GHOST STORIES GALORE
Strange Antics at the Late Home of Josephus Palmer-Present Occupants Bombarded with Apples, Nuts, and Coal-The Mysterious Woman in Black.
If Mr. of Mrs. Stephen Hubbard were believers in spooks and ghosts, they certainly would not now reside in their present home.
Many queer stories have gone forth about the nightly pranks of some person or persons who made Mr. Hubbard's home the place of some queer antics.
Mr. Hubbard resides in a cottage near the edge of Putnam Lake, a short distance above the dam. The house is of old-fashioned design, and has an entrance on three sides. The chimney is one of those massive structures which pass up through the center of the house and afford an open fireplace in four rooms.
Some might claim this to be a typical house for spooks, but Mr. Hubbard does not agree in this opinion.
It was at this house about five weeks ago that a stranger called and asked to see Mr. Hubbard. Mrs. Hubbard said that he was not at home, and for a while she entertained the visitor, who finally asked for a glass of water, and while she was getting it the caller questioned her daughter, Bessie, about the pictures on the wall, asking which was a photograph of Mr. Hubbard and other members of the family.
After he had obtained his drink, the stranger left.
A night or two after this visit, Mr. Hubbard found these pictures of his family torn in halves, while the likenesses of others were left undisturbed. When or how these pictures were taken from the walls and destroyed Mr. Hubbard does not know.
One day after this Mrs. Hubbard and her daughter were on their way home from a call to Mrs. Wilson's, who lives for the short distance below Mr. Hubbard's home, and when they were about mid-way between the two houses apples were fired at them, which seemed to come from all directions, but fortunately none of them struck either Mrs. Hubbard or Bessie.
When they reached home they related their experience to Mr. Hubbard. When he started out to see who it was that was firing them, he, too, was made a target for the same kind of missiles, and for the life of him he could not tell where they came.
At night, chairs, boards, pickaxes, shovels stones and such things were thrown at the house, sometimes breaking many panes of glass.
One evening, just after dusk, apples were sent bumping against the house like Spanish bullets, and when Mr. Hubbard stepped out the door, one or two of them struck his head. They seem to come from an apple tree standing near the house. Mr. Hubbard took his gun and shot once or twice into the tree, but no one was there. The neighbors who through the firing came over to see what was the cause of it, and when they explained, they, too, were unable to comprehend the meaning of such actions.
These nightly revels of persons who sought to make Mr. Hubbard believe it was the pranks of ghosts always occurred before the family had retired.
One evening but a short time ago, as Mr. Hubbard sat reading by a table in the sitting-room, about a bushel of hickory nuts fell all about him as though they can come through the ceiling, smashing they shade of the lamp by which he was reading, and fell about the floor.
And another time a big stone came falling down the big chimney, scattering dust and ashes about the rooms, and startling people in the house as well.
Clothes were frequently taking from the lines in the yard and rolled in the mud. Pins were stuck in clothing as well as in chairs, and once or twice Mr. Hubbard was made to leave a chair rather suddenly on the account of one of these pins, which had been stuck, point upward in the cushion of the chair.
A heavy French clock was taken from the mantle-shelf and set out in the middle of the road, books and other articles were also taken from the rooms and placed in the street, and all this in open daylight!
Squeals like mice and grunts of a pig would sometimes come from the cellar, and the cat when she heard the squeal, would go to the corner of the room from which they seemed to come, and watch for the expected mouse to appear.
One day a voice came from the cellar in the measured tones of a gramophone calling Bessie, telling her to go upstairs as something was on fire. When she went found several of Mr. Hubbard's coats and jumpers in flames. Two or three times garments have been set afire in this manner on the upper floor.
At another time this same gramophone voice called from the region of the cellar, telling Mrs. Hubbard to go into the kitchen, that something was burning. On entering the room she found dinner which had been cooking strewn all over the stove and floor. As fast as she would replace the supply it would be thrown out again. That day it was found necessary to eat meals in the barn.
There were days when things were literally turned upside down in the house. The lace curtains were taken from the windows and placed over the mirror, and again they were removed and some of them turned up in the stove.
At night, when all was quiet about the house, nuts, apples and coal would come clattering down the garret stairs, making noise enough to drive the family out-of-doors.
When Mr. Hubbard went up to investigate, nothing would be found to explain the unusual noise, although every nook and corner of the garret was thoroughly searched, and all the boxes and barrels emptied of their contents.
In all these happenings no one has been seen about the place save a woman -or a person dressed as a woman.
This person Mrs. Hubbard has seen in the house in about the place a number of times.
Once Mrs. Hubbard thought it was her daughter making an unusual noise, and went to see what she was doing. She entered the room just in time to see this woman pass out by another door into the street.
At another time as this woman was leaving the house after one of her visits, she was seen by Mrs. Hubbard and her daughter. The latter gave chase, and succeeded in getting close enough to strike her across the head with a stick.
On none of these encounters was Mrs. Hubbard able to get a glimpse of her fleeing visitor's face. She was always dressed in black except on one occasion, when she wore a pink waist.
At times this mysterious woman would talk with the family, sometimes from the cellar, and others from the garret, but always in that peculiar gramophone voice.
In spite of all these disagreeable occurrences, neither Mr. or Mrs. Hubbard felt in the least alarmed, and only laugh at the spook feature of the story.
Mr. Hubbard contends that there are two parties who seek to secure the place he now owns and take this means of driving him from his home, hoping that he will sell the property cheap.
In fact, this woman who has been seen about the place, in a conversation while she was in the cellar, stated that she was to be paid twenty-five dollars by each of the parties if she succeeded in ousting Mr. Hubbard, but if Mr. Hubbard would pay her one-hundred dollars she would go away and not trouble him again.
But Mr. Hubbard has no idea of paying any sum of money for such a purpose.
Last Saturday a son of Mr. Hubbard came up from Port Chester. During the evening the mystery solicitor was about the place as usual. He went to the garret to a large hole in one corner of the building, which he knew of, but of which his parents had no knowledge.
He found a large blanket placed on the floor at this opening, so that person might go in and out noiselessly. He fired his pistol into this hole several times, but no one appeared to be there.
Later in the evening, when the "spirit" was in the cellar, he engaged it in conversation, informing it that the property belong to him, and that he would not sell it under any consideration.
Since this time there has been no further disturbance at the house near the edge of the lake.
Source: Greenwich Graphic. November 18, 1899. Page 1.
Transcribed by Jeffrey Bingham Mead
