Paperback
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Much like its muddy riverbanks, the mid-South is flooded with tales of shadowy spirits lurking among us. Beyond the rhythm of the blues and tapping of blue suede shoes is a history steeped in horror. From the restless souls of Elmwood Cemetery to the voodoo vices of Beale Street, phantom hymns of the Orpheum Theatre and Civil War soldiers still looking for a fight, peer beyond the shadows of the city's most historic sites. Author and lifelong resident Laura Cunningham expertly blends fright with history and presents the ghostly legends from Beale to Bartlett, Germantown to Collierville, in this one-of-a-kind volume no resident or visitor should be without.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781596297128 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcadia Publishing SC |
| Publication date: | 09/15/2009 |
| Series: | Haunted America |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Sales rank: | 1,082,931 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
PINK LIZZIE, THE GHOST OF BRINKLEY FEMALE COLLEGE
While most Memphians are familiar with Mary, the Orpheum ghost, or Mollie, who haunts the Woodruff-Fontaine House, Lizzie, the ghost of Brinkley Female College, is a distant memory in Memphis history. While Mary's and Mollie's stories are repeated year after year at Halloween, neither can compare to the attention given to Lizzie. In 1871, Memphians became so terrified of Pink Lizzie that the city came to a halt after dark. After Lizzie's first appearance, stores closed early because men and women were afraid to go out alone at night. Bartenders took advantage of the fear by serving Ghost Cocktails. Even visitors to Memphis became fearful and shortened their stays in Memphis because of the ghost.
The Brinkley Female College was a school for young girls located on a portion of South Fifth Street lined with large mansions and stately yards. Today, the same section of street is occupied by railroad buildings and warehouses. The Wurzburg Brothers, Inc. warehouse now sits on the exact setting of the most sensational ghost story in Memphis history.
Between 1855 and 1859, Colonel W.J. Davie built a grand, two-story mansion with six tall Ionic columns in front. His estate stood on a slight hill, protected by an iron gate. Soon after the Civil War, the house was transformed into Brinkley Female College. Allegedly, the school acquired a reputation as an odd place almost immediately after it opened its doors. The house already had a reputation for being haunted via the school's founder, who was rumored to have gone bankrupt and insane.
On Tuesday, February 21, 1871, Clara Robertson sat at the piano practicing her music lesson in one of the upper rooms at the Brinkley Female College. Unlike most of her fellow classmates, twelve-year-old Clara was a day student who lived nearby at 261 De Soto Street, known today as Fourth Street, between Vance and Elliot. Clara was an intelligent girl with blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
As she practiced, a horrifying vision suddenly appeared before her eyes. The apparition looked to be an eight-year-old girl but with sunken, matte eyes and an emaciated face. Her withered body was clothed in a filthy, torn pink dress, partially coated in what appeared to be a thick, slimy layer of mold. She wore rusty shoes with mildewed stockings. Startled, young Clara stared in horror and gasped as she realized that this was no ordinary young girl. The child standing in front of her was transparent.
Clara screamed, ran into the adjoining bedroom and jumped into bed with a girl who was ill. Clara stared as the specter drifted across the room toward her and placed her hand on the pillow next to Clara's head. Clara buried herself under the covers and attempted to wave the ghost away. A few minutes later, the ghost left the room. Terrified, Clara ran down the hall to her fellow classmates to report what she had just witnessed. Of course, no one believed her, and she left for home in tears from all the teasing that her classmates had given her. When Clara returned to school Wednesday morning, nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Clara became more confident that the incident from the day before was just a silly prank played by her fellow students.
On Thursday, Clara was with two other students in the music room when she heard the sound of water splashing to the floor. The girls turned to see the skeletal little girl standing in the middle of the room. While Clara saw the girl distinctly, reports vary as to what her two friends actually saw, if anything. The girls fled from the room and were once again met with ridicule from the other students. According to the daily newspaper, the Memphis Appeal, when the ghost appeared again, Clara and the others girls ran screaming down the stairs to one of their teachers, Miss Jackie Boone. The girls brought Miss Boone back to the room where they had seen the transparent little girl. However, in a letter to the newspaper, Miss Boone denied ever returning to the room to see a ghost. When they opened the door to the music room, the ghost pointed a skeletal finger in a southward direction and began to speak.
The ghost told Clara that some valuable items were buried fifty yards from the house and that she wanted her to find them for her own use. As soon as she finished speaking these words, the ghost disappeared through the garret door. This time, none of the girls ridiculed Clara. The students were terrified.
The following morning, Clara's father, J.C. Robertson, paid a visit to Mr. Meredith, principal of Brinkley Female College. The two men agreed that the situation needed to be thoroughly investigated. Mr. Robertson was concerned for the well-being of his daughter, while Mr. Meredith thought that someone was out to ruin the reputation of his school. On Thursday, one week after the first visit from the ghost, Clara was sent into the schoolyard while Mr. Meredith assembled the other students and began questioning them. While in the yard, the little spirit appeared once again in front of Clara. Before she could let out a scream, the ghost said "Don't be alarmed Clara. My name is Lizzie. I will not hurt you." The ghostly little girl began to describe how the school property belonged to her family and how the current owners had obtained it illegally. All of her family members were now dead, and she needed someone to undue the wrong committed against them. Lizzie wanted Clara to obtain the papers and other valuable items that she previously mentioned were buried in the yard and use these to claim possession of the property. Lizzie warned her that unless Clara did as she asked, Lizzie would "never do good to or for any one." When Clara told everyone about the ghost in the yard, several of her classmates went home frightened and sick. Clara did not go to school the next day, telling her parents that she'd rather die than return.
Clara's father was a prominent Memphis lawyer. Through his legal work, he had become acquainted with Mrs. Nourse, a reported spiritual medium. Mr. Robertson turned to Mrs. Nourse for help with his daughter.
Mrs. Nourse held a séance at the Robertson home, with several neighbors in attendance. While seated at the table, it soon became apparent that something had taken control over Clara. At first, she sat slumped and lifeless, but soon she began slowly moving her arms. Her arms began flailing faster and faster, so much so that her parents had to restrain her from hurting herself. As soon as she calmed down, Mrs. Nourse handed her a pencil and placed paper on the table. Clara began to write, illegible at first, but the words became clearer. She filled several pages, recalling the events of the past week. In the beginning, she wrote her name as Lizzie Davidson but corrected it to Lizzie Davie. Attendees at the séance began asking her questions, and she would immediately write her reply.
Lizzie, through Clara, revealed that the hidden valuables included one set of gold jewelry, a diamond necklace, several thousand dollars in coins and the title papers to the home. She also revealed that the items were buried under the tree stump on which she appeared to Clara in the schoolyard. Several men who attended the séance went and visited the school. After talking with the students and realizing that they all believed Clara's story, they decided to dig under the stump to see if any valuables could be located.
As word of the ghost story spread around Memphis, so did an interest in spiritualism. Spiritual mediums started holding nightly séances at Cochran Hall on North Main Street. Techniques such as table tipping, slate writing, bell ringing and tambourine banging were used to communicate with spirits, which included a Native American maiden, a Union drummer boy and an Aztec chief. Clara attended these séances, further communicating with Lizzie through slate writing.
Mr. and Mrs. Meredith agreed to the digging of the schoolyard because they knew that this ordeal would never end until the stump was removed. As word began to spread throughout Memphis, people came from all over to watch the dig. Even though the police were brought in to help control the crowd, hundreds of people still managed to gain access to the schoolyard to watch. While the digging was going on, Mr. Robertson conducted an interview with the Memphis Daily Avalanche. He dismissed any notion that his daughter was involved in spiritualism and assured the reporter that his daughter was being truthful and his family had never experienced anything like this before.
The men digging soon discovered a layer of bricks, more of which were found after the tree stump was completely removed. The following morning, Clara was playing in her backyard when Lizzie appeared again. This time, the ghost demanded to know why Clara herself was not looking for the valuables. Before disappearing, she told Clara that she had to find them for herself. Clara immediately ran inside and told her family what happened. They decided that she should go to the school immediately. Her neighbor, Mrs. Franklin, escorted her to the school, where the excavation was continuing. It was suggested to Clara that she should call on Lizzie for further instructions on where to dig. Clara reluctantly agreed and Lizzie again appeared, though Clara was the only person to see her. Lizzie again told Clara that she should be the only person to dig for the valuables. As soon as Clara stepped into the hole, she fainted. After she was revived, she claimed to have seen a jar containing the valuables. Mrs. Nourse was brought back to the Robertson home for another séance.
During the séance, Lizzie was told that Clara was not able to dig and asked if Clara's father could dig in her place. Lizzie agreed that Mr. Robertson could dig, but once recovered, the jar could not be opened for sixty days. Mr. Robertson, Mrs. Nourse and several other men returned to the school and began to dig again. Within an hour, Mr. Robertson found a large, moldy glass jar, at least twelve inches tall and ten inches wide. Several bags and a large envelope could be seen inside. Staying true to the agreement made with Lizzie, the jar was not opened, and Mr. Robertson hid it in the safest place that he could find.
Due to the enormous amount of stress that Clara had been through, her family thought it best for her to visit relatives out of town for the next sixty days. It was decided that the jar would be opened at the Greenlaw Opera House, located at the southwest corner of Union Avenue and Second Street. The public could purchase tickets for one dollar, with half the proceeds going to Clara on account of her "tribulations" and the other half going to the Church Home, an orphanage operated by Episcopalians. However, Bishop Charles Todd Quintard quickly let everyone know that he would not accept any money associated with a ghost.
The public opening never took place. One night, Mr. Robertson was entertaining visitors when he heard a noise outside his home. When he did not immediately return, his guests went outside and found him unconscious and bleeding profusely from the head. Four men had attacked him at gunpoint, demanding to know the location of the jar. He took them to the jar's hiding place — hanging from a rope on the seat in the outhouse.
Although Clara claimed that spirits contacted her in another séance, providing her with the location of the jar and a description and names of the thieves who stole it, the jar was never recovered.
Very little is known regarding what happened to Clara Robertson. A schoolmate, Lula Franklin, who later became Mrs. Robert Vance, was one of Clara's closest friends at school and was often at her side when Clara saw the ghostly vision. When Mrs. Vance retold the ghost story to family members, she mentioned that Clara became a changed girl after the ghost incident and soon drifted apart from her friends.
In 1939, the Commercial Appeal rekindled the ghost story in a series of articles published around Halloween. Several Memphians wrote in to the paper sharing their memories of the ghost story and of Clara. Mrs. Frank Gray reported that after the ghost scare, Clara lived next door to her on Adams Avenue. She claimed that between 1871 and 1876, Clara began to practice spiritualism at her home on Adams Avenue. Clara used the technique of slate writing to receive messages. Another woman wrote to the paper to report that she had heard Clara went on to become the second wife of a spiritualist whose first wife's ghost "would return at night and kick her out of bed." A reliable source wrote to the paper and explained that in 1876 eighteen-year-old Clara married a wealthy seventy-two-year-old widower. The couple attended the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition on their honeymoon. Clara and her husband had several children, and Clara eventually died of tuberculosis. Clara may have possibly moved toVanndale, Arkansas. Those who had contact with Clara mentioned that she had received letters about the ghost story from President Grant and Queen Victoria.
The ghost scare caused Brinkley Female College to close. Mr. Meredith went on to open the Meredith Female College at another location, which lasted three years before closing. Colonel Brinkley soon found that it was impossible to find a tenant for his haunted home. Fearful that it would be destroyed by vagrants, Brinkley offered to let the family across the street live in the home rent free in exchange for maintaining the property. In 1939, Mrs. Delcie Schmidt reported living in the home with her father, Mr. Corn, who took care of the property. She still had in her possession a mirror frame from the old mansion, rumored to have been broken by the ghost during one of her visits to the school. After living in the house for two years, the family was forced to move when a northern gentleman came to Memphis and offered to rent the house. Colonel Brinkley soon discovered that the man was actually using the home to hold spiritualistic séances, and he asked him to leave. The Corn family moved back in to the mansion and continued to live there for several years.
Eventually, the house was divided into apartments for railroad workers before becoming tenement housing. One story claimed that when Lizzie's ghost disappeared it retreated to the cupola of the house. In 1939, caretaker Reverend G.W. Thompson reported that years earlier, a strong wind came and blew the cupola away, leaving the rest of the house untouched.
Paper manufacturer Wurzburg Brothers Inc., purchased the property to expand its nearby facilities by building a warehouse. Reginal Wurzburg, owner of the company, remembered hearing the ghost stories. He noted that the owners of the old house had trouble renting the apartments because of the ghost stories surrounding it. After his company bought the old home, it moved the residents to homes of their choice in other parts of town — before the building was dismantled.
In July 1972, workers began dismantling the old Brinkley College. Jim Williams, a local businessman, purchased the house and planned to reconstruct it on land that he owned outside Jonesboro, Arkansas. In the years after the warehouse was built at the site, contractors working at night felt the presence of some type of spirit. They heard rustling noises and watched in horror as papers flew off the shelves. They have also felt drastic temperature changes throughout the building. Many parapsychologists believe that it is very common for a ghost associated with a particular building to inhabit later structures occupying the same site.
What makes Clara Robertson's story so fascinating is the notion that if Clara's ghost story was not true, Miss Robertson played the most successful practical joke in Memphis history. In 1871, people who knew the Davie family came forward and verified the information that Clara gave as accurate. Lizzie Davie died in the home in 1861. People who attended her funeral remembered the little girl being buried in a pink dress with strawberry stains and pink slippers. Her family dressed her in the outfit because it was her favorite dress.
Several people also remembered a chancery suit concerning the grounds on which the school stood; they recalled a scandal surrounding the case, and only the grounds were involved. Colonel Davie built his home from 1856 to 1859. In 1860, he executed a title bond to R.C. Brinkley to secure a loan for stock in the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Company, valued at $30,000. Davie was to repay the value in either stock or cash at the end of four years. However, during the Civil War the railroad was operated by the military, making the stock temporarily worthless to either of the men. Brinkley foreclosed on the mortgage, but Davie sold him the home "for the amount due Brinkley and the further sum of $15,000." Perhaps Colonel Davie did pay back his loan and Brinkley still took the house. We may never know how exactly Lizzie Davie felt her family had been cheated.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Haunted Memphis"
by .
Copyright © 2009 Laura Cunningham.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements,
Introduction,
Pink Lizzie, the Ghost of Brinkley Female College,
The Educated Ghosts,
Southern Folklore,
On Sacred Ground,
Home Sweet Home,
Going, Going, Gone,
The Orpheum,
Restaurants, Bars, Taverns,
At Death's Door,
Phantasms in the Parks,
St. Paul's Spiritual Temple,
Elvis Has Left the Building,
The Suburban Ghosts,
Bibliography,