The Woman in White Motif

It is only a matter of weeks until it is Halloween. Here is a discussion to begin to set the mood for that fun autumn holiday.  It is a time for horror marathons, trick or treat events, and dress up.  It is also a time for storyelling (folk, historic, or urban tales).

Some tales are merely that - tales.  They have no true paranormal aspect to them, other than the ability to live forever as each new generation comes of age and the tale is retold.  One of the most prevalent themes in all of paranormal research and literature is the 'lady in white', 'the woman in white', and other similar descriptors.

Wilkie Collins in 1859 published what is considered to the the first mystery novel, The Woman in White.  It ranks as an  important book for that reason, along with the 1764 The Castle of Otranto, considered by many as the first Gothic horror novel.  Both are quick reads and full of the language and values of their respective time periods. They set the stage for decades of  high literary and popular strangeness.  

He no doubt drew inspiration from tales through out the British Isles of such women dating from medieval times.  The Irish Banshee may be a version that dates further back and reflect an older tradition still.  Other tales and legend of sightings of ghosts can easily fall into the category of this classic woman in white tale and include often a women wronged or harmed who restlessly wanders around in perpetual grief or remorse

Hispanic cultures may reflect the motif in their weeping mother or similar tales associated with the violation of innocence.  The La Llorna story pool with its versions of the woman who kills her children to join  a younger lover (harlot motif) and the mother whose children are robbed from her (the saint) may reflect the dichotomy of woman in a patriarchal society.  Although she is sometimes seen and reported as more sound than body, some legends suggest a pale waxen creature mourning and searching.

The famed "resurrection Mary' version from Chicago, and its many locale variants, may be inspired by ancient tales, Collins ,or be a manifestation of some ofter process at work in society.  The resurrection Mary story emerged at a time when young ladies were first gaining freedom to go out without chaperons and in wild automobiles to dance to hot music and drink cold liqueur.  There may be a tinge of a morality tale created to keep them 'down on the farm'.  She is often reported in a white dress, although some versions in Chicago and elsewhere will have the girl in a blue or red dress.  These, however, appear as mere attempts to separate their particular and regional version from the older Chicago story.

One local version of this woman in white motif in Oklahoma is set near Conners College, near Warner, Oklahoma.    There is supposedly (I have not verified any of this in the tradition of sharing a good story....) a College road that runs past the institution and passes a cemetery.  There, a 'white woman' has been seen by generations of people....

The informant told me the story "has been told for many years."

Marilyn A. Hudson, Historian and Storyteller....

Rock-a-Bye Baby Ghost: Near Georgia's Mysterious Mountain

It was late summer in Georgia and stories began to surface of something strange coming from the area of the Summit of Welsh Mountain, between Morgantown and Waynesboro. The story came from Rock Eagle

Just a pleasant outing.....

.  For two weeks, people reported hearing the cries of a child, just off the main road.  

Then on one Sunday evening in August 1875 two men and two women were traveling that way. Robert Gorman reported they heard "heartrending" cries as if someone was shamefully abusing a child.  The cries were terrible and brought the quartet to a state of great fear and unease.  Miss Elle Parker, from near Paoli, spotted the basket hanging high in the branches of a tree just off the main road.  It was swinging gently back and forth and the cries were coming from within.

As all eyes followed where she directed they were greatly spooked and disturbed by the danger facing the child.  Just as they began to plan how to retrieve the basket, the child gave a mighty piercing cry and the basket crashed downward.  Frozen, their eyes wide with shock, they saw the basket falling, saw the child within moving, and then the group saw it....suddenly back up in the tree where it had been and the child once more crying as before.

Totally terrified now, the group watched and basket swinging back and forth. The ladies were definite they saw the child move within the basket high in the branches.

The next day a search party of local officials and interested parties went out to investigate.  Mr. J.S. Peters, of Lancaster City, said he too saw the basket, saw the baby in it move, heard its cries and saw it disappear only be once more in the high branches.

"Welsh Mt." is thought to refer to "Fort Mountain" in Murray County.  One of the interesting things about this story is this is in an area where legends survive of blonde, light skinned and blue eyed Welsh explorers called 'Moon Eyed' because of their night vision.  There is almost a mythic changling element to this ghost story.  It is near an area of a strange rock wall snaking along a summit and is thought related to those Welsh legends.

Sources:

("A Ghost in the Form of a Baby." The Atlanta Constitution, 25 August 1875, pg 2).

ANATOMY OF AN URBAN LEGEND: The Tale of Augusta

In the landscape of Oklahoma legends and myths one tale continues to rise to the top and be repeated periodically.  A scanning of websites with the story produces at least a dozen sites repeating the tale of the ghost of the house which now holds the Stone Lion Inn.

Sans any stories of hauntings prior to the early 1980's, the house had been a home and once a funeral home.  The charming and heartbreaking tale of a little girl who stayed to play in the halls and stairs of the old house were shared with the sadness of life cut short at such a young age.

The childish ghost was said to be Augusta Houghton, the 8 yr old daughter of Fred and Bernice Houghton.  She had died from an accidental overdose of cough medicine given by a nurse or maid.  The story assumed a life of its own, repeated despite local researchers indicating they could not find a record of such a death.  

Independently researchers from OKPRI and Cullan Hudson, author of Strange State came to the conclusion the specter, if there, could not be Augusta.   Owner, Beth Luker, would later admit to making a mistake in naming Augusta, but by then the story had assumed a life of its own. Repeated by writers and paranormal researchers without fact checking, the story became enmeshed in the folkloric weave of the state.

What was the truth?

Searching US Federal Census records revealed in 1900 in Guthrie, Logan Co., OK a family living at 702 Noble Avenue.   Fred E. Houghton (1854-1943), his wife Bertha (1872-1958), his children Grace (1885), Gladys (1896), Alma (1899), Augusta (b.1892, Sept), and Frank E. (1900) were enumerated on the census.

In 1910, the family is living at 1016 W. Warner Street (the location of the present inn).  There is no Augusta listed on the 1910 census, although children Grace, Gladys, Alma, Frank E., Adolphe (1903), Dorthy (1907), Russell (1908), and Irene (1910) are listed.   

In 1910, Augusta was no doubt the young  18 yr old woman listed in the Wichita, Ks census of students attending Mt. Caramel Academy.  

The family is found again on the 1920 Census for Logan County and is enumerated in 1930 in Enid, OK, where daughter Alma had married into the Suddeth family and is listed with son David at the West Main address.

Rootsweb, a genealogy website, indicated a family history record for a Coralee Augusta, daughter of Fred and Bertha Houghton, born Sept. 17, 1892 and who married in 1913 a William Houser.

The only child NOT carried over through the ever expanding family listed on the US Federal Census was daughter Irene, listed as newborn in the 1910 census when the family lived at 1016 W. Warner, Guthrie.

A death record has not been located for the Irene Houghton listed on that 1910 census and so caution should be exercised.   One website assumed she died the same year as the census because of the -0- listed by her age but that was often used for children/infants under the 1 year mark.  There are questions to be answered because an infant could not be the 'child' presence noted by so many 'research teams.' She is not listed on several genealogical websites, although they site the census record where she is listed. And strangely, Coralee Augusta is not listed on several such websites despite citations referring back to the census of 1900.

If Irene was the 7-8 yr old who died, then a death record or grave should exist for her from the 1917-1918 time period.  Since the family is enumerated on the 1920 census in Guthrie, then the likely place of death could be there.  However, she had older sisters who were already married and could have been living elsewhere with them during the census.  Assumptions cannot be made until verified by documentation.

The urban legend of "Augusta" is a classic example of the need for real, in-depth historical research to ferret out the truth from the tall tales and guesswork.