Spooky Madison's Haunted Places

It is not well known that Abraham Lincoln was very interested in parapsychology and seances in his later years. Another person in the White 
House was fond of seances as well, Eleanor Roosevelt. She has reported to have become friends with Abraham Lincoln through her many seances over the years. 
    

Harry Truman once wrote about the maids in the White House were very disturbed at seeing what they thought was Lincoln's ghost. On one occasion Truman was trying to work, but was repeatedly disturbed by constant knocking  at his office door. He commented to a friend "I think it must have been Lincoln's ghost walking down the hall." 

When a reporter asked Roslyn Carter about the Lincoln ghost, she refused to comment. But, when Jacqueline Kennedy was asked she stated she felt  Lincoln's presence many times, and "took great comfort in it". 

Lincoln's son Willie has also been seen in the Grant and Taft administrations. He died in the White House when Lincoln was President. 

Many speculate that Lincoln's spirit stays on in the White House because of the trauma he indured while in office. Others feel Lincoln appears in times of crisis in America.

When the hotheaded politicians of Washington, DC wanted to fight each other, they all knew that the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds, just over the Maryland line,was the best place to meet their adversary. On the day of a duel, the men would set out in the wee hours of the early morning. They had to travel down a dirt road and over a small bridge to an area about one mile from the town of Bladensburg. The bridge ran over a stream nicknamed "Blood Run. Narrow paths ran through waist high weeds. Dense willows and sycamores crowded out the sky. Many prominent men met their deaths there, and others were mentally crippled for life.

Over fifty known duels were fought. The earliest seem to be the one that occured in February of 1819 between former Virginia senator Armistead T. Mason and his cousin Colonel John M. Mcarty. It is believed that Mcarty challenged Mason either over a woman or over Mcarty's right to vote in a Virginia election. Mcarty had all kinds of crazy challenges for Mason. He wanted to fight with daggers or jump from a lighted keg of powder. The two finally settled on dueling with muskets.

 
The opposing factors met at Bladensburg, each bringing their own supporters. Soon Mcarty and Mason were set up at twelve paces apart. When the shots were fired, Mason was killed instantly. Mcarty was shot in the hand, and in a bizarre twist of fate the bullet traveled up his arm and out his shoulder. 
    

Mcarty lost the ability to use his right arm. He also lost his mind. He never recovered from murdering his cousin. Mcarty stopped shaving, cutting his hair, and even bathing. After he died, people reported his disheveled ghost wandering around the weed choked area where he killed Armistead Mason.

Stephen Decatur was a Naval hero who had distinguished himself in three different wars, but he too was murdered on the fields of Bladensburg. In 1820 Decatur was living the quiet life. He settled on Lafayette Square in Washington, DC with his wife. This was the worst time for Commodore James Barron to challenge him to a duel.

There had been bad blood between Decatur and Barron for a long time. Barron had been put on trial to be court-martialed after an incident at sea. A British ship commander had insisted that Barron turn over some Americans that he believed were British deserters. Barron refused, and the British ship fired on Barron's, killing three men and wounding eight. The British then seized the suspected deserters. This led not only to Barron's suspension for five years, but to the War of 1812.

 
When Barron applied for reinstatement in the Navy Decatur was
outspokenly opposed, and he had the power to keep Barron out. The two men
corresponded for several years, with Barron growing increasingly bitter. Finally, with Decatur in the same town as he, Barron challenger Decatur to a duel at eight paces with pistols.

The night before the fight Decatur shut himself in his bedroom and spent hours at the window gazing at his property. When dawn came the next morning Decatur slipped out of the house with the black box containing his dueling pistols. It was March 18, 1820.

According to the rules, no man could fire before the count of one, or
after the count of three. Two shots were fired at the count of three. Barron
took a bullet in his hip. Decatur was struck in the right side. His
supporters carried him back to his home on Lafayette Square, where he died.

Some believe that Decatur is one of the ghosts lurking around the old dueling area, but he has been spotted more frequently at his home. One year after he was killed he was seen gazing mournfully out of his window, just as he did on the night before he died. His wife was so upset that she ordered the window walled up, but he still appears. 
    

Another spirit known to wander underneath the overgrown trees is Daniel Key, one of the sons of Francis Scott Key. In June of 1836 Key and his friend John Sherborne were returning home aboard a ship. All the way home the two young men argued about the speed of two steam boats. When they arrived in DC, they met at Bladensburg. Key was killed at age 20. 
    

During the period  when Key was killed the public began to get upset over the bloodshed at Bladensburg. Unless they had a fight to go to, people avoided the area. tales of ghostly moans and groans circulated. Others saw apparitions wandering around. Dueling was outlawed in Maryland, but this did not affect residents of DC. Washington lawmakers did not want an antidueling law because so many of them believed in the codes associated with it. 
    

Congress had no choice but to act after February 1838 when Maine
representative John Cilley was killed by Congressman William Graves. Graves
was a stand in for James W. Webb, a New York newspaper editor. Webb was
offended by some of the remarks Cilley made in the House. He assigned the
duel to Graves, who was his friend as well as a noted marksman. Cilley was a
hard working man who preferred to spend time with his family. He didn't even
really know the men who were challenging him. Cilley quietly went about his
business while Graves practiced his shooting.

 
At dawn on the appointed day Graves showed up with a more powerful rifle that Cilley, but he was allowed to use it. When ready, the men fired. No one was hit. They fired at each other a second time, but still no one was hit. The seconds and spectators tried to end the confrontation but Graves wouldn't consent. The third time Cilley was hit in the leg. Because a main artery was severed he quickly bled to death in front of some of Washington's most prominent citizens and politicians. Cilley's confused ghost still wanders around the area when he died. 
    

Cilley's death finally led to the outlawing of dueling in Washington, DC. Men didn't heed the regulations and they still murdered each other in the fields after dark. Finally, the Civil War put an end to dueling in the area. Everyone had had enough of the bloodshed and violence. 
    

People avoided the area because of the history and the ghosts. One day a boy saw a figure among the trees. The spirit had his head down and was dressed in black. When the boy approached the figure, it disappeared. The ghost could have been anyone of the hundreds of men whose lives were changed there. Not much of the old dueling fields are left now. There are some trees, many weeds, and a lot of ghost stories.

The Octagon is an unusually shaped building with many interesting ghostly
residents. It is situated one block from the White House in Washington DC. The man who designed the US Capitol, Dr. William Thorton, designed the house. Colonel John Tayloe III, who wanted a home near his political friends, built it in 1801.

Though called the Octagon, the house has only six sides. It was designed this way in order to fit an unusually shaped lot. Inside are many oddly shaped rooms and closets. The centerpiece of the building is a beautiful oval staircase, the area where the Octagon's most famous ghost is active.

Colonel Tayloe had 15 children, eight of which were daughters famed for their beauty and wealth. Tayloe was also quite patriotic and often entertained the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and James Madison.

During the war of 1812, one of the Tayloe's daughters began having a secret love affair with the enemy - a British soldier. As she snuck back into the house one night after meeting her love her father caught her on the stairway. They argued violently about the girl's behavior and somehow the young woman lost her balance. She fell over the railing and plunged to her death.

Though Colonel Tayloe insisted it was an accident, his daughter's ghost came back to re-enact her death. People have reported seeing a flickering candle shadow moving up the stairs as though someone was walking  upstairs with it. Then, there would come a terrible shriek and a thud at the bottom of the stairs. 

Grief and perhaps this haunting caused Tayloe to move his family back to his Virginia plantation. Rather than have the house sit vacant, Mrs. Tayloe  invited the French embassy to occupy the home. A French flag was flown outside. It is this flag that people believe saved the house during the war of 1812.  

In 1814 British Troops burned the White House and many other nearby buildings.   Due to this arson, President James Madison and his wife Dolley were homeless. The Tayloes offered them the Octagon, where they lived and entertained happily until they could move back into the White House.

Dolley Madison's ghost has been seen roaming the house after her death. She is
still wearing her elegant clothes and the feathered turban, which she believed, made her look taller. People often smell her lilac scented perfume. Also, sounds of horse drawn carriages coming up to the house are believed to be long deceased guests arriving for Dolley's parties.

When the Madisons left, the Taylors moved back in. Once again, a daughter
fell in love with a forbidden mate and again Colonel Tayloe caught her sneaking up the stairs late one evening. During the ensuing argument the girl's father shoved her in anger, and just like her sister she met death in  a fall. It is this incident that people believe is responsible for the cold  spot at the base of the oval staircase. People also get a feeling that someone is lying on the floor on this spot. Also, the rug near this area is often found turned back by unseen hands.

The Tayloes sold the Octagon in 1855, after Mrs. Tayloe's death. The building was put to many uses, though tenants never stayed long. During the Civil War the place was used as a hospital. People still hear the sobbing and moans of the dead.

The house was also rented out as apartments. A gambler lived on one of the
floors. One night he was shot by a man whom he had cheated at cards. The
gambler's ghost is often seen as he was at the moment of his death, reaching  for his gun.   In 1902 the American Institute of Architects purchased the property.

During their renovation they found the skeleton of a young girl behind a wall, her fists tightly clenched. This explained the thumping noises that had been  coming from behind the wall for almost 100 years. The thumping sounds stopped when the skeleton was properly buried. The young girl is believed to  have been a servant of the house during the time the French Embassy occupied  the house. She fell in love with a British soldier. During a lover's quarrel, he killed her and hid her body in the wall.  

The hauntings continue at the Octagon, but it is not as rowdy as it was in  the last century. A young man in a US military uniform from the early 1800's  has been spotted on the stairs. During the 60's the superintendent had  occasional problems with the police calling him to say that all the lights  were on and the doors were open. The man always made sure that everything  was properly locked and shut off at the end of the day.