Every year, thousands of tourists come to the Myrtle plantation in the hope of seeing the ghosts of the people who died there. Whose spirit still wanders the neighborhood, and what other secrets are hidden within the walls of this house, we tell in our material.
There are always many legends and rumors around old houses with a rich history, but it is the Myrtle plantation that has become one of the most popular mystical sights in the United States. The ghost of the slave Chloe, the steps of one of the murdered owners of the house, children's handprints on the mirror, mysterious photographs - and this is not a complete list of what visitors to the mystical house in Louisiana see and hear.
Myrtle Plantation was built in 1796 by General David Bradford in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Bradford erected a building on the site of an Indian cemetery and called it "Laurel Grove". During construction, the general lived on the site alone, as he fled from justice for participating in the Whiskey Rebellion. A little later, after the official pardon of Bradford by President John Adams, the general moved there his wife Elizabeth Porter and five children.
After his death in 1808, the property passed to Elizabeth, who found it rather difficult to manage the estate alone, so the plantation soon changed its owner. It was Clark Woodruff, the husband of one of the daughters of David and Elizabeth. And it is with him that the first terrible legend of the Myrtle plantation is connected.
Chloe's slave ghost
Clark Woodruff, who studied law in private lectures by General Bradford, married one of his daughters, Sarah Matilda. The family inherited the plantation, where they settled. Sara-Matilda gave birth to Clark three daughters: Cornelia, James and Mary Octavia. However, family happiness was not destined to last long, and soon the first monstrous incident happened on the Myrtle plantation.
Clark Woodruff was once discussing work issues behind the closed doors of his office. The conversation was not intended for other people's ears, but one of his slaves, Chloe, could not resist and overheard the owner's conversation. Woodruff, who unexpectedly left the office, saw Chloe at the door, and was terribly angry. In a fit of anger, he ordered to cut off the slave's ear, thus punishing her for espionage. The "verdict" was soon carried out, and Chloe began to wear a green headscarf, hiding the absence of an ear and ugly scars from a knife. But the story did not end there.
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Chloe, angry with the cruel owner, decided to take revenge on him. She made a birthday cake for him, to which she added an extract of oleander leaves, an extremely poisonous and dangerous plant. However, Chloe's plan failed, and Clark's wife Sarah-Matilda and their two daughters tried the cake. After such a "treat" the woman and both girls died.
According to legend, the enraged Clark Woodroffe began to execute and torture anyone who came under his suspicion. Frightened slaves who lived on the plantation and knew who was responsible for the death of the mistress and her daughters, made a desperate decision - they committed lynching by hanging Chloe on one of the trees, and then threw her body into the river.
There is another version of events, according to which Chloe decided to eavesdrop on the owner's conversations for a reason. According to rumors, the owner, taking advantage of his position, began an intimate relationship with Chloe, and when she got bored with him, he switched to another slave. Chloe, frightened by the prospect of going to work in the cotton fields, where the working conditions were monstrous, listened to every conversation of Clark Woodroffe, trying to figure out her future fate.
However, the reasons why the girl decided to spy on the owner of the plantation do not change the further tragic events. After the death of the slave, her vengeful spirit settled on the plantation. Some tourists visiting the plantation claim that they saw the ghost of Chloe with their own eyes, wandering around the area.
And in 1922, a photograph was taken on the Myrtovo plantation, which attracted increased attention of researchers. In the picture taken by one of the owners of the plantation to obtain an insurance policy, a translucent silhouette of a girl was clearly visible, which was described very similar to the slave Chloe. The National Geographic Explorer film crew took an interest in the photo and began to study it in detail. Experts did not manage to determine the nature of the phenomenon in the photograph, after which it was decided to make a postcard from the photograph, which can still be bought at the Myrtova plantation.
Mirror containing the spirits of the dead
In addition to the ghost of the slave Chloe, other spirits remained in the house, after the story with the poisoned pie. When Clark Woodruff's wife and two of his daughters died, the owner ordered all mirrors to be covered with sheets. This is an ancient tradition - it is believed that the souls of recently deceased people live in the house for some time, and any mirrored surfaces are a portal into which the soul can fall forever without ever getting to heaven.
According to legend, the servants in Woodruff's house were so excited by the tragic events that in a hurry she forgot to cover one of the mirrors, into which the souls of Sarah Matilda and her daughters fell. Spots of unknown origin periodically appear on the surface of that mirror, and sometimes even prints of children's hands appear on it.
After the gloomy events that took place within the walls of the house, the Myrtle plantation changed several owners, each of whom was forced to sell it for different reasons. The last owners of the plantation before the Civil War were Ruffin Gray Sterling and his wife Catherine Cobb. A married couple started a large-scale reconstruction of the house, during which the area of the dwelling almost doubled, and all the furniture was replaced with imported from Europe.
An indelible stain of blood in the doorway
The next legend of the plantation is associated with the times of the American Civil War in 1861-1865. During the interstate war, Myrtle Plantation was plundered by marauders who were looking for profit. It is not known for certain what exactly happened when they broke into the house, but three of the treasure hunters were killed. After their death, an extensive stain of blood remained in the doorway, which cannot be washed off to this day.
Some of the cleaners who worked on the plantation claimed that they faced an inexplicable problem - when it came to cleaning the very place where the blood stain was located, it was as if something prevented them from passing. After several unsuccessful attempts to get to the ominous place, the owners of the house decided to leave it alone.
Steps on the seventeenth step
After the end of the civil war, the manager William Drew Winter appeared in the house, who was supposed to bring the looted estate to its original form. Initially, Winter's business went uphill - he married the daughter of the owner of the plantation Mary Cobb Strealing, and turned from a manager to a full owner. However, the family's financial condition did not allow Winter's plans for the reconstruction of the plantation to be implemented, and the family was going to put the estate up for sale.
But tragedy struck again within the walls of the house. William Drew Winter was shot and killed by a man named E. S. Webber in 1871. The motives for this murder have not been established, despite a rather lengthy investigation. Winter was shot when he was standing at the very top of the stairs, after which he staggered and fell dead exactly on the seventeenth step.
After Mr. Winter's death, strange things began to happen. People in the house began to hear footsteps on that unfortunate staircase that ended exactly on the seventeenth step - the very one where William Drew Winter died. Rumor has it that his spirit still roams the house, frightening visitors with the sounds of footsteps coming from the stairs.
Haunted hotel
After Winter's murder, the plantation changed several owners. In the 1970s, the Meyers family bought the Myrtle Plantation and decided to make it a hotel. Having turned the estate into a hotel, the Meyers family waited for the first guests, who soon began to move in. But the owners did not have time to rejoice at the success of their business, as inexplicable things began to happen again on the plantation.
Guests complained about strange sounds that reached their rooms at night. Some of the guests met in the dark corridors of the house a girl in a green scarf, who carefully covered their ear, others came across the prints of children's hands on the surface of the mirror, and others saw the translucent silhouettes of girls in the windows of their empty rooms. It became clear that the house was inhabited by ghosts, and the owners had several options for the development of events.
The first and not the best option was to close the hotel. However, the enterprising Mrs. Meyers decided to make a profitable business out of a frightening story - and she succeeded. The woman published a book on the legends of the Myrtle Plantation, in which she detailed all the secrets of the haunted house, and turned an ordinary hotel into a popular hotel with paranormal phenomena.
Mrs. Meyers' idea turned out to be extremely successful, and the Myrtle plantation is still opening its doors to hundreds of tourists who wish to see with their own eyes the house with ghosts and the spirits of people killed here. The plantation also attracts television crews and journalists who regularly travel to Louisiana to hunt ghosts.
Of course, at the moment, no one has yet managed to obtain direct evidence that ghosts live in the house. Moreover, researchers are still collecting information about the mysterious place, obtaining more and more new facts, sometimes indicating that all the plantation legends are fiction. For example, according to surviving records, a slave named Chloe did not live in the house of Clark Woodruff, and his wife died not from poison, but from a common disease of the time - yellow fever. The only murder that was definitely committed at the Myrtle Plantation was the murder of William Drew Winter.
It is difficult to say whether the legends about the Myrtle plantation are true or fictional, but those who have been there at least once say with confidence that on the ancient plantation you can really encounter the spirits of the past.
AUTHOR: DARIA CHERNOVA
