Post by Graveyardbride on May 3, 2023 21:03:32 GMT -5
In Honor of ‘Lydia,’ North Carolina’s Most Famous Phantom Hitchhiker
The United States is full of phantom hitchhiker stories, and “Lydia,” the spirit of a young woman who has been haunting a location known as “Lydia’s Bridge” in Jamestown is North Carolina’s contribution. In fact, the state is so proud of its famous spook that a Legends & Lore marker is to be placed at the site of her long-ago demise.
Lydia, it is said, was killed in a car crash at the bridge in 1920 and ever since, the apparition of a young woman has been flagging down passing cars in a desperate attempt to find her way home, i.e., return from the dead to the land of the living.
“I’m an enthusiast of Lydia’s hitchhiking ghost,” said Dan Sellers, who founded Carolina Haints, a nonprofit organization that promotes folklore and history throughout the Carolinas, and spearheaded the effort to mark the underpass, because, he explains, “if you go down there, there’s nothing there to tell you about the legend of Lydia. ... I was thinking somebody should do something about that.” So, he contacted the North Carolina Folklore Institute and applied for and received a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation to have a Legends & Lore marker placed at the Jamestown underpass.
The placement ceremony is scheduled for Friday, May 5, at 10 o’clock.
There are currently approximately two dozen such markers, including one at the infamous Devil’s Tramping Ground in Chatham County, and more are planned. “These markers are beautiful,” Sellers added. “They’re similar to state historical markers, but cooler, and they’re specifically geared for folklore.”
The real Lydia is believed to be Annie Lydia Jackson (above), daughter of Joseph A. and Susan Haithcock Jackson of Greensboro. Born April 28, 1885, she was employed by Vick’s Chemical Company in Greensboro when she was killed in a motor vehicle accident at the underpass on June 20, 1920. She was 35 at the time of her death. There is some evidence she was briefly married at one time, but the marriage was apparently annulled for she is listed as single on her death certificate. She is buried at Holts Chapel Cemetery in Greensboro.
Sources: Jimmy Tomlin, The High Point Enterprise, May 2, 2023; North Carolina Ghosts, and Find-a-Grave.
