Bad Boy's Ghost

This is such a perfect article for so many reasons. First of course the obvious would be the Halloween season with the ghost, witches and bats coming out.  The second would be it’s so funny and typical of many kids. Finding a way to scare each other is a blast but finding a way to scare your parents that’s classic. I’m sure we have all done it or at least thought about the best way to see our mom jump and our dad run. I would have to say I never made my dad run but oh yeah I made my mom jump with the help of my brothers. I’ll save that story for later.

January 8, 1884

Trenton Evening Times from out of Trenton, New Jersey 

THE BAD BOY’S GHOST 

How He Made His Esteemed Pa Think the House Haunted.

From Peck’s Son.

“Well, you see, last night we got to talking about haunted houses, and pa said there was no such thing as a haunted house. He said whenever any unusual noise was heard in a house, instead of investigating it, people got scared and went around talking about the house being haunted, and before long everybody believed it, and everybody was nervous. Pa said that haunted houses was on a par with spiritualism, and people of sense never took any stock in either. He said if I ever heard of a haunted house to let him know, and he would go through it and investigate in in the dark. That evening my chum’s cat came over to visit our cat, and when it was time to go to bed the two cats were sleeping by the stove, and pa told me I better put the cats out doors and go to bed. So I took the cats up carefully and raised up the cover to the piano and laid the cats down in the back side of the instrument, among the strings, and petted them, and they went to sleep, and shut down the cover, and we all went to bed. Pa and ma sleep right over the parlor and I sleep at the back of the house. Along about 2 o’clock in the morning, about the time cats usually get wok up and begin to prowl around, there was a faint scratching of toe-nails on the strings, and a yowl that sounded as though it came from the sewer. It was evidently music, such as you get at boarding houses where a boarder practices on the piano for her board. I got up and went to pa’s room, and ma was sitting up in bed with her nightcap off, her hair standing right up straight, and she was trying to get pa to raise up and listen, but it wasn’t pa’s night to listen, and he put his head under the bedclothes and tried to snore. I told pa that I wasn’t afraid, but I wished he would let me sleep on the lounge in his room, and pa raised up and wanted to know what the row was and just then the cats in the piano seemed to have come together for their regular evening fight, and of all the music you over heard that beat everything. Pa listened and said it was somebody next door trying to play opera, but ma said something was in the house, and I told pa the house was haunted, and for him to get up and investigate. Pa was kind of ‘shamed to be afraid, so he got up and went out in the hall, and just then the cats go to fighting another round, and pa rushed into the bath-room and closed the door, and yelled for me to open the window and holler for the police. I got up and asked pa, through the door, if he was afraid, and he said no, he wasn’t afraid, but he thought, seeing he was in the bath-room, he would take a bath, and I told him if he was afraid I would go down and investigate, because there was no haunted house that had any terror for Hennery, and I went down and let the cats out, and they got on the back fence and had a real sociable time, and after it was all still pa came out with a towel in his hand and tried to make us believe he had taken a bath at 2 o’clock in the morning with cold water.  

Mammy, Spooks and the City Jail

There are so many stories that can come out of this one article from the June, 1911 Oregonian paper out of Portland, Oregon. It’s true that the words “Spooks” and “haunted” caught my attention but once I finished reading this there was so much more.  The fact that Mammy, Mrs. Louella Miller, would prefer to spend her nights in a haunted house with the spooks versus the police.  The statement that she was the first negro mother to be visited in the “City Jail” by the stork.

MAMMY WITH SPOOKS

IS SAFE FROM POLICE

Negress, Mother of Babe at City Jail, Declares She Slept in Old Haunted

House as Patrolman Searched. 

Mrs. Louella Miller, a negress, not only has the distinction of being the first negro mother to be visited by the stork at the City Jail, but boasts that she is one of few women of her race not afraid of spooks.

Matron Isabel Simmons made the startling, announcement yesterday morning that she had a prisoner not yet booked. After inquiry, Mrs. Simmons was more explicit and revealed an eight-pound baby, “brought direct from South Africa by the stork,” remarked the Chief.

   Mrs. Miller will take chances on ghosts in preference to policemen and woodrats most any night. She said so at the police station Tuesday night while telling Captain Bailey where she had been since her arrival in the city two weeks ago.

   She slept Monday night in the “haunted” house, the big residence, almost palatial in proportions, that has stood unoccupied at Twenty-fourth and Cornell streets for 20 years because of superstition.

Haunted House Is Haven.

Mrs. Miller was found in a vacant house at East Couch street and Grand avenue Monday evening by persons living in the neighborhood and was sent to the station by Patrolman Parker. At the station she told many weird stories of her travels, but no incident was as interesting as her adventure in the haunted house Monday night. This adventure was of special significance because the police were called to the “haunted” house Monday night and they say they searched it and found no one, while Mrs. Miller emphatically declares she was inside all the time, heard about the police being called but did not see them. How the “haunted” house was searched and no one found is one of the mysteries at the station.  

   Mrs. Miller said she was at the house all day Monday and in the afternoon a woman, who saw her wandering about the place, told her the house was haunted.

    “I decided to stay out in the yard and sleep on the grass after she told me that,” said Mrs. Miller, “and then a woman told me the police was coming. I’m more afraid of a policeman than I am of ghosts, so went into the house and crawled away back into the attic. I didn't see any policeman around at all and I slept fairly well.”

 House Searched, Reported.

   When she told of the circumstance it recalled to policemen at the station that Monday night a report was received from Henry M. Montgomery, Deputy Collector of Customs, who lives at 86 Cornell street, opposite the “haunted” house that rowdies had been throwing rocks through the windows of the vacant building and two men were hanging around acting suspiciously. Patrolman Stram was sent to investigate, Mr. Montgomery and a companion met the patrolman and Captain Bailey was led to believe that the three had thoroughly searched the house and premises and found no one. That is how the record stands at the police station.

   Mrs. Miller has a vague recollection of hearing the stairs creak once, early in the night, followed by hastily retreating footsteps. After that, it was a silent, black night in the attic.

Ghosts Assure Safety.

   As to the woodrats, Mrs. Miller said she would have slept in the shed but she saw “woodrats as bit as a dog out there,” and preferred an encounter with a ghost, if any should appear.

   With a broad grin she said she considered herself safe from policemen and woodrats in a “haunted” house.

   The woman said she and her husband separated three years ago and since then, she has been roving about the country. She left Boise, Idaho, a few weeks ago and went to The Dalies. She said she came to Portland two weeks ago and had obtained only a few days employment. Out of her meager earnings she bought food and usually found shelter in a vacant house, boxcar or some obscure place where she would not be molested.  

First let me just say that choosing to sleep in the attic of a known haunted and abandon house is a horror movie in the making, you never go into the basement or the attic. I had to Google “woodrats” and see just how big they really are, the thought of one the size of a dog would send me to the next county, once again another horror movie in the making.  What made the patrolmen “hastily retreat” down the stairs and out of the house?

I’m also curious about this child and if I’m reading correctly was born in the city jail; she was the first woman to deliver in the city jail.  There are more questions I can come with as I’m sure many of you can, but I once again chose this particular article because of the approaching holiday.