Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-11-19
THE HAUNTED HOUSE

Nearly every city, town or village in our
country that is old enough to have his.
tory has its haunted house and its story
Of ghostly visitants and eerie, uncanny
sounds and sights connected with some
particular locality. To this rule, Florence,
Ala, many of whose older residences and
families date back to the days of Andrew
jackson, forms no exception. Around
several of the ivy clad mansions of the old
town hangs mysteries which makes them
objects of interest to the educated whites
and OF terror to the ignorant and super
stltlous negroes, ever prone to repose full
faith and credence in the supernatural
Were it only upon the evidence of the
ignorant and superstitious that the follow
ing facts hinge, they would be worthy of
slight consideration. To the uneducated
mind science can work marvels which, in
an earlier and ruder era, would have sent
their inventors to the stake as wizards.
Had Edison lived in the days of the inqui-
sition he would have had the rack and
thumbscrews for his reward, and Morse,
Stephenson and Watts been martyrs to the
cause of the worlds progress Humanity
in every age has been eager to listen to the
marvellous and to swallow the incredible
upon very slight guarantee. However, it
is upon no such slender testimony that our
story rests. Its truth is vouched by men
of approved veracity, good education and
tried courage, high in the esteem of the
community and members of one of the
learned professions.
Early In the history of the town, among
the first attracted to the locality by the
nlCtnrAGnna haQnfU nf &c
the swift flowing Tennessee was North
Carolinian named Richard Hunter Like
one of the patriarchs of old, with his flocks
and herds, his family, his menservants
and his maidservants, he had left the old
North State and, "per varios casus, per tot
discrimina rerum." crossing the rolling
waves of the Blue Ridge and threading the
rugged spurs of the Cumberlands, fording
streams and ferrying rivers, he had at last
paused here, exclaiming with the ancient
warrior: "Alabamal Here we rest" And
here, fronting upon what is now ons of the
principal streets Of the town, arose his
residence.
Wealth in those days was counted in the
south by the acreage of plantations and
by the number of slaves male and fe-
male. OF the former, Richard Hunter
possessed enough for a barony and Of
the great square brick house, with
its massive pillars and wide spreading
porches, could be seen bright and happy
black faces by the score, the cotton fields
resounded to the hoeing songs of well con-
ditioned and swarthy field hands, while in
the quarters" not farof picaninnies and
dogs abounded. IL was a sight of peace,
plenty and prosperity. Notwithstanding
the fact that this section was the head
quarters of the great Cherokee Nation, all
went well between the whites and the In
dams, neither interfering with nor molest-
ing the other.
Richard Hunter had but one child, the
sole heiress of his acres and his wealth,
and she had just budded, under the warm
glances of a southern sun, into woman
hood, fresh and blooming as a wild rose.
Tall and willowy, with all the 1.-THE grace
peculiar to the women of the south, she
was nevertheless in hair, eyes and coloring
type of one of her Scotch ancestresses
who, born amid the hills of the highlands,
had been transplanted to congenial home
amid the mountains of western North
Carolina.
She had been educated in all the lady
like accomplishments of the day under the
watchful eyes of a mother who united to
the love of literature, music and art that
intimate knowledge Of the mysteries of
housekeeping, then considered essential to
the mistress of household. The idol of
her father, she had been his comrade and
the companion of his sports, until she
could back half broken colt, paddle
pirogue or bring down a partridge with
the same ease that our modern belle carries
her train through a crowded ballroom.
Alice Hunter was in that period of life
- = L. Al =
reaches out and dominates the future.
Wealth, doting parents, qualification of
every wish were hers, but above all she had
won the love of the man of her choice and
was happiest in the knowledge that Philip
Marston's dearest hope and highest aspira-
ton conferred in herself. Phil Marston,
as he was known to every one, or "Marse
Phil'' as the negroes called him, was young,
handsome, free handed, free hearted, gal
liant and all that went TO make him an
ideal lover In spite of strong rivalry he
had won his lady love- and the day was
set for their marriage His broad and we'll
titled lands adjolned the Hunter planta-
ton, and Richard Hunter knew that 1t
would make almost a principality, joined
to his own. Nevertheless Alice was only
seventeen, and so the wedding day was
postponed until the following year.
Suddenly, in 1886, the Cherokee wal
broke out. Philip Marston raised COM
pany of riflemen from among the hardy
yeomanry of the section and Joined the
command of his friend and neighbor, Gen
eral Coffee. Throughout the sharp and
decisive campaign that followed Marston
bore conspicuous part for gallantry, until
the final battle on the banks of the Coosa.
Hemmed in upon peninsula, bounded, all
hut a narrow neck of land by swollen
waters of the rivers, tine chiefs and bravest
warriors of the Cherokees made their last
and desperate stand Leading his riflemen
to a charge Philip Marston fell, MORALLY
wounded.
Bad news travels quickly. 1t was ON
night OF furious wind and rain that a
hunting shirted riheman brought the It'd
ings of Philip Marston's death to the
Hunter mansion. The blast bowed the