A trip to St. Helena Island is not complete without a stop at the Chapel of Ease. There’s lots of history at the peaceful little spot, and haunted Beaufort abounds at St. Helena Island’s Chapel of Ease.
A short way off of the main road, down Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd brings you to a seemingly hollowed out ancient church building on the left side of the road, after you’ve passed historic Penn Center.
During the Colonial period, chapels of ease were constructed by rice and cotton planters as houses of worship because their plantations were located so far from the churches. This one was built using tabby construction between 1742 and 1747 and served the island parishioners who were members of the Parish Church of St. Helena in downtown Beaufort.
Well attended in its formative years, it was once known as the White Church, as the combination of oyster shells and lime caused the structure to appear to glow white. Services ceased at the chapel after it was heavily damaged in a forest fire in 1886.
The church was virtually abandoned when the planters evacuated the island in the fall of 1861. During the Federal occupation of St. Helena, the church was used frequently by several of the Northerners who had come to the island to educate and train the freedmen. It was also used as a sanctuary by Methodist freedmen as early as 1868.
On November 4th, 1861, Sunday services were interrupted by a messenger who brought news of the impending invasion of nearby Beaufort by Union troops to a Captain William Oliver Perry Fripp. Fripp’s ancestors had been instrumented in the building and upkeep of the chapel, and Edgar Fripp and his wife Eliza were interred in a mausoleum built for them in the site’s graveyard.
The mausoleum was built by Charleston stone-cutter W.T. White, and remains on the property today still seeming to be in quite good condition. According to a diary written by Thomas B. Chaplin on April 13, 1852, “Said vault was a fine affair and did not have to wait very long for it’s occupants, Edgar & wife. The Yankees broke it open during the war hoping for treasure. It is now somewhat out of order.”
To this day, the vault remains out of order. The door of Fripp’s vault was ruined by the soldiers, and it was decided to brick up the entrance.
According to legend, workmen sealed the vault only to return the following day to find the bricks removed and neatly stacked beside the mausoleum. Convinced that the supernatural was the cause, the workers left the job remained unfinished.
Today the vault is empty, the door is still half-sealed by bricks, left just as it was the day that the workers left the job undone. The experience of looking into its empty space more than just a bit unsettling.
Hauntings at the chapel
Walking around and inside the ruins, you’ll find the atmosphere tranquil, heavy with humidity, a bit creepy and hushed with the passage of time.
Some visitors report hearing whispers, prayers and singing coming from the interior of the chapel. Others claim to have heard names being shouted in the silent burial ground and from the surrounding forest.
Some have also said to have witnessed a lady shrouded in white, walking among the tombstones with a child in her arms.
Perhaps the lady is the ghost Mrs. Sarah Scott. Her daughters both died at young ages and were buried in the graveyard at the chapel in 1833. Caroline Mary Scott, age 3 years and 10 months was buried there, and then her sister, Adaline Matilda Scott, passed away just three days later at the age of 5 years and 11 months.
Many feel it could be the ghost of their mother, who was in obvious despair at the loss of both of her little girls just three days apart.
It could also be the mother of the little girls buried next to them, Anna Catherine and Sarah Jenkins Pope, who both died as infants in 1851 and 1853.
Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, the Chapel of Ease is home to lots of history, and with the culture of our Sea Island s mingled with 500 years of history, who’s to say it’s not haunted?
Find out for yourself.
