Supposedly frozen in place due to spiritual possession this old hand-truck at the Allen Brothers Milling Company has stirred up a mystery no one can explain... Bill Allen> Well, I think it's just from the rumor here and noises and whatnot in the warehouse.

There have been times we've heard footsteps from the ghost of Jerome Busbee.

And the story is that they found this cart here in the mill, and it could not be moved.

And it's just a legend to this very day.

One of Columbia, South Carolina's most iconic landmarks is a rather conspicuous set of white towers in the heart of downtown Columbia's Vista district.

These reinforced concrete towers house the Allen Brothers Milling Company's massive grain elevators.

Despite the Adluh Milling Company being bought out by the Allen Brothers Milling Company in 1926, Allen Brothers decided to retain the Adluh name, which can still be seen on its buildings today.

But the old Adluh name is not the only thing from the company's past that has managed to stick around... Like some of South Carolina's other historic structures, these buildings are the home of a local ghost story: a haunted hand-truck possessed by the spirit of a former employee!

I'm your host, Andrew Davis.

This edition of Curiosity Trek!

will be right here in Columbia, the capital city of South Carolina.

I have heard the story of Busbee's cart before, so I decided to take a walk down Gervais Street to the Allen Brothers Mill to speak with CEO Bill Allen about this tale.

Bill Allen> My name is Bill Allen.

I'm the president of Adluh Flour, Allen Brothers Milling Company.

And on behalf of my family, I just want to say thank you all to ETV for showing interest in us today.

Davis> Hey Bill, thank you for taking the time to meet with us today to talk about this rather unusual piece of Columbia folklore.

But for our viewers who don't know, could you give them a brief history on the Adluh Flour Company?

The Adluh Flour company was originally founded in the early 1900s.

The mill was built around 1900.

The Adluh name name came into being in 1914, and in the later years, in the early 20s, was purchased by my family, the Allen brothers family in 1926.

We're producing currently some 25 or better, all cornmeal and flour based.

We do a number of mixers and breaders that are cornmeal and flour based, and then we do a large amount of our businesses is in stone ground grits, white and yellow.

Davis> The spirit of a former employee named Jerome Busbee is said to still roam his old workplace, and even possessed his favorite hand-truck used in life.

After Busbee's passing, this cart became anchored to the very spot where he left it by unexplainable means.

Who was Jerome Busbee and around when did he work at Adluh Flour?

Allen> Jerome Busbee was an employee here.

we assume my grandfather hired back in the day would have been here from the mid to late 50s to the early 70s, somewhere around, I'm guessing around 1958 to 1972, he was a warehouse worker.

He did a number of things, but he was a mill worker in the in the flour mill, primarily.

Davis> Now, this is not Jerome's cart exactly but this is more or less the same make and model as what he used back in the day, correct?

Allen> That is correct.

He would have pushed this on a daily basis, multiple times, if not hundreds of times a day, moving product and whatnot to the warehouses and also to potentially loading trucks as well.

Davis> Now, where did this legend originate?

How did this whole thing get started?

Allen> Well, I think it's just from the rumor here and noises and whatnot in the warehouse.

There have been times we've heard footsteps from the ghost of Jerome Busbee, And the story is that they found this cart here in the mill, and it could not be moved.

And it's just a legend to this very day.

Davis> It's been said that Jerome Busbee was, in fact a practitioner of Voodoo, correct?

Allen> Well, I reckon yeah that can be said as well.

Yes, sir.

That's a part of the folklore story as well.

Davis> Now, I've personally heard about Voodoo, but I admit I do not know that much about it.

In order to familiarize myself, I have invited a special guest onto the show to help me understand the subject better.

Medical doctor and author Dr. Burnett Gallman.

Gallman> My name is Burnett Gallman, and I am a gastroenterologist, retired from private practice and currently working at the, Dorn V.A.

Hospital.

Davis> Now, have you heard the story of Jerome Busbee and his haunted work cart at Adluh Flour?

Gallman> I have.

Davis> Alright... What exactly is Voodoo?

Gallman> Voodoo or Vodún is a bonafide religion that came from Africa.

That is very spiritual.

And it deals with goodness.

It deals with the positive attributes that you would want in any religion.

Vodún, the religion itself probably got to South Carolina, and I'm not sure how many practitioners of Vodún there are in South Carolina, but as Africans were traded and trafficked, they took their religion with them.

And Vodún is very, very common in Haiti, but it's also very common in New Orleans.

From Haiti and New Orleans you had the spread so that Vodún spread up Mississippi, it spread eastward to South Carolina.

These folks practice their religions, but they were able to hide them under the banner of Christianity, usually Catholicism, In order to maintain enslavement, the religion, the culture, the language of the enslaved people had to be taken away from them.

So in order to keep it going, the Africans would pretend to accept Catholicism.

But a large percentage of the Africans in coastal South Carolina practice Hoodoo.

What a lot of people get confused is that Hoodoo, even though it sounds like Vodún it's not a religion, it is a belief system, but it's not a religion.

It actually provided the enslaved Africans the methodology of survival during some of the bad times.

And it was basically for healing, for protection, for ancestral veneration, for, trying to go somewhere and get good luck.

One of the differences is Vodún was a religion and it was communal, whereas Hoodoo was basically individual.

Davis> Whether Busbee practiced Vodún or Hoodoo, Dr. Gallman is skeptical but open minded about the story of the haunted card.

Gallman> I think it's very interesting, that story.

I'm not sure that it is what they say it is, and I'm not sure that it was something that occurred as a result of Vodún.

If he was not jealously guarding that piece of machinery during his lifetime, why should he do it after death?

The bottom line is that I think it's possible.

I don't think it's probable, but I think it's possible, and I honestly can't offer any conjecture on that because if it couldn't move and then all of a sudden it disappeared I know that there are things that happen that we feeble humans have absolutely no clue about.

Davis> Unlike other artifacts featured on Curiosity Trek!, this one is different in that Busbee's cart cannot be found on display anywhere.

In fact, nobody seems to know where it is, for it disappeared under mysterious circumstances before the old storage warehouse's conversion into a restaurant.

Any thoughts on where it may have ended up?

Allen> That's just a mystery that I think only the ghost of Jerome Busbee can answer.

Davis> And we may never find out!

Allen> Very well may not, but I think the ghost of Jerome Busbee would be where the answer would lie.

Davis> Though the hand-truck itself is gone, the tale of Jerome Busbee's ghost lives on in Columbia.

The story has not managed to scare away any customers or affect business in any way.

In fact, the Allen Brothers Milling Company has embraced the legend and welcomes customers who inquire about it for themselves.

Davis> Have you ever had customers come in asking about the story?

Like, hey, is this story true?

Allen> That indeed has happened on occasion, and that's primarily older people that have been around and have been loyal customers of ours through the years and just heard about it.

But that has been discussed, and have been some people come in with real interest in asking that very question, yes.

And we try to share with them as best we can.

It's just something that we've known about through the years.

I think it's more than a myth and just folklore.

We really don't know.

But it has been discussed and handed down from one generation to the next.

It's something we've known about since my early childhood days, but it's just something of interest that some people express interest.

And when they come and call upon us to inquire about it, then we really try to be as accomodating as we possibly can, in answering what we know.

Davis> Do you think the disappearance of Busbee's cart is mere coincidence?

Or perhaps Busbee reclaimed his favorite hand-truck and took it back with him into the afterlife?

The world may never know, but if you're curious for yourselves and want to pay a visit to the Allen Brothers Mill, I'm sure they won't mind talking about it with patrons.

I'm Andrew Davis.

Wherever we go, we hope you will join us on the next adventure of Curiosity Trek!.