One of the reasons the stately old home known as Cedar Walk in Williamsboro fell into disrepair was because of the ghost that inhabited the premises.

And the Neal House in Epsom rode the poltergeist wave right in the early ‘80s, about the time the movie of the same name was popular – you know, objects flying around, dishes flung from their shelves.

And then there’s the legend of “Hatchet Man,” who wanders the general area of Oxford Road near the local country club.

Mark Pace and Bill Harris talked about these phenomena – and more – during Thursday’s tri-weekly history show on TownTalk.

Did prominent physician Hutchins Burton really haunt Cedar Walk? Who knows. But according to the writings of local historian S.T. Peace, Burton was hanged in the house, Pace said. And members of families who later lived in the house reported hearing all kinds of strange noise over the years, and seeing a ghost in the hallway downstairs.

“It got to the point,” Pace said, “that nobody wanted to rent the house.” And, unoccupied, it fell into ruin.

Whether you’re one who believes in the supernatural or chooses to find logical explanations for the seemingly inexplicable, the stories you hear – especially around Halloween – are interesting, to say the least.

The house known as Pleasant Hill in Middleburg, later called Rivenoak, was purchased by a young couple who moved in and set about restoration work, which including wiring it for electricity for the first time.

Joel Holloman Carroll was born in that home and lived his entire life there. He was a real creature of habit, and was known to strike a match against the same door frame near the kitchen each evening to light a lamp before before bedtime.

Carroll died there, and during the restoration, passersby would swear they saw a light shining through his bedroom window. The young couple’s ebullient Golden Retriever refused to cross the area that led to that same bedroom. And the couple’s young child would remark about a man standing nearby when there was nobody there.

1. You could possibly explain those away – the light was a reflection from something, the dog was just being, well, a dog. And a child can have a vivid imagination.

And Hatchet Man?  The story goes that if you go over to the country club section of town into a particular area that once had been a dead end, dirt road, and cut off your car, Hatchet Man would show up, Pace said.

1. Maybe that’s someone’s overactive imagination or maybe that was a story created to keep pesky teenagers off manicured greens.

But what about the poltergeist of Neal House?

“Dishes move, things fly off the table – literally fly-through-the-air kind of stuff,” Pace said. He was a student at ECU when he read a story in the student paper about the home.

“It was really active stuff,” he said, recalling some of the stories being told about that house.

 

Hear more stories in the full interview at wizs.com

 

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