In the old days before the Civil War, many wealthy Charleston planters had homes in the mountains of South and North Carolina where they could escape the humid heat and malaria that summer months brought to the Lowcountry. The main stagecoach route was called the Old Buncombe Road, which roughly parallels Interstate 26 on today's map. In Union County, near the Newberry County line, was a small village called "Goshen Township" on the old Buncombe Road. Around 1850 a peddler and his faithful dog passed thru the settlement about the time a gruesome murder had occurred. Being a stranger, the peddler had no one to stand up for his integrity and after a hasty "trial," he was publicly hanged. His poor white hound stayed beside his master during the hanging, and for three days after the dead man was buried, the dog stayed at the spot and howled pitifully. The "good" townfolk put an end to this by stoning the poor animal to death. It wasn't very long until travelers along the old road began reporting a large white dog which lurched at their horses, and which was very white and frightening in appearance. Those brave enough slashed at the dog with their buggy whips, but the whip passed thru the apparition. The dog would follow the frightened passengers until it reached a certain cemetery--then was seen to leap thru the locked gates. A Dr. Douglass was a country physician whose home was on the old road, and until his death maintained that the ghost dog often accompanied him on his rounds--he was never afraid of the ghost and considered it to be a friend. By 1936 the road had been paved, and automobiles had replaced the horse and buggy, but the dog was still reported by those in cars, on horseback, and folks out for an evening stroll. One night in 1936 a young man was frightened almost to death by the dog, and barely reached his doctor's house before passing out. The dog was reported in the late 1970's when an old lady, whose house faced the old road (now seldom used), was sitting on her front porch. She saw a large white dog come into her yard..increase in size, and leap toward her. She fainted dead away, but was able to recount her story when she recovered. The last reported sighting was in 1998, so the dog still roams the road. As a sad footnote, a deathbed confession by an old man in the 1880's proved the innocence of the peddler!
Jayz note: Thanks for the story