The Ghost Of Adluh Flour (Columbia, SC)

Adluh Flour is a Columbia institution. Adluh Flour launched in 1900 and is the only working mill remaining in South Carolina. The building is on the National Register of Historic Properties and its neon sign and grain elevator are catnip for photographers. Adluh Flour is the home of the Official State Flour of South Carolina and was also home to a ghost.

Or at least his cart.

Jerome Busbee worked for Adluh Flour for many years and was rumored to be a practitioner of voodoo. According to Adluh Flour Social Media Strategist Jen Bailey Bergen, Busbee's job was to move flour sacks from the sewing area, where the bags would be sewn shut, to the warehouse. The 50-pound flour bags were moved on what were essentially wood and iron hand carts. Busbee had a particular cart that he preferred and that was the one he used every day.


When Jerome Busbee passed away in the mid 1900s, his cart became immovable. The cart somehow became anchored to the spot where Busbee left it on his last day of work and no one could move it from that spot. Many employees tried but they couldn't get it to budge. One particular mill boss, having grown weary of all the attention his employees were giving the cart, tried to move it but couldn't. Bailey Bergen told us, "I have personally seen Jerome's cart. I have personally interacted with it. I'm not much of a spooky kind of person, but it was certainly not going anywhere for me." People who had no knowledge of Jerome would describe "an odd feeling" and ask why they couldn't move the cart. They were told that Jerome didn't want the cart going anywhere and his spirit was holding it in place.

No one could move the glorified dolly.

But someone did.

Photo of Jerome Busbee's immovable hand cart taken during renovations of the warehouse Do you think you could move it?

Eventually, Adluh Flour stopped using the warehouse that was the final resting place for Busbee's cart. In 2014, Hood Construction began renovations on the warehouse and it is now home to an Old Chicago restaurant.

Jerome Busbee's hand cart is nowhere to be found on the property.

Bailey Bergen has no idea how the cart was removed. She does not know how many men it took to remove it or if it was removed by a machine.

Or maybe Busbee returned to the warehouse after seventy years to reclaim his beloved cart...

We have reached out to representatives of Hood Construction and Old Chicago for information regarding the removal of Jerome Busbee's cart. We will update this piece if we receive further information.

Photo of Jerome Busbee's immovable hand cart taken during renovations of the warehouse.