Dead
but Not Gone
By
Kathleen Rice Adams
Every
year at Halloween, people dredge up every ghost story, spooky campfire tale,
and urban legend they can find. Something draws humans to the supernatural, the
unexplained, and the patently creepy, even though most of us fervently hope
we’ll never experience the phenomena in person.
Ghost
stories are nothing new. Neither are ghosts. In fact, quite a few of America’s
most famous…and notorious…former citizens reportedly still inhabit their
favorite “haunts” a century or more after their corporeal forms left the
building.
Abigail Adams
John
and Abigail Adams not only left their mark on history as the second President
and First Lady, but also as the first residents of the White House. The presidential
mansion was still under construction when the couple moved out after John’s
single term as President, but Abigail—a tidy, down-to-earth woman—reportedly
lingers yet. During the Adams’s tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Abigail hung
her wash in the East Room because she found that to be the driest, warmest
place on the property. During the Taft administration, the East Room became a
popular spot for hosting receptions. That’s when the President, guests, and
staff began reporting a ghostly Mrs. Adams, clad in a mop cap and lace shawl,
sauntering through with armloads of spectral laundry. To this day, guests
sometimes report a soapy fragrance in the room.
Aaron
Burr
and Alexander Hamilton
The
third Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr is best known for the
duel in which he killed Alexander Hamilton, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. Although Burr was acquitted of murder in the
incident, both he and Hamilton appear to have been so scarred by the bitter
political rivalry that haunted them during life that they stuck around after
death to do a bit of haunting of their own. The owners, staff, and guests at a
New York restaurant located in what once was Burr’s carriage house have
attributed flying dishes and moving chairs to Burr’s unseen hand. Similar
poltergeist activity has been reported in the Greenwich Village house in which
Hamilton died.
Benjamin
Franklin
Possibly
one of the most brilliant intellects ever to roam the planet, Founding Father,
writer, inventor, philosopher, and scientist Benjamin Franklin was more than a
bit eccentric. Among his favorite earthly haunts during life was the library of
the Philosophical Society he helped found in Philadelphia. After Franklin’s
death, the society erected a statue to his memory. Perhaps they shouldn’t have
bothered. Reports of his “free spirit” roaming the halls are legion. Less
common, but no less credible, are sightings of the statue dancing through the
Philly streets.
Andrew Jackson
The seventh President of the U.S.,
Andrew Jackson could be boisterous, argumentative, and temperamental. (While in
office, he beat a would-be assassin to the ground on the steps of the Capitol
building.) Old Hickory died in June 1845, but as large a presence as he was in
life, nobody should have expected him to leave and be done with it. He didn’t.
In 1865, Mary Todd Lincoln reported confronting a “cantankerous” ghost she
insisted was Jackson’s swearing and stomping about the second-floor Rose Room,
which had served as Jackson’s bedroom. Stomping, cursing, and loud laughter
occasionally echo in the space even today, earning the Rose Room a reputation
as the most haunted location in a structure with more than its share of
resident ghosts.
Jesse
James
One of the most notorious outlaws in
the American West, Jesse James’s motives remain the subject of debate. Perhaps
the American imagination’s unwillingness to let James go is the reason he
hasn’t gone. Since the day he died more than 130 years ago, folks have reported
unearthly goings-on at the Kearney, Missouri, farm where James grew up. Now a
museum, the property is subject to doors opening and slamming all by themselves
without setting off security alarms. Lights move inside and outside the
buildings, and on foggy mornings, the pounding of hooves, muffled shouts, and
gunfire can be heard in the nearby woods.
Enigmatic third U.S. President
Thomas Jefferson embodied the clash between American ideals and the reality of
the American experience. In the second paragraph of the Declaration of
Independence, Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal,” yet he owned slaves and
was outspoken in his belief that Negroes were an inferior race. Today, phantom
footsteps and happy, if mysterious, humming and whistling at Jefferson’s home,
Monticello, are attributed to his presence. Mary Todd Lincoln (who seemed prone
to ghost sightings), reported seeing Jefferson in the Yellow Oval Room at the
White House. In addition, hauntingly beautiful violin music sometimes emerges
from the Oval Office while it is unoccupied. Jefferson was fond of playing the
violin while relaxing in the room.
Marie Laveau
The truth about Marie Laveau is so buried in legend as to be
indecipherable. Born a free woman of color, she’s often called the Voodoo Queen
of New Orleans, but it’s more likely she was a devout Catholic who embraced
some African and Creole traditions in her role as a healer. Regardless where
she stood on the mystical, Laveau was a beautiful, wealthy woman who remains a
source of fascination more than 130 years after her death at the age of 98.
People visiting her grave to seek a variety of intercessions have reported
seeing the gauzy form of a woman wearing a tignon
(a turban women of color were required to wear). The same figure has been seen
at the New Orleans house where Laveau’s cottage once stood.
Robert E. Lee
Considered one of the most brilliant military tacticians in history,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee led vastly outnumbered Rebel forces to a number
of significant victories over better-equipped Union troops. Exhausted by the
war and heartsick about the conflict’s toll on his beloved Virginia, Lee lived
for only five years after the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. At his death,
it appears he regressed to happier times and returned to his family’s home in
Alexandria, Virginia. There, the spirit of a young boy about four years old is
thought to be Lee’s. Much like the general in his childhood, the boy is
mischievous: He rings doorbells, moves objects, and giggles in the hallways.
Occasionally he is seen romping on the lawn with a ghostly black dog and the
specters of two young girls who are thought to be his sisters.
Abraham Lincoln
Possibly the most often-sighted ghost in the U.S. is reputed to be the
sixteenth President. It seems only fitting that Abraham Lincoln would return
from the Beyond, as he was a firm believer in the supernatural. Lincoln’s
presidency during a pivotal point in American history and his tragic
assassination seem to have bound him to the White House for good. Among those
who’ve reported post-mortem encounters with Honest Abe are Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and Dwight Eisenhower; First Ladies Grace
Coolidge, Jacquie Kennedy and Ladybird Johnson; presidential children Susan
Ford and Maureen Reagan; Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill (who, in a tremendous breach of international
protocol, encountered Lincoln fresh from the bath, nude). Lincoln makes his
presence known in the Lincoln Bedroom, the Oval Office, the Rose Room, and the
East Room, where his body lay in state. Lincoln’s ghost also has been reported
in Springfield, Illinois—near his grave, walking the streets around the original
courthouse, and wandering through his former home.
Dolley Madison
Wife
of fourth U.S. President James Madison, Dolley Madison often is applauded for
her social grace and elegant taste. The White House Rose Garden was her
proudest accomplishment. Evidently, she continues to maintain a proprietary
interest in horticulture. When First Lady Edith Wilson directed the staff to
dig up the roses, a “very angry” apparition that looked a lot like Dolley
chased them from their work. The project was abandoned. Others have reported
detecting the scent of roses in several of Dolley’s favorite rooms.
Can you tell I’m fascinated by ghosts? When the opportunity to contribute
to the Prairie Rose Publications anthology Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico, Vol.2 came along, I knew
exactly what kind of Halloween creepiness my story would include.
“Family Tradition”
A failed bank robber and a phony
psychic find their soulmates after she accidentally summons a pair of
dishonest-to-goodness ghosts.
Haunted by his kin’s tradition of
spectacular failure, bank robber Tombstone Hawkins is honor-bound to prove his
family tree produced at least one bad apple. Carnival fortuneteller Pansy
Gilchrist has masqueraded as a gypsy spiritualist for so long she’s started to
believe her own spiel. When she accidentally summons a pair of real ghosts,
dishonesty may not be the best policy…but it’s all they’ve got.
She had no choice but to play out the con. “What question weighs your mind?”
“I’ve suffered a recent…setback.” A soft chuckle rippled across the space between them. “Ask your spirits how to remedy that.”
“The future is a vast, open plain. Without more to go on—”
“If you’re legit, they’ll know what I mean.”
As if maintaining the ruse weren’t difficult enough. She stalled for time with more deep breaths. “My guide wishes to know your name, so he may call upon the proper advisors.”
Silence expanded to fill the tent before he spoke. “Hawkins. Tombstone Hawkins.”
Her eyes snapped open. Finally, a chance to regain control of the dodge. “It’s not wise to mock the spirits.”
“Ain’t mocking nobody. That’s my given name.”
“Sounds like you should be contacting the Beyond yourself instead of inconveniencing me.”
The smirk she’d noticed earlier broadened into a full-fledged sneer brimming with sarcasm. “Please go on. I ain’t seen an act this entertaining since I was knee-high to a toad—and that’s been a mighty long while.”
The sparkle in dark eyes, the broad shoulders hunched over the chair, the amusement stretching his lips all spoke of a man for whom a rough-edged kind of charm came naturally. If pressed, she would admit this saddle tramp’s raw masculinity could enchant a less worldly woman. Cleaned up, he might even be attractive.
Too bad he was such an insufferable clod.
Directing her gaze to the crystal ball, she lowered her voice into the singsong rhythm that never failed to lull gullible marks into a trance of their own. “Spirits, Tombstone—” A giggle bubbled upward. She cleared her throat. “Tomb—” She nearly choked trying to catch a snort. Damn the man’s name anyway. “Mr. Hawkins seeks—”
His flattened hand crashed down on hers, practically pressing her palm through the tapestry. She glanced up.
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About Kathleen Rice Adams
A Texan to the bone, Kathleen Rice Adams spends her days
chasing news stories and her nights and weekends shooting it out with Wild West
desperados. Leave the upstanding, law-abiding heroes to other folks…even
Kathleen’s good guys wear black hats. Find her online at:
Website: KathleenRiceAdams.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/kathleen.riceadams
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