Sally Townsend's Ghost

During the Revolutionary War, Americans were either Patriots—those who wanted independence from Great Britain, or Loyalists those who remained loyal to King George and wanted to stay an English Colony. 

Samuel Townsend was a Patriot and one of his older sons Robert was a participant in a Patriot intelligence group called the Culper Spy Ring.

Most of the Americans who lived in Oyster Bay were Loyalists, so the Townsends were in the minority. 

After the Patriot’s defeat at the Battle of Long Island, to add insult to injury, Samuel Townsend was forced to quarter in his home two of his enemies Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe and Major Andre both British officers who commanded an elite unit of American Loyalists called the Queen’s Rangers. 

Samuel Townsend told his children to treat the officers with respect. One of Samuel’s daughters Sally Townsend enjoyed the company of these two British soldiers and despite her father’s protests she continued to associate with them. She eventually fell in love with John Graves Simcoe and he returned her affection. 

Raynham Hall is a museum today, it contains what is considered the oldest Valentine preserved in American History. John gave this valentine, dated February 14, 1779, to Sally.

During this time the Culper Spy Ring was supplying needed information about British plans and troop movements to George Washington. Simcoe, in turn, was using Raynham Hall as a drop off location for British intelligence

Sally reading one evening in the Hall’s living room stayed hidden while one of these notes was placed in a container in the room. She read the note—it confirmed intelligence that Major Andre had been working on--Benedict Arnold, the commander of West Point, would accept a bribe to betray the Patriots by offering to surrender the fort and his troops to the British.

Sally, knowing this information would harm her country was torn between her feelings of love for Simcoe and her loyalty for America. She knew she must betray one or the other. Finally, heartbroken she informed her father of this plot.

This information was passed on to Benjamin Tallmadge, who had organized the Culper Spy Ring. Major Andre was found, on him, he held the plans for the fortification of West Point that Arnold, following through with his betrayal, had given him.

Self-portrait Major Andre drew night before he was executed. He was hanged for a spy since he was caught out of uniform. Andre was well liked by all, so his death was mourned. Sally’s brother Robert regretted it deeply.

On a monument the Americans erected to Andre’s memory there is a quote from George Washington. “He was more unfortunate than criminal an accomplished man and a gallant soldier.”

The choice Sally made allowed West Point to be saved from British control. This helped the Patriots win the war. Unfortunately, there was no happy ending for Sally Townsend. 

Townsend house today.

Sally was never able to forgive herself for betraying, John, the only love of her life. 

Today there is a female ghost that haunts Raynham Hall--Sally Townsend. Her bedroom, known as the west room, is always colder than the rest of the house. 

Tour guides mention they have to wear a sweater when they are in her bedroom. Many people avoid the room altogether stating they always feel someone is behind them.

Others Report they feel conflicted emotions upon entering the room.

Sally Townsend is a true unsung hero of the American Revolution because she chose her country over her love.

Sally Townsend

The Legend of La Llorona

Old Spanish song about La Llorona

Don’t go down to the river, child,

Don’t go there alone

For the sobbing woman, wet and wild,

Might claim you for her own

She weeps when the sun is murky red

She wails when the moon is old

She cries for her babies, still and dead,

Who drowned in the water cold

She seeks her children day and night,

Wandering, lost, and cold

She weeps and moans in dark and light,

A tortured, restless soul

Don’t go down to the river, child,

Don’t go there alone

For the sobbing woman, wet and wild,

Might claim you for her own

In another post, I talked about how children in New Mexico are very familiar with the La Llorona story. La Llorona is New Mexico’s most famous ghost. 

If you visit anywhere along the Rio Grande river in my state, you will encounter New Mexicans who will gladly relate their version of La Llorona. This story is told in other parts of the country, but the following story is one often told in New Mexico.

In the early 1700s, there was a young woman named Maria who lived in a small village along the Rio Grande. 

As Maria matured, she began to attract much attention in the village because she was lovely. Her family was impoverished, so her mother encouraged Maria to marry one of the local men. 

Maria with the firm self-belief that her beauty would someday attract a wealthy man refused.

One day a handsome young man rode into the village. He was the son of a rancher in Mexico. He wore tailored clothes and rode a well-groomed horse with a fancy saddle—all the signs of a man of wealth.

Maria started to follow him around, she tried to catch his eye, but he only noticed the better dressed young girls in the village. At night he would play his guitar for the locals, many young ladies swooned at his golden voice. Maria was sure her heart would break.

Then one day as Maria shopped the young rancher stopped near her. Maria blushed with embarrassment because she wore an old dirty, tattered dress. 

But her blush caught his eye, and for the first time, he noticed how beautiful she was. He began to court Maria. 

Within a short time, he had paid Maria’s father a large dowry so he could marry her. Knowing his family would not accept his marriage to a woman from a lower class—the couple settled along the Rio Grande.

Over the next several years Maria’s husband worked as a merchant along the El Camino Real, and Maria bore him three children. But as the years passed Maria and her wealthy husband grew apart. 

He spent less and less time at home, and he showed no interest in their children. Maria began to suspect that he was seeing another woman while he was away.

Maria’s suspicions were confirmed when she spotted her husband riding in a buggy with a beautiful young woman by his side. Her heart was broken. 

She exploded in a jealous rage. Distraught she thought that if only she did not have the children, her husband would love her once more. 

Rio Grand River

In a rage, she dragged her children one by one to the river and held their heads under the water until they drowned.

Her senses lost to reality; she approached her husband and told him what she had done for him. Horrified he ordered her out of his life. 

Numb she wandered the streets of the village for several days crying for her children. The villagers started to call her La Llorona—meaning the wailing woman.

Maria realized she had lost everything dear to her, so she went down to the river and cried for her children. 

She then flung herself into the river. Her body was never found. 

Another view of Rio Grande

People in New Mexico still see a woman dressed all in white walking along paths near water. They hear Maria’s desperate cries for her children and then she slowly fades away.

Many believe she is condemned to wander, weeping and searching for her children. Others believe that she is a harbinger of death—if you see her someone will die.

Anne Mitchell's Curse and Haunting

Before John Bell Hood was a general on the Confederate side during the Civil War in America, he fell in love with a lovely black-haired beauty by the name of Anne Mitchell. 

She was known as the “belle of Central Kentucky.” She had a sweet and kind disposition, and she had her pick of the eligible bows in the area. In her late teens, she met John Bell Hood who was attending West Point and was home on furlough.

John Bell Hood

Hood courted Anne, and the two fell passionately in love. Their favorite place to meet in the evenings was in the garden of the Hood home. This garden is where Anne’s ghost is seen today. 

Another suitor for Anne’s hand, a Mr. Anderson, approached the Mitchell family promising if he were allowed to marry Anne, he would build an elegant home for them both, near the Mitchell family home. 

Anne’s father preferred Mr. Anderson because unlike Hood, he had a great deal of wealth.

John returned to West Point, and Anne’s family began to pressure her incessantly to marry Mr. Anderson. Anne gave in but made one request, she wanted to write John a private letter and send it to West Point. 

In this letter she poured her heart out to the young cadet, she told him she “would love him forever” and would only walk “the garden path” with him in this world or the next. 

She informed him she was being forced to marry another. John, upon receipt of this letter, left school and rushed home.

Hood managed to get Anne a note requesting she meet him a couple of nights later, at the garden gate. He assured her he would have a horse waiting for her, so they could ride fast, and get married before her family discovered her absence. 

Unfortunately, one of the Mitchell family slaves discovered Anne was gone after she left to meet John. 

Anne’s father and brothers reached the garden just as John was putting her on a horse. She was forced to return home.

Her father locked her in her bedroom. She could see the Hood garden from her window. 

She was kept in confinement until the day of her wedding. Her view of the garden was her last contact, with the man she loved. 

After the marriage, Anne refused to move from the Mitchell household, so Mr. Anderson moved in with her. Her new husband provided her with material wealth, and affection, but she never stopped loving John, and she never forgave the punishment she felt her family had inflicted upon her. 

When she found she was pregnant, she became moody and depressed. After the birth of her son, she refused everyone admittance to her rooms, including her husband. She stopped talking altogether.

When she finally spoke months later, she cursed, "all who had any part in making me marry when my heart will always belong to John Bell Hood."

That same afternoon a storm blew in, a lightning bolt struck the corner of the Mitchell house, and part of the brick wall caved in. 

Anne, one of her brothers--who had forced her home, and the slave girl who had sounded the alarm were all killed.

As the years past, people believed that Anne followed through on her curse. She haunted her family and their descendants. 

Family members affected by this curse included her father, her son, and then his sons. All died violent, tragic deaths. 

Her son, Corwin Anderson, died of shock after seeing his oldest son, English Anderson assault and kill his younger brother.

English Anderson, later killed a man in a knife fight and beat a young man, who worked on his farm, to death. The other farmworkers then stoned Corwin to death.

Her curse appears to have lasted for many years, as recent as the 1940s, one of her great-grandsons, Jason Anderson, committed suicide. 

As for the two men who loved her—her husbands’ second wife died, and after this, there is no record of him. 

As for her true love, John Bell Hood, he appeared not to escape the curse. He lost one of his legs in the Civil War, and his career as a general ended in disgrace.

But regardless of her unhappy ending and her curse, people who have witnessed her ghost, wandering in the garden of the old Hood house, state despite being “shaken up” by the encounter, they never felt threatened or frightened. 

In fact, many who have felt or seen her in the garden, state she is a quiet, gentle presence.

Mitchell family Kentucky homestead.

Her ghost is also seen wandering around the old Mitchell family homestead.