The Ghost Story

We have a ghost story! "It was a dark and stormy night...."  

 

 

Everyone seemed to enjoy last weeks story about Minerva so I thought that I would tell you this story. I don't make this stuff up you know... Here is our ghost story as written in 1936 by Carl Hirschman who married Marguerette Volkenand in our living room in 1917. His information would have come directly from her father, Leonard Volkenand who bought the house from his father's estate in 1904. About the big house itself clustered several scary stories. It's former owner, Sam Edgar, was said to have been rich,-was known to be eccentric. Rumor had it that much of his wealth had been secreted about the premises. After his death, his relatives delved into every nook and corner, ripping up floors, sounding partitions, digging up the cellar floors, etc., spurred on, they declared, by midnight visits from Edgar's ghost. In sepulchral tones the apparition had repeatedly urged his favorite daughter to continue the search for the wealth he had forgotten, ere he died, to disclose to her. Whether said ghost really appeared this scribe doubteth, yea exceedingly. But many witnesses related in his hearing how the neighbors lurked in the bushes at night to learn what they could about buried treasures. Once indeed the reporters from the city newspapers joined the crowd and planned to interview Sam Edgar if and when he appeared. All that the Volkenands know about it is that when they took possession they found evidence of the treasure hunters in loosened floors and pierced walls and upturned cellar earth. Even after they had moved in they had to lock doors and windows against intruders who insisted on continuing the search. So annoying was it all that Marguerette's father got friends to help keep guard over the place until Grandpa Herman Volkenand, the owner, could move in from the farm with his numerous progeny-an army large enough to rout uninvited visitors, living or dead. But of the treasure, not one mite has been discovered, or, at least, announced. The story of the "treasure" was confirmed by a descendant of Samuel Edgar before being shown this story. The family still believes that cash and stock certificates are stashed away on the property. When the house was updated between 1887 and 1890 a primitive alarm system was installed that indicated whether doors or windows were open.