brother about her fiancé, which resulted in Alice agreeing to be sent off to boarding school in Charleston. While she was there she got “love-sick” and fell ill and weak to the point of borderline immobility. Her brother ended up having to take a 4-day carriage ride to go pick her up. The long ride didn’t help her already declining condition at all and it caused her to fall even more ill by the time they reached Murrell’s Inlet. While bed-ridden and weak, she had no energy to continue concealing her ribbon tied ring and it accidentally slipped out in her brother’s presence. He saw it and angrily threw her ring into a nearby marsh. After several attempts of asking guests to find her ring, no one ever attempted to search for it. About a week of being bedridden in her home in Murrells Inlet, she fell into a coma and she ended up passing away before she could search for her ring.

Now, she roams the earth in search of her ring because it was the only thing she had from her beloved since her family forbade their relationship. There are rituals performed by walking circles around her grave backwards thirteen times at night and then leaving a ring on her grave. Legend says that doing so will make Alice appear. There are other rituals performed, some that have reported granted your wishes or made a ring suddenly fly off of a visitor’s finger. People often visit her grave and leave different things from coins, jewelry, and flowers. Alice is just a mere, teenaged ghost who died of a broken heart and only longs for her dear ring.

Works Cited:

Segars, Bill. Sciway.net 2006. http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/wp-content/uploads/alice-marker.jpg. Accessed 10 Oct. 2016.

“The Hermitage.” Sciway.net. Sciway LLC. http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/georgetown-county/the-hermitage.html. Accessed 10 Oct. 2016.

“The Legend of Alice Flagg.” Angel Fire. http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/mytrip/alice.html. Accessed 10 Oct. 2016.

“Ghost of Alice Flagg.” Hauntedstories.net. https://hauntedstories.net/ghost-stories/south-carolina/ghost-alice-flagg. Accessed 10 Oct. 2016.

Links for even more leads than this article provides visit:

The Ghost of Alice Flagg, Scary EPVs and Videos and Pictures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9qSY6ODMCs

In this video, YouTube user Joey Blackrose is at the cemetery where Alice is buried and is taking a video of what he is experiencing, as well as EVPs of him trying to communicate with her spirit.

Honeymoon from Hell

http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/honeymoon-from-hell?cdn_provider=auto

In this movie, a young couple honeymoons to low country South Carolina but they end up getting stuck due to a hurricane and get haunted by the alleged ghost of Alice Flagg.

Ghosts of South Carolina: Two Stories of Lost Love and Tragic Death

http://archive.independentmail.com/features/ghosts-of-south-carolina-two-stories-of-lost-love-and-tragic-death-ep-412898299-349166541.html

This webpage tells anyone who is interested how to find Alice’s gravesite, the Hermitage and other historical sites in the area.