White House Farm Part 2
...continued.
But when the steps started back, we left the lights on, the paint, and went back home- and this is no joke, this is the truth. I came back the next day when it was light, turned the lights out and went through the house top to bottom. I found no evidence of anything. This happened. As yet I don't know what the noise was. I don't - I don't think it was Mary. We've lived here since 1943 and while there's been many noises in this old house due to settling after having been built in 1720 - it does settle.
There is the tale of the stone - with the blood - that was beside the road and was always whitewashed, year after year, and the bloodstains always came through. This was this stone upon which Mary Stuart * was killed while eloping. She was thrown from a horse and her head hit the stone and she was killed. The people in Chestertown, especially the older people, have told me many times that riding by here when they were young in a carriage that they would always look for the stone which was kept painted or whitewashed. And in 1955 or '56 this road was widened and the stone was in the right of way and consequently it was to be destroyed or moved. So rather than see something happen to this old stone that there was such a legend about, I hired the contractor to dig the stone up and load it on a tractor and bring it up and put it in my yard, which it is still there. And the bloodstains are still there. You may call them blood or you may call them what you please. I have personally painted the stone with paint, not whitewash, and within two weeks the stains, whatever it may be, always come through. When the stone was moved, the paper, the Kent County News, had a photographer here, took a picture of the stone and wrote quite a story about it - about this legend. The Baltimore papers also picked up the story and had a picture of it in the Baltimore Sun. And their reporter, his name was James Flood, called me and asked me about the stone and I told him the story about the girl that was killed and this ghost who walks. And he did ask me if I had ever met her and I said no. He said what would you do should you meet her. I told him, I don't want to seem pert, but I would never meet her - she may overtake me, but be damned if I'd ever meet her. But the legend so goes tha on January 8 of each year at 12:00 midnight, Mary walks. And it has become a tradition with the Pinder family to have a small cocktail party for a few friends on that date and then at precisely at 12:00 to be at the graveside, read the inscription, and needless to say we've had many exploits there that would more than meet the eye. I especially remember on one or two occasions that it being very cold, that about the time that we would leave the grave that an owl would screech. And some of the believers swore it was Mary screaming her defiance.
To be continued.
Source: Folk Tradition in Kent County, Maryland: A Collection of Folk Literature as Told by the Citizens of Kent County, Maryland by Robert Allan Gorsuch, Ed. D. copyright 1973. The story of White House Farm is printed as told by Mr. Arthur Pinder on October 24, 1970.
*Note: I have done a little research, and I think this man has combined two of the ghost legends about this house into one person. Mary Perkins Stuart was not the young woman who died when thrown from the horse. Mary Stuart was a daughter of the builder of the house, who inherited the property as a small child, married, and had several children. She died at the age of 39, and is believed to haunt the property. I have not found the name of the young woman, a servant or indentured servant, who was killed one night by being thrown from her horse while riding off to meet a man who promised to marry her. She hit her head on the stone, which is supposed to have bloodstains which can't be covered up.
I took some new photos today of the house and the nearby area, which I will post tomorrow. Here is a picture of the kitchen, which I found on the 'net. It is now an organic farm which raises turkeys.
But when the steps started back, we left the lights on, the paint, and went back home- and this is no joke, this is the truth. I came back the next day when it was light, turned the lights out and went through the house top to bottom. I found no evidence of anything. This happened. As yet I don't know what the noise was. I don't - I don't think it was Mary. We've lived here since 1943 and while there's been many noises in this old house due to settling after having been built in 1720 - it does settle.
There is the tale of the stone - with the blood - that was beside the road and was always whitewashed, year after year, and the bloodstains always came through. This was this stone upon which Mary Stuart * was killed while eloping. She was thrown from a horse and her head hit the stone and she was killed. The people in Chestertown, especially the older people, have told me many times that riding by here when they were young in a carriage that they would always look for the stone which was kept painted or whitewashed. And in 1955 or '56 this road was widened and the stone was in the right of way and consequently it was to be destroyed or moved. So rather than see something happen to this old stone that there was such a legend about, I hired the contractor to dig the stone up and load it on a tractor and bring it up and put it in my yard, which it is still there. And the bloodstains are still there. You may call them blood or you may call them what you please. I have personally painted the stone with paint, not whitewash, and within two weeks the stains, whatever it may be, always come through. When the stone was moved, the paper, the Kent County News, had a photographer here, took a picture of the stone and wrote quite a story about it - about this legend. The Baltimore papers also picked up the story and had a picture of it in the Baltimore Sun. And their reporter, his name was James Flood, called me and asked me about the stone and I told him the story about the girl that was killed and this ghost who walks. And he did ask me if I had ever met her and I said no. He said what would you do should you meet her. I told him, I don't want to seem pert, but I would never meet her - she may overtake me, but be damned if I'd ever meet her. But the legend so goes tha on January 8 of each year at 12:00 midnight, Mary walks. And it has become a tradition with the Pinder family to have a small cocktail party for a few friends on that date and then at precisely at 12:00 to be at the graveside, read the inscription, and needless to say we've had many exploits there that would more than meet the eye. I especially remember on one or two occasions that it being very cold, that about the time that we would leave the grave that an owl would screech. And some of the believers swore it was Mary screaming her defiance.
To be continued.
Source: Folk Tradition in Kent County, Maryland: A Collection of Folk Literature as Told by the Citizens of Kent County, Maryland by Robert Allan Gorsuch, Ed. D. copyright 1973. The story of White House Farm is printed as told by Mr. Arthur Pinder on October 24, 1970.
*Note: I have done a little research, and I think this man has combined two of the ghost legends about this house into one person. Mary Perkins Stuart was not the young woman who died when thrown from the horse. Mary Stuart was a daughter of the builder of the house, who inherited the property as a small child, married, and had several children. She died at the age of 39, and is believed to haunt the property. I have not found the name of the young woman, a servant or indentured servant, who was killed one night by being thrown from her horse while riding off to meet a man who promised to marry her. She hit her head on the stone, which is supposed to have bloodstains which can't be covered up.
I took some new photos today of the house and the nearby area, which I will post tomorrow. Here is a picture of the kitchen, which I found on the 'net. It is now an organic farm which raises turkeys.
