Cumberland Island, Georgia a National Seashore

Ghost Accounts For Cumberland Island:

--Servant House
In one of the old servant houses about 1/2 mile form Dungeness, an apparation of a woman in a red 'flapper' dress has been witnessed. This was by a man who was working with Patrick and living in the house at the time.

--Apparition in Carriage House
In March of 1979, Joe Peacock saw a woman in white in one of the windows on the second floor of the carriage house. This is a two story, hundred-plus-foot long building with a steeply pitched cedar shingle roof. It is constructed of tabby concrete, a crushed oyster shell mixture with sand and lime common to the ocean front homes of South Georgia and Florida. There are dormer windows that line the roof. He knew that no one had been in that area all morning, so when he saw the white face of a woman with long dark hair peering out of the window, he was amazed and shocked. He knew no one ever went up there. The area was used as storage for saddles, bridles and other riding gear that had become outdated. Now the first floor of the carriage house was home to tractors, saws, trailers and other equipment necessary to maintain the island’s paths and keep the landscaping in shape. He was bothered that he couldn’t make out her features or identify who she was because there weren’t many strangers on the island that day.
He stated that her eyes looked like dark holes in her face and that was when he realized he was looking at a ghost. It was because of these huge black holes he was not able to identify who it might be. He spotted her on four different occasions, and each time she appeared a little changed.
Once she was walking past the windows one by one, and he waited and watched for her appearance at the next window. She glanced out of it for only a few seconds and then moved on to the next as a heavy, white, cloudy form that seemed to be blown out of shape by some breeze.
Two other times she seemed to be peering out at something and just stood at the window for along while without moving before she simply faded away. The forth time he had been looking for her for several days wondering if she might make an appearance. On one afternoon she seemed to be watching him, too; only this time she appeared to be floating up to the full height of the window. When he walked on, she moved to the next window as if she were following him. It gave him shivers up his spine, and he couldn’t get her vision out of his head for weeks, he confessed. He imagined her to be rather tall because her head reached the top of the window, exposing her long, wavy white flowing dress. He wondered who she had been and asked many of the residents over the years, but her identity remains a mystery.
Joe was very cautious whom he told about the vision because he didn’t want anyone to think he was crazy. But after he confided in several of the other staff members about his sighting of the woman, they confessed that they had seen her also. Evidently, she has been seen by quite a few other people.
No one ever goes up to the second floor of the carriage house anymore. It’s an attic where old carriages, harnesses and other paraphernalia associated with the horses are stored; some items date back to the 1890s. The door is always kept locked.
---Polo Player:
Sheila Willis is a naturalist and ornithologist who worked on Cumberland. She conducted bird watching tours. Anyway, she would stay overnight in the staff quarters when working, as many employees did and as still do. One evening, she was sitting in the living room with two other employees who were spending the night. She glanced up and saw a man dressed in polo clothes and high riding boots descending the stairs from the 2nd floor. He came down and walked out the front door. He said nothing and did not acknowledge even a good-bye. She, having not recognized him, asked the other two people who he was? They did not know who she was talking about and said they were the only three staying there that night. She described the man to them. One proceeded to tell her about the ghost of a polo player. He broke his neck during a polo game on the island and died. There have been sightings of a polo player galloping on his polo pony in front of Dungeness.
--Red Light:
Sheila also relates an account of one night having been awoken by a terrific thunderstorm. She got up and looked out the bedroom window. A short distance away from the staff quarters, she saw a bright red light. When asking about the light, there were on explanations for it.
--Plum Orchard:
Plum Orchard has a ghost. The dumbwaiters rise from the kitchen to the upstairs. They will stop several times and go back down just to repeat the process all over again. This occurs in the dead of night when no one is up operating anything in the mansion.

--Stafford Cemetery:
Stafford Cemetery has a lady in a red dress. This was interesting. The old caretaker relates his sightings of a lady in a red dress. She was standing at the cemetery gate and very upset. He approached her to see what she was doing and if he could help. She grasped onto his arm and pleaded with him to take her to the other cemetery. She stated, "I'm buried in the wrong graveyard, sir." He asked her name but she never told him. He did seem to know that she was one of the "ladies of the evening" that the Carnegies used to boat over. For some reason she died while on the island and was buried there much to her distress. The caretaker related how freezing cold her hand was when she took his arm. He has seen this apparition more than once.

Dungeness is built on an Indian Burial Ground. When Dungeness was originally built by the widow of General Nathaniel Green. Green died before the mansion was completed. It was not originally called Dungeness but simply the Green Mansion. It was named Dungeness by Carnegie who rebuilt the burned mansion in essentially the same manner as its original form.
There is another story of a wagon that turned over and the people died. This is sketchy, and I am still looking into it. Have to go back to the Historical Library.