by Kala Ambrose
Dowsing later became popular again, basically because it produced results. When you’re looking to move to a strange land and you need to find a water source quickly so that you, your family, and your livestock will survive, you’ve only got limited time and resources to find underground water. Dowsers have a good record of results, and people will tend to look the other way if the process used is something that they need.
I’ve used divining/dowsing rods made from wood and from copper and have had good results with them. They can be used to locate water, oil, metals, gemstones, and even bones from unmarked gravesites. I was first introduced to using them while I lived in Texas. Some oil companies have been known to hire dowsers to help find oil when the wells have run dry and they have exhausted other efforts. Dowsing rods can also be useful tools when used by an intuitive person to detect vortices of energy and ley lines. Ley lines are magnetic currents of energy running coherently along the earth. The aligned energy of ley lines can be detected by dowsing. Ancient monuments, sacred sites, and underground water springs are often found along these lines.
Cowrie seashells, which are an important part of West African religious traditions, were also found around these quarters. They are a representation of the goddess/divine feminine energy and are also a symbol of protection. Cowrie shells are typically placed on a window and around the home on doorknobs, or strung into necklaces and bracelets to wear around the body.
So, here I am at one of the largest plantation sites in North Carolina. I know some of the history, I’ve got a good idea of the layout of the home and the land, and there are plenty of structures to check out, as well as the cemetery and the surrounding grounds. Let’s go ghosthunting!
I have to say that I researched the area well before beginning to tune in intuitively, and I spoke with guides and locals who are familiar with the area. I don’t usually do this, as I prefer to go in cold for a reading and then research afterward to see if what I saw and felt can be matched to records. In this case though, I was working in reverse. I knew what others had seen and now I wanted to see if I could see it for myself.
The reports of Stagville being haunted go back more than 100 years, and I’ve spoken with several other paranormal research teams that have investigated the area. They all agree that it is haunted. Locals and neighbors continually report disturbances on the property, such as hearing shrill screams at night; some are animalistic sounding while others sound human in origin. They also report seeing strange lights floating all around the property, especially near the slave quarters. Some witnesses, including people who have worked on the grounds as caretakers and landscapers, have seen a young African-American girl appear before them as they worked. Her sudden appearance has scared many of them enough to leave the area. She appears to be wandering around looking for her father, and has reportedly asked several people if they would help her find him.
I was also told by several people that the sheriff’s department and the fire department have both been called several times to the property to investigate reports of African-American men near the Great Barn at sunset. There have also reportedly been several false alarms of the Great Barn being on fire. Known as the “phantom fire,” there have been reports from people passing by Stagville late at night who have seen what appears to be the slave quarters blazing on fire. By the time firefighters arrive, there is nothing but darkness around the property, and the buildings show no evidence of fire or heat. Caretakers of the property also report seeing doors open and close on their own, motion detectors being tripped, hearing what sounds like people walking around when the place is empty, and overhearing voices of whispered conversations. Most everyone you meet who has worked or spent time at Stagville agrees that it’s haunted.
Walking around the property, you may feel your hair stand on end because the energy in the area is so strong. There was some powerful mojo used here on the land, and strong mojo energy lasts for lifetimes. It’s a good thing that Stagville is a preserved historic site, for I shudder to think what would happen to any soul who lived on this property now. The energy feels strong and ancient, with a combination of Native American rituals and the traditions of the African slaves who worked the plantation.
Before I enter a place that I know is active with spirits, I conduct a ritual of protection and prepare myself to enter the area. I also bring a small gift, which I offer to the spirits around me, so that they know I come in peace and respect that the place is their home, not mine.
During my visit to Stagville, I sat down outside and made myself comfortable and opened myself up energetically. I asked the spirits of the place to visit with me if they would like to do so. I thought I might get lucky, and the young African-American girl might come to visit me. Boy, was I wrong!
Within less than a minute of opening up psychically, spirits surrounded me, and I do mean surrounded. The crowd of people was so large that I couldn’t see all of their faces. Instead, I felt the pressure of all of their bodies coming closer to me, wanting to talk. There were so many spirits there that the energy was overwhelming. Spirits try to communicate with us all the time, but most of the time we do not hear them. It takes a lot of energy and an energy source to manifest so that they can be seen, and that is why batteries are so often drained as a spirit must pull energy from the physical plane to allow its spirit body to be seen by the physical eye. This is why when they try to appear, electronics go haywire and other anomalies of this type take place.
In this case, I was alone, sitting outside, and there was nothing electronic for the spirits to pull energy from except me. I became the energy conduit, and once they could sense that I could see and communicate with them, the entire group rushed in. I tried to understand all of their conversations for a few minutes, taking it all in, seeing some of their faces, and feeling their emotions.
I’m an empath (which means that I can feel what others are feeling and I’m very sensitive to surroundings). This can be helpful in my work, but it can also be stressful as I constantly am aware of how other people are feeling about things. In crowded surroundings, such as a mall, it can feel overwhelming with all of the energy swirling around in a cacophony of noise and aggravation. Let’s just say you won’t find me at the mall doing my Christmas shopping.
The group around me was beginning to feel like a mall experience. They were crowding in closer, talking over each other, and their emotional fears, pain, and anger were taking a toll on me. Knowing that I couldn’t take much more before I would begin to shut down the energy flow for protection, it was time to change the situation. I focused my energy and asked the group to hear me. Gaining their attention, I asked for a leader to communicate with me for the group. I looked around expecting one person to step forward, but instead, three women stepped forward.
Two of the women were in spirit form, rather than ghosts. A ghost is the form of a specific person who lived on the earth plane, while many spirits are from other planes of existence beyond the earth plane. Many spirits have never been in human form, and they travel between the planes with greater ease than ghosts are able to do. Many people believe that ghosts stay mainly on the earth plane and can also move to the plane right above the earth plane, but not much further. Spirits, on the other hand, travel through many realms and planes, back and forth with greater ease.
From what I could discern, the spirit women were called into this area during a ritual created by one of the African-American slave women on the property. She had conducted this ritual to bring some protection to her people during a very difficult time. This woman was the third woman who appeared with the two spirit women. After her death, she remained with them in her ghost form, and the three of them remained there on the property. I asked her if she still wanted to stay and remain in her ghost form on the land. She replied that she did, that there were still others who remained here in ghost form on the land and that until they found peace and were ready to leave, she would stay and work with the spirit women to heal the people and help them m
ove on. I asked her if there was anything I could do, and she made a request that I return in the spring to visit with her, which I agreed to do.
Stagville! What a place! It’s haunted, it’s eerie in some places, and it’s very active in the paranormal sense. The spirit women that I spoke with reminded me of spirit women that I encountered once in New Orleans, in Congo Square. Many years ago, slaves were allowed to gather in Congo Square on Sunday and play music, dance, sing, and set up a market. That energy can still be felt in Congo Square today, and I felt something similar at Stagville. If you’re looking for a hot area of paranormal energy, this is a must-visit on your list of haunted sites in North Carolina.
Haunted Tours in Greensboro, Charlotte, New Bern, Raleigh, and Asheville
In Greensboro, the haunted tour company Carolina History and Haunts offers a one-mile, 90-minute haunted walking tour described as “Nightmares Around Elm Street.” With Dan Riedel as the tour guide, the tour stops at 12 locations. According to Riedel, each of these locations has a haunted history that he’s confirmed with the owners and employees of the businesses. Stories include haunted rooms in a hotel, a ghostly woman haunting a theater, and paranormal events at the Guilford County sheriff’s office. Reports of ghost sightings on the tour by guests include capturing orbs on film and seeing an apparition appear during a full moon tour one evening. Carolina History and Haunts also offers a 75-minute haunted tour in Charlotte.
In New Bern, a haunted tour has been created based on the book Ghosts of New Bern, written by Joseph and Joyce O’Callahan. The tour includes special packages that allow you to stay overnight in the haunted Harvey Mansion Historic Inn, along with a carriage ride through historic New Bern. The one-hour walking tour takes you through the streets of the historic district of New Bern (the second-oldest town in North Carolina), which boasts more than 300 years of ghost stories in the surrounding area.
In Raleigh, Tobacco Road Tours offers the Raleigh Pub Crawl and Haunted Adventure Tour, which lasts about two and a half hours. The tour covers about a mile of haunted downtown Raleigh, covering the state capitol, Mordecai House, Moore Square, and other haunted sites in the city. Ghost stories are shared while walking the streets and visiting various pubs and bars along the way, including Raleigh’s first Irish pub.
Asheville is known as the Sedona of the South. Surrounded by the oldest mountains in the world, which exude mysterious vortex energy, the city of Asheville and surrounding area hold a deep haunted history. Joshua Warren, radio host, paranormal researcher, and author of Haunted Asheville, offers a choice of bus or walking tours around the city. During the haunted tour, Warren shares his paranormal expertise and trains you how to use ghosthunting equipment, including EMF meters.
CHAPTER 14
The Flying Photographs of Mary Turk at Mordecai Plantation
RALEIGH
The Mordecai Plantation was transformed into a Greek revival mansion in 1826.
“Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.”
—Andrew Jackson
AROUND 1792, legislators from North Carolina traveled among several cities to conduct state business and look for a place to designate as the capital city. One of their favorite stops along the way was Isaac Hunter’s tavern in Wake County, and rumor has it that one of the main considerations in choosing a site for the capital was to have it located no more than ten miles from Isaac’s tavern so legislators would have a local drinking spot.
Upon hearing this news, competing local tavern owner Joel Lane set out to convince the legislators to buy property near his inn instead. He accomplished this by using a special alcoholic drink he created to sway them in his favor. According to local lore, Lane created a potent libation he named Cherry Bounce, made from mashed cherries, sugar, whiskey, and brandy and aged for several weeks. Cherry Bounce became such a popular drink with the visiting legislators that they decided to purchase 1,000 acres from Lane in order to create the capital city. Those forefathers must have loved nature as much as they loved their drink, as they hired designers to plan the city, instructing them to preserve as many trees and create as many parks as possible throughout the city. The rest, as they say, is history.
This leads us to our next haunted adventure, a visit to Mordecai Plantation. Lane, who later became a Wake County Senator, celebrated his successful property transaction with the legislators by building a house for his son Henry on land he owned outside the city limits. Today, that property is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Raleigh.
Henry worked as the clerk of court, and it’s been said that he was well known for his dancing ability. He lived in the house with his wife, Polly, and their four daughters. Sadly, Henry passed away at the young age of 33, and Polly was left to manage the farm. She reportedly did quite well running it all. When she died in 1813, her four daughters were unmarried, and they went to live with their grandfather. When oldest daughter Margaret married Moses Mordecai, the couple returned to live in the house, and it became known as Mordecai House. The three other sisters came back to the home to live with Margaret and her husband. Moses was an attorney in Raleigh and later became a judge.
Sadly, Margaret passed away and Moses then married her sister, Anne, who raised Margaret’s children and had one of her own with Moses. When Moses passed away in 1824, his will requested that the home be renovated and expanded, and in accordance with this request, the home was upgraded in a Greek Revival style. The home sat on a plantation that grew a variety of food crops, as well as a vast selection of herbs and medicinal plants.
In 1907, the General Assembly voted to extend the city’s borders, and the Mordecai home and plantation grounds were brought into the city limits. Two buildings were also relocated on Mordecai, which included a chapel and the tavern where future President Andrew Jackson’s mother worked. Jackson, the 17th president of the United States, was born in the kitchen of the tavern in 1808.
The land around the home is now known as Mordecai Park and is close to historic Oakwood Cemetery. The home is referred to as Mordecai House, Mordecai Plantation Manor, or Mordecai Mansion. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and also on my new creation, the National Register of Haunted Places.
The Mordecai House has a long history of being haunted, as do most plantations in North Carolina. The legend states that Mary Willis Mordecai Turk, a descendant of Moses Mordecai, was one of the five generations of Mordecais that lived in the home during the nineteenth century. It appears that Mary likes to interact with visitors to the home. She appears to many people in the home and has been identified by name. She likes to play the piano and can be seen at times sitting at the piano in the form of a gray mist, which sometimes morphs into the form of a woman wearing period-style dress.
While Mary appears to stay in the house entertaining guests, other ghosts linger around the house and property. Apparitions of Civil War soldiers and nurses have been seen on the property, often reported by local residents, staff, and visitors.
The ghost of Mary Turk has been reported looking out the window, as well as the sounds of a piano playing and soldiers walking the grounds from the Civil War.
One thing you learn when doing paranormal research is that traumatic events, such as death, war, and other emotional and physical traumas, create energies that last for a long time. Some of the ghosts are like time-loop recordings of the event; they make an impression that plays over and over. It’s likely that the Civil War soldiers and the nurses are part of this recording, as the emotional intensity, fear, and pain of the soldiers and the nurses tending to them would make for a strong energy imprint.
There is quite a bit of ghostly activity within the home beyond the very active Mary. The Civil War brought financial destruction to so many families in the South, and the Mordecai family suffered tremendously. After the war, the family fortune was essentially gone, and it was a long, hard struggle for many families to recover from their losses. The family at that time consisted of Martha Lane Mordecai and her
three daughters. Martha was forced to sell off much of the land and farm equipment, and the family struggled to survive. The business of simply paying the taxes on the home was often a struggle for the family.
One of Martha’s daughters married William Turk in 1881. Turk was a Southern Railway executive who had the financial means to pay the taxes on and support the costs of running such a large home. It is thought that without his assistance, it is likely that the family would have lost their home. One can imagine what things were like in these times, as families struggled to recover from the Civil War.
The Mordecai family was emotionally attached to their home. When the last generation of the family passed away in 1964, the home was turned into a historic landmark to showcase the beautiful architecture and decor. Mary seems pleased with the company and the attention that she’s received over the years. She’s even been seen dancing in the moonlight, and she continues to entertain visitors, but other family members in spirit aren’t so pleased or welcoming.
There is a report that states that tour guides and tourists were in the home one day when the tour guide mentioned the individuals by name who had lived in the home. As the guide spoke their names aloud, the pictures of the family members hanging on the walls appeared to float off the walls and sail through the air before falling to the floor. It’s not clear what ghost caused the pictures to fly. It could have been a disgruntled family member who was not in the mood to share his home, or perhaps a former slave who did not care for the family and did not wish to hear the stories told by the tour guide. It also has been reported that if someone says something about Mary that is not nice, her photo will slam down. Either Mary has a quick temper or another ghost in the house is very protective of her.
