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Overview
Monticello might sometimes seem like a quiet Florida panhandle town, but its history tells of a ghostly past stretching back to the early nineteenth century. Discover the stories behind the old blacksmith’s forge on Jefferson Street—where the chilling sounds of metal striking metal still ring out across the town—and the Hanging Tree, forever haunted by the ghosts of executed outlaws and lost Confederate soldiers.
The Monticello Historical district contains over forty buildings dating back to the nineteenth century, and it is said that one out of every three buildings are haunted. Join local haunted tour guide Betty Davis and Big Bend Ghost Trackers as they reveal the amazing history of Monticello’s spookiest spots.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781625841551 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcadia Publishing SC |
| Publication date: | 10/20/2018 |
| Series: | Haunted America |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 115 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Betty Davis works professionally in the field of social services and is a passionate paranormal investigator—the driving force behind Big Bend Ghost Trackers and Historic Monticello Ghost Tours. She enjoys creative writing of nonfiction and historical literature. Having a strong interest in history and historic places, she finds them mysterious and intriguing. She knows that they hold secrets to the past and have defined our future. Experiencing a ghostly encounter while visiting a historic landmark is what first brought her on her journey into paranormal research and investigating the unknown.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
THE HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY
Jefferson County is situated in the heart of the Florida Panhandle, with its rolling hills and stately oaks draped in wispy Spanish moss. To the first-time visitor, the fictional town of "Mayberry" comes to mind. Youngsters walking down the red clay roads with fishing poles, lemonade stands set up in front yards, picnics in the park, church cakewalks and potluck suppers bring to mind a gentler time of a bygone era.
Shopkeepers and evening strollers kindly and willingly give strangers directions, recommend an eatery or assist with a flat tire. It's a place where neighbors have been known to borrow a cup of sugar from one another, bring a hot meal during times of sickness and sorrow and rejoice with each new birth. This is southern hospitality at its best. This is Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida.
Jefferson County is the only county in the state of Florida that extends all the way from Georgia on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. Known as the "Keystone County," it is located about midway between Jacksonville, Florida's northernmost Atlantic port, and Pensacola, one of its largest Gulf ports.
Monticello, the county seat, is located just twenty-three miles east of Florida's capital, Tallahassee, and situated on U.S. Highways 19 and 90 directly off Interstate Highway 10.
With a population of just under fourteen thousand, Jefferson County is the home of a diverse population, vibrant culture and varying socioeconomic classes. Most of the downtown commercial buildings, in the Monticello Historic District, date from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Monticello also contains more than forty buildings dating from that century. These structures reflect the typical development of a north Florida town of the period. Unlike other Florida towns of the same era, nineteenth-century Monticello remains largely intact.
Jefferson County was founded in January 1827 and became the thirteenth county in territorial Florida. The county was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States of America, who served from 1801 to 1809. This happened eighteen years before Florida was admitted into the Union, on March 3, 1845, under the presidential administration of John Tyler. Florida entered into the statehood as the twenty-seventh state.
Six months before the founding of Jefferson County, on July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson died at his famous Virginia home, Monticello (pronounced mont-i-chello). The exact source of the name Monticello still remains a mystery today, though. Perhaps it was just providence when, a century later, descendants of Thomas Jefferson would be residents of the town for many years.
Monticello is located northeast of the county's center, at one of the highest points in western Florida, sitting at 236 feet above sea level. After Jefferson County was founded, five commissioners were called on to select the location for a permanent seat of justice. On August 15, 1827, the county seat was selected and named Monticello, likely in honor of Thomas Jefferson's famous home. Governmental offices were established, land was surveyed and lots for homes and businesses were sold. During the 1830s and 1840s, Monticello developed into the social, governmental and economic center of Jefferson County.
Jefferson County and Monticello have, over the years, had their share of trials and tribulations — such as the years of the Seminole Indian Wars, beginning in 1836, which brought death and destruction through attacks by hostile marauders on defenseless homes. The Civil War had brave boys in gray defending the state against the incursions of the enemy and fighting in all of the great battles of the war east of the Mississippi, under General Robert E. Lee. Following the war, the turbulent days of Reconstruction, the arrival of the carpetbaggers and post–Civil War fires destroyed much of the downtown area. The late spring cold wave of 1881 killed most of the farmers' crops. The yellow fever epidemic of 1888 left no family unaffected. But Jefferson County and Monticello prevailed.
By the time the turn of the century approached, Jefferson County residents had developed the saying "root hog or die," meaning that "we all must work hard to survive," and survive they did. Better days were coming in the form of watermelons. A local farmer by the name of William Cirardeau was instrumental in the cultivation of watermelons.
Before the mass production of watermelons began, early citizens gathered them from the edges of creek beds, where they grew wild. This method of gathering watermelons put local people unknowingly into contact with disease-carrying mosquitoes, which frequently left many of them ill with "fever 'n' ague," what we now know as malaria. Attributing their sickness to the watermelons, and not the insect, Jefferson County doctor John D. Palmer, who also owned an apothecary, educated the townspeople on the causes of malaria, having invented an elixir for its cure.
The first mass shipment of watermelon seeds was shipped to the Northeast in 1892, and for the next forty years, Jefferson County was able to expand this market, eventually producing 80 percent of the world's supply. In June 1949, the county began the tradition of hosting an annual Watermelon Festival.
As the years passed, one constant through all of the tragedies, turmoil and triumphs were tales of ghostly happenings; mysterious lights in cemeteries; doors opening and closing by unseen hands; ghostly faces appearing out of windows from long-abandoned houses; the sounds of ghostly footsteps; one street on which — be it the cold of January or the heat of August — the temperature is always cooler than on any other street; music emitting from empty buildings; and the residual sounds of a long-ago party. These tales have been handed down for generations from great-grandparents to grandparents to parents and, finally, to their children, and all are a part of local legends and folklore. Upon investigating these tales, one will discover that they are all an important part of local history.
Credible witnesses — a former sheriff, mayor, teachers, lawyers, middle-class housewives, shopkeepers and farmers — all have the same stories to share. Jefferson County and Monticello has an abundance of haunted locations.
The ghosts of early settlers, residents and movers and shakers of Jefferson County roam the town freely, perhaps from time to time unwittingly and unknowingly influencing the town's decision-makers of today.
In 2003, ABC News, based on the research, investigations and documentation of professional paranormal investigators the Big Bend Ghost Trackers, designated Monticello as the "South's Most Haunted Small Town." A plaque is proudly displayed in the Monticello–Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce with this distinction. One out of every three homes or businesses are presently haunted or have in the past experienced a haunting. The chamber of commerce is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. All visitors are welcome.
CHAPTER 2OLD ST. MARGARITA'S CATHOLIC CHURCH
A church would be the one place that one would think would be free from experiencing a ghostly encounter, but that is not always the case. In Monticello, even an old church can play host to a ghost. It seems that although some members have left the earthly realm of life, they have perhaps never really left the church. Is it possible for members of a congregation to return happily to their old church?
The first Catholic church service was held in Monticello and Jefferson County in 1907, with a total of three professed Catholics in attendance, including Mrs. Charles Henry, Mr. Leo Majewski (a middle-aged gentleman) and his wife, Michalina. The Majewskis, having only recently arrived in the United States from Bremen, Germany, were Russian immigrants of Polish decent, with Leo being of noble blood.
With so few of Monticello's residents professing to be of the Catholic faith, to have a house of worship of their own seemed like an impossibility. Services were conducted at first in a room in the county courthouse, and then, as the congregation grew, the members would take turns hosting the services in their own homes and hotel parlors. By 1915, members of the sect had grown in numbers with the arrival of more Polish immigrants and other newcomers to the town. The dream of having a chapel of their own was becoming a reality.
Funds were raised and provided by the individual members, led by Leo Majewski — being a devout Catholic, he was very instrumental and was the driving force in having Monticello's first Catholic church erected. Blessed and given the name St. Margarita's, the house of worship named Reverend Father Bresanham as the presiding priest.
The church was small and quaint, with impressive stained-glass windows. Leo spent most of his waking hours at the church. Having clerical skills, he served the church in many capacities. Michalina served the church with her talent as an organist. The church's choir loft was elevated, giving the choir members a clear view of everything happening at Mass, and the sound carried much better from the loft than from the other areas of the church building.
When helping to develop the plans and blueprints for the layout of the church, Leo had considered the placement of the choir. His thinking was that when a choir is located in front of the congregation, it appears that the choir is giving a concert instead of fulfilling its proper role at Mass — this was in keeping with the wishes of Pope Saint Pius X, who ordered in 1903 that choirs should be hidden behind screens or above the congregation. The pope's reasoning still stands today.
Over the years, a multitude of people worshiped at St. Margarita's and called it their spiritual home, none more faithful or devoted than Leo and Michalina. Many happy and prosperous years passed for Leo and Michalina. Although childless, their lives were in a state of wedded bliss in life, and in death they continued to be kindred spirits. Leo always promised his beloved that he would never leave her. Even before death, he assured her that he would still be near. When their golden years were upon them, Leo often recited a favorite work by the nineteenth-century poet Edna St. Vincent Millay to Michalina as a gesture of endearment — a poem simply called "Recuerdo," which, fittingly, means "remembrance": "We were very tired, we were very merry, we had gone back and forth all night on the ferry." Perhaps the poem sparked a memory of their arrival in their new land many years before; on their first night in their new country, they rode the ferryboat back and forth in the harbor.
When the spring of 1934 arrived, it found Leo ailing, with spasms of the chest, fever and chills. Although a doctor was summoned on April 3, with his beloved Michalina at his side and his last rites being administrated, preparing his soul for death, he quietly passed away. Within two short years, Michalina joined him. Leo and Michalina's earthly remains are buried at Roseland Cemetery, but their spirits can be found at the old St. Margarita's Catholic Church.
The congregation outgrew and overflowed St. Margarita's some years ago, and a larger, more modern church was built. The old church now serves as the offices of the Monticello–Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, looking the same as it did in 1915, with its impressive windows. In the turn of the last century, stained-glassed windows were installed in churches for the primary purpose of not allowing those within a building to see the world outside. An original church pew can also be found in the old building.
The chamber of commerce staff and visitors alike have experienced many ghostly encounters, from cabinet doors opening and closing by themselves to objects left in one place and relocated by unseen hands elsewhere, heavy footsteps heard on the old hardwood floors and a sudden and unexpected chill that engulfs the two-room building, sending shivers up and down the spine. Ghosts tend to make their presences known to all kinds of visitors. They do not have a preference regarding those who believe in them or not. It only takes one encounter to realize that ghosts do exist.
Mary Frances Gambling, retired executive director of the Monticello–Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, stated in an interview that she "found it quite interesting working in a haunted building, but at times it did get unnerving hearing doors opening and closing knowing I was the only one, or only 'live one,' in the building." She also said that "it became annoying at times when I would be unable to find an object on my desk and later find it sitting on a counter or table in the back of the building" and has verbally chastised the ghosts for taking her off task.
Many of the townsfolk have been witness to another, ghostly phenomenon while out for their evening strolls, walking past the old church. The ethereal sounds of organ music can often be heard coming from the locked and empty building. It is believed that if this is the place Leo chose to spend much of his afterlife, as he did in his lifetime, and with Michalina being St. Margarita's organist, perhaps she followed suit to stay near her soul mate. Perhaps she chose to return to the one place that Leo loved the most.
Visitors have been known to capture a photo depicting paranormal activity, and a video camera on a tripod taping a presentation recorded the sound of organ music.
Ghosts often choose to return in their afterlives to a place of peace, love and contentment that they enjoyed and experienced during their lifetimes. This place of familiarity is indeed a venue for a haunting. A high amount of emotional content still lingers in old churches.
The Majewskis, having been kind and caring folks, always there to lend a helping hand, who is to say that these ghostly encounters couldn't be another way of them continuing this practice by letting the community have some confirmation that death is not the end. Our spirits, the essence of who we were, live on and soar.
CHAPTER 3MERCHANT DENHAM AND HIS CUPOLA
It must have seemed like another world in 1832 when, at the age of fourteen, John arrived in his new country and his new town of Monticello, Florida. He came from the village of Dunbar, Scotland, taking months to arrive as the slow-going sailing vessel would stop at each port to deliver its weary passengers.
John's father, Andrew, and mother, Jane, packed their worldly possessions and their large brood of lads and lassies and joined other Scots who had arrived in the New World seeking their fortunes. Risking the terrors of the deep, and the uncertainties of an unknown country, they landed in what is now Baltimore, Maryland. From there they continued their journey. Eventually arriving in Monticello, they proceeded to make it their new home, a place in which young John would grow old and prosperous and eventually die.
John, being from hardy stock, was not afraid of working hard, and his work paid off. He went into the export and import business, becoming a master at his craft. Shipping goods to foreign ports on cargo ships down the St. Marks River, John was a commanding man whose boisterous voice could often be heard from some distance away.
When the Civil War arrived, many businesses were forced to close due to the poor economic conditions. However, John Denham continued in the supply trade, but for the benefit of the Southern army, gathering in the country's products to sustain the fighting soldiers of the South and concentrating his efforts in assisting the Confederacy.
In 1846, John married a young lady of Scottish decent, Caroline Ellen Marvin, who had reached the age of twenty some years his junior. They became the parents of many children, several of whom died in infancy. John and Caroline's first home was located at the corner of Palmer Mill and Waukeenah Streets. As the years passed, John became a man of means and wanted to show it by building a large, spacious two-story home. The new home was built on the same street, just a few blocks away. John came by daily and watched the carpenters at their work. If he thought that they were slacking, he was quick to inform them of it.
This new home also contained an architectural oddity. The home had an impressive cupola on its top. These small structures were built on homes primarily before the Civil War, letting the master of the house get to the highest vantage point to watch his field hands work. They were also built on homes on the sea coast so that the mistress of the house could look out and see if she could spot the ship of the man of the house coming in from the sea.
John built his cupola so that he could get to the highest vantage point and see what his neighbors were doing, as well as their material possessions. John wanted the best of everything and would observe his neighbors. If they purchased an item of worth, John would go out and purchase one better. As the evening sun set, John could be seen climbing the small spiral staircase carrying a lantern and sitting on his perch in the cupola.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Haunted Monticello, Florida"
by .
Copyright © 2011 Betty Davis and the Big Bend Ghost Trackers.
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,
The History of Jefferson County,
Old St. Margarita's Catholic Church,
Merchant Denham and His Cupola,
Florida's First Brick Schoolhouse,
Palmer House: The Doctor Is In,
Jefferson County Courthouse,
Ye Ole Hanging Tree,
Mr. Perkins and His Opera House,
A Dedicated Blacksmith Still at Work,
The Reverend and the Coffin Maker,
The Mysterious Street,
The Brave Sheriff and the Old Jail,
The Dueling Oak,
All Aboard,
Henry West and His Lovely Bride,
Little Lula,
The Spirits of Roseland,
The Jilted Bride,
The Hero,
Those Pesky Carpetbaggers,
The Old Bank and Haunted Antiques,
Bibliography,
About the Authors,