In Episode 369 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger investigate a haunt from 1915 in Essex, Connecticut. Strange knocks on the wall got a lot of newspaper coverage, but the strangest part of the story was this ghost knew where to find beer! This is our kind of haunt!
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Guest Voice Talent: Michael Legge
Theme Music by: John Judd
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The haunted Brown House in Essex, Connecticut, circa 1915.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING]
RAY: We are in a remote section of Essex, Connecticut, today Jeff.
JEFF: We are. We’re in the southern part of the town heading toward the Old Saybrook border. There are tons of trees, and the fall foliage is truly spectacular right now.
RAY: It is. The colors are amazing. Especially as the late afternoon sun hits them.
JEFF: We’re heading to the former Buck Hill district in town. You can pull over up here.
[CAR STOPS / DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE]
RAY: There’s not much here but forest.
JEFF: Yeah, that’s the thing, we’re going to have to bushwhack into the woods.
[HIKING IN THE WOODS]
JEFF: Because just over a century ago there was a house out here that made the news several times in the span of two weeks because… it was haunted by a ghost… and not just any ghost… a ghost with a nose for beer.
[INTRO]
JEFF: Hello I’m Jeff Belanger.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Happy October! We’ve been mostly exploring the haunts this month but we’re always on the lookout for all things wicked strange in New England. You can head to our website anytime and contact us with your story leads. You should also join our New England Legends Facebook group! We’re over 10,000 strong now.
JEFF: We’ll explore this controversial Essex haunt right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
[HIKING IN THE WOODS]
RAY: A ghost with a nose for beer? This is my kinda haunt!
JEFF: Right?! Soooo relatable.
RAY: And we’re looking for a haunt that used to be here.
JEFF: Correct.
RAY: But it’s not here now.
JEFF: Right.
RAY: While we make our way through the woods, here’s a little more background on the town of Essex, Connecticut. The Saybrook Colony was established back in 1635 where the Connecticut River meets Long Island Sound. Saybrook Colony was huge, and eventually divided up into the modern towns of East Lyme, Deep River, Chester, Westbrook, and Essex. Shipbuilding was one of the major industries in this region. There was plenty of trees for lumber, and boats could be launched into the river then make their way to the ocean. By the early 1900s, other industries moved in. There was an ivory company making parts for pianos, and a wire company producing metal wires. It was very much a working class town in an ideal location in those early days.
JEFF: Working class folks are central to this week’s story. A story that got a lot of ink in the newspapers just over a century ago because there were hundreds of witnesses to a local haunting. This haunting divided the town of Essex. Some called it a fraud. Others called it the real thing. To find out what happened, let’s head back to the year 1915 and meet the Brown family.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s late January of 1915 here in Essex, Connecticut. Over in Europe, a huge war has been building for the past six months. It’s a subject that’s on everyone’s mind. Folks are wondering if the United States is going to get involved. So here in Essex, when news of a peculiar haunting started to circulate, it’s a welcomed distraction if not a contentious one.
JEFF: That’s true. Not everyone believes in ghosts. But there’s been enough buzz around town that people want to take a closer look for themselves. It all started Back on Friday, January 23rd at the home of the Brown Family in the Buck Hill district of Essex.
RAY: The Brown home is in rough shape. It’s run down. Living here is Mrs. Charles Brown, Edna Wood and her sister, Frank Brown, and a few other family members who come and go. The home is owned by the daughter of the late Mrs. Catherine Brown who lives in Lima, Ohio. Her intention is to sell the house, which will make her kin homeless.
JEFF: So back on Friday, 17-year-old Edna Wood came to stay at the house. To give her a place to sleep, they pulled an old metal cot out from the attic. That first night, the strangest thing happened.
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
JEFF: There were disembodied knocks on the wall. So Edna knocked back.
[KNOCK KNOCK]
JEFF: Pretty soon, Edna began communicating with what she claimed was a spirit making those knocks. By asking a series of questions, establishing one knock for yes, two for no, and so on, Eda claimed the spirit was none other than the late Davy Brown who used to live in this house.
RAY: The others who shared the house with Edna were gob-smacked. Pretty soon, others were called in to witness this miracle of spirit communication.
[WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS]
RAY: Folks in Essex made the trek a mile through the woods and marshes to the Brown house to see for themselves.
JEFF: And sure enough, many witnessed what they believed to be a miracle. The medium, in this case, Edna Wood, sits in her cot bed, people ask questions, and the knocks respond. Questions like their age.
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK — fades]
JEFF: Questions about other people in town. If a knock can respond, it knocks. Dozens of people make the trek out here to the marshes to see for themselves. Some scoff and cry foul, others believe it’s the real thing. One of those people is Steve Doane.
STEVE DOANE: I don’t believe in spirits or ghosts in the first place, but I do say that there’s something about this thing that ought to be explained before anybody starts calling it a fake. I heard about the spirit and the way it answered questions and I went around the place. When I got to the house, I asked Mrs. Brown if I could ask the spirit some questions. She said I could, but Edna would have to lie on the bed first. I says to the spirits, ‘How old am I?’ It starts rapping and it raps fifty times. ‘You’re right,’ says I. Then I asked, ‘How old was I when my mother died?’ The spirit rapped six times, and I says, ‘You’re wrong.’ ‘Let’s try it again,’ says the girl and the spirit raps again. Three times, real loud. ‘Correct,’ says I. There isn’t a soul in town that knew it until then. I want to know how those raps told those things and got them right if there wasn’t something behind them. Didn’t the spirit tell Earl Hillsinger that he had four bottles of beer in the wagon outside when he asked? Then Hillsinger got up and left the room, saying he was afraid somebody would swipe them when it was known they were there.
RAY: The ghost knew there was beer outside in the wagon? I think we finally found indisputable proof of the paranormal!
JEFF: You think?
RAY: You gotta admit, that’s a strange thing for a ghost to figure out. And to get the age of Steve when his mother died?
JEFF: I agree. It’s peculiar. Still, not everyone is buying it.
[CROWD OF PEOPLE]
RAY: There are almost 100 people gathered here at the Brown’s small house tonight. Many are outside waiting for their turn to come in. But two of the women who are currently in the bedroom with Medium Edna Wood are Mrs. Frank Torrey of Essex, and Mrs. Harriet Hefflon of nearby Old Saybrook. Both are Spiritualists here to investigate the phenomenon… and they smell a rat.
JEFF: The Brown family claims the spirit only replies in this one bedroom, and only when young Edna is sitting in the cot.
[KNOCK KNOCK]
RAY: After hearing the knocks reply to questions ask, Mrs. Torrey notices that Edna keeps her hands underneath the bedcovers when the knocks are happening. So she asks the girl to pull her hands out.
[KNOCK]
RAY: Edna pulls out one hand and they still hear the knocks.
[KNOCK KNOCK]
RAY: So Mrs. Torrey asks her to pull both hands out at the same time.
(LONG PAUSE)
JEFF: Hmmmm.
RAY: Yeah. I don’t hear anything.
JEFF: Me neither. And just like that, Torry and Hefflon cry fraud.
RAY: While many in the crowd start to disperse, folks like Steve Doane remain convinced. Newspapers like the Hartford Courant cover the story. Debates rage on at the General Store in town, but over at the Brown House in Essex, those knocks go quiet.
JEFF: What happened?
RAY: Edna Wood claims that the two Spiritualists who came to visit…
JEFF: Mrs. Torrey and Mrs. Hefflon…
RAY: Right. Them. Edna claims those women took the spirit of Davy Brown away. And that’s why she can’t communicate anymore.
JEFF: That’s curious.
RAY: And even more curious is the “For Sale” sign that now sits in front of the house. The skeptics claim the Browns made up the ghost to try and give the house a haunted reputation so Catherine Brown couldn’t sell it, and the family could continue living there. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: But the beer, Ray! The ghost knew about the beer!
RAY: The ghost of Davy Brown was clearly our kind of ghost.
JEFF: Okay, this story got a lot of ink in the Hartford Courant between January 25th and February 11th of 1915. Multiple stories covered the saga. The case was even reviewed by the Connecticut State Spiritualist Association.
RAY: I guess in the end believers will believe and doubters will doubt.
JEFF: That’s always the way. You have to remember that by 1914, Spiritualism was still sort of new. Though it officially launched in 1848 with the Fox Sisters in Hydesville, New York, hearing knocks on their wall, the idea that certain people can communicate with spirits really took off in the 1860s during the Civil War. And every time there’s turmoil in the world, the belief gets another spike.
RAY: And in 1915, World War One was bubbling up in Europe. America was getting close to sending troops.
JEFF: Right. Plus, people really want to believe I ghosts. Especially in another person’s home. Preferably NOT where we live, but yes, if I can visit a neighbor and see something, that would be validating. I’d firmly believe in an afterlife and everything that goes with it. Of course the reality of ghosts has been proven to millions of individuals all over the world, but I doubt everyone will ever be convinced. That’s not the way the world works.
RAY: I get that. But a ghost who knows where to find beer sounds like the perfect paranormal side-kick. Now if we could just get a ghost to buy us beer… we’d be all set.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: That would be amazing! Which takes us to After the Legend where we take a closer look at this week’s story and sometimes veer off course. Hey, you know who sorta buys us a beer?
RAY: Who?
JEFF: Our patreon patrons! I mean sort of. Our patrons are the best, they help us with our production and hosting costs, our marketing, and everything else it takes to bring you two episode each week. It’s only $3 bucks per month—like buying me and Ray a beer—that we have to split. For that, they get early ad-free access to new episodes, they can get to our entire archive of shows, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear or see—like our next New England Legends television episode. We’d love your help at patreon.com/newenglandlegends.
To see some pictures of the Brown house in Essex, Connecticut, click on the link in our episodes description, or go to our web site and click on Episode 369.
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We’d like to thank Michael Legge for lending his voice acting talents this week. Thank you to our sponsors and our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
