I recently went on a nighttime tour of downtown Augusta,
Georgia on the HistoricTrolley Tour of Augusta. Well,
actually my barbershop quartet performed on the tour, but we were also treated
to the sights and accompanying history of the city.
We learned about the Great Fire of Augusta in 1916, which
burned most of the downtown district.
We also got to know about the "Resurrection Man" of Augusta
and why there is a mass grave in the Cedar Grove Cemetery which contains the
bones of approximately 600 of his post-mortem victims,. And we visited the
statue of one of Augusta's favorite sons, singer James Brown, who was born and
raised here in less-than-favorable conditions..
One of the stops along our tour route was the boyhood home
of our 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, which shares the claim to his childhood
with Columbia, SC, some 70 miles distant.
Actually, Wilson (1856-1924) was born in Staunton, VA and his family moved
to Augusta in 1860 and then on to Columbia in 1871, so all three cities have
title to 'his boyhood home' claims.
One of the highlights of the tour is the Haunted Pillar that stands at 5th and Broad Streets. I'm not going to attempt to write a complete (?) history of
the pillar, but the link above is there if you care to read it. Alternately, you can just read the sign
pictured below, which marks where the Lower Market once stood.
The story we heard from our tour guide, Michael, is that a
preacher, also known in those days as an "exhorter", came to Augusta
and stood in the marketplace to spread the gospel. His unrepentant audience got
quite annoyed and they soon surrounded him and backed him up against one of the
support pillars for the building. The preacher leaned on the pillar and put his
curse on it,. He also is said to have predicted that, "...a great wind
will come and destroy this structure and the only thing left standing will be
this pillar."
Well, according to legend, the "great wind" didn't
arrive until several years later. In 1878, a tornado, then called a cyclone,
came tearing into Augusta from the west. It cut a zigzag swath through the city
and eventually came to the Lower Market, where it proceeded to tear asunder the
whole building with the exception of the pillar where that preacher had
proclaimed the curse.
The pillar was moved from its location in the center of the
square to the corner where it now stands, but it is said that those who moved,
or even tried to move or tear it down in subsequent years met with fatal
accidents including being struck by lightning, auto accidents and even a bull
dozer falling off its trailer and crushing the offending would-be mover.
Even today there are those who believe that the pillar is
still haunted and anyone going near it is cautioned not to touch it. While our tour group was there, someone
shouted from across the street, "Don't touch it!" It really is fascinating.
If you want to read a more complete history just click on
the link above, but you can also learn about it on The Weather Channel. Tomorrow night, Sunday, November 23, there
will be an entire segment on the Haunted Pillar of Augusta at 10 PM on American
Super/Natural. Either tune in, or
record it for future viewing, but I know you'll enjoy it.
If you ever come to Augusta, be sure to book one of the
Trolley Tours as part of your visit.
There are several theme tours, but most of them involve the strange
places and events that shaped the early history of the city. Even the natives of Augusta should take at
least one tour to learn all of the interesting facts and legends about the
second oldest city in Georgia.
Just for the record, I did touch the Haunted Pillar and even
had my picture taken there with the quartet and the tour narrator, but I'm
still here, maybe because I didn't try to move it. And by the way, even if you are a non-believer, you can still see
spirits near the Haunted Pillar. I was there and I swear that I saw some.
