Some Eastern Shore Ghost Stories
“I really do not believe in ghosts,” said a gentleman from Kent county, in a company of gentlemen at the Malby House, “but there have been several little occurrences in our family for which we have never been able to account. – Some years ago my uncle was taken with what proved to be his death sickness. For three days before he died there were the most unaccountable noises heard all over the house. Knockings were heard in every room, and sometimes a demoniacal laugh would ring out in a room known to be empty. The family were greatly disturbed by these things. My dying uncle did not seem to mind them much, though. We noticed upon several occasions that he was talking with some invisible being. Upon asking him about it, he stated that he was conversing with an old friend, naming him, whom we knew to have been dead many years. My uncle persisted that the old chap was in the room skipping about and thumping on various pieces of furniture with his knuckles. We heard the knocking, but of course could not see the ghost. These noises ceased after my uncle died.”
“When I was a young chap,” said another of the company, “a cousin of mine and I were devoted friends. We made a compact one night of eternal friendship living or dead. In 1849 my cousin caught the gold fever and went to California. We wrote to each other regularly. Three years after he left home I began to realize that I was haunted. It was not unpleasant to me. I rather liked it. The first time I felt it was one night while lying in bed I heard three gentle taps on my chamber door. I opened the door, but no one was there. But I seemed to feel that some one came into the room. One night I opened my eyes and saw my cousin in the room. He soon vanished. The next day my aunt told me she saw him the same night. His letters stopped coming from California, but I thought of him incessantly and seemed to feel that he was with me. I was distinctly conscious that there was an invisible being with me a great deal.
“After this had been going on for about two or three months his mother received a letter that he was dead. He died on the same day of the night that I first commenced to be haunted. – Now, how in the world the poor old chap got over that 3,300 miles between the Eastern Shore and San Francisco so quickly I can’t tell, but it was the shade of my cousin beyond doubt. Even yet I’m satisfied the old fellow comes about me, and though he cannot speak enjoys my company.”
“I have seen two ghosts in my life,” remarked another gentleman with some solemnity.—“One was that of a man and the other a dog. They have been known to haunt a certain locality near the village of Church Creek in Dorchester county, for two or three generations. I saw them both one evening in what was known as “Tick’s Path” in a piece of woods near the old time village schoolhouse. The man was old and bald and his eyes looked sightless. The dog accompanied him, and the strangest part of the occurrence to me was that the dog seemed to have no head. He had a very long tail, which curled over his back. I was utterly paralyzed with fear. They were not visible longer than a minute, but it seemed to me like a week. I was a boy of 15 then, but I have never forgotten it. These same ghosts were seen by a number of people and the story is true. I have not lived in that part of the country for 35 years, but I’ll bet my bottom dollar that the ghosts still walk in “Tick’s Path” if the woods has not been cut down. If the timber is destroyed I’ll guarantee that I can find in this city a dozen men and women who either saw the ghosts when they were school children or conversed with those who had seen them.”
The Chesapeake Bay Ghost – Mr. Hudgins assistant keeper of the Wolf Trap Lighthouse in Chesapeake bay, who gave up his position on account of ghostly visitations, reports that three unpleasant spiritual disturbances still continue. A number of prominent citizens in the neighborhood have recently undertaken to investigate the ghost, but without being able to prove fraudulent. He is evidently a merry ghost as he whistles when called on, and when requested to dance gives a regular “double-shuffle” or Virginia “hoe-down” in the very room occupied by his would be investigators. He declines however to be interviewed more closely and will not down.
All from the 1884 newspapers
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