Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-12-07
THE TWO s1STERS---A REMARKA-
BILE STORY,

THE TWO S1STERS---A REMARKA
BILE STORY.
The following article is copied from
Owens "FootfaIls on the Boundary O.
Another World" 1t is intensely inter
; esting, to say the least. The I" Mr.
c." will be recognized as Mr.. Carey
and Miss A and her sister Mis-
, P" as Alice and Phebe Carey.
, In the month of October, 1883, Mr.
} c., gentleman, several members O.
: whose family have since become we'll anc
favorably known in the literary world
was residing in country house in Ham
I ilton county, Ohio. He had just com
{ pleted new residence, about seventy OF
eighty yards from that in which he was
then living, intending to move into it in
fazfew days. The new house was in plain
sight of the old, no tree or shrub inter.
vening, but they were separated, about
half way, by small, somewhat abrupt
ravine. A garden stretched from the
old house to the hithef edge of this ra-
vine, and the further extremity of this
garden was about forty yards from the
newly erected building. Both buildings
fronted west, toward public road, the
south side of the old dwelling being di-
rectly opposite to the north side of the
new. Attached to the rear Of the new
dwelling was spacious kitchen, of which
a door opened to the north.
The family, at that time, consisted OF
father, mother, uncle and nine children.
One of the elder daughters, then between
fifteen and sixteen years old, was named
Rhoda E; and another, the youngest but
one, Lucy, was between three and four
years of age.
One afternoon in that month of Octo-
ber, after heavy rain, the weather had
cleared up, and between four and five
o'clock the sun shone out. About five
o'clock Mrs. c. stepped out into a
yard on the south side of the dwelling
they were occupying, whence, in the
evening sun, the new house, including
the kitchen already referred to, was dis
tinctly visible. Suddenly she called a
daughter, A, saying to her, " What
can Rhoda possibly be doing there, with
! the child in her arms ? She ought to
know better, this damp weather.
A, looking in the direction in which
her mother pointed, saw, plainly and un-
mistakably, seated in a rocking chair
just within the kitchen door of the new
residence, Rhoda, with Lucy in her arms.
What strange thing!" she exclaimed,
I" it is but few minutes since left them
up stairs And, with that, going in
search of them, she found both in one of
the upper rooms, and brought them down.
Mr.. c. and other members of the
family soon Joined them. Their amaze
ment, that of Rhoda especially, may be
imagined The figures seated at the
hall-door, and the two children now ac-
tually in their midst, We're absolutely
identical in appearance, even to each
minute particular of dress.
Five minutes more elapsed, in breath
less expectation, and there still sat the
figures; that of Rhoda appearing to rock
with the motion Of the chair on which it
seemed seated. All the family congre-
gated, and every member of it therefore
twelve persons in all-saw the figures,
noticed the rocking motion, and became
convinced, past all possible doubt, that
it aeas the appearance Of Rhoda and
Lucy.
Then the father, Mr.. c., resolved
to cross over and endeavor to obtain
some solution of the mystery, but, hav-
ing lost sight of the figures in descend
ing the ravine, when he ascended the
opposite bank, they were gone.
Meanwhile the daughter A. had
walked down to the lower end of the
garden, SO as to get a close view; and
the rest remained gazing from the spot
whence they had first witnessed this un-
accountable phenomenon.
Soon after Mr.. c. had left the
house, they all saw the appearance of
Rhoda arise from the chair with the
child in it's arms, then lie down across
the threshold of the kitchen door and
after it had remained in that recumbent,I
position for a minute or two, still en-
bracing the child, the figures were seen
gradually to sink down, out of sight.
When Mr.. c. reached the entrance,
there was not trace or appearance of
human being. The rocking chair, which
had been conveyed across the kitchen
some time before, still stood there, just
inside the door, but it was empty. He
searched the house carefully from garret |
to cellar, but nothing whatever was to be
seen. He inspected the clay, soft from
the rain, at the rear exit of the kitchen,
and all around the house, but not foot
step could he discover. There was not
a tree or bush anywhere near, behind
which any one could secrete himself, the
dwelling being erected on bare hill
side.
The father turned from his fruitless |
search, to learn, with shudder, what
the family, meanwhile, had witnessed.
The circumstance, as may be supposed,
made upon them profound impression,
stamping itself in indelible characters,
on the minds of all. But any mention
of it was unusually avoided, as some !
thing too serious to form the topic of
ordinary conversation.
I received it directly from two of the
witnesses Gin New York, Feb. %, 1860
Miss A. and her sister Miss P.
They both stated to NE, that their recol-
lections of it were as vivid as if had oc-
CURED ouly few weeks since.
No clue or explanation of any kind
was ever obtained unless we are to ac-
cept as such the fact, that Rhoda, very
beautiful and cultivated girl, at the time
in blooming health, died very unexpect-
edly, on the 18th of the November of
the year following, and that Lucy, then
also perfectly well, followed her sister on
the 10th of December, the same year
both deaths occurring, it will be OBJ
served, within little more than q year
of that day on which the family saw the
onnarition of tho Sisfars