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NEAR HARTFORDAnd How It Qot Its Name Many Years Ago.OLD NEGRO'S MYTHICAL STORYReminiscenses of Old Days When “Haunted Houses” Were Common.' THK MAX LONO HINGE UNMOVEDEditors Herald:—Aa but a few now living ever heard of the return to this house of the weird spirits of Its deceased occupants and their nightly visits to this home of haunts, as told many years ago by the Ignorant and superstitious persons of that lime, perhaps the story of the haunted bouse on the Morgantown road, as It was told slxty-Ove years ago. may Interest the readers of The Herald. as many of them never heard of a Hartford ghost story before.One mile from the court house tn Hartford, on what was known many years ago as the Morgantown road hut now known as the Hartford and Beaver Dam turnpike. Is a country residence that to pass It after dark by the small white boys or some of the older colored population, was a terror of that time. HflW the house came to be known as the “haunted house or at what time It became thus knnwn to the believers \ln ghost stories, was never known j by the superstitious of that time.\ The house Is a brick one. built r.fyv the plan of a well-to-do cltlsen litf that time. Is one and a-half sto-7 rles high, fronts the road and tsj ) about far enough from the road to ’ start an old time ghost atory from. From what I learned at Hartford when t was a small boy. 8am Smith, the owner of the farm and builder of the house, was a prominent man of that time and died before he finished the house, He appears to have had a desire to be long remembered and on the stone sills of the front windows are these words In bold relief Sam Smith. 1840. which can yet be read by a careful observer from the road.Bam Smith appears to have suddenly, leaving bta business In very unsettled shape. He appears to have left much property ami owed I much at the time ul his doath was a prominent officer of the State Mllltla and at Ills sale. Frank Grlf-I tin, the local school teacher at that I time and who owned the farm be-I tween the Sam 8mtth farm and the loan of Hartford, bought his sWord,' had tt shortened and for years used It for cutting up corn—a much better use than stabbing the lives out of men. In 1849, when my father moved his family to Hartford,Sam Smith house was called The haunted house by persons who were old enough to know better. When I first saw the farm It was owned by Lsrkln Nall and later was owned by Ellslis M. Ford, who owned It at the time of his death in 1851. hut I never believed that either of these Christian gentlemen had anything to do with starting a report that the bouse was haunted.The story of the haunted honse was that at various times of the year, the spirits of some of the departed members of the household would return to the house: that late In the night, lights could be seen In the house and Mrs. Smith and her domestics could be heard and seen at their spinning wheels, reels, hnckles. etc.. while the voice of old Mrs. Smith coutd be heard commanding her servants to be more vlstlsnt shout their work. In conversation with an aged colored woman about a return of the departed spirits *o this world, mr mother told her that the spirits of the dead never relumed to this world of sorrow again, and that there were no ghosts or haunts in this world. The old colored woman said: O. yea. darIs. Way In de night you can he»r old Mrs. Smith spinning on do big wheel and say to de little nigger gal. ‘rock dat cradle, rock dn*. crnr die.' eMOer-cletter. clltter-tdatter' burnt! huttsu! O. Misses! dar Is ha'nts!”As I have said, the house was not finished when Sam Smith died. The staircase had been completed to the attic or upper atory. the upper floor laid and the end window frames closed with rough boards. As I had to poss this house on my return fjom my father's farm to my home In town after night. I hnrrled by the place, looking back to see that none of the spooks were following me. In hompany with some other small wh)i© boys, w# visited the haunted lioaae one bright November day and weul\p the stalra until wo could seewhat was in Iho attic. Dry gourd* and pieces of broken harness were Itiag - SMotwuuwly over the floor from which the autumn wind had removed the light dust, and, boy us I then was, I could not help thinking that the clatter of the loosely nailed hoards In the window frames and the rattle of the dry gourds, pieces of rope, etc., on the floor, greatly aided the spooks In their carnivals on dark and windy nights.I heard my oldest brother—then a young man—ask a very pious old colored man why the house was called the haunt oil house, and he said that after 8am Smith died, hlB farm was offered for sale and a man of means wanted the farm hut didn't want to pay Its value for It t started the haunted house story tn buy the farm ror less than Ita worth, but I never believed that. Darkln Nall or Ellaba M. Ford wore either or them that man.My father was an enemy to all ghost stories, which ho said were the work of the devil, yet he would stay and hear them told, and when he first heard the story of the haunted house ou the Morgantown road, he gave It as his opinion that It was the work of some schemer for personal bene tit. I beard him ask a business man of Hartford who came Into his shop, which was on the site of the Thomas Bros, counting room, why the Sam Smith house was called haunted house. The gentleman talked to my father In so low a voice that I did not hear what he said, but my father never spoke of the haunted house after this Interview on that subject.One bleak December evening few years ago I passed the haunted house of my boyhood days and pcr-hapa I took my last look at It, It.ppeared to have undergone much Improvement and the merry voices of little children at play In the yard.I thought, was enough to remove the Ignorant, superstitious ban that year* ago made thla bouae a terror to those who were young, or uninformed by a more enlightened age.What a mighty lever Is the poworrefinement, when strengthened by the teachings of the scriptures! The many who now dally pass the haunted house of slxty-flve years ago and hear the joyful shout of little children at their play—how little do they know of the dark shadow that years ago hung over this' now happy country home.EDWIN FORBES.Fordsville. Ky.Chlldran OryFOR FLETCHER'S CASTORIA
Newspaper Details
Hartford Herald
Hartford, Kentucky, US
Wed, Feb 01, 1911
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Erik S.
USA 15 Aug 2024
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