Brief Account of Damage in Pelham During the Earthquake of August 10, 1884

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Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
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Few may realize it, but only 13 miles from Pelham -- far beneath 125th Street in Manhattan -- lies the so-called "125th Street Fault Line."  While it is nothing like major fault lines such as the "San Andreas Fault" on the west coast of the United States, the 125th Street Fault Line is still a concern to experts who recognize that population growth (as well as urban and suburban development) in the region since the late 19th century have increased the risks of substantial damage from major earthquakes.

Pelham has experienced many earthquakes in historic times, a few of which have been large.  In fact, Pelham has experienced 35 earthquakes just since 1931, the majority of which have been so small that while they registered on seismographs, they were not even felt.  On August 10, 1884, however, everyone in Pelham and the surrounding region felt the large earthquake that rolled beneath the area.

I have written about that earthquake in Pelham (and others).  See, e.g.:  

Mon., Aug. 25, 2014:  Earthquake! Is Pelham on Shaky Ground?

Tue., Sep. 15, 2009:  An Earthquake in Pelham and Surrounding Areas on Sunday, August 10, 1884. 

Mon., Aug. 08, 2005:  The Day the Earth Shook in Pelham: July 11, 1872. 

Today's posting to the historic Pelham Blog provides an additional brief newspaper description of the 1884 earthquake and its damage in Pelham.  

On that lazy August afternoon, the ground began to roll and a thunderous sound could be heard.  One report said the noise sounded like a rumble and roar like an army of heavy wagons rumbling over a paved street.  Crockery and glassware rattled in Pelham homes.  The vibrations grew to become so great that it seemed in local drugstores as though the bottles would tumble from the shelves.

In some places, mothers ran into the open roads bearing their infants in their arms for protection.  Part of a chimney collapsed at a home on Fifth Avenue.  The chimney on the home of Mrs. James Parrish of Pelhamville, the home that still stands at 463 First Avenue known as the "Old Stone House," toppled over and damaged the roof of the home.

The following day, Monday, August 11, 1884, the region experienced a small aftershock.  That quake, thankfully, was not nearly as severe as the one the day before.  

Oddly, there was a place in the region that reportedly did not feel the shock of the main quake that Sunday.  The residents of Pelham's High Island off the northeastern tip of City Island reportedly felt nothing.  As the report quoted in full below noted, "The only place hereabouts that the shock was not felt was at High Island, where, it is said, the inhabitants are so secluded from the outside world, that they did not notice it; in fact knew absolutely nothing of it, until they read about it in Monday's papers."  

Painting of the Old Stone House Owned by the Parrish Family

Located at 463 First Avenue That Was Damaged During the

Earthquake on August 10, 1884.  NOTE:  Click on Image to

Enlarge.

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Below is the text of the brief article that forms the basis of today's posting.  It is followed by a citation and link to its source.  

"LOCAL NEWS. . . . 

The shock from the earthquake, last Sunday afternoon, was very severe in this village.  The swaying of houses and rattle of crockery and glassware startled the people from their houses in utter consternation.  In the various village drugstores, the vibrations were especially noticeable, and it seemed as though the bottles would tumble from the shelves.  In some streets, mothers ran out of doors bearing their infants in their arms.  Part of a chimney on one of Mr. Hillemeier's houses, Fifth avenue, was knocked down.  At Pelhamville, the chimney of Mrs. Parish's house, toppled over, and caused some damage to the roof.  The only place hereabouts that the shock was not felt was at High Island, where, it is said, the inhabitants are so secluded from the outside world, that they did not notice it; in fact knew absolutely nothing of it, until they read about it in Monday's papers. . . ."

Source:  LOCAL NEWS, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Aug. 15, 1884, Vol. XV, No. 778, p. 3, cols. 1-2.  

Learn More About Earthquakes in Pelham and Future Risks

Below are a number of links that will allow readers to learn more about earthquakes in Pelham and future risks.

Mon., Aug. 25, 2014:  Earthquake! Is Pelham on Shaky Ground?

Tue., Sep. 15, 2009:  An Earthquake in Pelham and Surrounding Areas on Sunday, August 10, 1884. 

Mon., Aug. 08, 2005:  The Day the Earth Shook in Pelham: July 11, 1872. 

Recent Earthquakes Near Pelham, New York (visited Jan. 29, 2017).  

Tantala, Michael, et al., Earthquake Risks and Mitigation in the New York / New Jersey / Connecticut Region (The New York City Area Consortium for Earthquake Loss Mitigation:  2003) (visited Jan. 29, 2017).

Nordenson, Guy, et al., Earthquake Loss Estimation for The New York City Area (The New York City Area Consortium for Earthquake Loss Mitigation:  May 1, 1999) (visited Jan. 29, 2017).

NYCEM:  The New York City Area Consortium for Earthquake Loss Mitigation (Apr. 30, 2013) (visited Jan. 29, 2017).

THE SUBURBS IN A FLURRY. HOUSES EMPTIED, DINNERS ABANDONED AND THE SUPERSTITIOUS FRIGHTENED, N.Y. Herald, Aug. 11, 1884, p. 3, col. 3.

United States Geologic Survey:  New York Earthquake History (Apr. 30, 2013).

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

The Old Stone House Has At Least One More Ghost -- The Ghost of Mrs. Parrish is Not Alone

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

There is, as noted yesterday, a handsome ancient stone house located at 463 First Avenue in today's Village of Pelham.  The home was one of the earliest constructed in the hamlet then known as Pelhamville (later known as North Pelham) in the early 1850s.  Today we know the legend of the famous "Old Stone House" and the ghost known as the "Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House" as a tale of romance, robbery, riches, and specters.  It is the most widely-recounted ghost stories of Pelham.  It turns out, however, that the "Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House" is not alone.  There is at least one additional specter that wanders the home, if not two more!

Introduction

A man named Alexander Diack built the Old Stone House in the early 1850s. On October 15, 1855, a man named James Parrish purchased the beautiful home. 

As the legend goes, James Parrish had a business in which he employed a truckman named Adams.  Parrish and Adams supposedly began an express business “as a sideline”.  The business did well.  But, James Parrish died.  His wife supposedly received dividend payments thereafter from the business, paid in gold. 

Masked men who seemed to know that the dividends were paid in gold soon robbed Mrs. Parrish. Many news reports of the day confirm that Mrs. Parrish was, indeed, robbed in a brutal version of what is referenced these days as a "home invasion."  According to the legend, Mrs. Parrish began to hide the gold she received as dividends from Adams Express somewhere on the property of the Old Stone House. 

The Ghost of the Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House

According to Lockwood Barr’s popular history of Pelham published in 1946: 

"it is said that a million dollars in gold is hidden in the house, or buried in the gardens. Search has been made of the house, and grounds excavated, but without result. However, underneath a hearthstone in the basement kitchen, a hundred small coins of early date were found by one of the owners – but no pot of gold." 

Many now say that the ghost of Mrs. Parrish may be seen about the house, even in daylight, dressed in elegant clothes of her period, searching for her misplaced gold. There also is a story recounted by Lockwood Barr that a well-known actor who supposedly was a descendant of Mrs. Parrish, Edward Everett Horton, once visited the Old Stone House, heard the ghost stories and said that the descriptions of the apparition resembled a daguerreotype he had seen of one of his great grandmothers.  

I and others have written about the paripatetic ghost of Mrs. Parrish.  Today's article, however, may or may not be about her famous ghost.  It tells an intriguing story that makes clear -- for the first time ever -- that North Pelham's "Old Stone House" certainly has more than one ghost.  The Ghost of the Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House is not alone in the Old Stone House.  

There Are More Ghosts in the Old Stone House

Dorothea Jewell Snyder and Frank Miles Snyder owned the Old Stone House at 463 First Avenue in the Village of North Pelham during the 1920s and 1930s.  For many years, Dorothea told a strange story about her house.

According to her story, one morning shortly after she and her husband first moved into the Old Stone House, she was scurrying busily about the upstairs during the broad daylight of an early morning.  She looked up and was "surprised to see a lovely lady" in a doorway of the the hallway ahead of her.  According to a newspaper account, the lovely lady was "dressed in richly brocaded velvet, with poke bonnet, and pantallettes."  

For those Pelhamites well versed in the ghost stories of Pelham, neither we nor Mrs. Snyder should have been surprised.  The Old Stone House long has been associated with the ghost of an elegantly-dressed woman believed to be the spirit of Mrs. Parrish.  Surely, Mrs. Snyder's sighting of the lovely lady "dressed in richly brocaded velvet" in the hallway ahead of her was merely another sighting of the elegant ghost who longed to find the gold she once hid in her beloved home.

Things, however, were different this time.  First, the elegantly-dressed apparition "carried a huge sheaf of golden chrysanthemums."  Second, the elegant apparition was accompanied by another specter -- that of a young girl.  That young specter was "dressed in the same quaint manner" as the elegantly-dressed apparition.  Perhaps most significantly, the elegant young spectral girl bore "a marked resemblance to the older woman."  

As one might expect, things did not quite register immediately in the mind of Dorothea Jewell Snyder.  She wondered, at first, that it might be a joke played by her new neighbors.  She stepped forward, moving toward the woman and the child she saw in the doorway.  Both were smiling.  Both began to bow graciously.

Dorothea Snyder was not frightened.  She strode forward, but the apparitional pair backed away from her toward a stairway behind them.  They backed "down the stairway, around a corner and into nothingness."  

It seems that Dorothea Jewell Snyder had, for a moment in time, happened upon something in the Old Stone House other than the ghost of Mrs. Parrish.  It seems that she came upon another ghost, this one with a huge sheaf of golden chrysanthemums, who had a youngster who looked like her, both elegantly dressed.  Who might this spectral pair be?  

Only time will tell. . . . . . 

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Below is the text of a newspaper article that forms a basis for today's article.  It is followed by a citation and link to its source.  

"Legend Gathers About Old Stone House Landmark For 85 Years In No. Pelham
-----
Georgian House, Occupied by Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Snyder, Unique in Village, Attracts Many Visitors.
-----

One of North Pelham's most interesting landmarks is the 'Old Stone House,' located on the corner of First avenue and Sixth street, as the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Miles Snyder, is usually called.  For many years the handsome old house which stands in marked and pleasant contrast to its neighbors of wood and stucco, of a much more prosaic vintage, has attracted visitors and passers-by.  Already legend gathers around it.

Eighty-five years may be a mere drop in the bucket as far as real antiquity goes, but the old Georgian house, built of undressed Tuckahoe marble with its cut-out large board, reminiscent of the Elizabethan period, its solid four-square look and pleasant gardens, belongs to another era of living more gracious, more leisured and somehow permanent.

The Old Stone House still testifies to the homesickness of the Scotchman named Diack who built it, modeled on his old home in Dundee, Scotland.  It has some 13 rooms, walls of an astounding thickness, built to last, boasts a charming entrance with gracious 18th century air, a secret staircase, discovered during interior alterations, its secret never revealed, 8 fireplaces and a plot of ground 100x100 feet square.  Originally the tract of land extended from the Hutchinson river to Fifth avenue.  

Members of the Diack family, descendants of the builder of the house, make their hoe now in Pelham Manor.  Among the many visitors who have seen the house has been Edward Everett Horton, actor, a relative of the family.  

Mrs. Snyder who seems to fit in remarkably well with the old-world air of the house, was born in the northern part of Ireland and with her blue eyes, white hair and fresh color makes a charming mistress for the house.  Long a collector of antique silver, glass, china, etc., the house is filled with these beautiful objects, at home in an appropriate setting.  

Mrs. Snyder tells a strange story about the house.  One morning soon after she moved into the place, she was surprised to see a lovely lady, dressed in richly brocaded velvet, with poke bonnet, and pantallettes, standing in the doorway, smiling and bowing.  The visitor carried a huge sheaf of golden chrysanthemumsm and was accompanied by a young girl, dressed in the same quaint manner and bearing a marked resemblance to the older woman.  As Mrs. Snyder realized this was not a joke on the part of her neighbors, she moved toward the two visitors who merely continued to smile and bow graciously.  They backed away from her, eventually down the stairway, around a corner and into nothingness.  They have never been seen or heard from since.

'Just welcoming you, perhaps,' the reporter suggested tentatively.  And it was all on a bright Summer's morning!

Rich in memories of this kind the old house also boasts legends of hidden treasure.  During the residence of a family named Parish [sic], a burglar scare is said to have occurred and as a result Mrs. Parrish was reported to have hidden money and other valuables in various parts of the house and grounds.  The legend of the hidden wealth still lingers and coins have been discovered under a hearthstone, while Mrs. Snyder found a silver comb and a gold ring (later lost) while digging in the garden.  The old well still on the grounds is considered a likely place for possible hidden treasure.  

Mr. Snyder who is an architect by profession, designed the Parish House of the Church of the Redeemer on Fifth avenue, one of the handsomest of buidlings in the community."

Source:  Legend Gathers About Old Stone House Landmark For 85 Years In No. Pelham -- Georgian House, Occupied by Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Snyder, Unique in Village, Attracts Many Visitors, The Pelham Sun, Aug. 23, 1935, p. 3, cols. 1-2.  

"THE DIACK -- PARRISH HOUSE The Old Stone

House -- Circa 1852 By John M. Shinn"

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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I have collected ghost stories and legends relating to the Town of Pelham for more than fifteen years.  To read more examples that now total in the several dozens, see: 

Bell, Blake A., Pelham's Ghosts, Goblins and Legends, The Pelham Weekly, Oct. 25, 2002, p. 1, col. 1. 

Bell, Blake A., More Ghosts, Goblins of Pelham, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 43, Oct. 29, 2004, p. 12, col. 1. 

Bell, Blake A., Archive of HistoricPelham.com Web Site:  Pelham's Ghosts, Goblins and Legends (Oct. 2002). 

Bell, Blake A., Bibliography of Pelham's Ghost Stories and Legends (Oct. 2002).

Fri., Oct. 28, 2016:  The Old Stone House Has At Least One More Ghost -- The Ghost of Mrs. Parrish is Not Alone.

Thu., Oct. 27, 2016:  Did Google Maps Camera Capture the Ghost of the Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House at 463 First Avenue?

Wed., Oct. 26, 2016:  The Ghost of the Murdered Traveler Who Wanders the Bartow-Pell Grounds.

Tue., Oct. 25, 2016:  The Suicidal Specter of Manger Circle.

Mon., Oct. 24, 2016:  The Fiery-Eyed Phantom of Pelham Heights.

Mon., Sep. 19, 2016:  The Dark Spirit of the Devil and His Stepping Stones: A Pelham Legend.

Fri., Oct. 30, 2015:  The Shrieking Ghosts of Execution Rocks: Yet Another Pelham Ghost Story.

Thu., Oct. 29, 2015:  The Apparition of Wolfs Lane:  Another Pelham Ghost Story.

Wed., Oct. 28, 2015:  The Shadowy Specter of James Street:  A Pelham Manor Ghost Story.

Tue., Oct. 27, 2015:  The Ghostly Gardener of Bolton Priory:  A Pelham Apparition.

Mon., Oct. 26, 2015:  The Ghostly Matron of the Manor Club:  Even a Ghost Whisperer's Nightmare!

Fri., Oct. 31, 2014:  Ghosts in Pelham! Yet Another of Many Accounts of the Haunted Cedar Knoll.

Mon., Sep. 08, 2014:  In 1888, The "Ghost of City Island" Upset the Town of Pelham.

Fri., Jan. 17, 2014: The Phantom Bell Ringer of Christ Church in Pelham Manor.

Fri., Jan. 30, 2009:  Article Published in 1901 Detailed Ghost Stories and Legends of Pelham.

Mon., Feb. 19, 2007:  Another Manor of Pelham Ghost Story: The Whispering Bell.

Fri., Aug. 18, 2006:  The Ghost Gunship of Pelham: A Revolutionary War Ghost Story.

Wed., May 03, 2006:  Another Pelham, New York Ghost Story.

Thu., Oct. 13, 2005:  Two More Pelham Ghost Stories.  

Wed., Oct. 14, 2009:  1879 News Account Provides Additional Basis for Some Facts Underlying Ghost Story of Old Stone House in Pelhamville.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Did Google Maps Camera Capture the Ghost of the Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House at 463 First Avenue?

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Halloween is nearly here.  Today continues with another ghost story based on a legend that has been told by Pelham residents for more than one hundred years.  Today's posting has a modern technological twist.  It asks the question:  "Did the Google Maps Camera Truck recently capture an image of the ghost known as the Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House?"   

Legend has it that the beautiful home known today as the "Old Stone House" located at 463 First Avenue is haunted by the spirit of an elegant lady dressed in an old-fashioned gown. I have written about this legend of the "Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House" on a number of occasions.  For examples, see:

Bell, Blake A., Pelham's Ghosts, Goblins and Legends (Oct. 2002) (see section entitled "THE ELEGANT LADY OF THE OLD STONE HOUSE").

Wed., Oct. 14, 2009:  1879 News Account Provides Additional Basis for Some Facts Underlying Ghost Story of Old Stone House in Pelhamville.

Mon., Jan. 25, 2010:  Another Account of the 1879 Home Invasion Robbery of the Old Stone House in Pelhamville.

Fri., Mar. 17, 2006 1854:  Advertisement for the Sale of the Old Stone House at 463 First Avenue in Pelham.

As I have written before, the legend of the lovely Old Stone House is a tale of romance, robbery and riches.  A man named Alexander Diack built the home in the early 1850s. On October 15, 1855, a man named James Parrish purchased the home. As the story goes, James Parrish had a business in which he employed a truckman named Adams. Parrish and Adams supposedly began an express business “as a sideline”. The business did well. When James Parrish died, his wife supposedly received dividend payments from the business paid in gold. 

"THE DIACK -- PARRISH HOUSE The Old Stone House --

Circa 1852 By John M. Shinn."  Oil on Canvas Painting

Hanging in the Town Council Room of Town Hall.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Masked men reportedly robbed Mrs. Parrish.  Indeed, contemporary news accounts confirm that Mrs. Parrish was the target of a harrowing home invasion during which she was bound to her bed and robbed in the middle of the night.  She reportedly began to hide the gold she received as dividends somewhere on the property. 

According to Lockwood Barr’s popular history of Pelham: 

"it is said that a million dollars in gold is hidden in the house, or buried in the gardens. Search has been made of the house, and grounds excavated, but without result. However, underneath a hearthstone in the basement kitchen, a hundred small coins of early date were found by one of the owners – but no pot of gold." 

Some say the ghost of Mrs. Parrish can be seen about the house, even in daylight, dressed in elegant clothes of the period, searching for misplaced gold.  There is also a story that a well-known actor who was a descendant of Mrs. Parrish, Edward Everett Horton, once visited the home, heard the ghost stories and said that the descriptions of the apparition resembled a daguerreotype he had seen of one of his great grandmothers.

Fast forward to modern times.  In August, 2012, the Google Maps Camera Car made its rounds through parts of the Village of Pelham, snapping thousands and thousands of photographs for the online database known as Google Maps accessible via browser.  As the Camera Car passed one side of the Old Stone House along Sixth Street, it snapped a photograph in which those who study paranormal activity might be interested.  The image seems to show in an upper window of the home an elegantly-dressed figure wearing what appears to be a long-sleeved and long-skirted white gown peering from the window beneath the eaves of the home.  

The legend specifically claims that the "the ghost of Mrs. Parrish can be seen about the house, even in daylight, dressed in elegant clothes of the period, searching for misplaced gold."  Could it really be that the Google Maps Camera Car captured the precise moment the ghost of Mrs. Parrish peered from the upper window in broad daylight in the midst of her never-ending search for the hidden gold?

You will have to judge for yourself.  The undoctored image appears below, with a portion magnified for ease of reference.

Judge for Yourself Whether the Google Maps Camera Car

Captured an Image of the Ghost of Mrs. Parrish Peering from

the Upper Window of the Home in this Image of the Side

of the Old Stone House at 463 First Avenue Taken in

August of 2012.  NOTE:  Click Image To Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

I have collected ghost stories and legends relating to the Town of Pelham for more than fifteen years.  To read more examples that now total in the several dozens, see: 

Bell, Blake A., Pelham's Ghosts, Goblins and Legends, The Pelham Weekly, Oct. 25, 2002, p. 1, col. 1. 

Bell, Blake A., More Ghosts, Goblins of Pelham, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 43, Oct. 29, 2004, p. 12, col. 1. 

Bell, Blake A., Archive of HistoricPelham.com Web Site:  Pelham's Ghosts, Goblins and Legends (Oct. 2002). 

Bell, Blake A., Bibliography of Pelham's Ghost Stories and Legends (Oct. 2002).

Thu., Oct. 27, 2016:  Did Google Maps Camera Capture the Ghost of the Elegant Lady of the Old Stone House at 463 First Avenue?

Wed., Oct. 26, 2016:  The Ghost of the Murdered Traveler Who Wanders the Bartow-Pell Grounds.

Tue., Oct. 25, 2016:  The Suicidal Specter of Manger Circle.

Mon., Oct. 24, 2016:  The Fiery-Eyed Phantom of Pelham Heights.

Mon., Sep. 19, 2016:  The Dark Spirit of the Devil and His Stepping Stones: A Pelham Legend.

Fri., Oct. 30, 2015:  The Shrieking Ghosts of Execution Rocks: Yet Another Pelham Ghost Story.

Thu., Oct. 29, 2015:  The Apparition of Wolfs Lane:  Another Pelham Ghost Story.

Wed., Oct. 28, 2015:  The Shadowy Specter of James Street:  A Pelham Manor Ghost Story.

Tue., Oct. 27, 2015:  The Ghostly Gardener of Bolton Priory:  A Pelham Apparition.

Mon., Oct. 26, 2015:  The Ghostly Matron of the Manor Club:  Even a Ghost Whisperer's Nightmare!

Fri., Oct. 31, 2014:  Ghosts in Pelham! Yet Another of Many Accounts of the Haunted Cedar Knoll.

Mon., Sep. 08, 2014:  In 1888, The "Ghost of City Island" Upset the Town of Pelham.

Fri., Jan. 17, 2014: The Phantom Bell Ringer of Christ Church in Pelham Manor.

Fri., Jan. 30, 2009:  Article Published in 1901 Detailed Ghost Stories and Legends of Pelham.

Mon., Feb. 19, 2007:  Another Manor of Pelham Ghost Story: The Whispering Bell.

Fri., Aug. 18, 2006:  The Ghost Gunship of Pelham: A Revolutionary War Ghost Story.

Wed., May 03, 2006:  Another Pelham, New York Ghost Story.

Thu., Oct. 13, 2005:  Two More Pelham Ghost Stories.  

Wed., Oct. 14, 2009:  1879 News Account Provides Additional Basis for Some Facts Underlying Ghost Story of Old Stone House in Pelhamville.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Another Account of the 1879 Home Invasion Robbery of the Old Stone House in Pelhamville

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Indext to All Blog Postings.

I have written before of the traumatic 1879 home invasion robbery of Mrs. Mary Parrish in the Old Stone House that still stands at 463 First Avenue in the Village of Pelham (photo below).  See Wed., October 14, 2009:  1879 News Account Provides Additional Basis for Some Facts Underlying Ghost Story of Old Stone House in Pelhamville.  The robbery forms a part of the ghost story that long has been told about the home.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog transcribes another local newspaper article published in 1879 about the robbery at the Old Stone House.

"BURGLARIES IN PELHAMVILLE.

A rather mysterious burglary took place Wednesday morning in Pelhamville.  The circumstances are so peculiar as to puzzle most of the inhabitants of that village.  The victim of the crime is Mrs. Mary Parrish, a widow about seventy years old, who lives entirely alone in a stone house, and is reputed to be the possessor of a considerable sum of ready money.  Quite recently she had at least $600 in her purse.  Whether this was still in her possession at the time of the burglary cannot be ascertained.  It is known that she had a large amount of Adams Express stock.  Putting this and that together, the residents of Pelhamville infer a good deal in the way of conspiracy and interested motives.

Mrs. Parish [sic], according to her own statement, awoke at one o'clock Wednesday morning, in her bedroom, on the first floor of her house, to hear a sound of prying at her door, which speedily opened, revealing the form of a strange man, who wore a mask.  She was utterly alone, and knew that, although the nearest neighbor was not more than a hundred yards distant, it would probably be fatal to her to cry out.  The burglar held up a warning hand and said, in a hoarse whisper, 'Now, keep quiet, old lady; don't be afraid; we're not going to hurt  you so long as you don't give no alarm.'  Then he stepped into the room and two other men followed him.  She describes them all as rather small in stature, but further than that fact she remembers nothing of their appearance, terror seeming to be the only impression of the affair remaining upon her mind.  All their faces were masked.  She heard them address each other by the numbers 1, 2 and 2 [sic].  The others repeated that they did not wish to harm her; they only wanted her money.  Then they commanded her to rise up from her bed, and proceeded to rip it open. 

'You have some bonds,' asked the man who seemed to lead the party, 'where are they!'

Mrs. Parrish strenuously denied that she possessed any bonds, but without convincing the robbers, who told her to go with them into the dining room.  Meanwhile one of them had seized a satchel which she kept in her room, and had torn it open, not even attempting, in his eagerness or haste, to unlatch it, although it was not locked.  His manner led her to believe that he knew she was in the habit of using it as a receptacle for some of her valuables.  He was not disappointed, for he found there $100 in money and several documents.  The latter, however, were of no use to anyone, excepting herself.  In the dining room the carpet was taken up, the drawers of the buffet and tables were forced open and the closets were ransacked.  The other rooms in the house were visited by them, with herself as an unwilling companion, and they were left in the direst confusion.  She was repeatedly questioned, with profane threads, in regard to her bonds, but she steadfastly denied that she had any securities of that character.

'Have you a Bible?' they then asked her.

'Yes,' was her response. 

'Then get it,' said the leader.

The Bible was produced, and the villains administered to her in the very words of the court form, an oath to the effect that, in declaring she had no convertible securities, she told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  She could not be shaken in her denial.  The robbers, evidently much disappointed, led her back to her bedroom.  Here they laid her upon the bed and tied her limbs to the bedposts.  They told her to beward of making any noise, and threatened to return immediately if she gave an alarm before they had been gone a sufficient time to render certain their escape.

The time which they spent in the house was about two hours.  They made their exit through the front door, locking it and throwing the key away.  It was found in the morning underneath an evergreen shrub in the yard.

Early in the morning, Mrs. George Pearson, a neighbor, received a message from Mrs. Parrish that she desired to see her.  On going to the house Mr. and Mrs. Pearson were met at the door by Mrs. Clark, the wife of the Postmaster of the village.  They entered and found Mrs. Parrish in a most excited state.  When asked how she had gotten loose from her bonds after the departure of the burglars Mrs. Parrish said she did not know, and nothing at all could be learned from her on this point.  This reply was so inconsistent with her statement that she had been tied by the burglars that it has caused a good deal of wonder among her neighbors.  Many of them, however, seize the occasion to declare that they have for a long time suspected her of being unsound in mind on certain subjects, and that she has of late read and talked a great deal about the murder of Mrs. Hull.  They hint, therefore, that the whole occurrence as related by her may be as illusion, the result of monomania.  Not only does the circumstance of the binding remind one strongly of the Hull tragedy, but a candle, half consumed, which was found in her room and which, according to her, was used by the robbers, forms another singular coincidence.

Simultaneously with the discovery of the robbery of Mrs. Parrish it was learned that the Episcopal church had also been robbed. The thieves took a roll of a hundred yards of carpet that had just been presented by Pelham Priory of which this church is a mission.  The ladies of the church had just completed the weary task of sewing this carpet preparatory to putting it down.  The school room was also broken into, but nothing was taken.  Whether the robbers of the church and of Mrs. Parrish are the same is not known.  The church is in an opposite direction from that which the robbers took when they left Mrs. Parrish's house, but possibly they robbed the church before they went there."

Source:  Burglaries in Pelhamville, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Fri., July 18, 1879, p. ?, col. 1 (newspaper page does not have a page number printed on the page).

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1879 News Account Provides Additional Basis for Some Facts Underlying Ghost Story of Old Stone House in Pelhamville

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With another Halloween approaching, it is time to turn to legends of ghosts and goblins in Historic Pelham.  Today's Blog posting raises a spooky possibility.  There seems to be a hint of truth to at least part of the legend surrounding the ghost of Mrs. Parrish that supposedly inhabits the old Stone House located at 463 First Avenue in the Village of Pelham (photo below).  As I have reported below, according to that legend, a man named Alexander Diack built the home in the early 1850s. On October 15, 1855, a man named James Parrish purchased the home. As the story goes, James Parrish had a business in which he employed a truckman named Adams. Parrish and Adams supposedly began an express business “as a sideline”. The business did well. When James Parrish died, his wdow, Mrs. Mary Parrish, supposedly received dividend payments from the business paid in gold.

Masked men reportedly robbed Mrs. Parrish. She began to hide the gold she received as dividends somewhere on the property. According to Lockwood Barr’s popular history of Pelham:

"it is said that a million dollars in gold is hidden in the house, or buried in the gardens. Search has been made of the house, and grounds excavated, but without result. However, underneath a hearthstone in the basement kitchen, a hundred small coins of early date were found by one of the owners – but no pot of gold."

Some say the ghost of Mrs. Parrish can be seen about the house, even in daylight, dressed in elegant clothes of the period, searching for misplaced gold. There is also a story that a well-known actor who is a descendant of Mrs. Parrish, Edward Everett Horton, once visited the home, heard the ghost stories and said that the descriptions of the apparition resembled a daguerreotype he had seen of one of his great grandmothers. 
 
To read a little more about the legend, see:
 
Fri., March 17, 2006:  1854 Advertisement for the Sale of the Old Stone House at 463 First Avenue in Pelham. 
 
Bell, Blake A., Pelham's Ghosts, Goblins and Legends.
 
There is a factual basis to portions of the underlying story.  Alexander Diack did build the home in the early 1850s.  James Parrish did subsequently acquire the home.  Parrish did have a business known as Adams Express.  Parrish died and his widow did continue to live in the Old Stone House.  Additionally . . . . . .
 
There are a number of news accounts at the time reporting that masked men burst into the widow's home, ransacked it looking for valuables and left Mrs. Parrish tied up after the robbery.  One such account is transcribed below, followed by a citation to its source.
 
"ALMOST ANOTHER HULL CASE.
-----
Singular Circumstances of a Masked Burglary - An Old Lady Tied to Her Bed as Was Mrs. Hull - Daring Villain.
-----
N.Y. Herald, 17.
 
A rather mysterious burglary took place yesterday morning in the village of Pelhamville, which is situated on the New York and New Haven Railroad, in Westchester county.  The circumstances are so peculiar as to puzzle most of the inhabitants of that quiet suburb.  The victim of the crime is Mrs. Mary Parrish, a widow about seventy years of age, who lives entirely alone in a stone house, and is reputed to be the possessor of a considerable sum of ready money.  Quite recently she had $600 in her purse.  Whether this was still in her possession at the time of the burglary cannot be ascertained.  It is known that she had a large amount of Adams' Express stock.  Putting this and that together the residents of Pelhamville infer a good deal in the way of conspiracy and interested motives.
 
Mrs. Parrish, according to her own statement, awoke at one o'clock yesterday morning, in her bedroom, on the first floor of her house, to hear a sound of prying at her door, which speedily opened, revealing the form of a strange man, who wore a mask.  She was utterly alone, and knew that, although the nearest neighbor was not more than a hundred yards distant, it would be fatal to her to cry out.  The burglar held up a warning hand and said, in a hoarse whisper, 'Now, keep quiet, old lady; don't be afraid; we're not going to hurt you so long as you don't give no alarm.'  Then he stepped into the room and two other men followed him.  She describes them as rather small in stature, but further than that she remembers nothing of their appearance, terror seeming to be the only impression of the affair remaining upon her mind.  All their faces were masked.  She heard them address each other by the numbers 1, 2, and 3.  The others repeated that they did not wish to harm her; they only wanted her money.  Then they commanded her to rise from her bed and proceeded to rip it open.
 
'You have some bonds,' asked the man who seemed to lead the party; 'where are they?'
 
Mrs. Parrish strenuously denied that she posssessed any vonds, but without convincing the robbers, who told her to go with them into the dining room.  Meanwhile one of them had seized a satchel which she kept in her room and had torn it open, not even attempting in his eagerness or haste, to unlatch it, although it was not locked.  His manner led her to believe that he knew she was in the habit of using it as a receptacle for some of her valuables.  He was not disappointed, for he found there $100 in money and several documents.  The latter, however, were of no use to any one, excepting herself.  In the dining room the carpet was taken up, the drawers of the buffet and the table were forced upon and the closets were ransacked.  The other rooms in the house were ransacked by them, with herself as an unwilling companion, and they were left in the direst confusion.  She was repeatedly questioned with profane threats in regard to her bonds, but she steadfastly denied that she had any securities of that character.
 
'Have you a Bible!' they then asked her.
 
'Yes,' was her response.
 
'Then get it,' said the leader.
 
The Bible was produced, and the villains administered to her in the very words of the court form an oath to the effect that, in declaring she had no convertible securities, she told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  She could not be shaken in her denial.  The robbers, evidently much disappointed, led her back to the bedroom.  Here they laid her upon the bed and tied her limbs to the bedposts, just as Chastine Cox did those of Mrs. Hull [a then-recent crime that led to the death of the female victim].  They told her to beware of making any noise, and threatened to return immediately if she gave an alarm before they had been gone a sufficient time to render certain their escape.
 
The time which they spent in the house was about two hours.  They made their exit through the front door, locking it and throwing the key away.  It was found in the morning underneath an evergreen shrub in the yard.
 
Early in the morning, Mrs. George Pearson, a neighbor, received a message from Mrs. Parrish that she desired to see her.  On going to her house Mr. and Mrs. Pearson were met at the door by Mrs. Clark, wife of the postmaster of the village.  They entered and found Mrs. Parrish in a most excited state.  When asked how she had gotten loose from her bonds after the departure of the burglars.  Mrs. Parrish said she did not know, and nothing at all could be learned from her on this point.  This reply was so inconsistent with her statement that she had been tied by the burglars that it has caused a good deal of wonder among her neighbors.  Many of them, however, seize the occasion to declare that they have for a long time suspected her of being unsound in mind on certain subjects, and that she has of late read and talked a great deal about the murder of Mrs. Hull.  They hint, therefore, that the whole occurrence as related by her may be an illusion, the result of monomania.  Not only does the circumstance of the binding remind one strongly of the Hull tragedy, but a candle, half consumed, which was found in her room and which, according to her, was used by the robbers, forms another singular coincidence.  On the other hand, another burglary which took place on the same night at Pelhamville points to an organized plan of plunder on the part of a band of thieves, who were very well acquainted with the locality.  An hour or so earlier than the robbery of Mrs. Parrish the Episcopal church was entered, and a large and valuable carpet was taken away.  Several dogs belonging to neighbors barked warningly, but did not cause alarm."
 
Source:  Almost Another Hull Case, Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser, Vol. 54, No. 169, p. 1, col. 3 (July 18, 1879) (reprinted from July 17, 1879 issue of N.Y. Herald).
 
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