Ed Okonowicz - Haunted Maryland: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Old Line State

ED OKONOWICZ is a storyteller and a regional author of more than twenty books on Mid-Atlantic culture, oral history, folklore, and ghost stories. He is retired from the University of Delaware (UD), where he worked as an editor and writer. As a part-time instructor, he taught journalism, folklore, and storytelling at UD. His books include short story collections, sports biographies, oral history interviews, and regionally based novels. In 2005 he was voted Best Local Author in the Delaware Today magazine annual readers poll. One of his books, Possessed Possessions: Haunted Antiques, Furniture and Collectibles, led him to appear in October 2005 with psychic James Van Praagh and other paranormal investigators on the Learning Channels two-hour special Possessed Possessions, filmed in Long Beach, California, on the historic ocean liner Queen Mary. His book Civil War Ghosts at Fort Delaware is based on ghost/history tours that he has conducted for more than ten years on Pea Patch Island, where an isolated island fort held 33,000 Confederate prisoners. His Big Book of Maryland Ghost Stories contains more than 140 legends and mysterious tales about the Old Line State. He offers presentations throughout the Mid-Atlantic region on a wide variety of topics. His email contact is . He resides at the northern edge of the Delmarva Peninsula, in Fair Hill, Maryland, with his wife, Kathleen, a prominent watercolor artist and award-winning graphic designer.

I would like to thank Kyle Weaver of Stackpole Books for inviting me to write this book and for giving me the opportunity to learn more about the fascinating state of Maryland. I also appreciate the hard work of production editor Amy Cooper, copyeditor Linda Dalton on the first edition, and the assistance of Globe Pequot Press staff on this second edition, including acquisitions editor Erin Turner and project editor Courtney Oppel.

My appreciation is also extended to colleagues who assisted in offering material, personal interviews, reviews, or information for this book, including Hal Roth of Nanticoke Books; Troy Taylor of Whitechapel Press; Bob Trapani, executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation; and Mike Dixon of the Historical Society of Cecil County.

I also want to acknowledge those folks who provided valuable information and help: Mark N. Schatz of the Ann Arrundel County Historical Society; Mike Hillman of the Emmitsburg Area Historical Society and staff in the Maryland Room in Baltimores Enoch Pratt Library; Laura Berg and Robert Hall, cofounders of the Point Lookout Lighthouse Preservation Society, for providing a tour of the lighthouse; and David Hill and his family for making the arrangements and their hospitality.

For allowing me to use their material from interviews conducted for my book Baltimore Ghosts: History, Mystery, Legends and Lore, I want to thank Vince Vaise, park ranger at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine; Larry Pitrof, former executive director of the Medical Alumni Association of the University of Maryland; and Wayne Schaumburg, cemetery historian and guide at Green Mount Cemetery.

Finally, if I have neglected to mention anyone with whom I had contact during this project, I truly apologize.

E VERY STATE HAS NAMES FOR ITS REGIONS, and in Maryland the most famous is the Eastern Shore. For centuries, these nine counties east of the Chesapeake BayCecil, Kent, Queen Annes, Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcesterhave maintained their unique regional culture, and on several occasions, this distinctively independent region (which makes up the largest section of this book) has even considered seceding from the rest of the state. In fact, this significant portion of Marylandalong with the state of Delaware and two counties of the eastern shore of Virginiamakes up a fourteen-county region known as the Delmarva Peninsula.

With hundreds of waterways, streams, and hidden coves, the names of pirates, watermen, sea monsters, and swamp ghosts are an accepted and natural part of Eastern Shore residents vocabulary.

Among the area legends in this section, youll meet a trio of horrifying female spiritsnamely, Screaming Polly, Patty Cannon, and Bigg Lizz. Each has her own chilling tale to share, and each is believed to still roam the guts and coves of Marylands Eastern Shore.

Theres a single rock, resting on a knoll behind a farmhouse. Occasionally, strangers stop along MD Route 213, a well-traveled Kent County roadway. They want to sneak a peek or take a picture of the bleeding stone.

Mention the rock to the locals and theyll tell you it bleeds. Some will add they saw blood seeping out from the rock. Others admit that theyve only heard the story but never actually saw anything unusual firsthand. But whether they saw the blood flow or not, the rock reminds visitors of the tale of a restless young girl with hopes and dreams, who died hundreds of years ago.

Most likely, the fatal accident took place during early morning when the young indentured-servant girl rode off, intending to escape with her lover from the daily boredom associated with her chores and life at White House Farm. But happily ever after was not to be, for within minutes after leaving the farmhousewhich still stands south of Kennedyville, about five miles north of Chestertownher exciting new life did not begin. Instead, her miserable former one ended.

The most universal version of the legend claims the young girls horse fell in the dark field. As her body left the saddle and slid across the damp surface, her head smashed against a rocka solitary stone that should have been easier to avoid than to findand there she bled to death. No one knows the young womans name or that of her lover, who had lured her away with promises of romance and independence, but her story remains firmly entrenched in Eastern Shore folklore.

Originally called the Ridgely Estate, the oldest section of the home was built by the Isaac Perkins family in the early eighteenth century. The date 1721 is visible on the outside of one end of the long, white farmhouse.

Colonel Isaac Perkins was described as a Flaming Patriot. Records indicate that the mill on his property supplied flour to Washingtons army while it was waiting out the winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. According to additional documents in the state of Maryland archives, General Washington stopped at White House Farm occasionally while he was traveling on the old road that is now MD Route 213. In fact, some suggest that the nations first president may well be one of the ghosts who sometimes visit the house.

During an interview in 1995 for the book Opening the Door, long-time owner Kathryn Pinder shared her experiences in White House Farm, which she and her late husband Arthur had bought in 1944. The legend of the bleeding stone was so well known, Mrs. Pinder said, that when the state highway department changed the course of Route 213 several years agowidening it and placing the highway in the path of where the stone was situatedthe stone was moved from its original site and placed at the top of the hill near the farmhouse.

The bloodstained stone is in the rear yard, Mrs. Pinder said. According to legend, a young girl eloping on horseback was thrown and killed when her head hit the large rock. It can be painted or whitewashed, she added, but the bloodstain will eventually reappear.