Records, 1936-1939 : folklore Wisconsin

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My dear Mr,   Brownj
--- There  is a  "ghoat  story*  in ny family that is one  of
the maet intereating\onea I hare ever heard. I do not know how current it .wae outside the family. It waa^ome»hGt ta- ¦beo in the family - but  I have  he^rd it often from ny "mother,
intrigued    by  it.       Ify father was akeptlcal and,  I believe, a little annoyed  that he  should have  been a
witneaa to the ghost.       I am going to tell it to you - but-l- do not know whether  it  is grist for your mill,
-.         Hare  it is*  -   --:. —-   - -
Sometime during the  eeventtes,  a cousin of ny father*s living in Maiden Rock,  Tlaconaiti,   lost his wife under very
pathetic circumstances.    She died  in child-birth,  leaving    --;^^	
several  small children.      She waa not told that  ahe would  die until about an hour or  ao before her death,       '"his distreaaed -   . her greatly.      She  eaid that had  she known there were  so many things she would have  liked to talk to her husband about  i-isap- eciaJJy. about', plana for the children.       She  felt ahe eotrld not f ^ forgive f'hc  doctor.      She died mourning for her  children - full of anxiety and dlatreaa for them.       She   seemed to have  no  realiza-^- tion of death in relation tp heraelf.
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A  sister,  Belle,   came to  stay with the  husband and children I .have forgotten whether  Belle waa the father's sister or  iithe mother's, -    But I  Icnow that she was. a young girl - not twenty. There was a  maid, ot housekeeper - but I dq not remember hearing apythlng about her in connection with the n^steMous occurrancee.
I believe the  first thing that  happened was that as Belle was playing the melodeon and the  children were   singing  In the even-_ ing»  Belle  saw the mother for an  inatant,  standing In the doorway looking at  them.       Belle  said that the  mother  looked  so natural  in - a brown house- dreae she had often worn that .for a moment  she for¬ got that   it   could not be  the  mother  -  ^"orgot that  the  mother was dead.      Then she decided that it had been her aenorT    and  imagina¬ tion that  seemed to see the  mother.       But a  few nif7;ats after that the vision came again.        Only this, time, the  oldest  little girl       * Jthp.wa'fi 3l.ngrng,-turned arocinc^L/gazed earnestly at the doorway. Belle did not atop the  song.    But the next day  ahe asked  the child
ahe had been looking in the"'^aorway while they -wera  slngln^^ The child answered - as simply os Wordsworth's  little maid -   .*!itenja,' Belle  aaidi'Diii you  ever  see Mama  before?"''   '*0h, yes,  "  little Sadie answered, "Mariy tiniea,"* " . .
Btfllei       "How was Mama  dressed?" X    Sadiet       "She  had  her brown dreae on," ¦    "
going,home  from the  school entertainment we  saw you busily at work at your  sewing imohine."    (  I  should  explain that'the  main street in Maiden Rock is on the  side of a very steep bluff.    To reach the houses oh the west,  or  lake-side  of the street,  one had to ieJacend stairs ffyit)^ the  sidewalk.    The  second stories of^he houses were ^on the  leVel that a  first floor would normally occupy).      Belle  said nothing.       She,  too,  had heard the  eewlng machine after- ehe had gone to bed.c  ¦— ".         ^——^^^L— ^^ ——	
Soon after that the children were taken sick - meaales,  I. think it waa. My father waa  practicing medicine     in a   town'aoao
diatance awajland his cousin asked him to come and take  care  of'the children.       So aiy  mother and father came to  atay a  few days until thr chtldren should be"-6h the road to recoVery,       They~"were  very ill - especially one  child who,  hy father feared,  might not get 'well. About, midnight.  Daddy  left tha  children, with the nurae and^ent to bad.      Soon, ny mother was gwake.ned by a  sharp rap upon the  bedroom door..-    When ahe opened the do^r, however, no one    was there.        My JMther had heard Belle's  stories - so she wondered.      After a whll7 it came again.^    Mother did not get up.      The rap came again more loud.       It awakened  w father.      Hfl. oallea,' "Who's there?" and got out of bed,  but found no one. at the  door when he  opened  it. .   lit
put on slippcra^nd-trouBers and^-weHT Town to the aick room. The nurse waa dosing «nd all was-quiet. No one Ud rapped on father'i door.      Everyone^n^the house wafl in*bed.
" Father was. alway sure that he must have  beeTdreaming.
f^^**'/!! «ure.that there had really been ~three raps on their door that night.       But no ejspianation    was ever made  of any of-theae things.
After three or four years,  the father ^larrled again -_a_
-«ood^»oaaB*ho-wa8 a'Trl«-and affectionate mother to the  children.
_   her<( waa  aome criticiam c^ t he  father becauae the  stepmother iiad been hie houaekeaper,  but apparently the real mother waa satisfied becauae. the   little  brown gho«t was never aeen or heard again.
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¦ P*      u ^"1^* aad the children'were" the  only ones, who saw the mother after her  death. -    The   father never  did.    Neighbors  aaw Ahd   liffhi in t^e upper window and  heard the eewlng machine  - but thaight  it
ttitl        T^* n«ver afra-id.   A^A,they_ne.v_er doubted.that  it was. the-, ^t t^ tn^*T^^^^J accepted  Itas a fact of experience and did   ' ^t try. to understand how it cou.ld be.      Aa  I understand  it,-the
-:g^^ -*!>;J^.^g??.at?r ca3cuaaed,^tsidjt-^:ffl3r,B«iaberaL.g^^^t^ -^
.he  children
be,ile. was .getting behind with hensewing for ti One evening she wa3 o.urprised to< hear the laewlng machine running in tne sewing room on the eecond floor. She felt sure it was the/ mother. This continued for some time. , Once a neighbor-came,in and said:  n   I saw you were  sawing  late last night.      As we |»ere
Is this anything you would  like'for yo.jr files?       if so do you want namee?      I  should have to try to find them.      The  family name waa Warren - grandson of Ocn. Warren of Revolutionary fame and SOD of one  of the  foundere of Maiden Rock.
¦ I,.
Sincerely,
\CC/^~L^
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