Haunted Wedge Plantation

Haunted Wedge Plantation
Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective
Sacramento Paranormal Investigations
Halo Paranormal Investigations

When I was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina in 1974, a soldier I socialized with was Private Mason Drogan. Drogan was from South Carolina, and he was the former groundskeeper for the famous Wedge Plantation. The Wedge Plantation is a peaceful haunting. The spirits at this plantation seem to be benevolent. Before I discuss the haunting activities of this plantation, let’s talk about the history.

William Lucas a rice planter, built the house in 1826. Lucas father was Jonathan Lucas. Jonathan was the inventor of the rice-pounding mill. The mill remained in the Lucas family for over a hundred years. The plantation focused on processing rice up to 1914. The plantation had several owners. The plantation was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Elbridge Chadwich in 1929. In 1948, Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Woodward purchased it for a winter home.

According to Private Drogan he would be working on the grounds of the mansion and hear the sounds of the rice-pounding mill starting up. There was no rice-pounding mill on the grounds to make that noise. Another time Private Drogan was working on the pipes in the crawlspace of this mansion. As he was crawling around, he looked up and saw a male ghost staring at him. Private Drogan backed out of there quickly and the ghost just smiled and faded away.

Dr. and Mrs. Richard B. Dominick owned the Wedge Plantation from 1966 to 1976. During the ten-years of his life there, Dominick collected over 25,000 moths and 1,000 butterflies on the plantation. The Richard B. Dominick Moth and Butterfly Collection resides at the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum in Columbia, South Carolina. Richard Dominick established the Wedge Entomological Research Foundation for the publication of the Moths of North America North of Mexico. Richard Dominick died at The Wedge in May 1976. His estate owned the property for another six years.

In 1984, a local that was invited to the mansion entered one of the rooms and for a brief couple of minutes saw moths flying all around. This local believes that this sighting of moths has to do with the deceased moth collector Richard Dominick. The local is a friend and former co-worker of Drogan. Drogan also says that he once saw the apparitions of Mr. & Mrs. Elbridge Chadwich walking the hallways. Drogan also believes that Jonathan Lucas haunts the grounds of the mansion and is behind the sounds of a rice-pounding mill. Special Note: In 1974, I drove by the mansion. I did not go inside, but was just curious on what the mansion looked like in real life.