The story begins at the home of Alexander and Mary MacDonald and their 16 year-old adopted daughter Mary-Ellen, a small farm house in the small community of Caledonia Mills, Antigonish NS.
In January of 1922, a fire started in part of their house. Oddly it was not near their fireplace or wood stove. Once extinguished another erupted in an empty room at the other end of the home. The family was totally puzzled. Other fires materialized mysteriously. Wet towels and the patches of wallpaper would burst into flames.
It did not take the family long to realize that there was something unnatural occurring. With the help of their neighbors they began to guard the house, hoping to catch an intruding arsonist. Fires continued to appear out of nowhere, but no arsonist was ever caught. In total there were 30 unexplained fires.
Prior to the fires, a number of odd events reportedly took place in the McDonald barn. They would find ashes in the store milk, livestock would be found with their tails braided, moved into different stalls, and on more than one occasion were reportedly found locked outside the barn in a state of considerable agitation.
Soon the family was persuaded to leave the home while the local authorities investigated. When word of the mysteries got out reporters arrived to get the scoop. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was invited to investigate.
Once the family moved out of the house, journalists and would-be paranormal
investigators moved in.
Some of the most notable accounts include those of
Harold Whidden, a reporter from the Halifax Herald, and police detective
Peachey Carroll, who spent two nights in the house. During this time they both
experienced several odd events, including the feeling of being slapped on the
arm and face by phantom hands. Detective Carroll
who had more to lose when it came to his reputation also openly admitted that
the farm was haunted.
One of the people invited to investigate this strange occurrence was Walter Franklin Prince, research officer for the American
Society for Psychical Research. He accepted the invitation and traveled to Caledonia Mills to investigate this case. In the cases he investigated Dr. Prince’s findings were
always considered the “final word”, because of his high standing.
Harold Whidden who had initially
brought the case to the world’s attention accompanied Prince during part of his
investigation, which lasted 3 weeks from late February to mid March. He spent
six of these days at the farm.
Dr. Walter F. Prince |
Whidden
noted that Prince went about his investigation in odd ways. He seemed more
concerned about the cold than the haunting.
He spent the first day he arrived in
arranging a comfortable room for himself. He demanded privacy. He insisted that
no one could stay at the farm with him during his investigation without an
invitation including the MacDonald family--which left a sour impression.
He did invite the MacDonald family
at one point hoping they would trigger the activity. He also included Whidden
who while in the farmhouse felt the same sensation he had during his own
investigation with Detective Carroll.
At one point Dr. Prince, Dan
Gillivray-- a neighbor of the MacDonalds and the three MacDonald’s all
witnessed Whidden walk across the room appearing to be in a trance. He demanded a pencil and scribbled on
bits of paper for over 2 hours.
He seemed to be possessed by the
poltergeist that wrote a confession he had set the fires. Right after, Prince
agreed with this conclusion. Before he arrived he had already
made up his mind. He believed the activity was a poltergeist that was attached
to the MacDonald’s 16-year old foster daughter, Mary Ellen, but when he presented his findings, they were a
complete turnabout from what he first proclaimed.
Prince concluded that the mysterious fires and alleged poltergeist phenomena were caused by Mary-Ellen
in a dissociated state. Prince had discovered inflammable liquid and noted that
"the fires were undoubtedly set by human hands, judging by the
unmistakable signs left in the house. The burns are never found on the wall
paper higher than the reach of a person five feet tall, which is the height of
[the] girl in the family."
In a statement, Mary Ellen defended
herself passionately. She accused Dr. Prince of “fibbing.” She stated:
“I
have never set fires. I have never untied the cattle in the barns. I never
plaited the tails of the horses. I would have been afraid to. First they
claimed I had a boyfriend--a sweetheart--who did it now they say I did it. I
tell you I don’t care who Dr. Prince is. He ought to be ashamed of himself.”
Shortly
after this interview Dr. Prince labeled it just another fake, stating the Mary
Ellen he’d met would not have been able to make this statement for she had “the
mind of a four year old.” However, to those who knew Mary Ellen, she was a teen
of normal intelligence that was known to have a bright smile and a happy
disposition.
He also denied seeing Whidden do the
automatic writing, and never directly addressed the strange phenomenon with the
cattle and horses, like fact that the MacDonald livestock always escaped within
seconds of the farmer securing them. Or that many of the fires started when no
one was in the farmhouse. Dr.
Prince did, however, report unexplained rapping noises in his office back in
New York for several weeks after he had completed his investigation into the
Caledonia Mills “Spook Farm.”
The MacDonald family moved back to
the farm just months afterward, and all was calm through the summer, but by the
following October the fires started as suddenly and incomprehensibly as before.
This time, there was no sympathy for the family, and Police officers, who were not local, showed up at the farm. They had come for Mary Ellen. According to some accounts, she was placed in the Nova Scotia Home for the Insane located in Dartmouth she was even confined for many years.
Mary-Ellen MacDonald |
H.B. Whidden was so troubled by his experiences that he never published them in his lifetime, though they have since been released by his family.
H.B.Whidden |
“In describing this experience, as well as his and Carroll’s prior experience while spending the night in the McDonald house with Detective Carroll and Alex McDonald. The contents of the alleged spirit messages were to “confirm” that the spontaneous fires were caused by spirits that “spirits do visit the earth after death,” and that God has endowed such spirits with a limitless lifespan”.
Whidden's full account can be found at "My Experiences at the MacDonald Homestead"
There is another spooky story
that should not be left out of the Antigonish paranormal storybook. The
story of Mary Ellen Spooks has many variations, but all involve some
form of arson occurring at Caledonia Mills farm, located in Antigonish
County. Legend has it that there was a man who was seeking shelter late
at night, and so sought help from the owners of the farm. They denied
him a place, thus he cursed their adopted daughter and disappeared. In
the following years, Mary Ellen would be known to go into trances, with
odd things happening while she was charmed. Sometimes the animals would
go into a craze while she was in this demeanor, other times her father
would go downstairs to see a fire lit where there wasn’t one before. The
culmination of this story is a plethora of house and barn fires that
only ended when Mary Ellen moved away from the farm. Many of the fires
were known to start where there was no oven or pit, meaning no chance of
an accidental flame erupting.
Arsonist or not, the Caledonia Mills legend persists. Even today, long after the farm and house have disappeared, people say that if you take home any item from the property, your house will burn down.
Sources:
townofantigonish.ca
wikipedia.org
Harold Whidden, “My Experiences at the McDonald Household,” 1922
The Fire spook of caledonia Mills
Folklore of Nova Scotia
xaverian.ca
If you know of any other stories from this area, or have a story of your own that you would like to share, we would love to hear from you!
Arsonist or not, the Caledonia Mills legend persists. Even today, long after the farm and house have disappeared, people say that if you take home any item from the property, your house will burn down.
Sources:
townofantigonish.ca
wikipedia.org
Harold Whidden, “My Experiences at the McDonald Household,” 1922
The Fire spook of caledonia Mills
Folklore of Nova Scotia
xaverian.ca
If you know of any other stories from this area, or have a story of your own that you would like to share, we would love to hear from you!
Is there any source that states definitely that she moved to "Central Canada"?
ReplyDeleteI had six employees who did not believe this story I told them at lunchtime. They were students on summer job. They rented a van on the weekend, went to Antigonish asked for directions to the spook house. No one would tell them how to get there. Finally someone spoke. They got there, only stone foundation of the house were there. They looked across from where they were standing, saw flames between the stones….ran to the spot, no flames but some across from where they had been standing. It was June 1981 no cell phones. One girl had a camera, she tried to take photos, one foggy looking was all that turned out then at the end the camera was jammed. It worked when she got home. The non believers said that the chatty group never spoke when they were there. They all told me that they now believe in ghosts.
ReplyDeleteHello there. I am from New Glasgow. I would love to go explore this stone foundation in the woods.
ReplyDeleteMy high school history teacher once told me he knew the exact location, so I went to it. Honestly it's been so long now that I forget exactly where it is. I seem to remember going down road c-31 which branches off of the Antigonish-Guysborough road. Would you confirm is this is the true location or not?
I would appreciate it. Thanks!
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yMx6EdixhzKQ3TU6A?g_st=ic
DeleteDirections here