Roberta Simpson Brown - Haunted Holidays: Twelve Months of Kentucky Ghosts

Haunted Holidays

Twelve Months of
Kentucky Ghosts

Roberta Simpson Brown
and Lonnie E. Brown

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Copyright 2015 by The University Press of Kentucky

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.

All rights reserved.

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www.kentuckypress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Roberta Simpson, 1939

Haunted holidays : twelve months of Kentucky ghosts / Roberta Simpson Brown and Lonnie E. Brown.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-8131-6555-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8131-6570-7 (pdf) ISBN 978-0-8131-6569-1 (epub) 1. GhostsKentucky. 2. Haunted placesKentucky. 3. HolidaysMiscellanea. I. Title.

BF1472.U6B765 2015

133.109769--dc23

2015011471

This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

To Dwayne VanderEspt and Jerry Anderson

This collection of stories was inspired by the strangest request for a story that we have ever had. It came from the ghost of a young boy! We were amazed at the way it happened.

At the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 24, 2013, we joined our friend Sharon Brown on a tour of Wickland, a haunted historic mansion in Bardstown, Kentucky. The historic aspect of the mansion alone would be of sufficient interest to draw people to take a tour; however, the presence of ghostly spirits in the mansion adds its own magic.

Built between 1825 and 1828, Wickland was the home of three governors.

Its first owner was Charles Anderson Wickliffe, who was governor from 1839 to 1840, having assumed office when Governor James Clark died in office in 1839. Charles Wickliffes son, Robert C. Wickliffe, served as governor from 1856 to 1860. Later, after Governor William Goebels assassination in 1900, Charles Wickliffes grandson, John Crepps Wickliffe Beckham, became governor and, after a special election, served until 1907. All three governors from the Wickliffe family made Wickland their home at some point during their lives.

After a succession of owners after 1919, the Nelson County Fiscal Court purchased Wickland in 2003. In 2004 the nonprofit organization Friends of Wickland opened the house for tours and activities.

There were more than twenty people on the tour we took on May 24, 2013. We knew none of them except our friend Sharon Brown, and none of them knew us. The tour was conducted by the manager of Wickland, Dixie Hibbs, and a medium. (You may call Dixie at 502-507-0808 for more information about the house or reservations for a tour.) The medium used dowsing rods to help us communicate with the Wickland spirits. There are a number of spirits in the house, and no one can predict which ones will show up.

According to Dixie, the strongest spirit in Wickland is Waleta, a large black woman who did the cooking at the house. Waleta shares colorful details of life at Wickland and answers questions from those on the tour. The day we visited, we encountered her spirit through the medium in the kitchen. At least on that day, Waleta seemed especially concerned with the weather. Although we found her comments interesting and entertaining, she said nothing that we could check on as being true.

We ended the tour in the basement of the house, where a young slave boy was said to appear at times. Sure enough, on this night, he was there. All of us sat in a circle, and the medium stood behind the chair of each of us, one at a time. She would hand the dowsing rods to the individual she was standing behind and let the little boy give each person a message. Since there were over twenty of us, the process took quite a while. The medium finally stood behind our friend Sharon, who passed the rods on to Lonnie without waiting for a message. All three of us had already had experience using dowsing rods, and Sharon wanted to allow more time for the others in the large circle. Lonnie turned to Roberta, and, as he held out the rods and Roberta reached for them, the young boys voice spoke clearly through the medium.

Tell me a story! he said.

Sharon and the two of us gasped and then started laughing at the same time. The others in the room looked puzzled and asked what was going on.

We said to the group, Were professional storytellers!

Nobody except Sharon knew that, so there was no way the medium could have faked the spirits request! We wished that we could have told him a story then and there, but the session had to continue. It was so inspiring to have contact with a spirit at Memorial Day, a time when we remember the dead and celebrate their lives.

The spirits request stayed in our minds. We remember the times we sat with relatives and friends and told stories, especially during the Christmas holidays. (As you may know, Christmas used to be the traditional time for telling ghost stories, not Halloween.) We know some of the stories are true because we experienced them firsthand. Some we believe because we heard them from family and friends.

If we have left out a holiday in this collection, it is because we do not yet have a story related to it; however, we are always looking for new stories.

So, Young Ghost Boy of Wickland, as well as all the story lovers who have gone before and all on this side who appreciate a spooky tale, these stories are for you!

Martin Luther King Jr., clergyman and nonviolent activist for the civil rights movement, was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He died by an assassins bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.

We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday in January. Although originally intended to commemorate Kings birthday, the holiday, like other holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, always falls on a Monday. It was officially observed in all fifty states for the first time in the year 2000.

Dr. King was a leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s and led marches and demonstrations for social justice. He was a complex person and, like everyone, had his flaws, but is a hero to those seeking freedom in a nonviolent way.