Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 18 December '85 J3

I SHOP AT HOME IN CAPE MAY COUNTY „ :

r-Jersey Cape Historically 9C | By John Merrill \ ■

The American Heritage ] Dictionary defines "haunt" i as "to visit or appear to in | the form of a ghost..." and j a ghost as "the disembodied spirit of a dead per- | son, supposed to haunt liv- I ing persons or former i habitats." < With Cape May County j being historically rich in « material and with the ; abundance (although get- i ting fewer each year) of i older dwellings, it is not too unusual that supposed j hauntings of houses in the | county could occur. I MANY REPORTEDLY I haunted locations are now j famous dining , establishments. In one such establishment, • waitresses do not par- | ticularly like to work after ■ the customers have left ■, because they frequently hear a baby crying. I Another well known , eating establishment saw the murder of the original , house owner. The subsequent owners, early in the | morning, would often hear the ghost of an elderly woman counting money as | she dropped coins into a container. OTHER FAMOUS ' houses of the earlier settlers see a variety of hauntings. Some of the "plantation" houses have previous owners helping the newer residents conserve energy . by shutting and locking doors and turning off lights. Some even prefer to help individuals rearrange their

houses or borrow items and move them to various locations (or hide them altogether). A STORY related to me pertained to the ghost said haunt an early icehouse in Cape Island. The original owner's spirit is said to walk up the interior stairs to the second floor and out through a wall and window, mimicking the onwer's death. The owner died when he fell from a second story landing while waiting for fishing vessels to return to Cape Island to get his ice to preserve the fish they had caught. HOMES CONTAIN visions of older periods when people in spectral dress are gaslights that turn on and off by themselves (when the gas fixtures been converted to electricity years ago), and visions of individuals m the portico windows of Victorian houses. There even been reports of Committee Sets Qosed Meeting COURT HOUSE - The Middle Township Committee will hold a special closed session 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Dec. 19, in the Middle Township Hall, 33 Mechanic St. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss labor negotiations.

violent poltergeist activity | in relatively newer houses. A house in Lower Township required the j removal of an entire second floor because of continuous harassment and violent activity supposedly created by a previous 1 resident. EVEN A MANSE in Middle Township has a visitor or resident that refuses to , allow anyone to plaster the walls in the older section of the house. Many of the reportedly haunted houses are frequented by the original owners, or by someone who suffered an unusual fate in that dwelling. Just a small sampling of responses indicates that there must be a very large number of dwellings where unusual activity takes place. TO LOOK AT the houses in the area, you would probably not know they had permanent unwanted (or maybe even wanted) guests of an earlier era. To view a haunted dwelling is one matter, but to own one is an entirely different matter. (ED. Note: John Merrill teaches social studies at Lower Cape May Regional ■ High School and has his master's degree in U.S. '. History from Marshall I University. He has lived in Cape May County since t 1975. He and his wife. ' Elizabeth, have one daughter. Kirsten.)

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