South of Bond Street in Niles, Michigan, stands a beautiful Greek Revival 1847 mansion said to be haunted by the ghost of a child long-dead.
Strother M. Beeson, an attorney and business man in South Bend, Indiana bought the mansion in 1850. The mausoleum was built by after the death of Strother’s mother, Judith Ann Lewis. Her name is inscribed over the entrance to the vault.
The inside is of marble, the outer walls are sand stone. The whole area is surrounded by an artfully cut field stone wall. A well maintained garden and park like setting with lovely large trees surrounds the mausoleum.
Anecdotes, folk lore and legends have surrounded the Beeson Mausoleum and home. Over the years it has become hard to divide fact from fiction. Top of the list is the story of Job Withrow Beeson, the grandson of Strother Beeson, who was born in 1869 and died a year later, in 1870.
The child was interred in the family crypt over the road from the mansion and it is said that every night his mother, Harriet, would visit the crypt to light candles and lanterns as her son had always been afraid of the dark.
Eventually, the Beesons installed their own carbide gas plant with a a pipeline into the crypt to keep an ever-present flame burning. The line entering one of the exterior ground-level vent on the crypt’s south side can still be seen today.
Legend has it that each night she would walk over to the crypt, then bathe, clothe and rock the baby’s corpse “until his eyes fell out”. She had lost her mind and was subsequently taken away to an institution where she died shortly after (1875) of grief and a broken heart. Continue reading »
In St. Francisville, Louisiana, there is an inn which is reputed to be the most haunted place in the USA. Exactly how many ghosts are said to haunt The Myrtles plantation is unknown, but it seems that the number is around 12 to 15 of them.
According to legend, the plantation house was built in 1794 by General David Bradford on top of an old Indian burial ground. General Bradford is also reportedly the first person to have seen a ghost in the house. It is said that he saw the ghost of a naked Indian girl, which is still seen on occasion today. When the General died, the management of the estate passed on to his daughter, Sarah and her husband, Judge Clark Woodruffe. Together, he and Sarah had three children, Cornelia Gale, James, and Mary Octavia. Judge Woodruffe eventually bought out the plantation from his mother-in-law before she died in 1830.
Judge Woodruffe was apparently not very faithful to his wife, taking on a mistress. Her name was Chloe and she was one of the plantation slaves. After some time the Judge tired of his mistress and she began to worry about her eventual fate. She started listening at keyholes to try and hear what would happen. One night the General caught her eavesdropping and as punishment cut off her ear. Due to the disfigurement, Sara took to wearing a turban to hide her mutilated ear.
Chloe decided to try and ensure her continued place in the home by pretending to save the family from harm. She decided to poison a cake with Oleander leaves and then nurse the family back to health – thus becoming the hero. Unfortunately her plans went awry and Sara and her two daughters died from the poison. The Judge did not eat the cake so was spared an agonising death.
Chloe was terrified that she would get found out and rather than face the wrath of the community, she fled to the safety of other slaves. When the other slaves heard what had happened, they turned on Chloe, dragging her out of hiding and hanging her from a tree. They then weighed down her body and disposed of it in the Mississippi river. Since then the ghost of Chloe has often been seen wandering around the Myrtle plantation.
According to the present owners, Teeta and John Moss, Chloe helps to keep their children safe, but also often peers in at guests while they are sleeping. No one knows who she is looking for but they all agree that Chloe is not a bad spirit, she seems to be wanting redemption by watching over the kids.
The murder of Sara and her daughters are not the only murders to have occured at the plantation. Since the building of the house, there have been at least 10 other homicides or suicides on the property.
In 1834, the plantation was purchased by Ruffin Grey Stirling. From that time the family was often the victim of great tragedies. Four years after buying the property, Stirling died of consumption. Of nine children, only four of them lived to be old enough to marry. His oldest son, Lewis, died the same year as his father. His daughter’s husband was murdered in the same year on the front porch. Their ghosts are said to still haunt the homestead. Continue reading »
