This historic house, in
Raleigh, North Carolina, dates back to 1785. Five generations of the Mordecai
family lived here until the property was willed to the capital city in 1964.
The Mordecai House is the
oldest building in Raleigh.
Today it is a part of a public
park that sits off Mimosa Street near downtown Raleigh.
Many of the Mordecai family
possessions remain in the home.
This is why people believe
the homes’ resident ghost is Mary Willis Mordecai Turk who lived there from
1858 until her death in 1937.
It is said she loved to play
her piano, throw parties and show off her beautiful home.
It is known Willis died in
the house, but it is not known which room.
Mary's piano.
Her apparition is seen
wearing a grey 19th-century dress. She is heard playing her 1800s piano that
remains in the downstairs drawing room.
When this piano is played no
one is seen sitting on the bench, but visitors report seeing a “grey mist”
hovering near this instrument.
Her apparition is seen in the
homes’ hallways and late at night witnesses have seen her standing on the front
balcony.
One former male worker at the home reports that he saw various items move on their own. He also heard
phantom footsteps upstairs.
Stairs at Mordecai House.
Ghost teams that have
investigated the home state they felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow at the top
of the stairs.
This might be connected to
the fact, that after the Civil War during Mary’s time in the home, the Mordecai
family lost their fortune.
An old photograph of Mary
Willis remains. It tips over whenever Mary is displeased or doesn’t approve of
something happening in the home.
The Mordecai House is
considered one of North Carolina’s most haunted. One episode of the television
series, Ghost Hunters, featured it.
A Ghost Guild, Inc. team
member, Nelson Nauss, while doing a recent spirit box session in the home asked
the spirit, “Do you want me to stay or do you want me to leave.” The ghost
replied by stating a firm “leave” several times.
This privately owned grand home and estate are open to the public year-round.
The 26- year old Vanderbilt heir, George Washington Vanderbilt had this house built for his ailing mother as a vacation home in 1886. The estate encompasses 125,000 acres, and cost Vanderbilt a large portion of his inheritance.
Lilypond
Vanderbilt had his own railroad line built to the home so family, friends, and guests could travel to the estate with ease. At the time the mountains where the estate is located were a distance from Asheville,—today this city with its expansion is closer.
In recent years, this estate with is views and winery has become the largest tourist attraction in the state of North Carolina. Its home and gardens were featured in the Peter Seller film, Being There.
George Vanderbilt and his wife Edith held lavish parties in the home. Guests were often invited to stay for weeks at a time.
George and Edith Vanderbilt
George was an avid collector of rare books, and the Biltmore’s library was his favorite room. His guests noted he would retreat to this room during storms. It is here where his ghost is seen most often.
His wife’s voice is heard calling the name “George” softly in this room, during storms—wanting him to join his guests.
Biltmore library
When Vanderbilt died in 1914, from complications connected to appendicitis, Edith would spend hours in the library talking to her deceased husband. The servants feared she was losing her mind.
She is heard to this day having conversations with George in the library.
After Vanderbilt’s death his daughter’s sons inherited the estate— they opened the home to the general public.
Three of many gardens.
The Biltmore estates’ indoor pool is another active spot. Even though this swimming pool has been drained for years visitors and workers report hearing splashing sounds coming from this area while in the home—especially at night.
Indoor swimming pool
Diabolical laughter is heard coming from the drain at the bottom of this pool. And the apparition of a “lady in black” appears to be connected to this area.
Throughout the home, witnesses report hearing the sounds of clinking glasses, laughter and snatches of music. It appears one of Vanderbilt’s big parties is still in full swing.
Several full-bodied apparitions have been seen over the years, and unexplained screams have been heard.
Other witnesses have seen a headless orange cat roaming the area between the garden and the Bass Pond.
This estate can be reached via exits off both 1-40 and I-26 in Asheville. Signs clearly mark the way.
In November of 1901, the body
of Ella Maude Cropsey was found floating in the Pasquotank River, she had been
missing for six weeks.
Seven Pines
This river flowed passed her
family’s home, Seven Pines, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Ella was nineteen at the time
of her death. Her family called her Nell.
The Cropsey family moved to
Elizabeth City in 1898 from Brooklyn, New York. The family had four children.
Their lovely daughters, Nell and Olive called Ollie immediately attracted two
local suitors.
Ollie dated a man by the name
of Roy Crawford and Nell who was 16 at the time the family moved dated Jim
Wilcox, the son of the local sheriff.
Nell Cropsey
Three years later, Nell who
was anxious to marry and have a family of her own had become disenchanted with
the relationship because Jim who was five years her senior had no interest in
marriage.
Jim Wilcox
On the night of November 20,1901 Jim showed up at the Cropsey house and requested to speak to Nell
alone. Nell followed him out to the front porch as he shut the home’s front
door.
Shortly after the two went
outside Ollie heard a loud thump on the front porch but ignored it.
Jim Wilcox was the last
person to see Nell alive. Later when he was arrested for her murder he stated
that he had broken off the relationship with her—giving back a keepsake photo
he kept of her-- and left her standing on the porch around 11:00 p.m. crying
her eyes out.
When Ollie’s boyfriend, Roy
Crawford left he claimed he saw no sign of Nell or Jim in the front yard.
The family did not suspect anything
was amiss until later that night. They were awakened when they heard a neighbor
call out that someone was “stealing their hogs” which they kept pinned in the
backyard. When Mr. Cropsey investigated there were no pigs missing.
Ollie discovered Nell was not
in her bedroom. It was late so the family called the police stating Nell had
disappeared.
The porch.
Jim immediately came under
suspicious since he was the last person to see Nell. He told the local chief of
police that he had joined a friend at a bar for a beer after leaving Seven
Pines. The sheriff stated his son had been home abed since midnight.
The chief did not believe him—one reason being the photo Wilcox claimed to return to Nell was not found.
Yet another reason,
discovered later, was that an empty bottle of whiskey had been found on the
riverbank near where the body was found. A local clerk stated he had sold a
similar bottle to Wilcox on the day of the disappearance.
Wilcox was arrested and placed
in jail.
In a strange twist, the
family received an anonymous note a month later in December that stated a
witness had seen Nell go to the back of the house to discover someone trying to
steal the pigs—she was then knocked unconscious and the witness stated he saw
this man put her in a boat and row away.
During the search for Nell a
psychic got involved in the case and stated she had seen Nell’s body being
thrown down a well. This information distracted the searchers for a while.
Pasquotank River
The day Nell’s body was
pulled from the Pasquotank River a lynch mod headed for the jail that held Jim
Wilcox, ironically it was Nell’s father, William Cropsey who prevented this.
When an autopsy was performed
on the body it was discovered that Nell did not drown but rather died from a
blow to her forehead. This injury indicated that she had been murdered.
The community ignored the
“pig thief” story and instead Jim Wilcox was tried and convicted twice * for
Nell’s murder. After serving 17 years of his sentence he was pardoned in 1920
by the state’s governor.
* In the first trial Wilcox
was sentenced to death. There was an appeal and in his second trial he was
sentenced to 30 years in 1902.
When he returned home he
found himself ostracized by the community. He could not find work and began to
drink. In 1934, he shot and killed himself.
To this day it is not known
for certain who murdered Nell.
Published in New York Times
January of 1902
Click to enlarge
Nell is buried in the family
plot in Brooklyn, New York. The Cropsey family left Elizabeth City after
Wilcox’s trials. But tragedy continued to follow them.
Supposedly, Nell’s mother
Mary Cropsey lost her mind and died in an asylum. her sister, Ollie became a
recluse and one of Nell’s brothers, William Jr. committed suicide by ingesting
poison in 1913.
In one bizarre twist, it is
said Roy Crawford Ollie’s former suitor, also committed suicide in 1908. It was
whispered at the time he did this out of guilt. He supposedly found Jim Wilcox
standing over Nell’s body and helped him move the body to the river.
It appears Nell’s ghost has
never left Elizabeth City. She is seen in her bedroom at Seven Pines wearing a
white dress.
She also appears in the front
parlor of the home. She is seen standing and looking out the window toward the
front porch.
Witnesses have also stated
they saw her ghost walking along the riverbank where her body was found.
The curious fate of the
Carroll A. Deering has put it at the top of the list of maritime mysteries.
The Deering is considered a
ghost ship for it was found abandoned by the Coast Guard on the Outer Shoals of
Cape Hatteras in North Carolina in 1921.
In August of 1920, the
Deering a five-masted commercial schooner, prepared to sail from Norfolk,
Virginia to Rio de Janeiro. It carried a cargo of coal.
The original captain was
William H. Merritt--he fell ill soon into the journey and was left off in a
port in Delaware. Hastily the Deering Company found a replacement. W. B.
Wornell was a 66-year old retired sea captain.
A young Captain Wornell
The Deering made it to Rio de
Janeiro without further incident. Captain Wornell gave his Danish crew shore
leave and spent his time with an old friend--Captain Goodwin. He talked about
the crew on the Deering with distain and stated all save the ship’s engineer
were untrustworthy.
The Deering left Rio in early
December and then stopped for supplies in Barbados. The ship’s first mate,
Charles B. McLellan who came aboard the Deering at the same time as
Wornell got drunk and complained about having to work with the old captain.
He stated to whomever would
listen that Wornell would not let him discipline the crew and that he was an
interfering old man. He stated it was left to him to do all the navigation
because of Wornell’s poor eyesight.
While in the Continental Café
McLellan bragged, “I’ll get the Captain before we get to Norfolk, I will.”
Another captain, Hugh Norton overheard this threat and had him arrested.
In an odd twist Wornell
forgave McLellan and bailed him out of jail. On January 9th the
Deering set sail for Hampton Roads.
The last time the Deering was
spotted with her crew onboard was when she hailed the Cape Lookout Lighthouse
in North Carolina. The keeper, a Captain Jacobson reported that a thin man with
reddish hair and a foreign accent told him the Deering had lost her anchors--he
did not look like any of the known officers aboard.
2nd Cape Lookout Lighthouse in 1913
Jacobson could not report
this because his radio was out. He noted the crews’ presence on the ship was
odd--for they were “milling around” on the fore deck of the ship, an area onboard where crews were not allowed normally. He then watched as the Deering set a peculiar course.
Soon after this, the Coast
Guard spotted the Carroll A. Deering run aground on Cape Hatteras. After a series
of storms let up, on February 4th the cutter Manning reached the Deering and managed to board her.
There was no sign of the crew
and their belongings and the lifeboats were missing. The ships log, navigation
equipment, papers and most of the valuable items on the ship were also gone.
It looked like the crew had
abandoned the ship just as a meal was being laid out.
The U.S. government conducted
an extensive search and an investigation--this task was given to then Secretary of
Commerce Herbert Hoover-- but the crew was never located. The reason for why
the ship was abandoned remains a mystery. The government has never offered an
official explanation.
The Deering stayed ahead of a
storm that hit the area at the time so this was ruled out as a possible cause.
A variety of reasons were put forth at the time. Was it foul play by rumrunners? Or was it a communist pirate
ship that was set on capturing an America ship?
Could it be the crew
mutinied--did they run the ship aground on purpose taking everything of
value with them before they did this?
A more outlandish but
persistent theory is that the paranormal forces at work in the Bermuda Triangle
robbed the Deering of its crew. But the Deering wasn’t near the Triangle when
she ran aground. By March of 1921 the only thing
left of the wreaked and battered Deering was her hull. The ship was towed away
and dynamited. In 1922, the investigation was closed.
In 1921 a farmer, James L.
Chaffin Sr. from Mocksville, North Carolina died after a fall. He left behind a
wife and 4 sons.
The will that James left he
had written in 1905, 16-years before. It stipulated that his 3rd son
Marshall should inherit the farm.
But Marshall died the
following year and since the will had not left any provisions for the rest of
the Chaffin family this meant Marshall’s widow inherited the farm.
Marshall Addison Chaffin
April 2, 1922
In 1925, James’ 2nd
son, James Pinkney Chaffin-- James Jr. surprised the family by filing a lawsuit. He challenged the
validity of the will.
Even more shocking was his
announcement that he did this as a result of several conversations he had with
his father’s ghost.
He stated that in a series of
dreams his father’s spirit had visited him. He both saw him and heard him speak.
James Lewis Chaffin
September 7, 1921
During one of these visits
James Sr. had appeared wearing his old overcoat. He told his son that his most
recent will could be found if he looked in the old coat’s pocket.
This overcoat had been passed
on to John Chaffin so James traveled to his brother’s home and the two men discovered
a new lining sewn together in one pocket. James Jr. ripped it open and found a note that
read:
“Read the 27th chapter of Genesis in my
Daddy’s old Bible.”
James Jr. then tracked down
his grandfather’s Bible in the top drawer of a dresser in his mother’s house.
He found the will tucked next to the 27th chapter of Genesis.
It was a more recent will having
been written 14 years after the first in 1919 --a couple of years before James Sr. had
died. This will equally divided the estate between his children--as long as
they provided for their mother.
At the trail experts
determined that this will was indeed written in James Sr.’s handwriting. Ten of James Sr.'s friends also stated it was his handwriting.
Marshall’s widow and son at
first prepared to contest James Jr.’s claim but recognizing the handwriting of her deceased father-in-law in the end she even agreed the
will was genuine.
James Jr. stated his father’s
ghost had predicted this would happen.
James Pinkney Chaffin
June 11, 1949
A settlement was reached and
the farm was returned to the Chaffin family.
Asheville, North Carolina’s
early history like many towns was bawdy and violent.
In the early days a narrow
alley located in downtown Asheville was named after the many chickens that
would congregate in this area--it is still called Chicken Alley * today.
Recent residents of this
alley claim to see a ghost that has made appearance in this area for over 100
years.
A violent bar fight in
Broadway’s Tavern in 1902 resulted in the death of one of Asheville’s prominent
citizens-- Dr. Jamie Smith. It is said his spirit is the one that haunts this
alley.
Dr. Smith wore a distinctive
wide-brimmed black fedora hat along with a long duster style coat. He was
always seen carrying his black medical bag and a stylish cane topped with
silver.
Sightings of him always are
similar and these descriptions always include the specific clothing and
accessories mentioned above.
A Rowdy Town
Asheville at the end of the
19th century was filled with loggers who came in from the
surrounding camps. The town provided flowing whiskey and brothels to keep these
men happy on the weekends.
It is said Dr. Smith also
enjoyed the delights Asheville provided. He spent most of his time treating
aliments caused by the sins of the day--sexually tranmitted diseases and
injuries from drunken bar brawls.
Bad timing and bad luck led
Dr. Smith to Broadway’s Tavern located in Chicken Alley. He stumbled upon a
rowdy fight and when he tried to break it up he was stabbed through the
heart--he died instantly.
His assailant was never
caught and this tavern burnt down a year after the good doctor’s death.
A Shadowy Ghost
Since Dr. Jamie Smith’s death
in 1902 reports of seeing an odd dark figure walking along Chicken Alley has
become common. This ghost is seen most often late at night.
People report hearing his
cane tapping along the pavement as he makes his way through the alley.
The locals speculate why his
ghost still lingers in this area. The obvious and most common reason stated is
because he died in this area.
Some state the doctor is
still trying to stop the fight, others state he just wants another drink.
The only chicken left in the
alley today is on a brightly colored mural in the entrance to the alley. It is
here the doctor’s ghost is seen between Carolina Lane and Woodfin Street in
this short alley.
* The Alley hosts many alternative
artists today, which is reflected in the alley’s interesting graffiti.
Edward Teach * better known
as Blackbeard is considered the
fiercest pirate that ever lived. This is credited more to his appearance than
his actions.
A Scary Pirate
Teach was taller than most
men of his time. He had long dark hair and a bushy black beard.
He loved to intimidate his
enemies when he captured their ships in battle. He would board their ships with
“slow-burning’ fuses in his hair and around his shoulders.
The sight of him smoldering,
holding several pistols, and knives strapped to his waist was enough for many
of his enemies to surrender without a shot being fired.
Reality
Some sources state Teach was
an educated Englishman, but his background is still hotly debated today. What is
known is the fact that Edward Teach was no better or worse than any other
pirate.
History reflects his main
goal was to gain loot or money not to gain vengeance or bloodshed. This does
not mean he was not a violent man he was, but historians note he treated people
fairly who cooperated with him.
Teach plied his trade for two
years--1717 to 1718 along the route from the West Indies to the waters along
the southeastern coastline that later would become a part of the United States.
He commandeered a British
ship called Concorde in 1717.
Blackbeard rigged her with 40 cannons--the usual 26 were not enough for him. He
renamed this ship, “The Queen Anne’s Revenge.”
One well-known adventure
Teach was involved in reflects his real character. He blockaded Charleston’s
harbor when his men desperately needed medicine.
He kept a councilman and his
young son hostage until a fully equipped medicine chest was delivered.
Teach, like many pirates
attacked slave ships with human cargo. His trusted second in command, Black Caesar was a former black slave
whose ship Blackbeard boarded and then freed all the slaves.
Most pirate ships at the time
freed African slaves. Many of these men then became a part of their crews.
Blackbeard, despite being a
fierce opponent in battle, was said to be a “lover” at heart. He supposedly took
a dozen wives. He treated each dotingly until another caught his eye.
In 1718 he briefly retired
from piracy and married his latest “love.” But his friends lured him back to
the sea.
Blackbeard’s Death
Blackbeard often sheltered
his ship in a cove by Ocracoke Island--a barrier island in the Outer Banks--off
the coast of North Carolina. This area is called Teach’s Hole. **
Lured back into piracy Teach
attended a party in this cove with several other captains. They made such a
loud uproar that nearby Virginia residents complained.
The governor of Virginia,
Alexander Spotswood hired Lieutenant Robert Maynard in command of the sloop Jane to capture Blackbeard. In November
of 1718, Maynard caught up with the pirate in Teach’s Hole.
A fierce battle ensued and
Maynard decided to trick Teach. He sent most of his men below decks and then
enticed the pirate to board his ship.
As Blackbeard and his men
boarded the Jane, Maynard’s British crew swarmed out of the ship’s hole.
Maynard personally fought Blackbeard who suffered 30 stab wounds and 5
gunshots.
Teach collapsed on the deck
and died of blood loss. The Jane crew cut off his head and displayed it on the
ship’s bowsprit. *** They then threw his headless body overboard.
Haunted Teach’s Hole
According to legend
Blackbeard’s headless body was then seen swimming around the Jane before it
disappeared beneath the waves. At the same time, it was noted his separated head
shrieked.
It is said Blackbeard’s ghost
haunts the area where he died. Witnesses claim to have seen his body swimming
in circles in Teach’s Hole. It is also reported that where he is seen swimming
a bright light glows beneath the water.
This light is known as Teach’s Light.
Others state they have seen his
ghost rise out of the water holding a lantern--he then walks ashore. It is said
his boots leave no footprints. It is believed he is looking for his head.
Eerily on stormy nights along
this beach witnesses state they have heard a deep voice that crosses the
wind. It is heard bellowing, “Where is my head?”
* Edward Teach’s last name is
sometimes listed as Thatch or Tash.
** Teach’s Hole is located in
Pamlico Sound just off Springer’s Point. *** A bowsprit is a type of
spar--pole--that extends from the front of a sailing vessel. It is here jibs, and forestays are fastened.
