TIMMONSVILLE, South Carolina — Scotland County is rich in history, from the native Americans who claimed this land as well as those who dared cross the ocean to discover its vast potential.

Along with that history comes tales of happiness, dread, fear and even a little spooky mystery.

One of those past settlers was Col. Abel Kolb, who lived in the Marlboro County area, but also was said to have fought battles along the Lumbee River.

Kolb fought in the Revolutionary War under the leadership of a more well-known war veteran, Gen. Francis Marion, and was the commander of the Pee Dee Regiment for Marion.

“After being shot and killed, they burned down his home, but spared the life of his wife and children, plus the lives of other women and children who were around the area at the time.” 

— Spirit Society Member Elicia in a column on its website

According to history, on the night of April 26, 1781, Kolb was murdered by a group of Tories while at his home. Tories were loyalists who were American colonists that remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War.

“After being shot and killed, they burned down his home, but spared the life of his wife and children, plus the lives of other women and children who were around the area at the time,” said Spirit Society Member Elicia (no last name given) in a column on its website.

Kolb was born sometime in the year 1750. He was said to be between the age of 30 and 31. The burial place of his family was unable to be ascertained at the time of the article.

Here is where the story takes a turn.

According to many residents of the area, as well as surrounding areas, the location where Kolb was murdered is said to be haunted by his spirit.

According to several stories online, it is not just his being murdered, but the fact that his family encouraged him to surrender as a prisoner of war and him being shot on his porch in front of them.

The SSS found itself standing at Kolb’s tomb on Sept. 16, 2016, with devices that are said to help pick up and monitor paranormal activity.

“It was late afternoon, the mosquitoes were the scariest thing around and we were in and out of the air-conditioning to get away from them,” Elicia said. “I started asking questions and nothing came across the EVP or the Ovilus for a while. It wasn’t until Jamie found shell casings left behind at Col. Kolb’s tomb that we started receiving any sort of responses.

“That was a little awesome to receive, considering for about an hour of being there, nothing came across our app,” Elicia continued. “We left for a bit to check out the surrounding areas and despite how little we got through at the actual tomb, we did find some really cool old stuff around the area.”

The group said they found some “really awesome” abandoned buildings and silos made out of stone.

“It’s very rare to find silos made of stone as they eventually went to metal silos in the 60s,” said Elicia. “We looked around and found a small foundation that was either a storage building of some sort or even a small farmhouse that was located near the tomb.

“We decided to give one more loop around the tomb just to check to see if we could find anything else,” said Elicia. “I kept getting a weird feeling near the edge of the woods right where the river met the area of the tomb.”

According to Elicia, in the circle of the paranormal world, water is a conduit for paranormal activity, being near a river with water that’s constantly moving can cause paranormal-like activities in and around the area.

Countless others have also frequented the site out of paranormal and historical intrigue. Videos of some of the experiences can be found on YouTube.

JJ Melton can be reached at jmelton@laurinburgexchange.com.