HAUNTED HISTORY: Several spirits supposedly reside in historic Vicksburg homes

Published 2:17 pm Friday, November 9, 2018

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The stairway where former owners of Duff Green Mansion heard footsteps coming up the stairs. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

The Dixie Room at Duff Green Mansion, where a Confederate solider has been seen sitting by the fireplace.(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

The living room of the Duff Green Mansion where 4-year-old Lydia Nettles saw a mean little girl scowling.(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Harry Sharp poses with his children and grandchildren. Sharp and his wife, Alicia, are former owners of Duff Green Mansion. Pictured are Katie Sharp Nettles, Sharp and David Sharp, along with Lee and Lydia Nettles, sitting. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

Lakemont homeowner Becky Jabour (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

The mirror in the parlor of Lakemont that cracked the first day the home was opened for Spring Pilgrimage.(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

The parlor at Lakemont. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

The McRaven House bedroom where poor Margaret Howard died shortly after giving birth to her daughter.(Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

McRaven House (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

The small space under the stairway at McRaven House where two little ghost boys have been known to inhabit. (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)

The wind began to howl. A storm was brewing outside, and as the gusts became stronger, it caused the lights to flicker, until they eventually went out. The house was dark, now, and eerily quiet, until all of the sudden a strange noise could be heard — thump, thump, thump.

How many of us have heard ghost stories that began much like this one while sitting around a campfire or huddled together at a pallet party?

Though fictional in nature, these stories can provide quite a bit of entertainment.

Theatrics aside, paranormal activity might really have some “legs” in Vicksburg.

Local resident Harry Sharp, who owned the Duff Green Mansion, which is located at 1st East St. said not only did he come in contact with one spirit at the antebellum home, there have been several.

“The most famous one and the one that was seen the most was a Confederate soldier who was sitting by the fire place in the Dixie room that is one of the first floor bedrooms that is directly underneath the dining room,” Sharp said.

During the Siege of Vicksburg, the home of Duff and Mary Lake Green had become a hospital that housed both Confederate and Union Soldiers. The Dixie Room, as it is referred now, had been the operating room.

“Legend has it that they did hundreds and hundreds of amputations in that room, throwing limbs through the open doors on either side where they piled up to the ceiling,” Sharp said, “and this one particular soldier, who had had his leg amputated, has been seen by tourists and guests just sitting by the fireplace staring straight ahead.”

Other paranormal accounts include a figure that was standing at the front door of the mansion wearing either a morning coat or some kind of uniform, and sightings of two men in long black coats standing over the bed in two different bedrooms of the home. Guests have also reported feeling a pulling on their legs in another of the bedrooms, Sharp said.

“We never told people about the paranormal activities when they checked in unless they were curious and asked,” he said.

Sharp and his wife, Alicia, lived at Duff Green for more than 30 years. While there, both heard heavy footsteps ascending the stairway of the main floor. One night, while in the kitchen, Sharp saw a woman in an antebellum gown floating past the door in the dining room.

“I saw it as clear as day. She was blonde and had on a blue dress,” Sharp said.

Others have seen this woman too, he said.

The most interesting sighting at Duff Green, Sharp said, has been that of a little girl who they believe is Annie Lake Green, the young daughter of the Greens who died from yellow fever.

“Many people have seen her and heard the bouncing ball in the middle of the night,” Sharp said.

In fact, Sharp said his granddaughter has even encountered the child.

“My granddaughter, Lydia Nettles, when she was 4, she is now 13, walked into the ballroom and got very scared and after discussing it with her, she said she saw what we believe was Annie.”

Sharp said his granddaughter said she had seen a mean little girl holding a ball scowling at her.

“And our granddaughter did not know about these ghosts because we did not talk to her about it,” Sharp said.

McRaven

Like Duff Green, the McRaven home, located on Harrison Street, has been known to have several spirits inhabit its premises.

“I experience paranormal activity every day,” general manager and tour guide of the McRaven house Brittany Evans said.

Known as Mississippi’s Most Haunted House, McRaven spans three time periods and the spirits that reside there are from all three eras.

“Andrew Glass is a pretty popular spirit at the home. He built and lived in the 1797 portion of the home,” Evans said. “He was a highway man or what we like to call here at McRaven a ‘Pioneer Pirate.’”

Glass would rob folks who traveled along the Natchez Trace, Evans said, and would then use McRaven as his hideaway.

Another active spirit in the home is Mary Elizabeth Howard.

She resides in the 1836 portion of the home where she lived with her husband, Steven Howard, Evans said.

“Mary loves to entertain the guests at the tour home and has a very gentle and loving persona about her. She loves to open and shut the cabinet door of her bureau often times even in front of guests,” Evans said.

“She is also quite the entertainer. Mary has been known to lead people astray from the rest of the group and typically becomes very active around young children and mothers.”

Evans said she believes this is because of her tragic story.

“Mary gave birth to her daughter at 15 in the bed that we still have upstairs. She spent two weeks holding her infant daughter and falling in love with her before she passed away from child birth complications,” Evans said.

There are also two little ghost boys, Evans said, who run around the home by the names of Eric and Peekaboo.

“They like to mess with the guests and guides by peeking through doors or touching someone on the back. We have several toys that they love to play with around the house as well. We will often times come in and see them rearranged,” she said.

Additional spiritual inhabitants are Mr. and Mrs. John Bobb and Annie and Ella Murray.

“I have found that in my experience one of the smallest and most active rooms in the house is the gentleman’s changing room. The window taps on a regular basis and Mr. Bobb is often seen at the window,” Evans said.

Also, there is often a distinctive smell of cigar smoke in the room, she said.

Bobb built the 1849 section of the home,” Evans said, and during the Siege of Vicksburg he and his wife had allowed the home to be used as a field hospital. Fortunately, the couple survived the 40-day ordeal, but later, Bobb was brutally murdered leaving his spirit to roam the home.

The Murray family occupied the home following the Bobbs, Evans said, and up until 1960, two of the daughters, Annie and Ella, lived at McRaven as recluses.

“But the really strange part about these sisters is that they lived like it was the 1800s,” Evans said.

“There was no running water or electricity. The only modern convenience they had was a telephone because they chose to be hoarders. They would order stuff from catalogs with their telephone and they bought so many items, they ended up having to shut down the house and only stay in the dining room. Often times you will hear the piano being played or people talking in the dining room, and we believe this must be the spinster sisters,” Evans said.

Lakemont

Unlike Duff Green and McRaven, there is only one spirit that resides at Lakemont and she is known as the “Perfumed Lady.”

“The legend of the perfume lady was passed on to us by the Coccaro family when we bought the house in 1973,” Becky Jabour said, “but it seems people have been fascinated by the house and ghost story for many years. I even have newspaper articles dating to the 1950’s with the story of the tragic and untimely death of William Lake and the ghost story of the Perfumed Lady.”

William Lake and his wife Ann had moved to Vicksburg from Maryland. They raised their children in the River City and became an important part of Vicksburg’s early community.

“William Lake had become a prominent lawyer and judge,” Jabour said. “He also served as a state senator and United States Congressman and was elected to the Confederate Congress in 1861.”

But after being elected to the Confederate Congress, his political rival M.L. Chambers challenged Lake to a duel, she said.

Dueling was not uncommon during this time period and was, in fact, used quite often to settle disputes.

Unfortunately, the duel did not end well for Lake. He was killed and died in the arms of Captain P.T. Leathers, his longtime friend and owner of the Natchez Steamboat Company.

Mrs. Lake watched the duel through a spyglass from the top story of the home and witnessed her husband’s untimely death.

Though she lived in the home for many years following the duel, she continued to grieve until her death. And it is the ghost of Mrs. Lake who is now said to haunt the antebellum home.

Ann Lake was known to have a penchant for the expensive perfume often brought to her by her husband when he returned from his trips to New Orleans, Jabour said, “And in the afternoon, on the front gallery there is a sudden hush, then the strong scent of perfume.”

Jabour said at some point, everyone in her family has smelled the perfume on the front porch.

She also recalled other strange events that occurred in her home.

Other unexplainable incidents that have happened are the bedroom door closing by itself, books falling out of the bookcase, “And we hear walking on the stairs and in the hall at night when no one is up,” she said.

“The house was opened to the public for the first time in 1978 for the Spring Pilgrimage. On the first morning as I was telling the story of Mrs. Lake, the Perfumed Lady, the mirror in the parlor cracked mysteriously,” Jabour said.

About Terri Cowart Frazier

Terri Frazier was born in Cleveland. Shortly afterward, the family moved to Vicksburg. She is a part-time reporter at The Vicksburg Post and is the editor of the Vicksburg Living Magazine, which has been awarded First Place by the Mississippi Press Association. She has also been the recipient of a First Place award in the MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest’s editorial division for the “Best Feature Story.”

Terri graduated from Warren Central High School and Mississippi State University where she received a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in public relations.

Prior to coming to work at The Post a little more than 10 years ago, she did some freelancing at the Jackson Free Press. But for most of her life, she enjoyed being a full-time stay at home mom.

Terri is a member of the Crawford Street United Methodist Church. She is a lifetime member of the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary and is a past member of the Sampler Antique Club and Town and Country Garden Club. She is married to Dr. Walter Frazier.

“From staying informed with local governmental issues to hearing the stories of its people, a hometown newspaper is vital to a community. I have felt privileged to be part of a dedicated team at The Post throughout my tenure and hope that with theirs and with local support, I will be able to continue to grow and hone in on my skills as I help share the stories in Vicksburg. When asked what I like most about my job, my answer is always ‘the people.’

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