The Cavendish
Historical Society (CHS) has been collecting ghost stories since the summer.
We’ve learned about Homer who has haunted the Proctorsville Fire Department for
years, though he hasn’t been heard from recently. Supposedly there was a murder
in this building, which was once a carriage barn.
Robert, so named
because he looks like Robert Redford from an old western, still makes his
presence known at the Golden Stage Inn along with a “ghost cat” and a strange
mist that photographs quite well in one room. Lots of other eerie things-people
who call your name and talk to you, but when you turn around no one is there. Clearly
this Inn deserves its reputation as one of the most haunted places to stay in
Vermont.
Lena is actually
written into the deed of the house she occupies-she has full access to the
front bedroom and parlor-though she hasn’t been alive for many years. In short,
we have a very long list of ghosts and spirits who seem to like calling
Cavendish home.
Of all the stories,
the one we want to share this Halloween features Charlie and his pennies. Maybe
we liked this one so much because CHS plays a role in it.
In June 2014, CHS
was contacted by a man looking for information about his ancestors and wanting to
know if any possible relatives still lived in town. Though a descendant of the
Dutton and Proctor union, he and his parents visited Proctorsville as a child
to see aunts, uncles and cousins. Falling on hard times, the family ultimately
moved to Florida, where both parents died in 1969.
A few questions
about his Parker line confirmed that he was in fact part of the same family as
CHS board member Gail Woods. As we stood in her kitchen, he
tells Gail his mother's maiden name-Carmine June Cook. "I knew Carmine,”
Gail replies. “ She had a son Greg Roche." To which he excitedly pointed
to himself repeating, "that's me, that’s me!"
As Greg asks about names from his childhood, Gail’s
husband Woodie pieces together that the “Aunt Adie” has a granddaughter-Janet
Pipkin- now living in the old family home on Depot Street.
An e-mail and phone call, resulted in Janet posting
the following to Facebook, What a night... Almost 50 years ago, my
mom's cousin [Carmine June Cook]
disappeared and cut ties with the family. So my mom never knew what happened to
her and her son.
One of my strongest childhood memories is my mom
always looking up their names in phone books whenever we were staying at a
motel in another city. "You never know, they might be in here," she
would say.
 |
| Greg Roche and Ann, Janet's Mom |
Today a man from California visited the Cavendish
Historical Society to look up some family history, and thanks to Margo [Margo Caulfield is the coordinator of CHS] he
not only got the history, he got the family! It is my mom's cousin's son. I got
to meet him and we called my mom together.
Mom was so overjoyed to hear from him. She has
wondered for so long how he was. And on Sunday, she will find out when she gets
to see him again after all this time. Just amazing.
So now for the
ghostly part, which is provided by Janet Pipkin
While driving in
snow on Route 131, Charlie Cook (1882-1923) had an accident. He was taken to
his home at 145 Depot Street in Proctorsville but, unfortunately, due to massive
internal injuries, he died several days later surrounded by his wife and young
daughter.
Janet took residence
in the house in 1991, as she was the granddaughter of Adelaide Cook Brittain,
Charlie’s sister. The house has always been in the family, primarily the
residence of another sister, Grace Cook, who died in the 1980s.
Soon after moving
in, Janet noticed pennies around the house. She thought nothing of it; loose
change did not seem like a big deal, until things became weirder. Having
vacuumed one of the bedrooms, Janet left the room to put the vacuum away.
Returning to the freshly vacuumed room she discovered pennies right in the
middle of the rug. While cleaning a window, a penny fell from above, landing on
the floor by her feet. Not being a real believer of spirits, it struck her as
odd and curious, but defying any logical explanation.
While driving to
Manchester, she remembered in a panic that she had put a potato in the oven
to bake over an hour ago. Fearing fire, she turned around and went home. By now
it had been two hours since she put the potato in the oven. Rushing into the
kitchen, she found the stove turned off and a perfectly cooked potato. This was
illogical. She had only put it in 20 minutes before she left. If she had shut
off the oven, how could it possibly have been fully cooked? And if she didn’t,
why was the oven shut off and the potato not burnt?
The final incident
that pushed Janet from non-believer to believer was breaking glass. Having just
gone to bed, she heard the distinctive sound of breaking glass. Figuring it was
one of the cats breaking something, she ran downstairs and saw her roommate also
rapidly descending the stairs. Searching the house from top to bottom, neither
saw any signs of broken glass.
Janet called her
mother, Ann (Adelaide’s daughter, Charlie’s niece) and told her what happened. Ann
wasn’t surprised. Soon after Grace had died Ann had come to the Depot Street
house to do some packing and cleaning. It was the first night when she heard
the sound of breaking glass. Like Janet, she searched and found no explanation
of the noise.
In discussing the
situation with her Mom, Janet wondered it if could possible be a ghost. Ann
related the story of Charlie’s death. He died in the front bedroom of the
house, and sadly, his wife and young daughter were never the same again. The
daughter ended up living her own tragic life wrapped up in drug and alcohol
abuse and had disappeared in the 1960s.
Janet became use to
the pennies showing up everywhere. She even spoke to Charlie trying to explain
that a penny doesn’t have a lot of value and quarters would be more
appreciated, but no luck. “Off” events or incidents just were attributed to
“that Charlie.” A visitor to the house, upon leaving, touched Janet softly on
the arm saying, “I don’t mean to alarm you but I can feel spirits and I have to
tell you that you have a haunting that seems to originate in your front
bedroom.” Janet replied, “Oh, that’s just Charlie!”
After twenty years
of living in the house, Janet met her long lost cousin Greg, as related above.
Not only did this bring closure to the many years of searching by Janet’s Mom,
but there was another member of the family that needed “closure.” Since Greg
was Charlie’s grandson- Greg mother Carmine, was the daughter of Charlie- he
agreed to go to Janet’s house and have a chat.
Greg told Janet (as
well as Charlie) about his life’s successes as well as what had happened to his
mother. He talked about his wife and children and how content he was with his
life in California as a leather artist.
Since then, Janet
doesn’t see many pennies anymore. She runs across one every now and then and
wonders it is still Charlie. There seem to be no more noises or strange incidents.
Janet wants to believe that Charlie finally managed to get the news he needed
to be at peace. But she still keeps listening for that possible sound of broken
glass.
