White House Farm Part 3
There have been many things in regard to this old house that are unexplainable - I don't try to fathom them. We love the old house and we live in it. I know that, in speaking of modern times, I had colored people work for me that lived about a quarter of a mile down Perkins Hill road and at no time, if it was after dark, I had to carry them home. They would not walk home. They wouldn't work in that field at night with a tractor. Any other field, yes, but not that field. "No sir boss, I quit, I will not work out in that field where Mary is." So Mary is quite well known in this area.
The stone is there bearing the inscription - her name, the date - and she was a daughter of Thomas Perkins and this property was a grant to Thomas Perkins by the King of England. One of Thomas Perkins' sons was known as the "Flaming Patriot" and is buried on this property. The old mill site is still here. The old dam site, part of it is still here and we do know, according to history, that the grain from this property was ground and taken to the forces of General Washington. And was given to him by the Perkinses - the officer the Flaming Patriot. This is history.
The mill pond
Historical marker
.........
One evening I was here alone in the kitchen eating my dinner and I thought I heard someone outside and the dogs both growled and went to the door - to the kitchen door. and I thought it was my daughter and I waited and no one came in so I shrugged my shoulders and kept on eating my dinner. In about five minutes both dogs jumped again and that time I heard the door close and I thought it was my daughter and she had gone on up to the bedroom. In fact the dogs sat down and kept growling and finally I - it was more than I could take - and I walked to the stairs door and I called my daughter and she didn't answer and I went upstairs and went to her room and it was no one here - no one. And I distinctly heard someone in the house. the dogs heard it - if it had just been me - but the dogs. I mean this was the thing that told me something was cockeyed. Because both dogs ran to the door twice and I distinctly heard the door open and shut.
Many times when I've been here alone, sitting right where I'm sitting now, we have a - right outside of this window there's a cellar doors that open like so. I've heard those damn doors close. Bang! And I say, "Well, here we go again!" I don't have the slightest idea what it is. I'm not afraid - sometimes, well you know, you think well gee whiz. I know it hasn't been over a month ago - Catherine was in Chestertown - and I was here alone and it was about 8:00 p.m. and I distinctly, twice, heard someone and the second time I heard this door open and close in the dining room and I heard the footsteps inside - who was it? Catherine didn't come home for two hours.
My wife's father lived with us for quite a number of years after Mrs. Nickerson died and we would be out an evening and leave him here alone and he more than once when it was breakfast time would say, "Arthur, ol' Mary really raised hell last night. She was all over this house."
I have heard things that I can't explain.
Now this was - maybe it's been a year or so ago - when she (Catherine) called me one night. We were sleeping in the big room over here. And she said, "Am I going out of my mind?" I said what in the world's wrong? She said, "Didn't Sandra walk through that room in her nightgown and go to the other room a few minutes ago?" I said no, you gotta be kidding. she said "Well, somebody did." She was wide awake and is a sensible person.
-End-
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.
Photos by me, taken 10/24/08