Susan Peterson Gateley - Legends and Lore of Lake Ontario

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by Susan Peterson Gateley

All rights reserved

Front cover, bottom: courtesy of Jaime C. Jordan ().

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.537.5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gateley, Susan Peterson.

Legends and lore of Lake Ontario / Susan Peterson Gateley.

pages cm. -- (American legends)

Includes bibliographical references.

Summary: Historical folklore and legendary stories from the waters and the shores of Lake Ontario--Provided by publisher.

Summary: Legends and lore from the waters and the shores of Lake Ontario--Provided by publisher.

print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-084-9 (pbk.)

1. Ontario, Lake (N.Y. and Ont.)--History--Anecdotes. 2. Ontario, Lake, Region (N.Y. and Ont.)--History--Anecdotes. 3. Ontario, Lake (N.Y. and Ont.)--History, Naval--Anecdotes. 4. Legends--Ontario, Lake (N.Y. and Ont.) I. Title.

F556.G368 2013 974.79--dc23 2013021767

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following history-minded folk who made this book possible:

Ed Moriarity for sharing his story of an Oswego shipwreck.

Richard Palmer and his tireless excavation of old news archives and other primary source documentation of our past.

Walter Lewis for his excellent website resources at www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca.

Dale Austin, Ed Burtt, June MacArthur, Wade Szilagyi, Greg Grunditsch and Brenda Spencer, who made available some wonderful and, in some cases, priceless images from family archives for this project.

Pat Cooper for her generosity regarding her artwork.

The artists of Red Creek School District, Jamie Kiemle and Katie Watson, and their instructor, Sue Stanistreetmany thanks for your efforts.

And the tireless technical department in the form of Chris Gateley.

CHAPTER 1

GHOSTS IN THE NIGHT

What is it about a good ghost story that we find so compelling? Even most disbelievers enjoy a tale told by candlelight or a flickering fire with dark shadows in the corners or jumping and shivering on the walls. Lake Ontarios waters have closed over many vessels, large and small. There have been appalling (and violent) tragedies played out on its shores. We should not be surprised that our region has its share of restless spirits.

Several writers have told of a Lake Ontario demon known as the Carcagne. One of the best-known stories was that told by Samuel Hopkins Adams in his Grandfather Tales and adapted here. Female sea devils and spirits abound in the folklore of sailors around the world. Lake Ontarios Carcagne closely resembles the night-flying banshees of Celtic tales with a dash of African-Caribbean jumbie and a bit of Iroquois Jijogweh, the night-flying water witch gull. Perhaps Irish immigrants brought their banshee stories to Lake Ontarios shores, where they were cross-pollinated with a black slave story or an Indian legend.

Lake Ontarios devil spirit, the Carcagne, ventures forth on stormy nights to soar over the waves. She has the head of a wolf, a vampires fangs and the black wings of a bat. One late August night in 1829, a powerful northeaster came sweeping across the water. That night, broken clouds scudded before the gale, and an eerie glow from the Aurora Borealis pulsed, flashed and shimmered to the north. Despite the date, there was an autumn chill in the wind as it rushed among the buildings and swirled down the streets of the port of Oswego. As the breakers boomed against the shore beneath Fort Ontario, word went around the waterfront taverns that Munk Birgo was putting out onto the lake with his sloop. Birgo was a man with a reputation to match that of the lake banshee. He was born in the malaria-ridden swamps of Montezuma, a days ride southwest of Oswego, and his mother was said to possess dark powers of her own. Birgo practiced a number of unsavory trades on the lake, including the transport of illegally obtained cadavers for the medical colleges in New York City and Albany, where the resurrectioners could get up to fifty dollars for a cadaver in prime condition. Birgo sometimes brought his sloop into Oswego to transfer bodies to a canalboat there.

A small group of waterfront idlers gathered to watch him cast off. Some thought they heard the flutter of wings on the air. Some said they caught the faint odor of corruption. Was it the leech of Birgos jib they heard and the lingering odor of his sloops fish hold they smelled? Or were they something more? Munk Birgo cast off that night at the stroke of midnight, tis said. He sailed out of the river directly into the northeaster while reciting the Lords Prayer backward.

The dockside loafers turned and hurried for home. Some said later they heard a high, mad wailing in the night. Perhaps the sound came from the gale whining among the chimney pots and shrilling through the rigging of the ships in port. But perhaps it did not. At dawn the next day, Birgos black-hulled sloop was seen coming back into port. She was under full sail, and some who saw her declared a small dark cloud or shape moved just ahead of her across the water. She steered straight up the river on a run, moving faster than any mortal sloop could sail. At the helm sat Munk Birgos bones picked clean and white by the Carcagne. Then, they say, the sloop abruptly vanished, and a wild cry sounded over the harbor.

Oswego is home to another ghost, one of the best known on the New York lakeshore. This phantom is the spirit of a soldier who walks the ramparts of Oswegos Fort Ontario. He is said to appear just before our nation goes to war. This spirit is supposed to have been the restless remains of Lieutenant Basil Dunbar, who was stationed at the forts predecessor during the French and Indian War and who committed a serious tactical blunder by falling in love with his commanding officers wife. When the captain found out, a duel was declared, and Dunbar lost. It was not long after that reports of a ghost pacing the forts ramparts began.

Another version of the Oswego military ghost holds that the spirit that haunts Fort Ontario was that of a British regular who died in Revolutionary War times. He is seen in his red coat and white britches and is said to be the uneasy spirit of George Fykes. He appears at least once to every new garrison at the fort. Because it is no longer an active military post, its not surprising that he has not been reported since World War II. But during World War I, a soldier stationed at the fort claimed to have seen an apparition. This was around 1919, and as the rumors spread, the general hysteria became so intense that no one wanted to stand post at this particular station. It all started when a guard noticed a light the size of a saucer following him as he walked along. Thinking it some sort of trick, he ignored it. But the next night, another guard saw the same thing behind him. The two men compared notes. One then watched the other walk his post. At midnight, as city hall struck twelve, the light arrived for duty. This time it stationed itself over the sentrys head and followed him around.