Southern Spirits and Family Ghost

Last night I was reading the newest issue of Southern Living and I came across an article called Southern Gothic (page 16 October 2011).  This article was written on how the South plays a large part in helping writers create their ghostly stories and characters and how we are intrigued by the Southern Spirits and their tales of tragedy and loss. Now I love a good ghost story more than most.  Hearing tales of people from days gone by that could be haunting us always captivates my attention.  Perhaps its because our family has a few tales of our own. 


One evening in the 1800's, my Great-Great-Grandfather Curly Wilson left his wife to take a ride into town.  We do not know why he was going into town, but we do know that his saddle bags were filled with a large sum of money.   Hours later his wife heard his horse outside their home and heard the creaking of the front porch floor boards as though Curly  was about to walk in the door...but he never came in.  He would never be seen alive again and his death was one of the oldest mysteries in Tennessee for over 90 years.  My Great Grandmother always told us that she had seen stains of blood on rocks near the place they thought Curly had gone missing. His remains were recovered about 20 years ago under a bluff in Tennessee.  We will never know how he was killed, but I will always believe the creaking of the porch the night he went missing was him saying goodbye to his wife one last time.


We also have a family home in Tennessee that was built in the late 1700's.  We call it the log house.  You can almost feel the presence of something or someone in the old part when you stand there thinking about the generations of loved ones that have lived and died in that place.  One warm summer night my family was staying at the log house.  Before falling asleep my sister was feeling a little eerie about sleeping in the old home.  At some point in the middle of the night my sister was awoken when she felt someone come into the room.  She opened her eyes and as the full moon beamed into the windows she saw a lady "standing" in the doorway.  The form was almost transparent, yet my sister saw her as clear as day.  The lady looked at her and with great sadness in her eyes "floated" over to a dresser  with family photos displayed on top.  She seemed to be looking at them.  She then "floated" over to a window and disappeared into the night.  My sister thought it was just a strange dream and went back to sleep.  A few weeks later our cousin told the exact same story of seeing a lady come into the bedroom where he was sleeping.  We realized that my sister had not been dreaming and they had both seen the same lady.  We looked at family photos and realized they had seen my Great-Great- Grandmother Melinda Page.


Melinda Page's body rest on the hill behind the log house in our family cemetery.  She died at age 42 from TB.  I would say her story is one of sadness and loss as she left behind a husband and small children who had to grow up without their real mother.  I do not know why she has been seen at the log house by some and not others.  I do hope that I get to see her the next I visit the log house.  Maybe then I will have another family story to tell.


Southern Living says there is something "hauntingly beautiful" about the South and the stories we have to tell. Southern Spirits and Family Ghost...I really wouldn't want to hear any other stories, would you?

~The Gingham Paved Road~

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnsmith/cempics/pagecem.htm