Bellamy Bridge, Part Six

This is part six of a continuing series on the true story behind Jackson County's popular legend of the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge. To read the previous posts first, please scroll down the page.

The leap of the story of Samuel and Elizabeth Bellamy from real fact to legend began in 1853 when 19th century novelist Caroline Lee Hentz published an intriguing book titled Marcus Warland or the Long Moss Spring.

Although she would spend the last three years of her life in Florida and die at Marianna in 1856, Mrs. Hentz was actually a resident of Columbus, Georgia at the time she wrote the book. Because of her later association with Jackson County, many have assumed the "Long Moss Spring" of the book was a description of Blue Spring near Marianna. According to her "Address to the Reader," however, the book was actually set in and around Columbus.

One of the subplots of the book, however, was the wedding night death of a young slave named Cora:

…Turning away she threw herself into a large easy-chair in front of the fire, and in spite of the excited state of her feelings and the extreme want of sentiment evinced by the act, she fell asleep in her downy nest. She had been up almost all the preceding night, on her feet all day, and had been dancing with such extraordinary enthusiasm, that the soft cushion and gentle warmth of the room soothed her to instantaneous repose. How long she slept, she knew not. She was awakened by a sense of heat and suffocation, as if her lungs were turned to fire. Starting up she found herself encircled by a blaze of light that seemed to emanate from her own body. Her light dress was one sheet of flame, the chair she left was enveloped in the same destroying element.

The story bears an obvious similarity to the Bellamy Bridge ghost legend: A young bride's gown comes into contact with an open fire on her wedding night, leading to tragic results.

The connection becomes quite clear when one notices the name given by Mrs. Hentz to the mistress of the plantation where the fire took place. The character was named, as you probably have guessed by now, "Mrs. Bellamy." The story, in fact, reads almost like a recitation of the Bellamy Bridge story:

“Mercy! Mercy!” she shrieked. “Oh! Mistress, save me, save me.” Rushing through the hall and down the stairs, the flames flashing more wildly round her, she still screamed, “Mistress, save me!” Mrs. Bellamy, who was in the room below, heard the sudden terrible cry of human suffering, and flew to relieve it. When she beheld the blazing figure leaping towards the open door, and recognized the voice of Cora, shrill and piercing as it now was, regardless of self, she sprang after her, and seizing her with frenzied grasp, tried to crush the flames with her slender fingers, and smother them against her own body. While she was thus heroically endeavoring to save the beautiful mulatto at the risk of her own life, Hannibal, who had dragged the carpet from the hall, wrapped it closely around the form of her he so madly loved….

Hannibal was a male slave on the "Bellamy" plantation that the fictional Cora had passed over in favor of another man, King.

When our series continues, we will look at how Caroline Lee Hentz's fictional story became part of the Bellamy Bridge ghost legend. In the meantime, you can read more by visiting: www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bellamybridge. The complete story is also included in my book, Two Egg, Florida: A Collection of Ghost Stories, Legends and Unusual Facts, available now through www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.com or for order through most bookstores. It is also available at Chipola River Book and Tea in downtown Marianna.

Bellamy Bridge, Part Five

This is part five of a continuing series on Florida's ghost of Bellamy Bridge legend. To read the other posts first, please scroll down the page.

This faded photograph shows the old Bellamy Mansion in Marianna. This was the home that Dr. Samuel Bellamy supposedly built for his young bridge, Elizabeth. According to legend he refused to live in the house following her death and it remained silent for many years.

In truth, the house was not built until after Elizabeth died. Samuel, as legend holds, did go through a period of mourning and turned to alcohol in his despair, but his productive life did not end with the death of his young wife. He served as a delegate from Jackson County at the 1838 Florida Constitutional Convention in St. Joseph and was an officer with the Union Bank.

Bank records indicate that he borrowed the money to build the magnificent home nine months after Elizabeth's death. It was one of the largest homes in Northwest Florida and was built at a time when land speculation was booming in Florida and the Union Bank was extending loans worth much more than the security pledged by the borrowers.

The bubble burst during the early 1840s and Samuel Bellamy, like many other investors, lost his fortune. Scrambling to try to save what he could, he made a questionable deal with his brother. Edward took over all of Samuel's property, including Rock Cave Plantation, to shelter it from seizure in legal actions. This eventually led to a dispute between the two brothers that went all the way to the Florida Supreme Court.

Samuel's life rapidly deteriorated. He suffered from depression and battled alcoholism for the rest of his days. In 1853, he committed suicide by slashing his own throat with a razor at Chattahoochee Landing.

When our series continues, we will explore how the tragic true stories of Samuel and Elizabeth Bellamy evolved into one of Florida's best known ghost stories.

Bellamy Bridge, Part Four

This is part four of a series on the true story behind the legend of the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge, Florida. To read the previous posts first, please scroll down the page.

This photograph was taken on the Baker Creek Road northwest of Marianna on land that was once the Rock Cave plantation of Samuel and Elizabeth Bellamy. The groves of planted pines in the distance were once fields of cotton and sugar cane.

The couple's early life in Florida was very promising. The plantation quickly emerged as one of the most successful in Jackson County and Dr. Bellamy was readily accepted into Jackson County's social and political life. In late 1835, Elizabeth gave birth to a baby boy. The couple named him Alexander, in honor of Samuel's ancestors.

The rich bottomlands along Baker Creek and the Chipola River were ideal for growing and cotton and sugar cane. Tragically, though, they were also breeding grounds for clouds of mosquitos during the 1830s. These mosquitos carried a variety of fevers and diseases, including malaria. On December 6, 1836, Hardy Bryan Croom (a noted scientist and Elizabeth's half-brother) wrote in a letter to family that Samuel, Elizabeth and baby Alexander were all sick with malaria.

Often called the "remitting fever," because patients would appear to recover, only to suddenly relapse and die, malaria was one of the most common causes of death in antebellum Florida. Samuel eventually recovered from the fever, but Elizabeth and the baby did not. Elizabeth Bellamy died at Rock Cave Plantation on May 11, 1837. She was not the victim of a tragic wedding night fire, but of a deadly fever. Baby Alexander died one week later. He was only 18 months old.

Devestated by grief, Samuel buried his wife and son on the plantation of his brother, Dr. Edward C. Bellamy, near today's Bellamy Bridge. There the graves would be tended by Elizabeth's sister, Ann, and Samuel could visit as often as he liked. He briefly considered moving Elizabeth back to a family burial ground in North Carolina, but appears to have abandoned the idea as time passed.

It might appear, based these facts, that the legend of the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge is nothing more than a tall tale, made up long ago to explain a lonely tombstone near the Chipola River. But if so, where did the unusual tale of a tragic wedding night fire originate?

In fact, the story of Samuel and Elizabeth Bellamy was just beginning. Over the next twenty years a fascinating series of events would lead to the rise of the legend. Our look at the story behind the Bellamy Bridge ghost legend will continue in the next post. In the meantime, you can read more by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bellamybridge.

The entire story can also be found in my book, Two Egg, Florida: A Collection of Ghost Stories, Legends and Unusual Facts. The book is available at Chipola River Book and Tea on Lafayette Street in Marianna (on the same block as the Gazebo Restaurant) or for order by clicking here.

Bellamy Bridge, Part Three

This is part three of a series on the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge. If you would like to read the previous posts first, just scroll down the page!

A short time after their 1834 wedding, Samuel and Elizabeth joined with Edward and Ann in beginning a long trek to the Chipola country of Florida. The Crooms were already established in the new Territory and the two new Bellamy families were joining them. According to documents later filed before Florida's Supreme Court, they left North Carolina with everything needed to start new plantations in Jackson County: supplies, overseers, livestock and dozens of slaves.

Dr. Edward Bellamy had purchased the Fort Plantation, a farm carved from the wilderness the previous decade in the rich Chipola River valley at the site of today's Bellamy Bridge. This is the area of Jackson County still known as the "Bellamy Plantation," but it was the farm of Edward and Ann Bellamy.

Dr. Samuel Bellamy and his new wife, Elizabeth, actually acquired their land at a place called "Rock Cave" on the opposite side of the Chipola and closer to the new city of Marianna. Samuel and Elizabth's Rock Cave Plantation was in the Baker Creek settlement, named for a small stream (seen here) that rises northeast of Cottondale and flows north and east, eventually joining with other creeks and flowing into the Chipola River upstream from Marianna.

Although legend holds that Samuel built the magnificent new mansion in Marianna for Elizabeth, they actually lived out at Rock Cave. Through backbreaking labor, his gangs of enslaved laborers cleared fields and built a large home for the couple, along with all of the other necessary buildings of the plantation. It soon became one of the most successful plantations in Jackson County and was the source for the first bargeload of Sea Island cotton to navigate the Chipola River and safely reach Apalachicola.

Our series on the true story behind the legend of the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge will continue. In the meantime if you would like to read more, just follow this link to visit my Bellamy Bridge site.