The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-09

been recorded and kept in mind by eth
er neighbors or friends of the afflicted
ones. OF the many secret sorrows that
have dwelt by the fireside there is no
record.
Strange to say, there is no claim that
ghosts stalk around the house where
death and disaster rule. There are no
tales of white-robed creatures or of
blood-curdling means. But the spirit
of ruin and disaster which seems to
make its dwelling place there is a very
real one to those who know something
of the story of the place.
While ii does not prowl by night
around the walls of the little dwelling"
says one observer, Its vigilance is re-
lentless and its victims are claimed with
a degree of certainty that leads the
most skeptical TO believe in its power"
For season, perhaps a year or so, the
place will remain unmoleSted, but new
er yet has fate once missed a visit to
a family occupying this ill-omened
house.
Place Is Not Stunned.
The present owner. or at least the
man who is today acquiring an owner
ship is r. C. Jones of Denver. Through
NJ. S. Woolley he is purchasing the
property, the rentals applying on the
purchase price. So far as is known 10
cally no serious mishaps have befallen
him and he seems to be unafraid to ven-
ture his money on the place. Naturally
the real estate men who have had the
handling of the property are inclined to
pooh-pOoh the number of fatalities
which have been directly connected
with the house, and insist that il has
had no more than its share of the I'M
happy endings of many lives. Neigh
bors who are not given over to super
stitions, however, say that this does
not account for the conditions known
to surround the house. Strange to say,
with all its fearful record, ii has sell
dom been empty more than a day or so
at a time. Whether the advertising it
has had has done it harm or good would
be hard question to determine, for it
has always had its share of occupants.
The land on which the house stands
was purchased in the spring of 1854 from
Brigham Young, who held the title to
it. by o. L. Eliason. During the sum-
mer of that year Mr.. Eliason employed
a contractor named Anderson-long
since passed 10 the beyond-to build
that house. The land included the en-
tire eastern half Of the block now
bounded on the east by ] street and
on the west by I. That part of the
city was then entirely unsettled, be-
cause although it was desirable land
in one way, there was no water farther
north than Second South street
Bones of Indians.
However, a promise was made 10
make an effort to get water along this
very street, and on the strength of this
promise the house was built. The clay
from which the adobes were shaped
was taken from new clay bed about
where the Rio Grande shops are now,
and it was a matter of comment that
more Indian bones were put into the
walls of this one little house than had
gone into the making of any number
of aborigines, the site of the clay bed
being known as an ancient battle-ground
among the Indian tribes
In the autumn of 1864. the Eliason
family moved into the new home. and
for eighteen years they nourished the
hope that water would soon be brought
to that section of the city. mean
while carrying all the water for house
hold uses from either as far west as
the Eagle Gate or as far south as Sec
ond South street. For thirty-one years
the family lived in the house, and this
time may be said to have been the best
in its history. A family of children came
and grew to manhood in those years
and it was not till the latter part of
this period that the mother of the fam
lily was taken away. In the early nine
ties the house was sold after a long
siege of mortgages and financial losses,
to Mary Nickel.
There is a long series of disasters con-
nected with the Nickel ownership, in
Guiding the loss of mind on the part
of Mrs. Mickelss husband, William
Nickel. who. despite the fact that he
had been of sound mind before. squan-
dered all the family property while de-
mented, and later was killed in a rail-
road accident. Only a short time later
Mary Nickel was burned to death
through an explosion of gas while still
owning the house.
Woman Takes Poison.
The next chapter relates to the own
ership of one Snyder. who acquired the
property at the time of the death of
Mary Nickel. This man seems to have
been one who washed his hands of the
encumbrance very shortly after ac-
quiring it, for it was sold to an out-of-
town purchaser, John NJ. Stone, or
Stout. who was mixed up in scandal