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Friendly Ghost Still Haunts Old MansionBy Associated PressIt’s Hallowe’en Week — and what’s Hallowe'en without a good I ghost story?Usually, they are about spookswho gave up haunting long ago. But up in the Connecticut River Valley town of Hadley, Massachusetts one of the oldest practicing apparitions in the country still piles her trade.Or at least so says Dr. James Huntington, a retired physician and the very-much blood and flesh-descendant of Elizabeth Porter Phelps — the reputed operating ghost. Elizabeth was his great-! great grandmother, and Dr. Hunt-! ington and his wife live in his ectoplasmic ancestor’s home that i is a couple of centuries old. Reaching into his boyhood recollections of summers spent in the house. Dr. Huntington says: “Some of us children woke up at night to find a figure bending (Over the bed. . .someone with a gull skirt of oddly-patterned design and frilled white cap perfect :ly visible in the dark. Our Aunts: would say: Oh, don't mind that. That's just Elizabeth. We’ve all seen her.’”These days, though, with no youngsters around, the gentle ghost keeps pretty much to her-; self. Occasionally she makes a midnight trip to the attic, or takes a turn at the spinning wheel in the north kitchen of the three-story, white clapboard colonial mansion. Sometimes she swishes; through a room Jo see who’s been!I invited to the house. But the gliosily Eli/ab'-th never has been known to harm a soul, utter a sound, or leave the 4b-acre estate that covers a rolling meadow to he Connecticut River.Dr Huntington says it was during his grandfatli r’s occupancy of the house that Elizabeth made h r first ghostly appearance. That I was in 1HW — 47 years after her death. He recalls:“She turned up in a maid’s room, standing by her bed. My father wrote about it in a letter to a classmate at Harvard As the house gained a reputation as haim* •!, f-jmjly had difficulty keeping domestic help. About 15 years ago. the imprint of a small j rs .. !. pi appearing on the white coverlet of a can1 pied bed. Smoothed out, th- * «rv j Indentations would be th rlt; lhlt; next day. Somehow, no or ever wanted to stay in the room after j that.About three years ago, a foundation was set up to maintain the historic house as a museum, with Dr. Huntington as curator. From May to October, he guides visitors throogh the place, pointing out its architectural and furniture treasures. Elizabeth, however, never has perform«»d for the general public. Nor for the college professors and psychic investigators who have spent nights in an upstairs bedroom — waiting for appearance of the refined spirit.Still, just a summer ago. Dr. Huntington’s brother. Paul a retired Episcopal minister visiting from Richmond, Virginia — was startled by the shadow of a small person on the floor of the: north kitchen. A chill breeze seemed to encircle him as he v.atchid the shadow disappear. No sun shines through the north windows. And. it is pointed out. the shadow could not have been hat of himself.Dr. Huntington also tells of an •xperience attributed to that of his late brother, Frederic. He says:“Frederic was a powerful fel-j low — on Harvard’s varsity foot-, ball team, and certainly not one given to hearing things. For two nights — when he was sleeping in the attic bedroom one summer — he heard the grandfather clock in the downstairs hall strike midnight. th n the second floor door to the attic open, an dElizabeth’s firm st* ps come up.“Well,” related Dr. Huntington, ’He stuck it out for two nights. On the third, whlt;*n he heard the steps, he bolted. As he plung'd down the stairs, he said a small, figure moved politely to one side to let him pass. That big brawny lad never went to the attic again. i
Newspaper Details
Taylor Daily Press
Taylor, Texas, US
Thu, Oct 30, 1958
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Newspaper A.
CA, USA 21 Oct 2015
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