Maine Ghost Hunters

Tag: civil war

  • Lot Myrick Morrill

    Lot Myrick Morrill

    Lot Myrick Morrill: A Beacon of Leadership in Maine 

    Lot Myrick Morrill, the 28th Governor of Maine, was a figure of steadfast leadership and unwavering moral character. Born on May 3, 1813, in Belgrade, Massachusetts, Morrill’s journey from a small-town boy to a prominent political figure is a testament to his dedication and commitment to public service. 

    Early Life and Education 

    Morrill’s early life remains largely undocumented, but it is known that he received his education at Colby College, then known as Waterville College. After college, he served as the principal of a private school in New York called Western College, marking the beginning of his career in public service. 

    A Life in Politics 

    In 1839, Morrill began his law practice, first in Readfield for two years, then moving his practice to Augusta. His political career took off in 1854 when he was elected as a Maine State Representative. Despite his disagreement with the Democratic Party’s policies and attitudes towards slavery, he served as the Chairman of the Maine Democratic Party. However, his stance on slavery led him to leave the Democrats and join the Republican Party in 1856. 

    As a Republican, Morrill was elected to the Maine State House as a Senator and was named President of the Senate. In 1858, he was elected as Governor of Maine, a position he held for three terms until the Civil War broke out in 1861. 

    A Legacy of Leadership 

    Morrill’s tenure as a U.S. Senator from Maine was marked by his strong anti-slavery sentiments. He advocated for freeing and educating freed slaves in Washington D.C., sponsored legislation to outlaw slavery, and advocated for equal rights for slaves. 

    Morrill was also known for his stance on the re-admittance of Confederate States back into the Union. He opposed punishing the South for their rebellion and was a strong proponent of the Military Reconstruction Act. In 1868, he voted in favor of impeaching President Andrew Johnson. 

    A Man of Principle 

    Morrill was a man of high moral and ethical standards. He loved his country more than his party, voting to expel Senator Bright of Indiana for being a Confederate sympathizer and communicating with Jefferson Davis. He also voted to impeach Andrew Johnson for his racist attitudes and opposition to political rights for freed men and ex-slaves. 

    Life After Washington 

    After his time in Washington, Morrill returned to Maine, where he was appointed as the U.S. Collector of Customs in Portland, a position he held from 1877 until his death in 1883. 

    Remembering Lot Myrick Morrill 

    Morrill is best remembered for his advocacy for civil rights, his stance on the re-admittance of Confederate States, and his commitment to national financial security. He lived in the Lot Morrill House at 113 Winthrop Street in Augusta, a Greek Revival Architecture building listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. 

    Lot Myrick Morrill passed away on January 10, 1883, at the age of 69, leaving behind a legacy of leadership and commitment to the people of Maine. 

  • Governor Selden Connor

    Governor Selden Connor

    In this blog entry you’re being introduced to Maine’s 35th Governor.  His name was Selden Connor and he was dedicated soldier, successful banker, and popular politician.  He was also one of Maine’s finest Civil War heroes, and one tough nut.  I’ll tell you why I wrote that in a minute.

    Selden Connor was born in Fairfield, Maine on January 25, 1839.  He was educated in local area schools, including The Hartland Academy in Hartland and the Westbrook Seminary before heading off to college at Tufts University.  After graduating from Tufts in 1859 he moved to Vermont to study law in the law offices of Washburn and Marsh.

    In his second year as a law student in Vermont the Civil War broke out.  Selden wasted no time.  Within just 5 days of the announcement, he had left his schooling to join the cause to preserve the Union by enlisting for a 3 month tour with the 1st Regiment of Vermont Volunteers.  He quickly moved up in rank to Major, and then Lieutenant Colonel of the 7th Maine.

    Selden Connor was involved in many important military campaigns;

    • In 1862, at the age of 23, he was put into temporary command of the 77th New York Regiment after the Union Victory at the battle of Antietam.
    • He was involved with the Peninsula Campaign, which was a direct Union offensive on the Confederate Capitol of Richmond, Virginia. The campaign lasted from April of 1862 to July 1862.   The Union was not successful at capturing the city.
    • He was also present at the Battle of Fredericksburg, where he was wounded, but not so badly he couldn’t continue on with his duties.
    • He was present at the battle of Gettysburg where the 7th Maine joined the right flank.
    • And he led his men to fight in the Battle of the Wilderness. It was in this campaign he was wounded by a musketball that struck his inner thigh, ripped through his quad muscle and essentially shattered his left femur.  This leg injury would cause him much grief for the remainder of his life.  It ended his field career and relegated him to administrative duty for the duration.

    Selden was promoted to Brigadier General after sustaining this leg injury but was mustered out of the service in 1866.  In 1866 he fell and fractured his leg again which left him housebound for 2 years, much of which he was bedridden.

    In 1868 is when Selden Connor’s political career began when he was appointed to the position of “assessor of internal revenue’ by governor Joshua Chamberlain.  Within a few short years he was appointed the “collector for the Augusta district”.

    In 1875 he made a successful run for Governor as a Republican and 2 follow-up re-election bids which he also won – serving from 1876 through 1879.  In 1876 he appointed James G. Blaine to fill an empty Senate seat when Lot Myrick Morrill was tapped by President Grant to become the US Secretary to the Treasury.  In 1882 he was employed as a U.S. Pension Agent, a position he held until 1886 when the office itself was abolished.

    From 1893-1897 Connor served as the 23rd Adjutant General of Maine. The Adjutant General is an esteemed military appointment, responsible for State Level Military.  So, in this capacity he was responsible for all facets of the Maine National Guard.

    His later life accomplishments included serving as the President of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, the Senior Vice Commander of the Loyal Legion, and the President of the Northern Banking Company.

    He was a lifelong member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity.  He also held memberships in the Maine Historical Society, the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, and was the Senior Vice Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (or the G.A.R.).

    Selden Connor died in 1917 at the age of 78. His death was determined to be caused by “Nephritis of 22 years and abscess of the kidney”.  He left behind a political legacy we all still live by today. Some things Selden Connor was known for;
    • He was a Civil Service Reform Advocate – which meant he was opposed to the “spoils system” in Government jobs where incoming presidents would wipe out government employees who weren’t of their political backing only to replace them with big money donors, or political party favorites.  In short, Civil Service meant that employees who were ‘civil servants’ wouldn’t necessarily identify with the party of the office of the President.
    • He pushed hard for a free public school system here in Maine.  And he signed an act that led to the building of a teacher’s school in Fort Kent, Maine in an effort to Americanize the state’s French Settlers in the Madawaska Territory. It was originally called the Madawaska Training School but that name morphed over the years to; The Fort Kent Normal School, The Fort Kent State Teacher’s College, Fort Kent State College, and finally, the University of Maine at Fort Kent
    • He was an outspoken voice in cleaning up the political arena of bribery & forced voting practices – where employers wouldn’t hire employees with opposing political ideologies, and who would also force employees to vote for whomever the boss told them to.
    • He was an outspoken proponent for the Women’s Suffrage Movement to the point he held the position of Vice President of the Maine Woman Suffrage Association.
    • And finally, Selden Connor was a mighty fine cook.  Being the son of a Lumberman meant he knew his way around a bean pot.  Lumbermen of the time had this special way of making Beanhole Baked Beans and Selden had perfected the recipe so deliciously it was darn-near legendary.
  • The Haunting of Ghost Road

    The Haunting of Ghost Road

    Introduction This cemetery has a history so haunted it’s actually on a road called “Ghost Road”.  We’re taking you with us as we explore Springfield, Maine’s Cushman Cemetery.

    Why it’s called “Ghost Road” The history of this haunting isn’t exactly clear.  No one is really sure why it’s haunted, or who haunts it, but there have been too many experiences by too many people to deny something weird happens out here.

    First – we have the name of the road it’s on and how it got it’s name. The Ghost Road came into its name, it’s thought, because of this little blond haired girl that went missing and her body was never recovered.

    There are 2 versions of this story floating around.  The first is that the little girl was playing out near the road and a woman known by townspeople as the “Green Eyed Witch” stopped her horse and carriage to talk to the child.  She beckoned the child to come closer and asked her get into the carriage.  The little girl told the old lady she wasn’t allowed to go off with strangers and ran home, telling her parents when she got there. Her parents warned her to stay away from the woman, known as “The Green Eyed Witch” but some time later the girl was outside playing in the area of the road again, and when it was time to come home, she was nowhere to be found.

    She and the “Green Eyed Witch” disappeared forever.

    The other story goes like this – The little girl was out playing on her bike and the “Green Eyed Witch” drove up to her in a car and asked her if she wanted a ride home.  The girl kindly refused, but a short time later, playing out on that same road, the girl went missing, and the “Green Eyed Witch” was never seen again, either.

    The older generation will tell you they see an apparition of the girl, always on the road, and always at a distance.  When she’s approached she disappears before anyone can make contact with her or talk to her in any way.

    Reports by people in more recent times say she’s a blond haired little girl who’s seen riding her bike on the road. But the same thing happens when she’s approached.  You can’t get too close before she disappears.

    The Haunting of Cushman Cemetery

    Cushman Cemetery has quite a haunted history, and while no one really knows why, there are few who have been here who have witnessed the weirdness who can deny it has a paranormal edge to it.

    One of the earlier accounts of odd happenings occurred in the 1960’s when some of the civil war graves were unearthed. The townspeople say the graves were mysteriously opened, but a more logical assumption was that someone dug up the bodies to retrieve Civil War artifacts the soldiers may have been buried with, such as guns, bayonets, or medals. There was never any definite conclusion as to how the graves of these soldiers were opened, so the mystery remains to this day.

    That said, there have been personal experiences documented by a wide range of witnesses who claim this cemetery is definitely haunted.

    The first was the experience of 2 young boys who accidentally found the Cushman Cemetery off the side of the road. In a state of disrepair and really overgrown, it was in pretty bad shape.  So they decided they’d clean it up.

    They returned at a later date and brought garbage bags and rakes and things to clean up the area to make it look nice. At one point they came across this teddy bear over a grave.  It had been there so long it was tangled in a mess of plants and weeds.  They tugged it out of the entanglement and set it off to the side while they continued to rake and pick up trash. When they left, they forgot to put the bear back where they found it. When they returned the next time they looked for it, first thing, so they could return it to the grave site, but quickly realized it wasn’t where they put it.

    When they went over to the grave they originally encountered it, they found it in the exact same position and circumstance they had seen it the first time. Entangled in weeds and plants, sitting beside this gravestone like it hadn’t been touched or moved in ages. After seeing the bear in this position, and knowing they had moved it the last time they were there, it freaked them out. They ran out of the cemetery area and out to the road. Just as they were making a mad dash for the road they heard a voice holler out from the cemetery “Help Me!”

    They never went back.

    Another account is of an older gentleman who was charged with conducting a land survey with a bunch of other men. Each member of the survey crew was assigned a specific area in and around Cushman Cemetery.

    One man, in particular, was in charge of the area just off to the side of the cemetery and out of sight of the others. As he was doing his work he noticed the wind started to pick up and a storm was coming in fast.  Before he knew it he was completely overwhelmed with darkness and leaves blowing around, the wind whipping things up from the ground, and branches flying all over the place.  Clearly it was time to get back to the work truck.

    So he headed out of the area and the closer he got to the road he noticed the storm was making its way out of the area.

    When he reached the other guys on the job he commented about that quick storm that had just passed through, and they had no idea what he was talking about.  They told him it’s been just as bright and sunny a few minutes ago as it was right then.

    And for a more recent encore –

    There’s a report of a witness account within the past few years where a couple of women were out hunting for gravestones for a genealogy project they were working on.  We’re not sure if they found what they were looking for but when they came back out onto the road, after they were finished, one of them looked over into the brush and saw a little blond haired girl watching them.

    They attempted to talk to her, but she didn’t talk back.  She just watched them.

    Noticing the girl was dressed in clothes that seemed a bit dated, they grew increasingly uneasy about the situation.  After several attempts of trying to communicate it became clear there was something not right, here, and they fled the area in a very quick way, convinced they had just been in the presence of the ghost of the little girl said to haunt “Ghost Road”.

    That’s basically what we know about the Cushman Cemetery on Ghost Road in Springfield, Maine.

    There have been accounts of people hearing a little girl crying, and hearing their names called out by unseen people, but you can basically get the gist of why folks find this cemetery to be so haunted.

    If you’d like to visit the Cushman Cemetery we ask that you do so with respect.  Be curious, but be respectful, first. A haunted cemetery is not a paranormal playground.  It’s sacred ground where people are buried, and we ask that you keep that in mind above all else.

    The Ghost Road is located on Route 6 in Springfield and the cemetery itself is set off the side of the road. Not entirely obvious, but if you look, you can find it.