JAMESTOWN, N.C. — Every year on Halloween, we tell each other scary stories. Some are urban legends, but others have a little more historical truth to them. The ones that are in our own backyard can be the scariest.
Minerva Mendenhall, the eldest daughter of Quakers Richard and Mary Mendenhall was born in 1813, only two years after the historic Mendenhall Homeplace was erected.
“She had this large house to herself. Her siblings had died or had moved off and she filled it with people who needed it. Orphans who had been expelled from orphanages, and people who had mental and physical disabilities. So, she essentially turned this place into a foster home/school of sorts," the director and curator of the historic site Shawn Rogers shared.
She was a remarkable woman known for her charity work at the time; however, sadly, in 1900, only three days before she was to turn 87, she died.
Yet, over a century later, Mendenhall still seems to be at her place of residence.
"A late friend of ours, Benford Farlow, once told us this story and Benford was a very serious, well-respected Quaker, so the fact he told us this story gave it a certain power and weight," recounted Rogers.
Back in the 80s, Farlow gave a tour to a young couple with a daughter between the ages of four and five. As he was leading them through the house, the little girl became separated from the rest of the group just before the close of the tour. When the mother insists the father goes to look for her and doesn't come back himself, Farlow and she go after them.
When they arrived, they saw the shocked father standing over the little girl who had placed herself on the stairs to the kitchen.
"The young girl was standing here and supposedly the woman was sitting in a chair right over there in the corner," recalled Rogers.
The little girl was talking to the old woman in the corner. Only… there was no chair and there was no woman.
"'The father asks, 'Well, what is she saying?' She’s saying, 'it’s time to leave now," and they didn't stay long after that," Rogers said.
While the spirit of Minerva has shown no signs of malevolence, Mendenhall has seen its fair share of ghostly appearances since then.
“I remember one time I was staying here after hours, and I'm embarrassed to say, working on a grant. And as I was typing, I heard someone walk from the small parlor chamber upstairs to the large hall chamber," said Rogers.
Usually, Rogers wouldn’t be alarmed – except he was the only person there that night.
“I realized all the doors were locked. I walked around and couldn’t find anything and at this point, I was kind of paranoid. So, I go back and I’m starting to type away, and this is like 20 minutes or so later, I hear the person walk from the hall chamber back to the parlor and at that point, I grabbed all my stuff, and left," Rogers laughed.
Rogers hasn't had too many occurrences like that in his position as director, but Minerva is still a name mentioned frequently across the halls.
For anyone else itching for more historical and haunted stories, Mendenhall Homeplace is having a "True Tales of the Macabre" After-Dark tour on Friday and Saturday from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 and all proceeds go to benefit the Jamestown Historic Society.