SeanPaulMurphyVille: September 2019

Friday, September 27, 2019

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us

Family Portrait, circa 1977

My upcoming novel Chapel Street was inspired by my experiences growing up in a "haunted" house at 21 St. Helens Avenue* in the Northeast Baltimore neighborhood of Lauraville. This series of blogs will examine the actual haunting that inspired the book. My previous blog discussed the history of the house and its occupants, before we arrived in 1974. This blog will examine my family before we moved to the house.

I was born in December 1960. I was the second child of Douglas and Clara Murphy. Not only was I their second son. I was their second child born that year! My mother was seventeen when I was born. My father was nineteen.

Needless to say having that many children at that young age -- and others would quickly follow -- could lead to a great deal of stress. And it probably did. However, at least they had a roof over their heads. When I was born, my parents were living at 5507 Hamlet Avenue**, about a mile more or less from our eventual home at 21 St. Helens Avenue. The house belonged to my maternal grandmother Rita Rosenberger and her second husband Robert Pollock.

My grandmother had two children, my mother and my uncle Tony, with her first husband Kenny Protani. After Kenny left, Rita and her children were forced to move back home. Her parents, George Rosenberger and Maria Anna Kostohryz, had recently been stampeded from their downtown rowhouse on 2207 Biddle Street in East Baltimore as part of the notorious white flight from the city. They settled in a nice Cape Cod home on 3204 Evergreen Avenue in the leafy near suburban neighborhood of Hamilton. It was a very crowded house. In addition to Rita and her two children, and her parents, the house was also occupied by my adult great-uncles Norbert "Butch" Rosenberger and Anthony "Buzzy" Rosenberger. My great-aunt Helen Rosenberger Ernst was the only one of George and Mary's surviving children who did not live with them on Evergreen. In this manner, the Rosenbergers very much resembled the Mayfort family of 21 St. Helens Avenue.***

One more thing about the Rosenbergers. If there is a history of depression in my family, it seems to come down their line. My brother John would later opine that "the depression on the Rosenberger side mixed with the substance abuse on the Murphy side created a perfect storm in our generation."

Perhaps. We'll weather those thoughts in due time.

The Rosenbergers

My grandmother met Robert Pollock and they married on 26 June 1959. Afterwards, they bought the house at 5507 Hamlet Avenue, which was located about six blocks west from the Rosenberger house on Evergreen. My parents married soon afterwards and moved in with them. Overcrowding looked like an imminent possibility, until my great-grandmother Maria Anna suffered a fatal heart attack in her living room while watching television on 23 April 1961. She suddenly exclaimed, "I can't breath, I can't breath." Then she collapsed. It was a Sunday night. (No one seems to remember what show she was watching, but she was a big fan of westerns so I am going to assume it was Bonanza.)

The fact that her father and two brothers were left in a house without a woman to look after them horrified my kind-hearted grandmother. She asked grandpop Bob if they could move back to Evergreen Avenue so she could look after them. Bob agreed, much to my grandmother's everlasting joy. So off they went, leaving the Hamlet Avenue house to my parents. I actually never knew that my parents didn't own the house, that it belonged to my grandparents, until many years later.

My parents didn't waste any time filling up the space vacated by my grandparents. My two doomed siblings, Laura Lee Murphy Valenti, born 27 September 1962, and Mark Brendan Murphy, born 26 February 1964, quickly followed my brother and me. Trust me, there was no hint of self-destruction in their innocent faces. My sister Jeanne soon rounded out the original quintet. My kid brother John didn't arrive on the scene until ten years later, after the family had moved to St. Helens Avenue.

Doug, Jeanne, Sean, Laura, Mark
backyard of Hamlet Avenue, October 1965

If you'd like a more detailed look at my family and idyllic childhood in Hamilton, I would recommend Chapter 3 - Childhood from my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God. Or, better yet, just buy the book on Amazon. They're practically giving it away on Kindle. Here, however, I want to concentrate on other aspects of my youth that I do not deal with in that book.

We were not a particularly superstitious family that knocked on wood, never walked under ladders or avoided the paths of black cats. Our superstitions mainly revolved around traditional Catholicism, but we varied greatly even along those lines.

Clara & Doug. May 1968

My parents were both born Catholic. My mother was a reasonably avid churchgoer. My father, on the other hand, mainly devoted his Sundays to the Murphy Football League -- tag football games played on the field at Northern High School with his brothers and his work friends from Social Security. We kids were required to go to St. Dominic Church every Sunday. Usually my mother took us, but, thank God, she didn't make us wear matching outfits like some parents did. Sometimes we had to go alone. That's when my brother Dougie taught me the art of sneaking into the back of the church to grab a bulletin as proof of attendance, then taking off for some unsupervised fun. I didn’t feel particularly guilty about skipping church. I was too young to get anything out of the mass, especially when it was in Latin.

In addition to attending church, our parents also sent us to parochial school with mixed results. Dougie clashed with the Sisters of Charity and left St. Dominic Elementary School for the more freewheeling Baltimore City public schools. It was a decision that probably extended the lifespan of all involved. I made it through eight years at St. D., and followed through with four years at the boys only Archbishop Curley High School. Laura finished St. D., and started at the all-girl The Catholic High School. (Cattle High, as we Curley boys called it.) She only lasted a year under the thumb of the nuns before exiting stage right to Mervo. Mark successfully finished St. D., but he only spent a year at Curley before taking the public option. Jeanne was my only sibling who, like me, spent all twelve years in Catholic school system. My baby brother John would only survive a few years at St. D., before heading off to public school. (The parochial school system in Baltimore is only a shadow of itself now.)

Sean & Doug. Catholic School Boys

Just as our length of time in Catholic school varied, so did our opinions on religious matters. We ranged from outright skepticism to genuine belief. We also varied on spiritual beliefs. I definitely don't think any of my siblings sought out paranormal experiences. I remember playing with kids who lived two doors down from my grandmother on Evergreen Avenue who said their house was haunted. The haunting of the Stallings house became quite famous. It was investigated by the author Hans Holzer and later even dramatized on television. My mother, who believed in ghosts, seemed very skeptical of that haunting. I remember her rolling her eyes once as she said, "The ghost does their laundry." The ghost did more than that. According to Nancy Stallings' book Show Me One Soul, one of the ghosts behaved like the star of a movie on Cinemax After Dark.

But I didn't give the haunting a second thought. I don't even remember being too curious about it. It made no impression on me at the time.

My mother, however, believed in another haunting on Evergreen Avenue. She said a house belonging to the mother of one of her friends near the corner of Evergreen and Hamlet was haunted by the angry spirit of a man who once lived there but later committed suicide in an apartment on Hamilton Avenue. She and her friend were afraid to enter the house. Nowadays, when I walk pass the house, I always keep an eye out for the current owner. I want to ask him/her if the house is still haunted. Sometimes I think hauntings are transactional. Entities seem to bother some people more than others. I think it sometimes depends on how spiritual attuned -- or vulnerable -- the occupants are.

Young Clara

My mother Clara seemed more attuned than the rest of us. She believes it is a result of "gifts" inherited down her family line. It might also be as because of a lightning strike. In my research, I have read that people gained psychic abilities after being struck by lightning. My mother was struck by lightning as a child at her home at 2413 Llewelyn Avenue. The house was hit by lighting and it came down through the electrical system and arced out and connected with a metal ring she was wearing. My mother was knocked unconscious and initially mistaken for dead. She wasn't.

Interestingly, my father Doug also met Thor -- as we call electrocution in the film business. As the news story below shows, he touched an electrical wire while climbing a tree. He was knocked to the ground and hospitalized, but showed no ill effects.

Douglas Murphy makes
the newspaper the hard way.

Speaking of electricity, I had an odd experience with the little seen phenomenon called ball lightning while living at Hamlet Avenue. It happened while I was sitting on the back porch on a metal chair early one evening. It was summer. I was about eight years old. A thunderstorm had just passed. It wasn't all clouds. I remember seeing some blue in the sky. Then I saw what seemed like a ball of fire, about the size of a basketball, falling from the sky. It initially fell at a steep angle, but, as it neared the tall bamboo that bordered the back of our yard, it leveled out and seemed to be headed straight toward me. I had been leaning back in the chair, and I remember letting go and the back of the chair hitting the house. Then, when it was about ten yards from the porch, the ball just evaporated. I remember it very clearly, as if it happened yesterday.

Until recently ball lightning was considered a paranormal phenomenon. Now, although still unexplained, it is accepted as a rare but natural event. That's the only weird thing I experienced at Hamlet Avenue. I don't think anyone else experienced anything else either. I never heard anyone complaining about ghosts or entities at that house, despite the fact that we were younger and more impressionable at the time.

We were a normal, happy family on Hamlet Avenue. Look at us:

And it isn't like people hadn't died at Hamlet Avenue. Remember how creeped out I was in the last blog when I found out that they held John Mayfort's funeral in our living room? Guess what? Thomas A. Morrow, the previous owner of Hamlet Avenue, had his funeral at the house after he died in 1957. Geez, what were the people in that neighborhood thinking? Spend the money! Remember, we're modern Americans. It's our job to keep death, and the things of death, as far out of sight as possible.

The Hamlet Avenue house is much smaller than the St. Helens Avenue house. The family definitely had to move some furniture around to squeeze a coffin into that living room. Plus, the front steps were steeper than the ones at St. Helens. The pallbearers definitely had a tougher job.

Thomas A. Morrow Death Notice

Before I wrote this blog, I discussed the fact that none of us experienced any paranormal phenomenon at Hamlet Avenue with some family members. They all agreed. We went to St. Helens Avenue devoid of biases and preconceived notions.

Lambs to the slaughter.

Yours truly with his siblings Mark and Laura.
Only one of us would eventually survive to talk about suicide.

Notes:

*21 St. Helens Avenue was the original address of the house when it was built. The street name and number changed over time, but I use the original address to protect the privacy of the current owners.

**5507 Hamlet Avenue is the actual address of my first home.

***Also like the Mayforts, many of the Rosenbergers died in their house. My great-grandmother died in the living room. My great-grandfather died in his sleep in the middle bedroom on the second floor (that's where I slept when I spent the night.) My great-uncle Anthony died of a heart attack in the living room after using an exercise bike in the basement.

Additional blogs about the haunting:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 24, Bad News Betty

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 25, Joe's Tale

My novel Chapel Street was inspired by the haunting. You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Listen to me read some chapters here:

Chapel Street - Prologue - My Mother
Chapel Street - Chapter 1 - RestingPlace.com
Chapel Street - Chapter 2 - Elisabetta
Chapel Street - Chapter 3 - The Upload
Chapel Street - Chapter 4 - The Kobayashi Maru

Let's stay in touch:

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Subscribe on YouTube: Sean Paul Murphy

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House

Yours Truly at the Mayfort Family plot at Loudon Park Cemetery

My upcoming novel Chapel Street was inspired by my experiences growing up in a "haunted" house at 21 St. Helens Avenue* in the Northeast Baltimore neighborhood of Lauraville. The entity was already at the house when our family arrived in 1974. Therefore, in this blog, I will explore the history of the house and the families that lived there before us.

I want to acknowledge that a ton of the following research was done by my niece Marion. She provided most of the information about the property. I provided most of the information about the people.

So here goes....

Before 1783, the larger Lauraville/Hamilton area of what is now Baltimore City was owned by the Principio Company, a British iron works that owned the land from the Herring Run to Back River. After the Revolution in 1783, British land was seized and sold to Revolutionary War ranked officials. Commissioners Clement Holliday and Gabriel Duval were appointed to handle the Principio Company land, and in 1785, they sold the land to Colonel Samuel Smith, Revolutionary War hero and eventually the mayor of Baltimore. He bought the property with money paid to war veterans.

Samuel Smith

In 1806, Samuel Smith sold the Principio Company land, then called Grindon in Baltimore County near Egypt** for $4000 to his brother, Robert Smith (plat #13). This deed describes a series of oaks, including a white oak on “the road leading from Samuel Taylor’s*** to Baltimore Town” (Harford Road). (It’s possible that the oaks that are/were until recently on the property at 21 St. Helens are the same oak trees listed in the original deeds, as large oak trees can live to be hundreds of years old).

As part of his will, Robert Smith gave the land in Lauraville to his brother (?) Samuel Smith in 1825. A map from 1850 shows Lauraville, and the land is attributed to Samuel Smith. To the east is “I. Taylor” who is possibly the Taylor from the early deed. There appears to be a structure somewhere on Ailsa or maybe St. Helens. It is not specific.

In 1868 Samuel Smith, John Spear Nicholas, and Andrew Wilcox sold the land to Julius W. Knock (Knox). The map does not indicate any buildings on the hill where our house will be built. There may be some paperwork missing, because the next deed indicates that Bohn Slinggoff, D. H. Emory, and John Ensor (no indication of how they have the land) sold some lots of land to Thomas Ellis.

A map from 1876 shows Ellis’ property (attributed to William Ellis). Julius Knox is still on the neighboring property to the south. There is an unimproved road running by Knox’s property, which is likely Ailsa Avenue. There is no road around St. Helens Avenue. There appear to be two building on the Ellis’ property, but they are bordering Harford Road. A map from 1877 also shows Wm Ellis’ property with one building by Harford Road, and a small building on Ailsa Avenue.

In 1883, Thomas and Mary Ellis sold two lots of land to Alexander Scott (lots 8 and 9) for $4000. A map from 1898 shows that the land was owned by Alexander. Scott, who still has two buildings on Harford Road (it looks like a house and an outbuilding with a little driveway). There are apparently no structures yet on the hill. Around this same time, the Ellis’ sold land to Pursel Bohanan. The street car line was extended to Herring Run in 1898, thus making Lauraville more accessible to Baltimore City residents.

A Plat from 1904 shows Alexander Scott’s land. The land on the hill has not been developed outside of Strathmore, Goodwood, and Hampnett. A Plat from 1909 shows the school house lot, but also shows that St Helens Avenue has not yet been extended to Morello. As yet, there doesn’t seem to be a plat indicating when the houses were built.

A deed associated with the current house from 1911 shows Alexander Scott (“bachelor”) with Pursel and Carrie H. Bohanan to John A. and Emilie (also spelled Emily) R. Immler. Scott also sold the land to the east to Pursel Bohanan, a produce seller aged 31.

Before I move onto the Immlers, the first family that actually lived in the house, I want to spend a little time with the Bohanans. Although the order of events is a little vague, they apparently built the adjacent houses at 21 St. Helens Avenue and 23 St Helens Avenue, using the same architect and the same basic blueprint. The houses share the same bones, but their similarities have been masked by improvements and additions over the ensuing decades. Additionally, according to anecdotal evidence, both houses were inhabited by the same entity. More on that later.

John Pursel Bohanan was born on 24 May 1880 in Saint Mary's City, Maryland. In 1902, he married Caroline (Carrie) Wilhelmana Hoopes, who was born 2 November 1878 in Baltimore, Maryland. Together, they had one son, Walter Pursel Bohanan on 21 August 1904.

In the 1897 Baltimore City Directory, J. Pursel can be found living on the west side of Baltimore at 1927 Edmondson Avenue. He worked as a clerk. By the 1910 Census, J. Pursel, Carrie and Walter can be found living at 300 Stallworth Avenue. In the 1920 Census, the three of them were living at 23 St. Helens. They remained there through at least 1942. However, J. Pursel had moved to 907 Tyson Street in the Bolton Hill area prior to his death in June 1960. That was the home of his son Walter.

1925 sketch by Walter Bohanan

Walter Pursel Bohanan graduated from the Maryland Institute and became a well-known artist and art teacher in Baltimore. He would die in November 1974 of a heart attack. Although he married, Walter had no children. The Bohanan line that lived at 23 St. Helens Avenue is now extinct.

I do not know exactly how long the Bohanans lived at 23 St. Helens. As early as 1933, the house had been broken up into units. A four-room apartment was advertised in the newspaper for rent that year. By 1944, a 2nd Lieutenant Ida Broaders, stationed in Aberdeen, was living in the house. Many large homes were cut into multiple apartments around then because of the wartime housing shortage in Baltimore. The house would be put up for sale in 1958 and the advertisements indicated that it had been cut into three apartments. It was later reverted back to a single family dwelling. By 1974, when we moved to St. Helens Avenue, the house was occupied by a couple, their daughter and her husband and their children.

Now back to our house.

According to the Maryland Office of Assessment and Taxation, the house at 21 St. Helens Avenue was built in 1915. The Victorian style home had 1,940 square feet of living space above grade, and a finished basement of 912 square feet. It sat on 15,122 square feet of acreage on a breezy hilltop three hundred and sixty feet above sea level. (It is the second highest point, after Television Hill, in Baltimore City.) The paperwork seems consistent that the house was built in 1915. That said, during some home repairs, graffiti from an earlier period was found inside one of the dining room walls.

Newspaper story about John Immler.

The first actual inhabitants of the house were the Immler family. The head of the family was John August Immler. He was born in Basel, Switzerland, on 22 January 1877, and emigrated to the United States in 1892. He took Amelia (Emily) R. Quast, who was born in Dranfeld, Lower Saxony, Germany on 29 July 1879, as his wife. They married in Baltimore in April of 1901. John was a skilled engraver, but newspaper listings over the years reveal that he also dabbled in real estate. John and Emily had a son named Charles William Immler, Sr., who was born in Baltimore City on 3 December 1901. Charles would marry three times, leaving three children in his wake. Interestingly, Charles would provide the only non-extinct male line of anyone raised at 21 St. Helens.

In 1927, John Immler would sell the 21 St. Helens Avenue house to the Mayfort family. John would eventually die on 19 January 1960 in Baltimore of a heart attack. Emilie would die on 4 November 1965 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Charles William Immler, Sr., would die 2 December 1986 in Stevenson, Maryland.

Death Certificate of John August Immler

The Immlers lived in the house for twelve short years. The Mayfort family would remain in it until 1974 for a total of forty-seven years.

The family was headed by John Mayfort. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on 14 January 1867, the son of German immigrants, Martin Mayfort and Katherine Kneyer. He married Florence Virginia Hutton, the daughter of John Hutton and Katherine Goodwin, who was born in Maryland on 12 October 1867. They had four children: Catherine V.., born 4 November 1894; John Clayton, born 19 June 1895; Martin Livingston, born 17 November 1897; and Miriam E., born 13 November 1899.

According to WWI draft records, Martin Livingston Mayfort was white, native born, tall, slender, had light blue eyes, and dark brown hair. John Clayton Mayfort was single, white, tall, slender, had brown eyes, and black hair. The WWII draft record for John C. lists him as being 5’8.5” tall, weighing 175 lbs, bald with blue eyes. (Yes, according to the official records, John's eyes changed color between the wars. Probably a mistake.)

John Mayfort was a butcher, specializing in veal, who had a shop in the Belair Market. Prior to moving to 21 St. Helens Avenue, the family lived at 1313 E. Federal Street. (John's parents lived next door at 1311 E. Federal Street.) Not all of the members of the Mayfort family lived long enough to make the move to St. Helens Avenue. The mother, Florence, died on 8 August 1911 at the age of forty-three. Her early death spared her the pain of seeing the death of her oldest child. Catherine married a man named George E. Willing and died at the age of twenty-one on 15 March 1915 in Woodbine, Long Island, New York.

Death notice for Catherine Mayfort Willing

I don't mean to belittle the grief John Sr. must have felt, but he seemed to take things in stride and soon married Florence's younger sister Mary Elizabeth Hutton, who was born in Baltimore on 9 March 1869. John, his new wife Mary, and his children John, Martin and Miriam moved into 21 St Helens in 1927. To make things even cozier, they were joined by Florence and Mary's older sister Annie R. Hutton, who was born in June 1863.

Okay, okay. I know people frequently married the siblings of a deceased spouse back in the day. My own great-grandfather Frank Murphy, was expected to marry one of his spinster sister-in-laws after the death of his beloved wife Loretta. (He opted against doing so.) However, I wonder about the familial politics here. Why did John marry Florence's younger sister Mary? Wouldn't it have been more socially acceptable to marry her older sister Annie instead? That's what would have happened in a Shakespeare play or Jane Austen novel. It isn't like Annie had a problem with him. She moved in with them. Perhaps John kept her around as a spare in case Mary predeceased him. He obviously liked the Hutton stock. Sadly, the answer to those questions are now lost in the mist of history.

Sons John and Martin followed their father into the meat business. John Clayton worked with his father at the shop in the Belair Market. Martin became a meat seller working for others. Sometime after 1940, Martin married Jane E. Savin, who was born on 6 Jane 1907. He moved out of 21 St Helens and set up house with his wife a few blocks away at 3305 Lerch Drive. Martin would die of pneumonia and emphysema on 24 January 1971 at Union Memorial Hospital. His wife Jane would die on 14 January 1987. The death notice said that her passing was "sudden." I do not have her death certificate. I wish I did. What constitutes "sudden" with an eighty-year-old woman?

Death Certificate of Martin Mayfort

If John Senior was keeping Annie Hutton around as a potential replacement for his second wife, he would soon be sorely disappointed. Annie would earn the distinction of being the first person to die in the house on 26 January 1933. Sadly, I do not have her death certificate. However, her bedroom did not remain empty. John's sister Katherine Mayfort Olsen, born 8 February 1870 in Baltimore, Maryland, would move into 21 St. Helens Avenue after the death of her husband George Olsen in 1937.

I wonder how Mary Hutton Mayfort must have felt having her sister Annie replaced in the house by her sister-in-law Katherine. That, however, was not a situation that would last forever. Mary was the next person to die in the house. She died of ovarian cancer on 9 February 1944.

The next resident of the house to die was Katherine Mayfort Olsen. She passed away on October 19, 1956 of chronic myocarditis, Fortunately, she did not pass away at the house itself. She went to meet her maker at the Edgewood Nursing Home at 6000 Bellona Avenue.

The circle was getting smaller.

Just over two years later, on 2 November 1958, the long-lived patriarch of St. Helens Avenue, John Mayfort died. Like his sister Katherine, John's cause of death was chronic myocarditis. However, he also suffered from senility. He was ninety-one-years old and died in the house, like his wife Mary and sister-in-law Annie.

With their father solemnly removed to a one room condominium at Loudon Park Cemetery, only John Clayton and Miriam remained living in the large house at 21 St. Helens Avenue -- although the house was left solely to John Clayton. (Hiss, boo, dad.) If the siblings were millennials, or at least baby boomers, that would have resulted in some long delayed partying. Sadly, John Clayton Mayfort's freedom from parental supervision would be short-lived.

Death Notice for John Clayton Mayfort

John died of a laundry list of internal injuries which seemed consistent with an automobile accident or a bad fall -- although no accident was listed on the death certificate -- on 1 September 1960. He died at Church Home Hospital. They had operated on him the day before to no avail. (If you ask me, John's real cause of death was being admitted to Church Home Hospital, which, thankfully, is now closed.) Although John didn't die at 21 St. Helens Avenue, he did something even creepier. He had his funeral out of the house.

Holding funerals in private homes was once a common practice. Everybody did it, including my own family. But it was not a common practice in Baltimore in 1960. It wasn't a common practice with the Mayfort family either. Florence Virginia Hutton Mayfort's funeral was held out of a funeral home in 1911. The funeral of Catherine Mayfort Willing was held out of a funeral home in 1915. All of the members of the family who lived at 21 St Helens Avenue -- stepmother Mary Hutton Mayfort, aunt Annie Hutton, aunt Katherine Mayfort Olsen and even dad John Mayfort -- all had their services at funeral homes. John Clayton Mayfort was the exception. What the hell, dude?****

There's only one room in the house well-suited for a funeral: The front living room. Now, when I think of that room, I always imagine John's polished coffin sitting on a stand before the large front window. That's where we had a sofa. That's where I would make out with my first girlfriend after my parents went to bed. Yuck.

My late sister Laura and her husband Frank sitting on a sofa
at the location where John's coffin probably sat.

Thanks, John.

I would later attempt to commit suicide in that very room, but we'll get to that later.

With John's death, the house passed to Miriam Mayfort and her brother Martin. Martin did not move back into the house. He remained in his home with his wife a couple of blocks away until his death in 1971. When he died, the house passed into the sole possession of Miss Miriam Mayfort.

Miriam moved into 21 St Helens Avenue with her family when she was twenty-six-years old. She found herself the sole owner of the estate at the age of seventy-two. What do we know about her? First, she never married. Also, according to census information, she never seemed to work outside of the house. Neighbors report she was of medium height and build. She is remembered as being warm and kind. She would make cookies for the neighborhood kids, and give them flowers from her extensive gardens -- where she spent a lot of her time during the spring and summer. I do not know what faith her practiced, but we found Christian Scientist books in the closet.

Next door neighbor, Missy Weiss Martin remembered Miss Marion very well. As a young child, she played many card and board games and dominos in the upstairs sunroom and the adjacent bedroom. She said Miss Marion was adamant about not buying school raffle tickets but rather donate to the cause itself. Missy does not remember how Miss Marion died, but she remembers that, when they heard the news, it was the first time she saw her mother cry.

Mrs. Agnes Jackson, who lived across the street starting in 1962, says Miriam was always very nice. She gladly took a cat for them when it began fighting with their other pets. She actually had a number of cats. Mrs. Jackson also remembered that Miriam had a typewriter, and was always typing, but she has no idea what she was writing.

Perhaps: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?"

Nah, probably not.

The stained glass window above the landing.

One thing, however, I couldn't get anyone to back up now was the story I heard from everyone when we first moved in: That Miss Miriam died tumbling down the stairs from the second floor to the landing beneath the large stained glass window. Supposedly, the mailman saw her through the front door and called the fire department. The fire department then used a ladder to enter the house through the stained glass window to get to her.

That's the story we always heard, but one important part of it wasn't true. Miriam Mayfort did not die on that landing. She died in Union Memorial Hospital with a probable pulmonary embolus. A pulmonary embolus is a blood clog blocking an artery in the lungs, which is usually dislodged from a leg. That certainly could be the byproduct of a fall, but no accident is listed in the death certificate.

The place of Miss Mayfort's death -- or fatal misfortune -- grew in significance to us over time as we became aware that the haunting was initially centered in a series of connected closets on the second floor near the top of those stairs.

We often wondered if she had fallen -- or whether, perhaps, she had been pushed.

(CORRECTION: Normally, I have not been making changes in the text of these blogs, only adding corrections in footnotes, because I consider my inaccurate impressions indicative of my family's lack of dialogue about the haunting until recently. In a sense, you are going on a journey of knowledge along with me. However, I feel the need to add this point about Miss Mayfort's death because not everyone reads the footnotes. I recently added the funeral of a popular woman in the neighborhood attended by people who knew Miss Mayfort. They are adamant that she died on the landing on the stairs. That she was taken out of the house dead. Their explanation for the death certificate is that she must not have been "officially" declared dead until then.)

Death Certificate for Miriam Mayfort

I know I have been a little snarky about the Mayfort family throughout this blog, but, trust me, I am very sympathetic to them. When I look at them, I see the Rosenbergers, the family of my maternal grandmother. John Mayfort didn't seem that different from my great-grandfather John George Rosenberger.***** They were both born of German immigrant parents, and, when they died, they had all of their adult children, save one, living with them in their house. Additionally, the Rosenberger family, as a whole, seemed equally disinclined toward marriage and reproduction. For that matter, is the St. Helens Avenue branch of the Murphy family much different? There were four brothers. I was the only one of them who married (to date.)

I also feel sorry for Miss Miriam. For decades at 21 St. Helens Avenue, she lived with four or five of her loved ones. However, she rattled around that big old house alone for the last fourteen years of her life. That must have been sad. Even if the house wasn't haunted.

So? What did we learn?

I was hoping to find some evidence of the haunting in our research. I expected to see deaths by suicide, murder or unexplained means. That proved not to be the case. Instead, I discovered that most of the people who resided at 21 St. Helens Avenue before us lived very long lives. John Mayfort was ninety-one. Amelia Quast Immler was eighty-seven. Katherine Mayfort Olsen was eighty-six. Charles William Immler was eighty-five. John August Immler was eighty-three. Miriam Mayfort was seventy-five. Mary Hutton Mayfort was seventy-five. Martin Livingston Mayfort was seventy-four. Annie Hutton was seventy. John Clayton Mayfort was sixty-five. Geez, in my family, we were lucky to get through our thirties!

Does that mean the house isn't -- or wasn't -- haunted?

No.

I think everyone who experiences a haunting views it through the lens of their worldview. My default worldview is evangelical Christian. Therefore, in line with evangelical thought, I instinctively reject that entity in the house is human in origin. However, someone with a less dogmatic spiritual view, would look at all of the deaths in the house and assume that the entity is the soul of one of the deceased. Some members of my family strongly believe there is more than one entity in the house, and that one of them is definitely female. People with a materialistic worldview would tend to view the events strictly in terms of energy or natural but unexplained phenomenon. If I manage to get the stories of all of my family members, you will see aspects of all of those views.

Perhaps the Mayforts never triggered the entity the way our family did. Not that I believe we deliberately triggered it. However, entities like poltergeists have historically been triggered by the presence of people in early puberty. That would be true of us. However, the Mayforts were all adults when they moved into the house. That could be it.

The lack of public discussion about a haunting from the Mayforts does fit my perception of the entity. As I always say about the experiences of our family: It wasn't one haunting, it was seven. (Ten, if you include the nieces -- and I will.) We all experienced it differently. The entity seemed to act in a way to isolate us psychologically and spiritually. It seemed to feed on it. (It is telling that the reproductive lines of the bulk of the people who lived in the house have gone extinct.) Perhaps it was getting what it needed from the Mayforts without any, what I call, "shows of force." It certainly had Miss Miriam to itself for fourteen long years. Maybe she was like us during the height of our haunting, smiling and "normal" during the day, but viewing sundown with growing dread....

Sadly, the research also fails to give any evidence to why the entity seems to be strongly attached to the property itself, yet it can still make its presence felt elsewhere. Even within the house itself, it seemed stronger and more attached to certain rooms than others.

The lack of an obvious paper trail is irrelevant. It is impossible to gauge was going on inside that house from the outside.

I recently talked with an old neighbor of ours from St. Helens Avenue. I told him about our supernatural experiences at the house. He seemed surprised and more than a little skeptical. He said he was friends with the current residents, and they never mentioned anything strange.

I had to smile.

That doesn't mean anything.

Until that moment, none of us had mentioned our experiences to him either, and we had known him much longer than the current residents.

It is a house of secrets.

And death.

The back of the house, circa 1974

Once again, a shout-out to my niece Marion for all of her work on this blog. I would also be remiss if I didn't thank my wife Deborah, who went out into the field with me to research this entry.

Notes:

*21 St. Helens Avenue was the original address of the house when it was built. The street name and number has changed, but I use the original address to protect the privacy of the current owners.

**Egypt is probably the name for land east of Hamilton on Old Harford Road

***Samuel Taylor (1776-1845)

****I was completely wrong about funerals being held at the house. Further research shows that Mary Hutton Mayfort, Annie Hutton and John Mayfort, Sr., were all buried out of the house.

*****After the initial posting of this blog, I learned that my great-grandfather John George Rosenberger, much like John Mayfort, wanted to marry his widowed sister-in-law Cecilia Antionette Kostohryz Ritter after the death of his wife. George did not, however, achieve the same success as Mr. Mayfort. Cecilia wouldn't marry him -- despite the fact that he took her on a few bus trips to warm her up.

Additional blogs about the haunting:

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 24, Bad News Betty

The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 25, Joe's Tale

My novel Chapel Street was inspired by the haunting. You can currently buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

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Monday, September 16, 2019

My Family: Mary Marshall Mirfin, Hero

Mary Marshall Mirfin

The title of this blog is false advertising. Mary Marshall Mirfin is not technically my family. She is my wife Deborah's 2nd great-grandmother. I wanted to write about her because of her great heroism and her sacrificial love for her family.

Mary Marshall, who was known as Polly, was born in England on 7 May 1860. While still in native land, she married William S. Mirfin. Here's the interesting thing about Mr. Mirfin. His last name wasn't actually Mirfin. His legal surname at birth was Murphy. His family was Irish and Catholic, but they moved to the Yorkshire area of England for economic opportunity. However, since Irish Catholics faced such prejudice in that area at the time, his family converted to Protestantism and took the name Mirfin, which was associated with minor nobility in the area.

He fooled me. Although the old British census records are readily available online, I could never find him despite the fact that I knew the name of his parents and some of his siblings. It wasn't until I was contacted by a British cousin of my wife as a result of a Mirfin memorial I posted on findagrave did I learn the secret. Once I knew the name was Murphy, I was able to track the family easily. The irony is that, as a result of my great-grandfather Frank Murphy's mysterious past, I am more sure that my wife is a Murphy than I am.

Back to Mary. In all honesty, I know less about how she lived than how she died, but she died a hero, trying to rescue her grandchildren from an intense house fire in Youngstown in the middle of the night. Lots of people say they would rush into a burning houe to save a loved one, but very few do. And she was one of them.

I think the newspapers can tell the story better than I can:

Article from the Youngstown Telegram, Monday, April 16, 1928. The article featured four photographs. The headline of the caption reads: "FIRE RUINS HOME, THREE DIE." The caption itself reads: "Here are photographs of the W.S. Mirfin house, 662 Pine, after it had been swept by fire early Sunday and three victims who lost their lives in the blaze. The victims are Delores May Loveless, 3, shown in the picture to the left in her mother's arms; Mrs. Mary Mirfin, 68, right; and Florence Ray Loveless, 5 (below). Mrs. Mirfin died trying to rescue her two grandchildren. Mrs. Florence Loveless, mother of the two victims, was absent when the fire occurred."

FREE FIREMEN OF BLAME IN THREE DEATHS

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Report To Mayor Heffernan Declares None Guilty of Negligence

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GRANDMOTHER KILLED

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Dies In Futile Effort To Rescue Daughter To Children From Flames.

Fire Chief Callan was to file with Mayor Hellernan late today a written report absolving from blame fireman against whom complaints have been filed by relatives of Mrs. Mary Mirfin, 68, who was killed with her two children when the W.S. Mirfin home, 662 Pine, was destroyed by fire early Sunday.

Relatives had declared that negilgence by the fireman contributed to the deaths of the three victims.

Mrs. Mirfin was trying to rescue her grandchildren, Florence Ray Loveless, 5, and Delores May Loveless, 3, when, overcome by smoke, she fell from a second story window.

Fireman took the children down a ladder from the blazing room, but they died on their way to the hospital. They died of suffocation and burns.

Three other persons were driven from the house in their night attire. They are Miss Edna Mirfin, 24, and Mrs. Isabel Bock, daughters of Mrs. Mirfin, and Mrs. Bock's twelve-year-old son Harlow. Mrs. Bock was taken to Youngstown hospital later when it was learned she was suffering from the effects of smoke.

Mother Absent

Mrs. Florence Loveless, also a daughter of Mrs. Mirfin and mother of the dead children, was visiting a friend, Mrs. C.W. Stanyard, at 319 Cleveland when the fire occurred. Mrs. Loveless had her six-months-old baby with her.

Callan, who had been at Niles with two companies from here helping fighting a fire which destroyed the Western Reserve Lumber Co., plant and yard there Sunday night, reached the scene of Pine st. fire after the victims had been removed.

Miss Edna Mirfin, who discovered the fire and called firemen and police, said that she had begged a fireman in charge of a hose to save the two children in the upstairs room and that he had shoved her aside and told her he had to attend to the hose.

Chief Callan learned that the man had been assigned to hose duty and that meanwhile other fireman had run a ladder up the side of the house and removed the children from the bedroom.

Charges Denied

Miss Mirfin further complained that her mother ran upstairs to save the children while the firemen were there putting lines of hose on the burning house. Police and vice squad officers who reached the scene of the fire before the fireman say that Mrs. Mirfin fell from the upstairs window before the fireman arrived. Police say that the fireman alleged to have been negligent in their duty did all that was possible under the circumstances.

The tragedy happened within a few minutes. Miss Mirfin was awakened about 2:45 a.m. when she heard Mrs. Bock coughing downstairs, where she was sleeping with her son. Thinking that the furnace was smoking, Miss Mirfin went downstairs, intending to adjust the drafts.

Smoke was pouring from the kitchen. Miss Mirfin aroused members of the family and tried to call for help but flames cut her off from the telephone. She ran to a neighbor's home in her night clothing and sent in an alarm to firemen and police.

Mrs. Mirfin, the grandmother, who was sleeping in the from upstairs room with the children, came downstairs, thinking the furnace was smoking. All but the children were out on the porch when Mrs. Mirfin suddenly started upstairs with the remark: "I must save the children."

Stairway Blocked

Fire Chief Callan learned from neighbors next door at the home of O. W. Tresler, 660 Pine, where the survivors of the fire were given shelter, that those down on the street shouted to Mrs. Mirfin to throw the children to them, as the stairway was thick with smoke and flames.

Meanwhile, Vice Squad Chief Metcalfe, Detective Morrison, and State Officer Eugene Callan and his brother John Callan, arrived at the scene of the fire ahead of the fire department, having been sent out on the report that there had been a shooting.

One of the men ran to the nearest fire alarm box. Firemen arrived, followed shortly by the police flying squad, composed of Sergeant Richmond and Officers Doyle, Collins and Leshnock.

Sergeant Richmond, inclined to believe Miss Mirfin was confused on the matter of time during the excitement in her charges of neglect on the part of the fire department, says Mrs. Mirfin fell from the window before the firemen arrived. Metcalfe says the same.

Richmond said flames extended six feet from nearly all the windows in the house. Mrs. Mirfin was picked up from the ground in the front yard and carried to the Tresler home next door. Members of the flying squad took Mrs. Mirfin to their car, and she was rushed to Youngstown hospital. She was dead on arrival.

Rescues Children

As soon as it was learned that the two children were in the upstairs room, Richmond said, Assistant Chief Steinfurth, wearing a smoke mask, went into the house in search of them. The smoke and flames were so thick that he could find only the youngest, Delores. Then Steinfurth went into the house again, going thru every room upstairs. At last, he found the older children Florence.

The children had been overcome by smoke and their night clothing was ablaze. Richmond had ordered ambulances when Mrs. Mirfin was sent to the hospital, and the children were rushed to the hospital in Handel's ambulance. They died on the way.

Meanwhile, it was reported that another woman and child were in the house, and Steinfurth went into the house again. Then it was recalled that Mrs. Loveless and the baby were away for the night.

Besides Miss Mirfin, and, Mrs. Bock and Loveless, two daughters, Mrs. Nellie Harvey, 19-1/2 Kenmore, and Mrs. Edward Bace, 722 W. Madison, survive Mrs. Mirfin. William Mirfin, 70, husband of Mrs. Mirfin, also survives. He has been ill in Youngstown hospital for the six weeks.

Four fire companies, Nos. 8 and 4 and two from No. 1 station, in charge of Assistant Chief Steinfurst, fought the blaze. Three lines of hoses were thrown on the fire.

Firemen place the loss at $4,000 on the building and $2,000 on the contents.

The origins of the fire are unknown, but it is thought it started from the furnace or from an electric iron, as Mrs. Mirfin had been ironing clothes around midnight.

"There was no delay in getting to the fire or in putting on lines of hose and running up ladders," said Callan today after conducting an inquiry.

"From what I have learned, fireman arrived two minutes after the alarm was recieved. The delay mentioned in the complaint, was in the sending in of the alarm, not in answering the call."

"Police recieved the call first and when the officers arrived, supposedly investigating a shooting and the saw the fire, one of the men sent in an alarm from box 132, at Wayne and (Elie).

Callan said the department is equipped with smoke masks, four of which are in use at every fire.

Victim Delores, in her mother's arms

Tells What Was Done

Assistant Chief Steinfurst said: "(????) has to be shielded in this matter. I don't think any criticism is due the department. The whole trouble was in the delay in sending in the alarm.

"When I arrived I ordered five ladders run up and four lines of hose laid. Ordinarily, at a residence fire, only two lines of hose are used.

"No human being could live in the flames inside the house. We turned the water on and then went in. I found the children lying on the bed, the older girl had bed clothes over her head.

Steinfurth said that Firemen Lewis and Forsythe also equipped with smoke masks went into the house with him when it was said there were other people trapped there.

"If anyone says the firemen laid down on the job, he is mistaken. We heard no criticism at the time of the fire," said Steinfurth.

Steinfurth exhibited his coat, the back of which had been badly burned.

Victim Florence

Funeral Wednesday

Triple Funeral services for Mrs. Mirfin and the children will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the home of Mrs. Alice Bace, 722 W. Madison, a daughter of Mrs. Mirfin. Burial will be in Belmont Park cemetery.

Mrs. MIrfin was born May 7, 1860, in England, and was married 43 years ago to William S. Mirfin, who has been in Youngstown hospital seven weeks with blood poisoning. She came to Youngstown from England 39 years ago. Mrs. Mirfin was a member of the Primitive Methodist Church.

Surviving are these daughters; Mrs. Nellie Harvey, Mrs. Alice Bace, Miss Edna Mirfin, Mrs. Isabel Bock and Mrs. Florence Loveless, Youngstown; seven grandchildren and two sisters, Mrs. Wallace Payne and Mrs. T. H. Wood, of Youngstown.

Florence Rae Loveless was born July 11, 1922, and Delores May Loveless was born Dec. 29, 1925 in Youngstown.

Article from the Youngstown Telegram, Tuesday, April 17, 1928:

FIREMEN FREED OF DEATH BLAME

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Triple Funeral Services For Victims Wednesday

City Firemen today stand officially absolved of negligence in the fire which destroyed the home of W.S. Mirfin of 662 Pine, early Sunday in which a woman and two children lost their lives.

After reading reports of Fire Chief Callan, Vice Squad Chief Metcalfe and other officials active in the fire, Mayor Heffernan made the statement clearing the fire department of negligence in the tragedy.

"Neighborhood neglect" was blamed by Vice Squad Chief Metcalfe for the death of the two children in the report made to the mayor by Metcalfe, Fire Chief Callan and Assistant Fire Chief Steinfurth.

"If the able-bodied men of the neighborhood who stood around, had attempted to rescue the children in the burning hose, they might have been saved from death," Metcalfe told the mayor.

Triple funeral services for the victims, Mrs. Mary Mirfin, 68, and her two grandchildren, Florence Rae, 5, and Delores May Loveless, 3, will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the home of Mrs. Alice Bace, 722 W. Madison, a daughter of Mrs. Mirfin. Burial will be in Belmont Park Cemetery.

Rest in peace, Mary Mirfin. You are the embodiment of John 15:13: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

Click here for more of my genealogical blogs:

My Family: Christmas 1967

My Family: My Granddaughter Emma Renee Schwalm

My Family: The Diaries of Mary Elizabeth McLane, Part 1
My Family: The Back River Tragedy

My Family: My Three Nuns
My Family: The Murder of Adam G. Robertson
My Family: Uncle Buzzy and The Boys In Company B
My Family: 1st Lieutenant Charles Edward Farber, KIA
My Family: Cousin Tillie's Balcony
My Family: The Public Suicide of Carl "Ernie" Stark
My Family: The Public Suicide of Frank Kostohryz
My Family: Mary Marshall Mirfin, Hero
My Family: Rita Cecilia Rosenberger Protani Pollock
My Family: Vincent Klima and the Spanish Influenza
My Family: A Festival of Fathers
My Family: The Honorable George Farber
My Family: A Celebration of Mothers
My Family: The Mystery of Frank John Murphy
My Family: Kristina Bednar Kostohryz
My Family: Great-Grandmom Assunta's Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Be sure to check out my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, published by TouchPoint Press. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined.

Here are some sample chapters of The Promise:

Chapter 1 - A Photograph

Chapter 2 - My Death

Chapter 3 - Childhood

Chapter 4 - Saved!

Chapter 5 - The Promise

Chapter 6 - The Mission

Chapter 7 - Mission Accomplished
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

Be sure to check out my novel Chapel Street. It tells the story of a young man straddling the line between sanity and madness while battling a demonic entity that has driven his family members to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting my family experienced.

You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Watch the book trailer: