Ghost Tree at Comingtee Plantation, c. 1900
5″ X 7″ photograph of a large moss-draped oak tree in a field near a split rail fence at Comingtee Plantation in Berkeley County, SC. From list found with the glass negatives: “18 Coming Tee Robination Tree -- a Ghost Tree.” Excerpt from Institute for Southern Studies, Vol. 12, Win. 1965: “While on Comingtee names, there is the usual Ball ghost here, this one with the unusual name of the ‘Robination Tree.’ It is a tree which the [African Americans] claim to be haunted and upon which they bestowed the name, but why ‘Robination’ no one seems to know. . .” An additional part of the legend is that there is an Indian chief buried at the foot of the tree. As long as the tree remains untouched, no serious harm would befall whoever lived on the property.
Image from Charleston Museum Plantation Photographs collection, held by The Charleston Museum.