Quite the story and rather than tell it I dug up up the actual newspaper report from 1889
Percy Woodcock, photography v. 1879
Photo by Linda Seccaspina- Former barn on High Street
The barn look haunted I thought to myself. I looked up from the overgrown grass growing around the barn and noticed the structure looked gaunt and lonely. It was missing windows, and the one small window left at the top of the barn looked like a haggard eye closed in death. It had been long neglected, and the ragged bushes and local gossip was that it was haunted. But, isn’t every old structure haunted with memories of once was?
I remembered another small barn near where I once lived that had been built for a woman that was said to be taunted by a ghost of evil, revenge and a bitter heart. She had considerable wealth and chose to flaunt it and ended up dying alone in the very shadow of that haunted barn. From the first stone that was laid in hatred for the foundation of the barn you could not speak of anyone or anything with appreciation without calling thunder clouds to the woman’s brow. Infiltrated by demons, there was something forced about her smile and even her dog looked like it had the blues.
She used to sit in her bedroom window at night staring out at the barn and was said to have seen apparitions. But, then again she wasn’t sure if they were real because even she knew there is a thin line against imagination and reality.
When she died some said she had been possessed by a woman who had been murdered when her home was built. This woman had been done away with before she had moved into the house and fragments of her had been cemented into the foundation of the barn.
After she died the people that entered the house found out there was nothing frightening about the home. To their disappointment there was only silken curtains spun by successive generations of spiders waved across the windows when the door opened to admit the autumn air.
The barn was no different, and the mystery of the odd woman remain unsolved much to the chagrin of the gossipers of the town. No clue was ever found to who was murdered, and the next person that bought the house and the barn decided to pull it down and not one stone was left of the ill-omened place with its evil entities and unsolved murder mystery. After all, who knows what they would have found because everyone knows: old barns tell the best stories.
Photo by Linda Seccaspina- Former barn on High Street
Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in The Townships Sun and Screamin’ Mamas (USA)
Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read. Also check out The Tales of Carleton Place.
Join us and learn about the history under your feet! This year’s St. James Cemetery Walk will take place Thursday October 19th and october 21– Museum Curator Jennfer Irwin will lead you through the gravestones and introduce you to some of our most memorable lost souls!
Be ready for a few surprises along the way….
This walk takes place in the dark on uneven ground. Please wear proper footwear and bring a small flashlight if you like.
Tickets available at the Museum, 267 Edmund Street. Two dates!!!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1211329495678960/
OCT 28th
Downtown Carleton Place Halloween Trick or Treat Day–https://www.facebook.com/events/489742168060479/
Here we go Carleton Place– Mark Your Calendars–
October 28th The Occomores Valley Grante and Tile Event–730pm-1am Carleton Place arena-Stop by and pick up your tickets for our fundraiser dance for LAWS. They also have tickets for Hometown Hearts event at the Grand Hotel fundraiser
Mill Street as it appeared in 1889. This land was first purchased by a Mr. Coleman from the Morphy family in 1820. In 1822, Hugh Boulton purchased it and finished construction. The mill was later owned by Horace Brown as a flour mill. On the left-hand side are buildings used for the Boulton-Brown Grist Mill, and on the right-hand side is the residence of Horace Brown, grandfather of A. Roy Brown.–Photo–Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
One of the Many Hauntings of Mill Street–Linda Seccaspina
Life hadn’t been kind to Jim O’Brien. His wife ran off with his best friend and left Lanark County to find gold. A letter from his wife informed him she was presently in San Francisco, having arrived aboard the Steamship Oregon on June 13, 1849 .
Mrs. O’Brien was part of a group called the Ogdensburg Co. of 10. The letter mentioned a James Simpson, James Beckwith and a Mr. Nathaniel McCaffrey of Carleton Place. Jim knew Nathaniel but not the other two men. He wondered if they had run off with other men’s wives too. Jim’s daughter was dying of influenza and he too was struck down with the flu. Only a few dollars stood between him and starvation– but soon after his daughter’s death a minister helped him find work in the Bolton Grist Mill in Carleton Place.
A year later a well-dressed woman breezed up to his place of work on Mill Street and asked for Jim by name. When shown to the office she fell to her knees and begged his forgiveness when he entered the room. It was his estranged wife, back from California, where his ex-best friend had made a fortune in the gold-fields. His wife’s former lover had died and now his wife wanted to pick up where they’d left off.
But this story was not to have a happy ending. She, herself, caught the dreaded influenza and died of pneumonia, leaving her husband £62,000 in her will. It is said today that when the moon rises high and the night is dark that her soul marches up and down Mill Street looking for her money– but most certainly not her husband.
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