GHOST 8: Josephine and Nathanial - Two Ghosts One House
On February 26, 1986, a seventeen-year-old named Donna was jogging on Highway 16 near where Pokerville Market now stands. It was about noon and the day was drizzly. Something in the street caught her eye. It was a flash, followed by what sounded like screams.
No cars were around, no people in sight, so Donna crossed the highway and followed the noise over a loose barbed wire fence to a clearing behind some trees. Under the trees the ground was wet, except for a light amber spot of dirt that resembled the outline of a body.
Instinctively, Donna bent down and touched the ground. The screams returned and Donna was pulled forward by something she could not see. Frightened, Donna fought against the force.
“Help me!” the invisible force cried.
Donna struggled – her screams drowning those of whoever or whatever was pulling her.
“Poison,” the wind whispered. “Poison.”
Donna was no match for what was dragging her below the earth! Fighting for her survival – Donna made one last fierce pull – freeing herself – before running back to the highway.
The desolate highway provided no reprieve from the spirit's screams. Donna ran back to her home on the west side of town. She spoke or wrote of the story twice – once to a young woman from Plymouth named April – who’d had a similar experience. Only in her version the spirit begged April to help “Josephine.”
April also had an old journal.
It was a typical February day in 1903. Seventeen-year-old Josephine Glunkett had just eaten lunch. At half past one, screams permeated from the walls of the small house where Josephine was bent over in extreme agony. Her house was right across the street from the old Wild house on Popular Street.
Those present rushed to her side, they swooped her girl and rushed her to her room. In the meantime, Dr. E.V. Tiffany was summoned; however, before he arrived, Josephine passed.
When the doctor appeared, he examined the remains and declared the girl had been poisoned. He immediately called for Coroner Huberty.
At the request of Dr. Tiffany, an autopsy was performed on Josephine’s body. As was the law of the time, a jury of twelve well-known and respected Plymouth businessmen were assembled. They investigated the case and determined the child died of carbolic acid – self-administered. (Dispatch)
The cause of the suicide was a mystery. Josephine’s relatives declared that there was no reason for Josephine to kill herself.
But the story doesn’t end there – actually – it didn’t begin there.
Notably absent when young Josephine was buried in the Drytown cemetery was 20-year-old bank clerk Davis Uckovich. Uckovich had been courting Josephine for over a year, but abruptly stopped coming around some two months prior to the suicide.
Josephine, however, did not lament, nor did she ever mention Davis, but rather she took to spending her free time with a young man named Nathanial Wild, from Plymouth. Nathanial was a miner who worked two of his parents’ separate claims. Nathanial was quite handsome, and those around town gossiped that Uckovich had asked for Josephine’s hand, but her father refused him for lack of means. Nathanial lived at his parents’ house on Poplar Street.
In a diary dated January 1886, V. Gilbert, of Forest Home wrote:
“Suddenly and unexpectedly Josephine moves from Davis to Nate. Since it is not her way Mrs. Plunkett asked me to speak with her. Josephine talked to me and what she said must be revealed to her parents. I have given her two days to tell Nate and a weeks time to tell her parents. She will be soon showing and plans must be made. Reluctant but excited about the prospect Josephine agreed. She is looking ahead too far. Today must be dealt with before the bliss she anticipates is realized.”
Later entries indicate V. Gilbert was present when Josephine and Nathanial told her parents that she was pregnant, and that Nathanial was the father. He was the only person she had been with and then only after the two were married in a secret ceremony. Reverend Marker corroborated the young couple’s story. What prevented them from speaking publicly was a drunken fit.
Rumors fly in small towns and the Plymouth pipeline was buzzing with notes of the affair. It wasn’t long before Uckovich heard Josephine was secretly seeing Nate. When Uckovich confronted Josephine and she turned him away, the banker immediately sought Wild – a scuffle ensued – at which time Uckovich warned the other man that Nate and Josephine would be sorry.
And sorry he was - for the young miner lived the rest of his life a bachelor – until he took his own life in the yard of his home.
Then, almost 50 years later, Nathanial’s nephew did the same thing - only he hanged himself in the garage
Today, some people have reported hearing cries, feeling cold spots and having the electricity go out for no reason. Guests of the house, not knowing the story, have asked about a women’s presence.
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