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

the house is the little graveyard
containing the dead Of the Devil
House.
The following story of the house
is vouched for by at least five aged
and well-to-do Quakers Of more or
less prominence. The story in the
main was told to a correspondent
of the Sun at intervals this week
by Mrs Eunice Waterhouse, who
lives in the old Quaker meeting
house near by Devil House. she is
ninety-seven years old, but her men,
DRY is clear and sharp. Much of the
later information concerning the
house was obtained from authentic
Quaker records.
1t is a long, cold ride in winter
from this city to Quakertown, and
when that stu simple but not I'M
attractive settlement was reached it
was at first folnd difficult to get
any one to talk about the Devil
House. TIE Quakertown Quakers
live by t4kanaSs-Ess when possible.
The son learns res fathers trade and
chooses his wife from the Quaker
flock. Their habits are of the best.
Members of their colony have
spread all over the world, and their
number here is now slowly thinning
out.
Below the village you come abrupt
ly upon a valley of the richest soil,
sunk between two large hills. The
Devil House stands at the bottom
of the valley, and the old Quaker
meeting house is near the top of the
north hill, one-fourth of a mile dis
tant. Wealtherbeaten structures
they are, both of them. On the
south hill, forming the rest of the
picture, is the burial plot of the
Devil House.
Devil House they call it," said
Aunt Eunice, land well they may,
for there is a curse hanging over it
which makes its tenants victims of
melancholy, and finally kills them.
Bitterly has many a one been made
to rue the day he
FIRST SAW THE HOUSE.
cit was built before the year 1719,
/ do not know by whom. My grand
father. who preached here years
ago, said it was 'builded in we time
when ye wolves and ye bears
roamed about We doors'"
But the Devil House did not earn
its name until century later. In
1850 the house came into the pos
session of a family named Green.
The members of this family were
not Quakers. To two of them, Seth
Green and his sister Hettie, legend
ascribed the beginning OF the curse.
Seth is alleged to have ill-treated
Rettie to gain sole control of the
property, and Hebtie, dying, is al
legged, in retaliation, to have prayed
that sorrow and death should come
to all those whoever leased or bought
the house. Since then the farm has
changed hands every few years. The
rich soil washed down from the hills;
two thrifty orchards and other de-
sirable featu :es have attracted
many. The burying place is not
more than forty rods from the house.
There may be seen the graves of
most Of those who have died in the
house.
Timothy Waterhouse was pastor
of the Quakers- at the close of the
last century. 1t was to his kins-
man, Jabez Waterhouse, that Seth
Green sold the Devil house in 1882.
Jabez and his wife, Sarah, were two
as healthy young people as any in
Cuakertown. They brought with
them to Devil house an adopted girl.
Mary. One year later Mary Water
house had cousin from New Haven.
Esther Dwight, visit her. Esther was
naturally of lively disposition. In
few weeks her manner entirely
changed, and settled melancholy
came over her. She became q re-
cluse, and one day, when left alone
on the farm, she hanged herself to
an apple tree in the orchard near
est to the house. Two months later
Jabez was killed by a fall in his
barn. He was buried by the side of
Esther Dwight on South hill.
Mis-. Waterhouse removed to
Northern New York, where she
lived to a good old age.
Her adopted daughter Mary was
married to a young student named
Henry Wilcox, and with him went
To live in the house. The Wilcoxes
had success with the farm for a few