Ghosts, goblins, witches - Halloween is approaching. The September 17 Free Lance-Star Calendar section listed "Witch, Ghosts, Thieves, Murder and Mayhem Tours," carriage tours to learn about resident ghosts.   As we get closer to Halloween there will also be special history tours of the Masonic Cemetery (the final resting place of some of Fredericksburg's most esteemed citizens) and other seasonal events. Everyone seems to be getting in the spirit. It seems like only a few years ago, Halloween was a one-day event on October 31 and primarily for children. Then people started decorating their entire houses and yards, weeks in advance, just like Christmas. There are houses with orange lights, "ghosts" hanging in trees, witches on porches and of course, greeting cards. The National Retail Federation has predicted that 157 million people will spend an average of $74 on Halloween this year.

 

Often when we think of witchcraft and hauntings, we think of the Northeast, especially writings like Cotton Mather's History of New England Witchcraft and Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But we have a history of the supernatural here too. How could we not with so many old houses, buildings, cemeteries and battlefields? Whether you place any credence in these stories are not, they are part of the fabric of our community.

 

People have claimed to have seen or heard the presence of ghosts in Chatham, Hayfield, Kenmore, Fall Hill, Brompton, Travellers' Rest , St. George's Church, the Rising Sun Tavern, and Federal Hill to name a few. Fairview, listed in the W.P.A. Historical Inventory (1936), had "witches' doors," apparently providing the resident witch her own entrance and exit. Fall Hill, built by Francis Thornton and inhabited by his descendants for over two centuries is said to have a ghost Katina, a Sioux Indian princess willed to the Thorntons by Governor Alexander Spotswood. Katina cared for several generations of Thornton children. The Thorntons and visitors are said to have seen her many times. The Center library has several books, including "Ghosts of Virginia," by Marguerite du Pont Lee (1930) and "Ghosts of Fredericksburg," by L.B. Taylor.

 

The Stearnes sisters, Emeline and Elizabeth mentioned Halloween in their correspondence in 1937 and 1938. Numerous oral history interviewees recalled Halloween pranks. Archie Newton of White Oak in Stafford remembered taking watermelons from Enoch Armstrong's water melon patch. He also spoke of boys (he didn't know their names) who hid his father's wagon, took Tom DeShazo's wagon and switched the front wheels and back wheels so the wagon rode low in the back, high in the front and wobbled.