Do you believe there are haunted houses? I have heard many tales about such places, but as for me, I have never experienced ghosts or haunted places. My daddy used to tell us about a house that he lived in that he swore was haunted and others told the same tales about it. 

There is a tale told about a haunted house in Hinesville. It is on the corner of North Main and Memorial Drive. The two-story house was built by E.C. Caswell in 1903 when he and his wife, Ellen Long Caswell, sold their farm on Canoochee Bluff on what today is Fort Stewart and moved to Hinesville. They had no children. The house was purchased by Ernest Groover in 1951 and he and his wife, Susie Taylor Groover, lived there until the last of the two died in 1976. I have been in this house many times when it was used as a doctor’s office but I did not know at that time that it was supposed to be haunted!

In the stillness of a cold winter night one may hear eerie voices speaking in whispers. As you climb the dark stairs to the second floor you may feel the warm air change to icy cold.

A cat or dog will not go into a certain room on the second floor. Sometimes the room shows its resentment toward people it apparently does not like. One occupant of the room said the window curtains tried to wrap themselves around his neck. He fled the house terrified.

Several people have died in the house. But that one room on the second floor seems to be where a ghostly spirit lives.

The story goes that a traveling salesman met a married woman in Hinesville in 1914. They fell in love. Her husband suspected something and intercepted a letter from the salesman to the woman. The woman’s husband told her that he had to travel to another state on business. She immediately arranged a tryst with the salesman. The husband intercepted this letter also.

On a cold rainy October night the salesman stepped off the Flemington, Hinesville and Western Railroad train at its depot on Main Street in Hinesville. The husband, hidden in bushes opposite the depot, fired three shots at the salesman. The husband then galloped off on his horse and was never seen again in Hinesville.

The badly wounded salesman was taken to the room on the second floor of the haunted house. An hour later without ever regaining consciousness, he died. His lover moved away from Hinesville and no one knew where she went.

Several years ago a visitor sat in the living room while his host went to the kitchen. When the host returned the visitor said, “I thought you were alone in the house.” The host said he was.

“But I keep hearing whispers in the next room,” the visitor said. They both went to the room and found it empty.

Another occupant of the house said he is “sensitive” and felt the presence of a ghostly spirit the first time he entered the house. However, he said he thinks it is a friendly poltergeist which will hurt no one.

If you walk about Hinesville on the eve of All Saints Day on Oct. 31, and pass this two-story house, look up to a window on the second floor and you might see a pale white face staring out. Others before you have seen it!

They believe it is the salesman waiting sadly for his lady love who is probably now dead and in her grave.