“Why, Dear Isle, Art Thou Not Still My Own?”: Margaret Agnew Blennerhassett

Among those whose lives were totally disrupted by the Burr-Wilkinson plot to form a “kingdom” in the Louisiana Purchase territories was an all but forgotten figure in American history: Harman Blennerhassett. I frankly am less interested in Harman—a kindly but naïve man, easily led by his ambitious wife and the smooth-talking Burr—than I am in [...]

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John Dawson Seeks His Killer

In Lancashire, in the north of England, there’s a village called Bashall Eaves, a few miles northwest of Clitheroe. Bashall Eaves has Arthurian associations; the great king himself is said to have fought a battle there, back in the dark days that followed the collapse of Rome. Not far from Bashall Eaves, the Forest of [...]

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The Strange Death of Meriwether Lewis

Life after the fabled Lewis and Clark exploration of the Louisiana Purchase territories (1804-1806) was not kind to Meriwether Lewis. The two were loaded with honors by a grateful Thomas Jefferson, who had paired his dear friend Lewis with William Clark for the expedition. Lewis was appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory following their return, [...]

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No Happy Endings

Fairest Maid, where all Is fair, Beauty’s pride and Nature’s care; To you my heart I must resign, O choose me for your Valentine! Love, Mighty God! Thou knows’t full well, where all thy Mother’s graces dwell, Where they inhabit and combine to fix thy power with spells divine; Thou knows’t what powerful magick lies [...]

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Hinton Ampner

The primary lesson of most ghost tales is that you ought to finish your life here on earth before moving on to the next. If you don’t you may have to stay here for awhile, bereft of body, attempting to do in death what you did not accomplish in life. (Phillip DePoy, The Drifter’s Wheel, [...]

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The Squire of Itchells Manor

I couldn’t tell you if Itchells Manor, the former home of the Bathurst family in Hampshire in England, still stands. It was, however, back in the early nineteenth century, a notoriously haunted place—a haunting that centered around a massive fireplace in an upstairs bedroom. Here’s the story: In the early years of the eighteenth century, [...]

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Cry from The Wildcat

Knobs don’t normally have names, like mountains do. Down in my friend Auntie’s little corner of ‘em, though, just outside Etowah, there’s one called, simply, The Wildcat. In the old days, before wildcats were hunted nearly to extinction in this area, they used a cave on the knob for a place to hide out during [...]

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The Haunted Bridge

Haunted bridges are a staple of ghost stories, from Virginia’s notorious Bunnyman Bridge to one in Ohio where a long-dead motorcyclist can be summoned back if you sit at one end of the span and blink your headlights three times. You can feel the rush and sound as the invisible bike and rider roar past. [...]

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Some Thoughts on the Scopes Monkey Trial

The NY TIMES notes that on May 25, 1925, John T. Scopes was indicted for teaching the theory of evolution in violation of Tennessee law. I wrote this one last July, on the date of his conviction. Dayton, Tennessee, is a sleepy little town on the Tennessee River in Rhea County, some fifty miles from [...]

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Woman Washing Hair

ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH–when I get frazzled, I wash my hair. Did so this evening, which reminded me of this poem from the archives. It’s been updated just a tiny– a world in chaos around me calls for some simple measure the calm of the everyday task, the return of serenity and sensuous reward My hair tumbles about [...]

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