What happened
In 1871 Hezekiah Pittee, superintendent of construction for a new lighthouse, came from Maine to Anastasia Island near St. Augustine with his family. The children played on the cart that ran down a rail track carrying building materials to the water. On 10 July 1873 Pittee’s daughters – Mary, 15, Eliza, 13, and Carrie, 4 – together with a Black girl of about ten whose name was never recorded, rode the cart down the slope. The board that should have stopped it at the end of the track was not in place: the cart plunged into the water and trapped the children underneath. A young Black worker, Dan Sessions, ran to lift the cart, but could save only the youngest, Carrie. The lighthouse was finished the following year. Since the 1950s keepers, tenants of the keepers’ house, workers rebuilding it after a fire in 1970, and tour guides have told of footsteps on the stairs, a little girl in an old-fashioned dress beside a bed, children’s giggling from the top of the tower and small pranks.
Witnesses
A relief keeper in the 1950s (footsteps upstairs), a tenant of the keepers’ house in the 1960s (a girl by his bed), workers and volunteers during the restoration; the accounts were collected by the lighthouse museum.
Explanations and hypotheses
The 1873 accident is well documented, and the museum keeps in touch with the descendants of Carrie, the survivor. The reports of phenomena are anecdotal; the museum admits it cannot explain them and leaves visitors to decide, while also running night-time ghost tours. Museum historians are also searching for traces of the forgotten Black girl, whose name the newspapers of the day did not give – a psychic suggested the name Ellie, but archival research has not confirmed it. A tall, echoing tower of 219 steps and the ocean wind easily produce sounds that resemble voices.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum – Ghost Stories: The Pittee Girls (2020)
- St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum – Pittee Descendants Visit the Museum (2023)
More: Wikipedia (en)