Alison Barnett – Page 7

Check out what’s new in the North Carolina Collection.

Several new titles just added to “New in the North Carolina Collection.” To see the full list simply click on the link in the entry or click on the “New in the North Carolina Collection” tab at the top of the page. As always, full citations for all the new titles can be found in the University Library Catalog and they are all available for use in the Wilson Special Collections Library.

National Pickle Day!…recipes from the collection

Tomorrow is National Pickle Day. Try out one of these recipes to celebrate.

Image from Favorite recipes.

Chunk Pickles from The Farmville cook book.

Yellow Squash Pickles from Heavenly delights.

Chopped Raw Pickle from Körner’s Folly cookbook.

Hot Green Tomato Pickles from What’s cookin’? in 1822.

Dill Pickles from The Charlotte cookbook.

Cinnamon Bud Pickles from Marion Brown’s southern cook book.

Easy 1 Jar Sweet Pickles from Heavenly helpings, seasoned with love : recipes collected from great cooks past and present of White Oak Baptist Church, Archer Lodge, NC.

Angie’s Pickles Cut Crossways from The grass roots cookbook.

Swiss Chard Pickles from The grass roots cookbook.

Appetizer recipes from the collection

Image from A book of favorite recipes.

Nut Tid-Bits from Recipes for gourmet eating : a compilation of favorite tested recipes of housewives of Greenville and out of town friends.

Mushroom Pinwheels from Company’s coming : a recipe collection from North Carolinians who enjoy company coming.

Salmon Ball from Heavenly delights.

BLT Dip from Count our blessings : 75 years of recipes and memories / Myers Park Presbyterian Church.

Cocktail Tomatoes from A book of favorite recipes.

Meat Balls Extraordinaire from Peace cookbook.

Haunted North Carolina: Outer Banks

On this last day of our ghostly journey, we head to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where tales of pirates and mysterious shipwrecks abound.

Ocracoke Island is home to the final resting place of the notorious pirate Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard. It was here, at Teach’s Hole, in 1718, that Blackbeard’s career of plundering was brought to a dramatic and violent end. Lt. Robert Maynard of the British Royal Navy, on orders of Virginia governor Alexander Spotswood, attacked Blackbeard’s ship The Adventure. A bloody battle ensued, ending with the famed pirate’s death. The story goes that Lt. Maynard threw Blackbeard’s headless body into the waters of Ocracoke Inlet. The pirate’s captured crew looked on as his body swam three laps around the ship before sinking to the watery depths below. Maynard affixed Blackbeard’s head to the bowsprit of his ship as proof of the pirate’s death. Apparently, Blackbeard‘s ghost still haunts Teach’s Hole, crying out and searching for its head.

Shipwreck stories from North Carolina’s Outer Banks are common enough; but, the story of the wreck of the Carroll A. Deering remains one of the most mysterious. The Carroll A. Deering was a massive, five-masted commercial schooner. On her return voyage from Brazil to Virginia, the Carroll A. Deering met her fate off Cape Hatteras in January, 1921. A keeper at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse reported seeing the ship on January 19^th. Two days later, the Coast Guard discovered the ship run aground at Diamond Shoals, an infamous area for shipwrecks. Due to storms off the coast, it was another four days before the waters were calm enough for the Coast guard to approach the ship. February 4^th, 1921, the Coast Guard boarded the Carroll A. Deering only to find it abandoned. But, more than just the crewmembers were unaccounted for; all personal effects, lifeboats, navigational equipment, and ship documentation were missing. What they did find was evidence suggesting a hasty departure. Despite an extensive investigation by the US government, no one knows what happened to the crew of the Carroll A. Deering. Many theories have surfaced including piracy, hurricanes, and mutiny. Some even blame paranormal activity, citing the Bermuda Triangle as the culprit to the disappearance of the ship’s crew.

Haunted North Carolina: Eastern NC

Today we travel to battlefields and cemeteries of Eastern NC for our daily dose of paranormal activity.

Four Oaks, NC, was home to the last major Confederate offensive against General Sherman’s Union army. The Battle of Bentonville, which lasted three days, is the largest battle in North Carolina history and some say remnants of the fight linger. Visitors to the Bentonville Battleground State Historic Site recount experiencing the sounds and smells of battle: shouts, rifle shots, cannon fire, gun smoke, and even burning flesh. Harper House, which stands on the battlefield, is also rumored to be haunted. The house served as a hospital for both the Union and Confederate armies. The structure is now a museum. Staff, civil war re-enactors, and visitors describe seeing ghosts in the home’s windows and walking the surrounding grounds. Soldiers from both sides and John Harper, the owner of the house, are among the haunts reported.

Message on front of card: “Here, the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.”

Cedar Grove Cemetery was established in 1800 to serve as the resting place for victims of yellow fever in New Bern, NC. In 1854, workers built a wall, including an elaborate entryway known as the Weeping Arch, around the graveyard. The arch is said to have a chilling ability to predict the future. According to legend, the arch weeps for all the dead who pass underneath. Occasionally it sheds a tear for the living, too. And, if it does, that person will soon die. What’s more, the arch’s tears are not ordinary ones. Instead, they’re tears of blood.

Haunted North Carolina: Triangle

Today’s spectral travels take us to the Triangle area where some residents never want to leave.

The Carolina Inn on UNC Chapel Hill’s campus was built by alumnus John Sprunt Hill. This historic inn has served Chapel Hill guests since 1924, including some guests who supposedly never checked out. Among the inn’s most popular ghosts is Dr. William Jacocks, previously a physician with the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Jacocks lived in room 256 (room 252 in his time) from 1948 until his death in 1965. But, visitors staying in the doctor’s old room believe that his spirit lingers. Known as a gentle joker in life, Dr. Jacocks seems to have carried his love of pranks into the afterlife. The doctor’s ghost sometimes locks guests from room 256 or moves furniture and personal belongings. People say they have seen him in the hallway trying each of the doors as he moves down the corridor. When visitors speak with him, he vanishes. Dr. Jacock’s is just one of many spirits reportedly haunting the Carolina Inn. Like the doctor, most of them are said to be friendly.

The Mordecai House of Raleigh, NC, was originally built by Joel Lane for his son Henry in 1785. The house is named for Moses Mordecai, who married Joel Lane’s granddaughter, Margaret, in 1817. The home was once the hub of the largest plantation in Wake County. Today, the house is renovated as a museum in Mordecai Historic Park and is open to the public for tours. Tour guides and guests say that family photos fly from the walls when the Mordecai’s name is mentioned. They also report encounters with the ghost of Mary Willis Mordecai Turk, a descendant of Moses Mordecai, who is sometimes seen playing the piano in the drawing room.

North Carolina’s State Capitol Building in Raleigh was built in 1840 and is one of the best preserved capitol buildings in the country. It served as the base for all of North Carolina’s state government until 1888. Today the Capitol houses the offices of the governor and the lieutenant governor. Building employees have reported hearing unexplained footsteps, sounds of locked doors slamming, and books falling to the ground. Some people claim to have actually seen ghostly figures. More than one person heard a piercing scream with no explanation, and several people felt a presence when they were alone in the building. The building is open for tours and other events, so visit and see for yourself if there are any paranormal happenings.

Haunted North Carolina: Piedmont

Today we move a little east, to the Piedmont. From houses to bridges, this area is rich with haunted happenings.

Jule Körner constructed Körner’s Folly in 1878 as his bachelor pad and a home to his interior design business, which included furniture and paintings that he created. The house is an architectural marvel and gets its name from its eclectic and eccentric style. After Körner and his wife died, the house stood vacant for years. In the 20th century the building housed a funeral parlor and an antique store. It now serves as a museum and is open to the public for tours and events. The Southern Paranormal & Anomaly Society (SPARS) officially labeled the house haunted in 2009. But employees and visitors considered it such long before. People have reported hearing mysterious footsteps and children talking and playing in empty rooms. They also recount finding furniture inexplicably moved and having the feeling that someone was tapping them on the head. So the next time you’re in Kernersville, NC, stop by and see if you find any signs of these playful spirits.

The Single Brothers’ House of Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC, is about 20 minutes west of Kernersville. Originally the home for Salem’s unmarried men’s choir, the Single Brothers’ House is rumored to have served as home to the Little Red Man. The story goes that the Little Red Man is the ghost of Andreas Kremser, a cobbler who was killed by the collapse of a bank of dirt while helping build the basement for expansion of the house in 1786. After Kremser’s death, people reported hearing sounds of a cobbler’s hammer in the basement. Some even claimed to have seen Kremser, wearing red as he did on the day of his death. After a sighting by a prominent visitor, a minister was brought in and called for the Little Red Man to leave. Some say Kremser’s ghost has not been seen since then. But, you can always visit Old Salem and determine for yourself if he might still be around.

Early on August 27^th, 1891, a train heading west for Asheville, NC, derailed as it crossed Bostain’s Bridge in Statesville. The train plummeted to the river bed below, killing 22 passengers and injuring many more. Sightings of a ghost train at Bostain’s Bridge surfaced sometime thereafter. The most well-known sighting took placed on Aug. 27, 1941, the 50th anniversary of the accident. A woman waiting for her husband to return with help after their car blew a tire, heard a train whistle. She then watched as the train started across the bridge, flew off the tracks, and plunged to the ground. She heard the passengers’ screams and ran toward the bridge to inspect the wreckage. The woman related the happenings to her husband when he returned. When they looked over the bridge, the wreckage was gone. Others tell of seeing the train and meeting a man with a gold watch. The man asks for the time and then vanishes along with the train. The man is supposedly the ghost of a railroad employee who died in the train crash. He received the watch as an early retirement present.

Haunted North Carolina: Mountains

There’s nothing like a good ghost story to get you in the mood for Halloween. This week we will bring you stories of haunted houses, friendly ghosts, and lingering spirits from each region of the Old North State.

Edwin Wiley Grove first opened the Grove Park Inn in 1913. Located in Asheville, NC, this picturesque hotel is rumored to be haunted by a ghost that people call the Pink Lady. Apparently this woman, who is identified by the pink color of her dress, fell (voluntarily or not) from the balcony of room 545 and tragically died nearly one hundred years ago. Guests and hotel employees have told stories of doors and windows in the room where she stayed that mysteriously open and close on their own, along with lights and other electrical devices throughout the inn turning on and off independently. Other guests have seen a pink mist, felt the Pink Lady sitting on their beds, holding their hands, or told stories of her comforting sick children. Maybe if you go to the Grove Park Inn and stay in room 545, you will see this friendly ghost, or feel her tickling your feet while you lay in bed.

Grandfather Mountain, aptly named due to its profile resembling that of a bearded old man lying down, is a popular hiking destination near Linville, NC. There are many miles of hiking trails on the mountain, and people tell stories of seeing a solitary hiker walking along the twisty paths at dusk. He never acknowledges those he passes, his clothes appear to be from many decades past, and he vanishes from sight. This is the Phantom Hiker of Grandfather Mountain, and no one knows who he was or why his spirit haunts the mountain. But, if you go for a visit you might catch a glimpse of him.

George Washington Vanderbilt constructed the magnificent Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, as a vacation home for his family. He and his wife Edith spent much of their time enjoying their impressive library full of antiques, artwork, and famous editions, along with throwing opulent parties. George died in 1914, less than twenty years after his cherished house was completed. But, some say George’s spirit never left the house and that he still visits his library, especially on stormy nights. People also report hearing the voice of his wife, Edith, calling George’s name, or the sounds of party guests laughing or playing music as they walk around the lavishly decorated, empty rooms.