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Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Grandmother's ghost made an eerie and lasting impression
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Stories told to us when we are young, especially if they are well-crafted tales, tend to remain within our memory banks forever and when they happen to be ghost stories told by a favourite grandmother, amidst the eerie dusk of softly dying October days, then they take on added significance.My grandmother (Jim's grandmother) had lived in the area of Prairie Siding on the banks of the Thames River in Dover Township almost all of her life. She had been born in the area, lived a short time in the Windsor area but then brought her husband and two daughters back to a small farm on the Thames to live there until her death seven years ago. A lover of literature, legends, myths, old wives' tales and a keeper of a thousand sayings suitable for any occasion, she kept me fascinated and enthralled for most of my impressionable pre-teen years.
One story that she told me every Halloween was one that her mother had told her as a young girl and it obviously had made an impression upon her as it was to do upon me. It was all the more chilling as it was set less than a half a mile from my grandparents' house on a spot that I regularly rode my bike by on warm summer afternoons and, at a slightly faster pace, on cool fall evenings as darkness stealthily approached.
The story went that in the early 1900s a minister by the name of Reverend Knight had to travel from his home in Jeanette's Creek to Providence Church on the Raleigh River Road to perform his weekly service. On a fairly regular basis, he would see, on his way home in the evening, a young lady dressed in a Queen Anne collar mysteriously floating over the Thames River.
This apparition would appear at the same spot each time, which happened to be near the present day Prairie Siding Bridge on the banks of what was the old Jacob farm. The vicinity of the spectre and the physical description of the girl, led some of the locals who heard Reverend Knight's story to speculate on the possible "identity" of the preacher's vision.
Older residents along the river recalled the tragic story of Mary Jacob, the younger daughter of John Jacob. Mary, being young and in love, would often take romantic strolls along the river with her one true love – Alex Miller.
Although the two were very much in love, Mr. and Mrs Jacobs did not want the relationship to continue. After one romantic meeting, Mary and her parents had a particularly violent argument. The next day, Mary was nowhere to be found and her parents reported her missing.
Constable William Crow arrived and the Jacobs suggested to him that Mary had run away in a fit of anger. Upon investigating the premises, Crow noted a large number of flies buzzing around the locked and barred stable. The Jacobs refused to unlock the stable for Crow and he was forced to leave and obtain a court order.
When he returned the next day, Crow spotted a fresh trail that led from the stable to the Thames River, where he found the badly beaten and decomposing body of Mary Jacob.
When the case was taken to court the jury, lacking any substantial proof, ruled the death as a suicide.
Scandals, failed crops and the loss of other children to disease plagued the Jacob family from that time onwards. In addition to this, it was reported by local residents that on every anniversary of Mary's "suicide", there were loud, incessant sounds of a struggle heard upstairs in the Jacob household.
About ten years after Mary's death, her father John Jacob, died. As his casket was being lowered into the ground, at the cemetery in Pain Court, a snake slithered into his grave and refused to leave. Many of those attending the funeral thought back to Mary's sad demise and wondered if this was indeed a sign indicating that Mary's death was a little more than a "suicide".
Several years later, Mary's mother died and, according to relatives, confessed, on her death bed, to the killing of her daughter with a heavy smoothing iron in a fit of rage over Mary's choice of lovers.
If Reverend Knight actually did see a gossamer apparition floating above the moonlit Thames River in the ghost-white winters of the early 1900s, the evidence does seem to point to Mary Jacob.
The story, of course, made a large impression upon me as a young lad and when I got older I, reluctantly, took the time to research the historical accuracy of such a seemingly bizarre tale. I say "reluctantly" because I fully expected to find that the story my grandmother had religiously told me each October, was only an exaggerated, fanciful tale told by my imaginative great grandmother to entertain her many children. My grandmother, I speculated, had further embellished the tale to fascinate and intrigue her impressionable grandson.
I, nevertheless, risked the possible disappointment and, to my utter amazement, found that everything my grandmother had told me was absolutely true! Her facts were reinforced by reports in the Chatham newspapers of the time and, in fact, even the names she had recited to me were correct!
Over the years, I have repeated this story to my son as well as countless other people through articles, interviews and radio broadcasts and I know that every time I tell this great Halloween story, my thoughts fondly drift back to a grandmother who was as willing to tell a young lad chilling tales as she was children's tales. Everyone should be so lucky!
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
