My friends - I recently mentioned that I would be posting an interesting piece by the late Judy Maupin, written in 1976, entitled, "The Ghostly House in Brandon Springs". Today's post contains her narrative. This posting may perhaps be more appropriately directed to the JacksonPurchase-Lore-L List, but because it mentions family names, I am going to place it here. There are two surnames mentioned in this piece: Skinner and Chilton. Those of us who are familiar with Calloway County's families will immediately recognize the Skinner surname. The Chilton surname, which is said, in Maupin's piece, to have been in Calloway around 1880, does not appear anywhere in the JP region, except for one family in Hickman County, in the 1880 census. That may or may not be meaningful. Let me say, too, that we need to remember that this is Judy Maupin's story, based, she says, on some research she did regarding the area. Whether the facts are true or not is certainly open to speculation. I've not researched it, beyond determining that no Chilton family was in Calloway in 1880. If any of our subscribers are familiar with more details of this story, please let me know by private e-mail. It is an interesting "ghost story", if nothing else. -B ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Ghostly House in Brandon Springs -Judith A.Maupin, 1976 "Last Spring, when I went with a group of children to the new Brandon Springs camp, I did a little research about the area, with the hope of coming up with something that would interest kids of that age. To my surprise, I came up with an apparently authentic ghost story. It seems that one the spot where the Brandon Springs dormitories now stand, there once stood a large, two-story house, originally built about 1835 by Nathan Skinner. It sat high on the hill and overlooked the [Tennessee] river, which was at that time the main form of transportation. It was also located on a well used road; consequently, what with the lack of hotels in those days, many time weary travelers, whether from the riverboats, walking, or on horseback, would come to the house to ask for lodging for the night. According to the stories, Mr. Skinner would make the travelers welcome, feed and tuck them in, and then, in the dead of night, rob them of their possessions - and, incidentally, of their lives. Members of the family were reported to have heard the ghosts of these misrouted travelers, trying in vain to continue their journeys. In later years, the house changed hands. Nathan Skinner died in 1846 and is buried nearby, probably quite near where he put his victims. Sometime around 1880, after the estate had been settled, the house was occupied by a family named Chilton. These people were not natives of the region and had probably come in when the iron furnaces were still in operation. They were a close-knit, quiet family who stayed who stayed pretty much to themselves. This may have been because they were not natives, but it is more likely because of their son, who had been deformed quite severely at birth. In those days such a tragedy was looked upon with shame, and a person who was mentally retarded or crippled was kept at home but hidden from the public eye. This child, whose name is not known, stayed mostly in his little room on the first floor, where he spent many hours peeking out the windows, trying to see the world that lay beyond the row of cedar trees in the yard, which had been planted there to block outsiders' view of the house and its occupants. Before he got to be very old, the boy died, and so the legend goes, as long as the house stood, his halting steps and the sound of his crutches could be heard at night in that house." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++