The Ghost of the Martintown Mill

In Martintown, Ontario (Glengarry County), the 1846 mill* is lovingly preserved by many dedicated volunteers, perhaps making some reticent to leave. Over the years there have been several instances of something making itself known. There have even been paranormal investigations, which yielding haunting results.

View the Haunted Martintown Mill video (2:48) by clicking the image above.

 

The Historic Cornwall Gaol — Haunted?

(Click image for video)

 

Excerpt from an upcoming documentary on the life of Captain John Walden Meyers, UE Loyalist and founder of Belleville, Ontario. This excerpt entitled “Legend,” concerns the Captain’s last days and the enduring legend of Meyers Cave. These events occurred 200 years ago. Documentary coming November 2021. Windswept Productions.

Explore more information about  “Damned Rascal” project including additional clips, documents, and other media.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

“The short story tells the tale of a small town schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane who attempts to woo a beautiful young heiress named Katrina Van Tassel. Ichabod is opposed in this by a rival for the ladies affection, a man named Brom Van Brunt. Ichabod loves to hear ghost stories and learns of a local legend, a headless horseman who is supposed to ride through the town at night looking for his disembodied head.

One night, Ichabod is invited to the Van Tassel’s farm for a party. While there he confesses his feelings to Katrina and she rejects him. Disappointed, he leaves to head back home and stumbles across a nightmare on the way. The Headless Horseman leaps out of the town’s legends and chases Ichabod down. Eventually, the horseman vanishes but not before throwing his decapitated head at Ichabod, knocking the man off his horse.

The next morning, Ichabod’s horse is found and the town searches for him. When he is not found, the superstitious townspeople assume that he has been taken by the Horseman. However, Brom finds this tale a little too amusing and it is implied that he dressed up as the Horseman to frighten Ichabod into leaving. It works, and Ichabod has never seen in the town again.” (booksummary.net)

READ The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (Project Gutenberg online)

 

“What fearful shapes and shadows beset his path amidst the dim and ghastly glare of a snowy light! –With what wistful look did he eye every trembling ray of light streaming across the vast fields from some distent window!”  Ichabod Crane was often “thrown into complete dismay by some rushing blast, howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the Galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scourings!”

 

The Legends and Reality of Sleepy Hollow, Part 1: Headless Hessians

The Legends and Reality of Sleepy Hollow, Part 2: The Hanging of Major André

(The Loyalist Collection – University of New Brunswick)

 

More about Washington Irving‘s life and the places that play a part in his books, including, Johnstown, New York – the place where many United Empire Loyalists had lived. His sister, Sarah Irving Dodge is buried in the Colonial Cemetery on W. Green Street in Johnstown, NY.

Other Haunted Tales about the United Empire Loyalists

 

The Child-Ghost; A Story of the Last Loyalist by Walt Whitman (1842)

A Garden Ghost And Revolutionary Loyalist Among Those That Haunt Newtown Homes (Newtown Bee; 2016)

Haunting of Melrose Hall (Freaky Folk Tales; Adapted from 1895 Story in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

 

VIDEO: Haunted Hay Bay Church: Team 1 plus Loyalist Cemetery Exploration (The Phantoms of Yore; Length: 56:04))

 

The Conference House – Staten Island, New York

Located at the southernmost tip of Staten Island, this colonial manor was used by loyalist Colonel Christopher Billop as a way station for British forces during the Revolutionary War. It also hosted the unsuccessful Staten Island Peace Conference on September 11, 1776, with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge in attendance. In 1779, Billop suspected a 15-year-old serving girl of spying for the rebels and allegedly killed her by throwing her down a flight of stairs, and supposedly her ghost can still be heard screaming today. (New York City’s spookiest, most haunted places)