St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-28
THE DEVIL HOUSE.

Betsey Chapman cried out that
great black bird was carrying her
off bodily, and that his glistening
talons were piercing her sides. Her
shrieks could be heard far off. By
this time several officers of the meet
house, and they, too, began praying.
| At last the old pastor called out
/ to the girl:
"Betsey. pray for thyself. Our
| prayers do not avail"
80 Cod" cried the girl, plunge
| Thy hand into hell and pluck me
OUT
The legend says that as soon as
| the name of God was uttered by the
girl the crisis
SEEMED TO BE PASSED.
', Betsey hung between life and
| death for weeks, but she ultimately
/ recovered. Her brother was soon
after seized with the melancholia of
, the house and wandered away in
! sane, and was never seen again
In December of that year Betsey
; was married to Driskel, and four
weeks later she was killed by a fall
, down a we'll.
j The next spring, 1909, her hus-
band sold the farm to Amos Water
| house, relative of the old Quaker
pastor, and then went into the far
! West. Amos Waterhouse had two
/ sons. Their names were Amos and
, Jesse. The latter became insane
; when he was nine years old and died
) in an asylum. Amos, while a youth,
/ broke through the earthen crust of
coal pit which his father was burn
/ ing. The mother of the boys fell
! into the melancholy and died after
few months of illness. She was
laid at the side of her boys.
; Amos Waterhouse married again.
this time ito a daughter of the Quak-
ertown colony, Desire Rogers. Soon
! after her marriage she was stricken
with brain fever and became a bed
! ridden invalid, remaining so for
! years, until 1913, When She, too, died.
| One of the plainest-marke of the
old brown stone gravestones among
the rank growth of grass and briars
! on South hill notes her last resting
/ place. Amos WateThouse never raj
lied from the shock occasioned from
the death of his wife, and in 1915
| he died.
Now comes a period of ten years
house do not appear in the Quaker
records. 1t is known, however. that
Shere were several occupants of the
! farm in this period mentioned, nu-
merous deaths and two suicides by
/ hanging. In this interval the So
called devil room, in Which Retsev
! chapman slept, was cut UP with par
! tltlons and shelves so that no one
; could sleep in it. 1t was used as q
, milk room and dairy.
; In the spring of 1925 two families
! hved in tine house. these of Nathan
! Chamson and Henry Rodgers who
/ mad married sisters. Rodgers mar
RED Amy Waterhouse, a grand
daughter of the venerable pastor
while Chamson's wife was the next
! oldest sister, Mary. Amy Water
/ house
WAS THE FIRST VICTIM.
Her first and only Child died when
! one month old, and the mourning
mother followed her little one to the
: South hill plot. A year later this
: Rodgers married his first wife's
younger sister, Sarah. The latter
died soon after a child was born to
! her. The child died also, and both
/: were buried in the same coffin on
! South hill. Rodgers then removed
from the farm. The deaths in Cham
sons family followed so fast that in
twenty years ten graves were added
] TO the South mill cemetery. They are
; ranged side by side. Chamson was
+: making money on the farm with a
! small machine shop, in which he was
turning out patented article. This
helped him to be skeptical about the
superstition relating to the house.
AT the. birth of his last child both
mother and child were taken away.
| Chamson, broken-hearted. almost
gave the farm to Amos Whiting TO
induce the latter to take the place
off his hands. This was in the fall
of 1852.
Whiting and his wife, Sarah, were