Spooked at the Myrtles Plantation

I have always had an interest in staying at unique and bizarre places on my road trips.  I have long wanted to stay at the Myrtles Plantation just outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana since it is notorious for being one of the most haunted places in America.

Built around 1796, the Myrtles has had its share of tragedy, hence the hauntings.  The most famous story involves a house slave named Chloe who would constantly eavesdrop on conversations.  Some say she was very paranoid about being put into the fields and was  listening in to see if her master was planning on doing so.  At one point she was caught listening in on a top secret meeting and the master of the house not only sent her into the fields, he also sliced off her left ear as punishment.

To try to win back the favor of her master and also be put back into the house she concocted a scheme to make the family sick and then nurse them back to health.  Basically she would make herself indispensable.  One afternoon she baked a cake but added in some boiled down white oleander leaves to poison them just enough to cause them all to puke up their guts.  Well sadly for Chloe and especially the family, she added too much of the lethal concoction and she ended up killing the two small girls and the wife of the master.

After messing up royally she took off but the other slaves at the Myrtles caught her and turned her in.  the slaves thought that if she escaped then they would be held responsible for the crime.  The master of the plantation ordered that she be hung from one of the trees on the property.

It is widely reported that Chloe and the little girls haunt the grounds.  Chloe is often seen walking outside the porch area and the little girls are notorious for "playing" with the guests by bouncing on the ends of beds or pulling covers off people as they sleep.

I arrived at the Myrtles Plantation mid afternoon and was a little scared to learn that there was only one other couple staying there that evening.  I figured there would be lots of guests just hanging out.  There is always strength in numbers with these kinds of things.  What made it worse was the other couple took off and did not return till almost 10:30 so I was basically alone walking around and jumping at every single freaking sound.  When the other couple finally got back we stayed up chatting for a while until finally retiring at 1:00.

Strangely enough I fell asleep fairly fast due to being so tired.  Luckily I am also virtually blind without my glasses on so any shadows or figures in my room honestly did not have much of an audience.  After conking out for a couple of hours I was awoken by the sound of a door opening and footsteps in the hallway.  At that point I almost lost it including making a big old puddle of pee in my bed.  I waited and waited for about 15 minutes before I got up to investigate.  I opened the door and peeked out into the hall and saw no one there.  Feeling pretty confident, I slipped on my shoes and walked outside to look around the grounds a bit and it turned out that the noises I had heard were the other couple taking off in the middle of the night.  Something must have freaked them out because their car was gone.

These stupid things didn't help much

By this time it was close to 5 in the morning and there was no way I could get back to sleep being totally alone in the house.  I took out my phone and turned on every single light I could find.  I checked Facebook and of course Fruit Ninja since nothing calms an angry ghost like slicing and dicing.  Close to 5:45 I looked up toward the bathroom and saw a small dark blob that looked like the shape of a small child.  All of a sudden it darted across the floor and disappeared at the bedroom door.  Now I am sure that there are quite a few skeptics out there, but there is ZERO chance of me imagining this.  It wasn't like I saw it out of my peripheral vision or anything like that.  I stared dead on at the thing and then it darted right beside me and out the door.

Anyway, at that point I decided it was time for me to leave too.  I quickly packed up and took off into the rising sun.  I like to say that I did survive the entire night since I left right at sun up.  According to the owners quite a few people do not make it through the night.  Oprah apparently left very early one night after having an experience and just a week or so before I got there a woman fled out into the courtyard screaming because she rolled over on her bed and saw the two little girls at the side of the bed.  The night guy had to go in and pack up all her things for her.


Regardless of what time I left, I am sure that the owners got a nice chuckle since no one showed up for breakfast.  Myrtles Plantation strikes again.

I caught this very creepy pic.  Check out what looks like a figure of a woman.  Her head is very distinctive.  Chloe?

Beyond the moon

Today we lost Neil Armstrong who was a true pioneer and hero of American history.  Although he was labeled that in life, he always remained humble about walking on the moon.  I remember learning about the Apollo program in grade school and was so inspired that I saved up several weeks of allowances in order to get my first model rocket building kit.  I spent hours building and painting those rockets and then finally launching them.  With each launch I felt somehow connected to those astronauts that I so admired.  Rest in peace Mr. Armstrong and thank you for the inspiration.

The Crossroads of Revolution

One of my favorite places has always been Concord, Massachusetts.  Naturally, as a lover of history I would be drawn there for its rich history regarding its role in the outbreak of the American Revolution, but I am also fascinated with its literary history as well.

When I lived up in Rhode Island about 12 years ago, I made a number of pilgrimages to Walden Pond known most famously as the setting for Henry David Thoreau's observations and musings about life.  I remember reading "Walden" as a high school student and it made a profound impact on me.  It has been one of my greatest joys as a teacher to take my students there for a moment of reflection regarding the teachings of Thoreau.

A moment of reflection at Walden Pond

For the past several years we have connected both the outbreak of the American Revolution and the birth of transcendentalism, a revolution of thought, by going to Concord where both occurred in two very different time periods.  One of my favorite stories to tell is how Louisa May Alcott was appalled that centennial commemorations at Old North Bridge were closed to women unless they were in the company of a man.  She defiantly gathered women in the town square and marched down and forcibly entered the festivities with her followers.  We reenact that by marching to Old North Bridge ourselves rather than taking the bus.

The Old Manse is one of my favorite spots and I have spent a lot of time on the "Thinking Rock" looking out upon Old North Bridge and then contemplating how the transcendentalist movement was basically started started on the same property.   The Old Manse was the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson who drafted "Nature" in the residence.  "Nature" became one foundations of the movement.  It truly is a crossroads of revolution.

Little Paul on the Thinking Rock

Cassadaga

I have lived in Florida for about 12 years now and I am constantly amazed at just how quirky the state is.  Beyond the beaches and Disney are some towns that really should be the basis of a new reality show.

I had always heard of Cassadaga from others and decided this past weekend to finally visit the town myself.  It is more commonly known as the "Psychic Capital of the World" and draws mediums, spiritualists and psychics from around the globe.  

Spiritualist George Colby founded it in 1895 after being led there by one of his spirit guides.  Through the years it has drawn all kinds of people seeking out some clues as to what lay ahead in the future.  Cassadaga is REALLY tiny but they managed to really pack in tons of psychics and mediums who are very willing to sit down with you.......well, as long as the price is right.  Below you will find a very short video of the experience.

Digging up the Lincoln Conspirators

I know that it might be a bit odd but cemeteries have always been fascinating to me.  I think the interest began when my fourth grade class visited the local Confederate cemetery.  Ever since, whenever I visit a cemetery I will wander among the tombstones and read the epitaphs.  They can often tell a remarkable story.

One of my favorite lessons that I have taught involves doing a cemetery investigation in Concord, Mass in which students try to piece together how people wanted to be remembered, or at least how other people wanted to remember them.  Among some of the most robust statements there is one lady whose epitaph simply says "She was very punctual".  Boy, they must have been really reaching for a compliment for that lady!

When I embark on one of my road trips, a visit to a cemetery is sorta a given.  Having spent the summer in and around DC giving tours, I decided to spend some time hunting down the final resting places of some of the Lincoln conspirators.  It turned out to be a much more difficult process than I had imagined.    An insane line of thunderstorms moved through the area that weekend, knocking out power to millions and uprooting thousands of trees.

John Wilkes Booth was the one I really wanted to find and I set out early one morning to find his grave, or at least the Booth family plot at Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.  After battling the insane traffic I arrived and was greeted with a "closed" sign.  Throughout the entire cemetery there were many downed trees and they closed it due to safety issues.  Luckily, one of the office workers saw me standing outside the gate and I convinced her to let me in.  Yeah, I pulled the sad teacher card.  No shame though......it DID work.

I was under strict instructions to not go anywhere else in the cemetery which was really hard to abide by since 2 other Lincoln conspirators are also buried there.  Nonetheless, I decided not to disobey them and found the Booth plot.  I found it a bit strange that people have covered some of graves with Lincoln pennies.  Not really sure of the meaning, but I found the same type of remembrance left at the site where Booth was caught and killed.

On the journey, I also found the graves of David Herold, Mary Surratt and Lewis Payne(Powell).  Check out the video to take a look at the hunt.

Gravely Speaking : Anne Royall

Have you ever dealt with a person that was always in everyones business? Someone that was always causing trouble?   Today, we begin a series where we "dig" up the stories on some interesting figures in our history.

Most people today would have no idea who Anne Royall was, but when she was alive she was both revered and despised.  She is most widely known as being America's first professional newswoman and her life was characterized by blowing the door open on government policies and corruption.  I guess she could also be referred to as the nations earliest gossip queen.

Royall was a very small lady with extremely blue and piercing eyes.  People often recalled shielding themselves from her when passing by to escape her soul piercing gave.  In 1829, she was arrested for being a "common scold" meaning that she was deemed a public nuisance.  One practice of the day was referred to as "ducking" in which the deviant was put into a chair like contraption and dunked into a river or pond.  Royall was spared this punishment, most likely because of her advanced age, and was fined 10 bucks.

One of the most interesting legends about Anne Royall involves her forced interview of John Quincy Adams.  According to the story, Adams was bathing in the Potomac River and Royall sat on his clothes until he answered her questions.

In 1831 she began publishing her own newspaper known as "Paul Pry" in which she handed out blistering attacks on those in authority and anyone else she felt generally annoyed with.  The newspaper continued in various forms until her death in 1854.


Anne Royall is buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C.

Odd how things work out

Cowpens National Monument

I have spent a good deal of the last month on the road gathering information for the website.  Most of my travels were in and around Virginia so naturally there was lots of Civil War history to learn about.  As I was sifting through all my material I became very aware of this.

I don't want the website to be just about the Civil War, although it is of huge fascination to me.  As I was beginning my journey back home via Atlanta I kept scanning the tan signs along the road in hopes of finding a new location to study.  While going through South Carolina I remembered that the Revolutionary War battle of Cowpens was fought there.  Sadly, I remembered this because of the movie The Patriot(the historian in me cringes), but nonetheless it sparked my interest when the movie came out.  For those of you not very aware of Cowpens, it was a battle in which the tide of the the war began to turn in favor of the Americans in South Carolina.

Upon entering South Carolina I stopped at their Welcome Center.  Yeah, I have this weird thing about stopping at the Welcome Center in each state.  Kinda my own little OCD thing.  Anyway, Cowpens had flickered in my mind as I was driving but for some reason I really thought that it was located closer to the coastline which was at least a few hours away from where I was.  It definitely would not have fit into my itinerary since I was supposed to be in Atlanta in just a few hours.

Little Paul with Cornwallis

I guess my intuition kicked in because as I was leaving the Welcome Center it just dawned on me to plug the location of Cowpens into my GPS.  Luckily I did, because as it turns out, the battlefield was only about 15 miles away!  My historical heart leapt for joy because it has always been a place I wanted to visit.  To make matters even better, there were all sorts of special events going on that day because they were having a special fireworks display that evening.  Not only did I get to tour the battlefield, i also got to see a firing demonstration and had the chance to meet a man portraying General Cornwallis.


Pretty amazing how things can turn out huh?  I shot a little mini field trip there that will go up on our website in the near future so be sure to check back.