Saturday Spotting - Cholera Ship

Published on the 6^th of January in 1854 in the Delaware State Reporter out of Dover, DE

CHOLERA, - The ship New England, with emigrants, has arrived at New Orleans, having had seventy deaths on the passage from cholera. 

Scary New Orleans Legend

This is a Halloween type of tale that I haven't heard of before and found it while researching on GenealogyBank.com and thought I would pass it along for a fun read. 

Printed on Tuesday the 27th of January 1857 in the Easton Star out of Easton, Maryland

From the Home Journal

THE SEVEN LOST BRIDES

A LEGEND OF NEW ORLEANS

In the upper part of New Orleans, not far from the Mississippi river, stands an old house well known in that part of the city as “the haunted house.” It is said that no tenant can be induced to remain long in it; but all disturbed by supernatural sights and sound, speedily seek another dwelling. These nocturnal disturbances are sufficiently explained – to some at least – by the following legend:

Long time ago, long before New Orleans was a great city, and when the quarter now known by the name of Lafayette was occupied by cane fields and partly by the marshes, the old house – old even then – stood, as now, not far from the band of the river, and surrounded by blocks and squares of substantial buildings, as to-day, was the centre of plantation and was haunted only by sunny faces and merry voices. Its owner was an old gentleman- a widower- who had seven daughters- all beautiful, intelligent and amiable.

When the oldest daughter was of an age to marry, she was wooed and won by a young planter of the neighborhood, and for once the course of true love seemed to run smooth.

All parties were agreed as to the suitability of the match, and when the wedding night arrived, willing guests flocked from all quarters to do honor to the occasion. The old house was brilliantly illuminated, and the sounds of music and of dancing echoed through its chambers. In short, everything went merrily onward, and gay Louisiana never saw a gayer assemblage. But all the merriment was doomed to meet a strange and sudden end. Scarcely had the nuptial benediction been pronounced, when it was observed that the bride was missing. The evening passed on and she did not return. Wonder was followed by anxiety. Search first was made through the neighborhood, but all without success. All that night, and for days and weeks after, the search was continued with all that sleepless energy and vigilance which love could prompt, but all in vain; not the slightest trace was ever found of the missing bride.

Had she, in some sudden aberration of mind wondered into the boundless swamps, and perished miserably of hunger and exposure? Or had she some fearful and unbosomed grief, which had caused her to cast herself into the turbid waters of the Mississippi? Or had she, perchance, met and loved some person so far beneath her in station as to render an open union hopeless, and they had fled together in distantlands?

Such were some of the conjectures of the gossips concerning her fate, while others told scary stories of the dreadful and desperate deeds of the pirates of the Gulf, of late nights with terrified glances cast over their shoulders towards the door; whispering ghastly tales of the doings of demon huntsman, whose horn was often heard among the woods and marshes, and the baying of whose dogs mingled with the rustling of the wind among the leaves, as it struck upon his ear in the dreary hours of night, caused many a pious Acadian to hastily cross himself and utter au Ave Maria and a petition  for protection against the devil and all his angels.

It would be tedious to tell as to hear save in the briefest manner how one after another five more of the seven daughters disappeared in the same way each in their wedding night till one was left the most beautiful, the best beloved of all. A strange infatuation seemed to enchain all who concerned; and while, when each was lost, the same scene of frantic search, of wild grief, of despairing acquiescence was enacted, none ever dreamed of making the mysterious fate which seemed to hang over the family, an objection to the marriage of the younger girl. And thus it came to pass that the last daughter became betrothed, as the rest had been, to one well worthy of her, and in due time another large company assembled to grace the nuptials.

But on this occasion there was but little of merriment. The guests clustered together in groups of two’s and three’s, and in whispers spoke of the lost sisters. All seemed to feel as though they were shadowed by the wings of some dark and terrible misfortune hovering over the doomed house. No one was found bold enough to utter a jest, or to speak of gay or thoughtless word.

In the meantime all possible care was taken to guard the bride form the fate of her sisters. A chosen body of friends watched constantly over her, and never permitted her to be absent from their sight. Thus were matters situated when the hour appointed for the nuptial ceremony arrived.

But the final vows were scarcely spoken when the sound of a distant horn was heard and the thrill of terror struck to each heart.

It approached nearer and nearer, till at last the heavy tramp of a man, accompanied by the pattering sound of the feet of hurrying dogs were heard upon the veranda. All eyes was fixed upon the closed doors connected with  crash, and a gigantic huntsman, clad in green, and surrounded by a pack of huge and panting hounds stood upon the threshold. Fixed to their places, the spectators stared with glassy eyes on the terrible visitor, and a waited in speechless terror, his future movement. Fixing his flashing eyes upon the bride, with imperial air he raised his right hand toward her. With tottering steps she advanced and sank fainting in his arms. One blast upon his mighty horn, one yell from his ferocious pack, and the green huntsman sprang from the house, bearing with him the inanimate form of the doomed bride. Fainter and fainter grew the sound of the horn and the dogs, till they faded quite away in the distance, and then and not till then, did the beholders of this scene recover from the spell which had deprived them of the power of moving or speaking.

All those who were present at this supernatural abduction have long since mingled their ashes with the parent earth but the old house still stands a witness to the truth of the legend, and on stormy nights, the daemon huntsman’s horn and the laying of the tempest, may be heard sounding along the Mataric Ridge and through the swamps and woods adjoining’ and at midnight hour the ghost of the bereaved old father, yet wandering through the deserted chambers of the ancient house weeping and wringing his shadowy hands and repeating in agonizing tones, the seven lost brides.  

Mr. Dorrity just wanted peace

No matter what Mr. Dorrity would say to the community members of Shreveport they had to see “it” for themselves. It being the “Little Girl Ghost” that would appear at night. This article appeared in the Times-Picayune out of New Orleans, LA in August of 1915. This is another example of an unexplained ghost that some were able to find a way to make some extra cash.

“LITTLE GIRL GHOST” AT SHREVEPORT

REFUSES TO CEASE APPEARING NIGHTLY

Shreveport, La., Aug. 13. –When is a ghost not a ghost? Mr. Brown M. Dorrity, insurance agent and fraternal order organizer, whose home is at the corner of Allen avenue and Logan street, Shreveport, could intelligently reply to this question, but the thousands of eager and insistent sight-seers who for nearly a week have nightly thronged the street in front of the Dorrity home, to catch a glimpse of the apparition of a young girl that stands on the Dorrity doorstep, have evidently no conception whatever of the meaning of the query.  

The “Dorrity ghost,” as it has come to be called, refuses to yield to any sort of pressure.  All sorts of schemes have been hatched for the laying of this mute noeturnal visitor, but the date all have failed. The ghost, or apparition, or wraith, or whatever it may be is in the form of a little girl, about nine years of age, wearing a “middy” blouse, white skirt, white hose and shoes.

EXPLANATION SIMPLE

Mr. Dorrity’s explanation of the figure is simple but the sightseers will not accept it. Her it is: The light form the street are shining through a window of a house diagonally across the street from the Dorrity home, strikes a mirror, and reflected back, silhouettes the form, of a little girl through some trees and vines outside of the Dorrity home.

The first discovery of the “ghost” was made several nights ago when two automobilists, passing the house, observed it. The auto broke down, and one of its occupants relieved his feelings with a sting of voluble oaths. His companion admonished him not to talk so loud, “as there was a little girl standing on the gallery.”

It was midnight and voluble autoist wondered what the little girl was doing there at that hour. He talked to her gently, but firmly, but the girl not only did not respond, but faded from view when the autoists approached her. Somehow, the auto was fixed in a hurry and the autoists speeded to town and spread the news.

THOUSANDS ATTRACTED

The following night several hundred persons visited the corner and saw the ghost. The next night there were several thousand and the police had to be sent for to keep the crowd within restraints. In spite of the frantic efforts of Mr. Dorrity to stem the tide of humanity that nightly wends its way to the vicinity of his home, it has increased nightly, Thursday night nearly three thousand persons are said to have visited the spot.

Auto parties are organized for the purpose of “seeing the ghost.” Enterprising jitney drivers have advertised apparition in the Shreveport papers, offering to take sightseers to the place at so much per head. One auto liveryman offered, in an advertisement, $20 in gold for the best solution of the “ghost mystery.”

The infection has spread to cities surrounding Shreveport. Out-of –town parties come here for no other purpose than to take a peep at the girl-wraith.

SPECIAL BEING PLANNED

The interest at Texarkana is so strong, that some moneymaking genius is arraigning a special excursion to Shreveport in order that Texarkanians may have an opportunity to see the figure of the girl at reduced rates.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dorrity is literally “pawing the air.” He knows it isn’t a ghost, but the sightseers don’t and while they remain unconvinced, he must suffer.

The strangest part of the story remains to be told. The branches of the trees in front of the Dorrity home were cut; Mr. Dorrity appealed to the Mayor of Shreveport and that functionary ordered the arc light at the corner extinguished; boards were nailed up on the Dorrity gallery to conceal the vision; a wire gallery –but the girl remains. She was seen Thursday night, as plainly as she had ever been. Mr. Dorrity tried turning the garden hose on the most insistent of the spectators, but he hasn’t succeeded in lessening the human tide at that particular corner.

BELIEVED TO BE STRANGER

If it is a ghost, whose is it? A story was circulated that some years ago a little girl touched the electrical apparatus of an inventor at that particular corner and was electrocuted Investigation, however, revealed the fact that if the incident occurred at all, it was in an entirely different part of Shreveport. No little girl ever died on the corner, so if the ghost is a ghost, it is a stranger in those parts.

Shreveport has rarely been shaken as this ghost, or alleged ghost, has shaken it. Nobody, strange to say, is afraid of it, but everybody wants to see it. Perhaps it is the light. Perhaps it isn’t. At any rate, Friday the thirteenth, is a good day for a ghost story. 

Woman in Black

I've heard stores about the "lady in black" and even a couple about the "lady in white". This however is the first one that I've heard where a police chief and an additional fifty men try and capture the "women in black".   

May 18, 1914

Times-Picayune

New Orleans, LA

SCARY-EYED WOMAN

PUTS TOWN TO BED

Moves Rapidly Toward Folk

on Streets at Night,

Natives Say

Wilkesbarre, Pa., May 17 – Watsontown, a borough with 2500 inhabitants, is terrorized by the presence of a mysterious “woman in black” whose long waving arms and “big black, scary eyes” have given the town a deserted appearance with the coming of darkness each night.  

Chief of Police Ulrich and the head of fifty men, scored the town in quest of the mysterious woman. They worked until dawn without having laid hands upon her. Several of the men reported having seen her, but in their reports to the chief they allege that just as they were about to close in on her she vanished in the darkness.

While the “woman in black” has been seen in all parts of the town, she made her appearance in the aristocratic section, making Second and Third streets her tramping grounds. From 10 o’clock until long after midnight she spooked about this section, and members of some of the leading families in town reported having seen her.

In telling Chief Ulrich of their experience, these persons said that the woman wore a long black cloak, and as she approached them the cloak fell back on her shoulders.

With her arms waving and her “scary eyes” fastened upon those she approached, she moved rapidly forward, but not with sufficient speed to get anywhere near the men and women, who turned on their heels and broke sprinting records to their homes.