May 24, 2023 • 44 mins
Florida’s most haunted home has seen more than its fair share of tragedies. Inside the walls of the May-Stringer House have been sickness and suffering, untimely deaths of spouses, the enslavement of more than 50 people, and the tragic loss of children who died so young they barely even knew their parents. Some say the spirit of a little girl wanders the house to this day, looking for the mother who died bringing her into the world.
Special Guest: Autumn Resch
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Listener Discretion is advised. Florida's most haunted home has seen
more than its fair share of tragedies. Inside the walls
of the May Stringer House have been sickness and suffering,
untimely deaths of spouses, the enslavement of more than fifty people,
and the tragic loss of children who died so young
(00:28):
they barely even knew their parents. Some say the spirit
of a little girl wanders the house to this day,
looking for the mother who died bringing her into the world.
But Brooksville, Florida, has seen more tragic events than just
at the May Stringer House. The city was founded largely
by slaveholders, who established plantations there on land taken from
(00:49):
the Native Seminole tribe under the Indian Removal Act. After
the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the county
that Brooksville is a part of became known for its
klu Klux Klan activity. A minister was killed by white
supremacists for marrying an interracial couple, and the couple was
run out of town after a woman testified against local
(01:09):
men for the crimes. The courthouse was burned down. Today,
the Queen Anne's style May Stringer House is a museum
of the city and its residents, both the good people
who lived happy lives there and those whose legacies are
darkened with contemptible actions in the city block the house occupies.
Its walls hold about eleven thousand artifacts representing local history,
(01:32):
and those artifacts have stories to tell. Some it's even believed,
have menacing spirits attached to them. One people say curses
those with whom it comes in contact. I'm Amy Bruney,
and this is haunted road. Before the pandemic, Brooksville, about
(01:59):
forty five miles north of Tampa, was home to Florida's
the largest Civil War reenactment for more than forty years.
Fifteen hundred reenactors and their families traveled to the city
to recreate the Brooksville Raid, when Union forces arrived in
Brooksville to disrupt Confederate supply and communication lines. The city
of nine thousand has strong Civil War ties. While white
(02:22):
people began settling the area in the eighteen forties, building
homes and establishing plantations with slave labor, Brooksville wasn't established
officially until eighteen fifty six, in years marked by extreme
tension over ownership of enslaved people leading up to the war.
The city is named after Senator Preston Brooks, who was
(02:42):
infamous for beating Charles Sumner with a cane on the
Senate floor after the latter gave an anti slavery speech.
According to Tampa Bay History, in the post Civil War years,
Hernando County, which includes Brooksville, was known as a hotbed
of clan activity. Richard Wiggins settled in the land where
the Mainstreamer House now sits in eighteen forty two. He
(03:05):
settled there under the Armed Occupation Act, which stated that
any settler who came to Florida, lived on the land
for five years, cultivated five acres, and built a dwelling
would be granted one hundred sixty acres. The aim of
the act was to populate Florida with men who could,
if necessary, take up arms against the Seminole people who
(03:26):
lived there. From eighteen thirty five to eighteen forty two,
the Second Seminole War raged throughout the area, while President
Andrew Jackson was demanding all the Native peoples leave Florida
and relocate to Indian Territory. The Seminoles, having already lost
much of their land in Florida, fought for what they
had left. In eighteen fifty five, John May built a
(03:49):
home on the land. The two story, four room wood
frame house had a parlor and dining room on the
first floor and two bedrooms on the second floor, connected
by an outside staircase. It's believed May constructed the home
in an unusual way to avoid taxes. A two story
house was taxed more heavily than a one story home
with a loft, which is what the house technically was,
(04:10):
because the staircase was on the home's exterior. May lived
on the family plantation with his wife, Marina, and daughters
Matilda and Anne. According to the city, they're considered one
of the four pioneer families of Brooksville. John May was
the second largest slave owner in the Brooksville area. According
to eighteen sixty tax records, there were fifty six enslaved
(04:31):
people on that plantation that year. After the Emancipation Proclamation,
many of the people enslaved by the family continued to
work on the property as paid laborers. John L. May
died of tuberculosis in the house in eighteen fifty eight,
and his funeral took place in the parlor of the home.
Marina May, then only twenty five, remained in the home
(04:53):
with daughters Matilda and Anne, running the plantation by herself.
Marina eventually remarried on Christmas Day of eighteen sixty six
to Frank Saxon. They married in the parlor, the same
room John May's funeral had been held eight years earlier.
Saxon is described by the Hernando Historic Museum Association as
(05:17):
a Confederate hero who fought in the Confederate Army's Florida
Third Regiment, in a unit called the Hernando Wildcats. He
was the first soldier wounded in the Battle of Honeymoon
near Jacksonville. Altogether, he was wounded five times during the
war and captured twice. According to saxon manners history, his
(05:37):
major wound was received in the Battle of Terryville, where
he was left for dead but recovered in a Union hospital.
At the war's surrender, he secretly carried his unit's battle
flag back to Brooksville, walking the seven hundred eighty seven
miles from the hospital to Brooksville. He later donated the
flag to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia,
(05:58):
where it is conserved and on displace. Frank and Marina's
infant son, Franklin Schmid Saxon, died at the age of
five weeks in eighteen sixty seven. Two years later, Marina
died shortly after giving birth to a daughter named jesse May.
The cause was given as child bed fever, a post
birth infection. The Saxon family wasn't done with its string
(06:20):
of terrible losses. Jesse May died at only three years old,
in the same room where her mother and her brother
had passed away. In eighteen seventy seven, Frank was implicated,
although never charged, in the murder of a local reverend,
a man who was formerly enslaved by the May family.
Reverend Arthur Saint Clair, rose to local prominence in his freedom.
(06:42):
According to the Tampa Bay Times, he was a Baptist minister,
community activist, and three time Republican candidate for the state legislature.
He also served as a voter registrar, deputy sheriff, county commissioner,
captain in the state militia, and delegate to the eighteen
seventy six Republican State Conveyed on May sixth, eighteen seventy seven,
(07:03):
Saint Clair officiated a marriage between an interracial couple, David James,
who was black, and Lizzie Day, who was white. The
next day, The Tampa Bay Times reported a group of
white men that included Frank Saxon and the county judge
went to the home of the couple to warn them
of impending danger. Believing the visitors intended to harm the couple,
(07:25):
neighbors opened fire. As a result, James was wounded and
neighbor Coles Feaster was killed. Three of the four white
men were wounded. The social climate of the day has
been characterized by the newspaper as lawless because of actions
like city Judge William Center reinforcing the message of what
was almost certainly not intended as a harmless visit when
(07:48):
he returned to the couple the next day, telling them
that the visit of the previous evening had been strictly
out of concern for their safety. Center also told them
that they would be safe until James's wounds healed and
they could leave town. They moved to Tampa about six
weeks later. On June twenty sixth, eighteen seventy seven, Reverend
Saint Clair and several others were returning from a political
(08:11):
meeting when they were surrounded by a group of twenty men,
which included Saxon. The men shot and killed Saint Clair
along with another man a woman who was traveling with them.
Mary Turner, afraid for her safety, initially told an inquest
that she could not identify any of the twenty men
who accosted them. However, she later recanted this testimony, stating
(08:34):
that she had feared for her life at the inquest
because many of those on the jury had been perpetrators
of the crime. At that time, she did identify many
of the men at the murder and testified that George
Cross was the shooter. Among the men she named was
Frank Saxon. As The Tampa Bay Times wrote, a resolution
passed later at a meeting in Brooksville chiding the editors
(08:57):
of the Sunland Tribune and the Ocala Banner for p
hnting the false statements of Mary Turner. The Tampa Guardian,
edited by James T. Magbie, had refused to publish the resolution,
claiming that it was full of damn lies. Many of
the signers of the resolution were either related to or
business partners of those thought to be implicated in the shooting.
(09:18):
Early in the morning of September twenty ninth, eighteen seventy seven,
the courthouse, containing Mary Turner's sworn statements and other documents
relating to the trial, burned down. One contemporary newspaper reported
that the walls of the building had been doused in kerosene,
as The Hernando Sun reported, there were at least ten
Florida courthouse fires around the time of the Hernando Courthouse fire,
(09:42):
most of these fires directly attributable to arson. Because of
the fire, no one was ever indicted for the murder
of Arthur Saint Clair. This fire, which incinerated most of
the county records, also destroyed many records related to the
May Stringer House, including any record of why Jesse May
(10:03):
Saxon died. Saxon sold the house, and in eighteen eighty
five it was purchased by doctor Sheldon Stringer Senior. He
turned the home into the Grand manner it is today,
adding ten rooms across four stories and a tower and
wrap around porch. The house is gray with white trim
and green and white accents on gingerbread trim. An example
(10:26):
of late eighteen hundred s painted lady Victorian architecture. Stringer
was a fan of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel House of the
Seven Gables, adding four more to the home to give
it a total of seven. The doctor lived in the
home and also used it for his medical practice. During
this time. Some say that it functioned as something of
(10:47):
a sanatorium to patients suffering yellow fever and smallpox, although
this claim appears to be unsubstantiated by the historical records.
Doctor Stringer died in April nineteen o three at age
six after an unidentified illness. His son, doctor Sheldon Stringer, Junior,
took over and ran the practice for several years. Frank
(11:08):
Saxon died in February nineteen twenty two at the age
of eighty one. Saxon isn't buried on the property of
the May Stringer House, but many other members of the
May and Saxon families are, including John el May, Marina
Jesse May, and an infant son of John and Marina.
There are also an unknown number of enslaved people buried
(11:30):
on the property. In nineteen fifty, doctor Stringer's granddaughter Betty,
sold the home and it became a rental property that,
as David Lapam wrote in Ghost Hunting Florida, then was
abandoned and suffered heavy damage from vagrants. The house became
a museum in the early nineteen eighties. After it was condemned,
(11:51):
the community raised money to restore it. The May Stringer
House was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in nineteen ninety seven. The first of the home has
doctor Stringer's office, as well as the parlor, dining room,
and kitchen. A post mortem photograph of Jesse May Saxon
hangs on the wall in the parlor, the only known
(12:11):
photograph of the child, showing her in a crib surrounded
by a floral wreath. On the second floor, there are
bedrooms on either side of a central hallway and another
wraparound porch. The museum also has an attic, which is
currently used as storage for items not on display in
the museum. According to the Hernando Historic Museum Association, the
(12:34):
museum comprises exhibit rooms with a Victorian look, with rooms
devoted to specific themes such as elegant dining room, Victorian bedrooms,
military room, an eighteen eighties doctor's office, and a nineteen
hundreds communication room which features some of Florida's earliest telephones.
A lot of decommunication people report experiencing, though is from
(12:57):
spirits of the departed. Diev Obbay Times says the May
Stringer House is said to be floored as most haunted home.
Over eighty ghost hunting groups have investigated the house over
the years. One museum Dosn't Bonnie Litorno describes the house
as being like grand central station for ghosts. Footsteps, cold spots,
(13:21):
and voices, including children's laughter, have been reported throughout the house.
People say they've seen a mysterious black mist at the home,
and shadows have been said to move. Some say they
smell the scent of phantom food in the dining room
after the house is locked up for the night. Staffs
say they've seen lights go back on inside. Others have
(13:43):
seen what they describe as glowing orbs of light in
the home. According to reports, there are at least eleven
separate spirits who have been reported at the May Stringer House.
Some say they've experienced the ghosts of Marina May Saxon.
Others believe they've heard Jesse May crying for her long
lost mother. As Greg Jenkins wrote in Florida's ghostly legends
(14:06):
and haunted folklore. Although she never knew her mother, jesse
May was said to have missed her so terribly that
she would wake up in the middle of the night
and walk around the house crying out for her. Some
believe that when she got sick, she willed herself to
die in order to find her lost mom. Many people
have reported a disembodied voice saying Mama, Mama. Jesse May
(14:29):
is said to be protective of her toys and dolls.
People say that if they've been moved by the Docins,
her toys will show up in odd places, especially a
baby doll in a crib, possibly jesse May or the
ghost of another little girl. Has been known to rearrange teacups.
One year, Docins were setting up for a Mother's Day
celebration and set out several teacups. When they returned to
(14:51):
the house the following day, another tea cup had been
added to the table. As TC. Cottrell described in Ghostly Encounters,
This is happened for several days before it was discovered
that the cups were being moved from the china cabinet
by unexplained hands each night. Some believe Jesse wanted to
add extra tea cups so perhaps her own mother would
(15:12):
have a place at the table. Another spirit, known as
mister Nasty, for his angry demeanor and bad behavior, is
said to curse visitors. He sometimes said to have been
a patient of doctor Stringer's who suffered a gunshot wound,
but some claim he hung himself in the attic of
the house after his wife was unfaithful. Mister Nasty is
(15:33):
most commonly reported in the attic and is said to
be especially hostile to women who enter the house. Women
report being touched and hit by him. Others say that
his spirit is attached to an old actor's trunk that
was donated to the museum and is located in the attic.
Another spirit, described as playful and protective, a World War
(15:54):
One soldier named James, is said to haunt the property.
Some say James was a guest at the hall at
some point in the past. He's most often encountered in
the bedroom above the doctor's office, where it's said that
he was staying. One woman who lived in that bedroom
when the main Stringer house was a rental property, is
said that she and her sister awoke one night and
(16:14):
saw a soldier in a World War One uniform standing
at the foot of their bed. James is believed to
have been distraught over his love marrying another man, and
because of this he gravitates towards younger women, sometimes even
pinching their behinds. It is said that a World War
Two soldier ghost is also present in the house. He
(16:35):
is believed to have been killed in action and is
looking for his dog, who survived. This man doesn't have
any particular connection to the house itself, but some of
his belongings are in the museum today, including his diary
of his time in the Canine Corps. A Confederate soldier
has also been seen sitting in the old wooden wheelchair
in the restored doctor's office. The ghosts of several of
(16:57):
doctor Stringer's patients, believed to have died of smallpox and
yellow fever, are also said to be present in the house.
Another man is rumored to linger at the house, having
been shot and died on the porch before he could
reach the doctor. According to ghost encounters. Some say that
this was a drive by shooting that was committed on horseback,
and some say they have seen doctor Stringer himself in
(17:20):
the home who appears on the front stairs of the
house wearing a black coat. As ghost Hunting Florida describes,
he doesn't do anything, just stands right below the landing
like he was shocked seeing a badly injured patient down
in the waiting room. Now, if you watch the episode
of Kindred Spirits filmed the May Stringer House, you're very
familiar with our upcoming guest, Autumn Rush. She was visibly
(17:42):
emotional due to the paranormal activities she's encountered there over
the years, and now is a great chance for an
update and to see what activity is going on there today.
So that is coming up after the break. I am
(18:11):
now joined by the lovely Autumn Resh, who is the
curator for the May Stringer House. And if you watched
the episode of my TV show Kindred Spirits that we
filmed there, you are familiar with Autumn. So thank you
for joining me. It's so nice to hear your voice.
Thank you for having me my pleasure. You know, it's
funny I would say that there are certain people that
(18:33):
have been featured on Kindred Spirits, so we get asked
about a lot, and you are one of them because
you were very emotional during the investigation. Definitely very scared
to be there, which is hard to do when you're
at work, so everyone wants to know, how are you, Autumn.
I am doing really well. Probably one of the more
well known haunts there is that there is a gentleman
(18:55):
in the attic who is definitely grumpy, and it's seems
like he might be associated with a trunk that is there,
and I think our ultimate plan was to kind of
infuse the trunk with more positive things, so people would
write positive letters and happy things and put them in
(19:16):
the trunk. Do you think that's kind of alleviated it
at all? I think so they do it every so often.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
They'll come and they'll leave a note. He I believe
likes the attention. So I think he's much more much
less aggressive. Can we say, yeah, that's good?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah he was. I investigated up there and he was
very touchy. There was a lot of like pinching, you know.
I was doing the Esta's method with the blindfold, and
I remember Adam getting all like defensive, like he was
going to beat up this ghost fors for pinching us.
But now is that just kind of going back. I
(19:58):
actually learned a lot going through the history for this podcast.
Like I learned a lot about the history of the
house when we did the investigation, but I learned just
some other additional things, just like how heavily investigated the
house is I didn't realize that like eighty plus groups
have been in there investigating, which I think is super impressive.
How do you think that's affected the activity there?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That's actually a great question. I have noticed that the
activity ramps up when we have a lot of people
at the house. We call him Dary, the one in
the attic that's associated with the trunk Gary. He gets
he gets a little show Offrey if a lot of
people are there, he believes if not a dog and
pony show. So sometimes sometimes he won't, but most of
(20:42):
the time he will.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I think that.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Multiple groups investigating the house for as long as they
have been kind of intrigues our residents, so they'll they'll
come out and kind of interact, if you will. So
I think it really supports spiritual environment with all of
the investigation.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Right, And I feel like you guys are really good
about making sure people are super respectful as well as
they investigate, which I think kind of lends to.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
The vibe there overall. Oh, absolutely absolutely, And we remember
that it's a museum first and foremost, so everybody who
comes in is really expected to maintain certain standards. They
have to be respectful to the spirits and they also
have to be respectful to the artifacts.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Absolutely, and there are a lot of artifacts, something like
eleven thousand if I remember. Yes, Yes, we have a
lot of artifacts. So one of the neat things when
we're investigating is sometimes we're in these locations that are
just filled with really cool things, and it's very easy
to get distracted in the main streamer house because everywhere
you go there's something else really cool that you want
(21:48):
to look at and you want to tinker with.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But I also thought it kind of made it hard
to investigate because you're like, any one of these items
could be associated with a haunting. Do you think there's
any anything else in the house besides the trunk that
seems to be that seems to have any energy attached
to it?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Oh? Absolutely absolutely. We have a handful of named spirits
and we occasionally get we call them the transient spirits
that come in and out, and we also get new
artifacts all the time, and with those artifacts, activity will
ramp up. So our theory is that sometimes these artifacts
have attachments. The tank is a great example of that.
(22:28):
So we didn't have the issues when the issues in
the attic rather prior to having the trunk, and then
once we got the trunk, we really really had some
ramped up activity.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, and that was the way that kind of we
wanted to make sure it was actually the trunk, and
we actually dragged the trunk down stairs to see if
the activity followed it, and it did. And we've used
that quite a few times since, Like, it's seems so
obvious and I don't know why we didn't think of
it before, to just if you want to see if
(23:01):
an object has some sort of haunting attached to it,
just move it somewhere else and see if that same
activity happens, which it did. They started When people come visit,
even during the day, what kind of activity do they encounter?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Most often, well, we do history tours during the day
and sometimes had some unanticipated bonuses. Should we say, some
people are more receptive to it, some people don't want
anything to do with it, Various things from footsteps to
knocking to people being touched. More recently, we have had
a phantom smell that seems to migrate all over the house.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
It smells like a dead critter.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So yeah, so we had assumed that perhaps maybe a
squirrel had gotten into some part of the house and
passed away. However, it has been months and it is
moving around the house. So we really don't have an explanation.
But the day, the day shift, and a lot of
our daytime yests do get to experience that phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That's unpleasant. Yes, Now, speaking of unpleasant phenomena, you sent
me an EVP that you captured recently. Now I listened
to it and I hear the word bitch. Is someone
calling you a bitch? That?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yes, we're not sure who it is.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Some think it might be.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
The gentleman associated with the trunk. Others things it might
be one of our other spirits.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But yes, I was in the house moving.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Some artifacts for a plaster job that we were having done,
and I heard the door of the bathroom jiggling. I
was the only person in the house, and for some
reason I got brave and I went to film it,
and at the time I did not hear anything.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
So the door stopped jiggling.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Everything stopped and I went back to my work. Well
that evening, I just happened to watch the video and
I had my headphones on and I heard it day
and I couldn't hear it a person, but he was
very prominent afterwards.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, I heard it, and so I'll go ahead and
play that for everyone.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
It's interesting that, Yeah, you were alone in the house,
he said, yep, okay, And so I'm very proud of
you for being alone in the house. You know that
was hard for you for a long time. Yeah, uh uh.
And so that's and you were you actually were experiencing phenomenon.
So then you picked up and started recording, which I
tell people to do this a lot, because sometimes you
will capture a voice. And like, you didn't hear this
(25:36):
at the time. So that's super interesting. And now, how
do you feel like now that when you heard that,
were you okay going back to the house after that?
Or you know, this seems like kind of could be
a new spirit of some sort because the other guy's
up in the attic and this is like broad daylight. Yes,
I don't know where you were, yeah, but downstairs.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And the doctor's office.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
So afterwards, after I heard it, I was a little sketchy.
I didn't want to go in by myself, so I
did have co workers and my husband and you know,
various friends. They usually come and set with me while
I'm doing my work. We're we're not sure if this
entity is affiliated with a shadow person that we've been
(26:26):
saying frequently downstairs, so we're kind of just keeping our
eyes opening. But I don't, you know, I'm not in
any danger. I don't feel like I would be in
any danger. It's just more or less like somebody's watching
me and it's a little freaky, So I just want
somebody with me.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, no, that makes sense. So the shadow figure, how
often are you experiencing this? Now?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I have seen him personally twice, and other people other
dozents have also seen him around, and he's usually in
the evening time. When I saw him, he was after
aboard me and I had walked to the front door
to make sure it was locked, and I had my
cell phone light because we had already shut everything down.
And when I got to the foyer, I shined my
(27:08):
light towards the door and he was standing between myself
and the door, and immediate immediate shock, and of course
I turn around and go straight back to the gift shop.
And I got one of my co workers and we
both returned to the front door, and now he was
on the stairs. He was not standing between us anymore,
so he had moved.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Yes, and we both left. And it's very unusual that
this particular coworker that I was with gets unnerved like that.
But the minute she saw him and I saw him
at the same time, she said, let's get out of here.
And as we were heading back to the door, she
did turn around and said that he was standing in
front of the stairs at that point, so he was moving.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
That is very creepy, yes, to say the least, you know,
and it's not often that you, you know, someone sees
his shadow and goes to get someone else and says,
this is what I saw, and then you both see
it again, you know, many times it's kind of like
it's gone at that point. Yeah, but not only did
(28:12):
you both see it at the same time, but he
definitely was trying to make himself known, Like as you
were leaving, he was coming down the stairs. So I
what was the energy like in the room at that time?
I obviously you feel kind of scared, like somebody's watching you.
What was the vibe overall?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Very heavy? He's when he's around, We find that it's
it's a little more heavy than usual. I have not
seen him upstairs, he's usually downstairs, but definitely a heavy
vibe to him.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
That kind of activity almost seems like he really wants
you to know that he's there for some reason.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Now, I was reading, and I don't remember if we
encountered this there or if we talked about it while
you were there. I was reading that sometimes people experience
a little girl in the house has Is that something
you're familiar with?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yes, yeah, I have heard several guests tell me about
the little girl.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
We think it could be Jesse May.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
She was an infant at the time she passed, and
she would have passed in the late eighteen hundreds from.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
An unknown cause.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
That being said, there are several children in the house,
so it's hard to tell when the little girl is
speaking or if one of the other girls are speaking.
There's also a little boy so and he sounds very
much like a little girl when he is audible when
you hear him. So the only time I have encountered
one of the little ones was again in the doctor's
office and I heard him laugh, and I thought it
(29:35):
was potentially a guest who had, you know, come in
the back door. But there was nobody besides myself and
my coworker who was another touring docent, and she also
heard it. So we looked around. We didn't find anything
out of place, but it was it was very clear
like he was standing probably a couple of feet away,
he or she. I wasn't sure if we could if
(29:57):
it was a little boy or little girl.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, yeah, I know, kids kind of tend to sound
the same at that age, and it's hard to discern.
You know, if you're talking to now, what would you say,
is are the hot spots in the house like obviously
the attic, but it sounds like the doctor's office is well.
Are there certain areas that seem to have more activity?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Absolutely, there is the second floor landing that is by far,
I'd have to say the second most active area in
the house, attic being the first. Jesse Maine's room is
right there, so we have a lot of activity there
in jesse May's room and next door in the communications room.
There are several different entities in some of the jocents
(30:39):
who have been there a longer time than me can
kind of shoell them apart when they make themselves known.
I'm only able to do it with a couple of them,
you know, of course, the spirit with the chunk Gary
and I can tell if there is another one James,
I can tell if he's there. But that's a very
active area. The doctor's office has actually been more active
as of late, and were not sure why. And it
(31:01):
was right after the time when I was called a rich.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Oh okay, did you guys get any new artifacts in there? Surprisingly? No,
because I was thinking he was maybe a tribute.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
To an artifact. But we did not have any new
artifacts in the doctor's office at that time. We did
get a victrolla, okay victrolla around that time, but that
was I did place that in the parlor, so he
could possibly be associated with that, or it could just
be one of the grumpy ones upstairs that's coming down,
but we're not one hundred percent sure.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Now, is this the same victrola that you had before,
or did you get another one in addition to that?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It was it's another one in addition to that one.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Oh okay, I do remember that that caused activity when
we played that, that definitely changed the kind of feeling
of the house overall. There was something about that first
Victrola that just really triggered something. I think that just
goes for music overall, and a lot of investment stigations.
But we, uh, I think we were allowed to touch it. Yeah,
(32:06):
of course, I'm like, wait a minute, did we were
we not supposed to mess with that? You're just fine?
Uh Yeah. So that definitely did kind of spike some activity.
I mean, that was one of those cases like if
people watch it on TV, that's great, but I don't
know that they we were able to kind of convey
(32:27):
just how much happened in forty three minutes on television.
That's one of the harder parts of being like doing
a televised investigation is you can't really get into it.
Like one of the most shocking moments for me was
when we arrived. You had a lot of trouble with
this attic entity you personally, and you were utterly terrified,
and we were going up the second floor to talk
(32:52):
about it, and I think we were trying to avoid
going in, but as soon as we got up there,
you were like visibly like nope, nope, I can feel him.
I can feel him, and like you knew he was there,
and we were like, how is this possible? And we
looked and someone like the crew or someone had left
the attic door open and you didn't know that, you
(33:14):
just felt him, which to me is one of the
most kind of wild moments that I've had during an
investigation that you were so in tune to this presence
you knew he was not in the attic at that point.
And so does do you think he moves around? Like
It's funny because when we close the door, he would,
but if you leave the door open, I felt like
(33:35):
he was kind of brave. Does he move around the house?
He does?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
He does move around the house. There is something additional
up there. We're not exactly sure who he is, so
it's hard to tell when either one of them came
down which one it is. But yes, we do believe
that he does move around the house. And when he
does come down, he gets very close and I could
feel him because he almost.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
He touches me.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
He's very touchy, very touchy feely.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah, I think he enjoys that a little bit. And
you know, and I is it's hard because you know
That's one of those things people ask, like, how do
you make someone like that move on? And how do
you make them leave? And uh, I wish, yeah, I
wish it was as simple as waving some sage and
(34:22):
being like be gone. You know, Yeah, it doesn't work
that way. You just kind of have to stand your
ground and try to kind of counteract them with different energy,
which it sounds like you guys are. But so do
you think that was who that shadow was that you
saw that night?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
You know, I don't think so. And the only reason
being is I have never seen Gary. I've never seen
him with my eyes. This one was very, very, very prominent.
So he made me weaken the knees. That's how much
you've garried me, right, I did not get the Gary feeling.
Gary's almost I don't say that he's mischievous.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I don't think he's evil. I think he I think
him scaring me like.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
He is entertained with that, right, And that's we're growing together,
him and I because he knows now at this point
that you know, he can be softy and I won't
get one hundred percent scared. But yeah, this shadow entity
that was down there, he he definitely scared me to
the point of knowing that I think it would be
a little step further than what Gary would.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Do, right, I mean, there's just something to be said
for the unknown in general. Like if you even saw
just a stranger, a live person, that would probably be scarier.
But like any like stranger standing there staring you down
in a dark foyer, Like, that's a scary moment, absolutely
you know, a shadow figure or not?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (35:49):
So, Now what about other just kind of things that
go on. I read a lot about lights going on
and off and doors opening and closing, Like are these
things you guys just deal with on the daily?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Oh? Yeah, yes. Sometimes we come in to open up
and we will find that artifacts have been moved. We
have an extensive alarm system, so it gets triggered from
the inside all the time. Oh and there's nobody inside,
so we will find. A big one is jesse May's ball.
We have a plastic ball that lives under her bed
(36:21):
and we use it for people who come to investigate
so they can bring it out. Sometimes we'll find that
out in the room. Sometimes we'll find the shoes that
are in the master's bedroom. They'll be moved to the
middle of the room or move to a different area.
So they're very they're very prominent there. They know that
they are the residents and it is their house, and
(36:43):
they pretty much do what they want. But yes, we'll
find lights on all the time, doors shut that weren't
shut before, things like that almost daily.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
And now do you think that so I know that
the house kind of sat vacant for a while, and
do you think that coming in and kind of renovating
it and bringing all these things in, do you think
that that made them happy? Or I mean, I don't
know if you could even answer that question, but do
you think that that was kind of for the good
of them? Do you think they enjoy that? Yeah, if
(37:14):
I had to.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Speculate, I would think that there are a good amount
of them that enjoyed that, because there are a handful
that seemed to enjoy just having people in the house.
I think the children are probably a big one on that.
They really seem to enjoy having a few of our
investigators in their one in particular, her name is Brooke.
But yeah, I feel like some of them it was
(37:37):
for the better for them, and some of them are
just grumpy altogether.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, I mean there's also a lot of speculation about
kind of unmarked graves on the property. Have you been
able to kind of narrow down where those could be
or have you guys tried to find them in any way,
we have tried to find them.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
At the time that they would have been buried, it
would have been one hundred and sixty acre parcel. So
there's a very good chance that those graves, it would
have been the little family plot for the May family.
There's a very good chance that those graves are under
the street or under a local business, but we have
not been able to locate them yet.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, that's a tough one, you know. It's I live
in a very old house, a three hundred year old house,
and there's a graveyard, a little cemetery family plot like
kind of up in the front yard. And I imagine
that if this place had not been saved by a
local nonprofit, that entire family would probably be under someone's
(38:40):
house at this point.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Yeah, it's hard to imagine, but you know, that's just
how they did things. Then there's I mean, especially where
we where you are is very historic. Where I am
in New England's very historic, and it's so I grew
up in California, where this didn't really happen. I mean,
obviously we had some like gold Rush era graves here
and there, but like the fact that there were so
many family plots back then, it didn't really occur to
(39:05):
me how common that was until I started coming to
New England and going to the South a lot. Oh yes, definitely.
Now have you has anyone ever just kind of had
enough of the house and had to leave other than you,
which you are destly a success story. That's why I
love that you're like comfortable in the space because I
(39:28):
felt so bad for you when I first met you.
And I've met a few people like that where I'm like,
oh my gosh, this is I need them to be
able to go to work or be in their house
and not be afraid. So yeah, but anyway, has anyone
kind of just had had to leave, had enough, never
coming back.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
We have not had jocents per se that will do that.
But I have had two separate touring groups who who
did leave.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
They didn't finish the tour.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
One of them was present with me in the attic
when my picked up, and I couldn't feel it because
it was an a bonytail that freaked them out to
the point where they did not finish the tour.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
And then a second guest.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
It was just her and I, and she was very
gung ho about hearing the spirits, and it was a
history tour, so I was like, hey, listen, sister, let's
not just it's just you and me, so let's yeah,
let's not call THEEF guys up. But we were up
on the step and floor landing and she was a
little disappointed that she had not had an experience. And
as she was telling me this, we heard a whistle
(40:31):
plan as day, right behind her. Both of us jumped
and she took off towards the stairs. So of course
I went behind her because we don't want to fall
down those old stairs. No, and she did end up
leaving that day as well.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I always wonder why they choose to whistle, like I
have encountered many a whistling ghost, and I, first of all,
I can barely understand how they can make voice like
a disembodied voice. How that can happen. Whistle is especially
kind of uh. It makes no sense to me how
(41:04):
they do it, but they do, and so that's that's interesting. Yeah,
I think sometimes say people that you know, be careful
what you wish for, ye know exactly. She's just kind
of the perfect example of that. So well, I mean,
as always, I'm sorry I slag my Dower as always. Uh,
(41:25):
I mean, you guys have just a ton of activity.
It's it's kind of out of the way Brooksville, Florida.
You know, it's not a place that I think a
lot of people were familiar with until they saw this house,
this gorgeous home with all this crazy history. So if
people do want to visit, like, what do they have
to do?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Well, there are no reservations needed during the day for
the history tour right now. For the ghost tour, we're
booked out well into next year, so that takes a
little bit. But just come on down during our open
hours and we will give you a tour. The day
tour is totally totally guided by one of our docents,
and it's a really good time.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to see. I really
enjoyed my time there, and you guys are all lovely.
I love the care that you all have for that
house and how well you kind of look over your
ghosts and your artifacts and make sure the history is
told so well done. Thank you so much. We just
love it. Well. Thank you for chatting, and hopefully I
(42:25):
will come visit you guys again soon. It's definitely on
the list of one of my places I want to
return to sooner rather than later. So a film, yeah,
just let me know. On there all the time, all right,
Thank you so much, Autumn. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Oh, you are welcome.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
The main Stringer House is such a complicated haunting, one
that has to be handled delicately and with utmost respect.
It's strange to look at a beautiful mansion and think
about all the darkness it has seen. Everything that happened
inside its walls wonderful and terrible. But how fortunate are we,
(43:04):
as lovers of history and those with the longing to
never repeat it that those walls quite literally talk. I
suppose it's up to us to listen and learn. I
Amy Bruney and this was Haunted Road.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Haunted Road is hosted and written by me Amy Bruney,
with additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassandra de Alba.
This show is edited and produced by rema El Kali,
with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke,
Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Haunted Road is a production
(43:46):
of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Learn
more about this show over at Grimandmild dot com, and
for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Listener Discretion is advised. Florida's most haunted home has seen
more than its fair share of tragedies. Inside the walls
of the May Stringer House have been sickness and suffering,
untimely deaths of spouses, the enslavement of more than fifty people,
and the tragic loss of children who died so young
(00:28):
they barely even knew their parents. Some say the spirit
of a little girl wanders the house to this day,
looking for the mother who died bringing her into the world.
But Brooksville, Florida, has seen more tragic events than just
at the May Stringer House. The city was founded largely
by slaveholders, who established plantations there on land taken from
(00:49):
the Native Seminole tribe under the Indian Removal Act. After
the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the county
that Brooksville is a part of became known for its
klu Klux Klan activity. A minister was killed by white
supremacists for marrying an interracial couple, and the couple was
run out of town after a woman testified against local
(01:09):
men for the crimes. The courthouse was burned down. Today,
the Queen Anne's style May Stringer House is a museum
of the city and its residents, both the good people
who lived happy lives there and those whose legacies are
darkened with contemptible actions in the city block the house occupies.
Its walls hold about eleven thousand artifacts representing local history,
(01:32):
and those artifacts have stories to tell. Some it's even believed,
have menacing spirits attached to them. One people say curses
those with whom it comes in contact. I'm Amy Bruney,
and this is haunted road. Before the pandemic, Brooksville, about
(01:59):
forty five miles north of Tampa, was home to Florida's
the largest Civil War reenactment for more than forty years.
Fifteen hundred reenactors and their families traveled to the city
to recreate the Brooksville Raid, when Union forces arrived in
Brooksville to disrupt Confederate supply and communication lines. The city
of nine thousand has strong Civil War ties. While white
(02:22):
people began settling the area in the eighteen forties, building
homes and establishing plantations with slave labor, Brooksville wasn't established
officially until eighteen fifty six, in years marked by extreme
tension over ownership of enslaved people leading up to the war.
The city is named after Senator Preston Brooks, who was
(02:42):
infamous for beating Charles Sumner with a cane on the
Senate floor after the latter gave an anti slavery speech.
According to Tampa Bay History, in the post Civil War years,
Hernando County, which includes Brooksville, was known as a hotbed
of clan activity. Richard Wiggins settled in the land where
the Mainstreamer House now sits in eighteen forty two. He
(03:05):
settled there under the Armed Occupation Act, which stated that
any settler who came to Florida, lived on the land
for five years, cultivated five acres, and built a dwelling
would be granted one hundred sixty acres. The aim of
the act was to populate Florida with men who could,
if necessary, take up arms against the Seminole people who
(03:26):
lived there. From eighteen thirty five to eighteen forty two,
the Second Seminole War raged throughout the area, while President
Andrew Jackson was demanding all the Native peoples leave Florida
and relocate to Indian Territory. The Seminoles, having already lost
much of their land in Florida, fought for what they
had left. In eighteen fifty five, John May built a
(03:49):
home on the land. The two story, four room wood
frame house had a parlor and dining room on the
first floor and two bedrooms on the second floor, connected
by an outside staircase. It's believed May constructed the home
in an unusual way to avoid taxes. A two story
house was taxed more heavily than a one story home
with a loft, which is what the house technically was,
(04:10):
because the staircase was on the home's exterior. May lived
on the family plantation with his wife, Marina, and daughters
Matilda and Anne. According to the city, they're considered one
of the four pioneer families of Brooksville. John May was
the second largest slave owner in the Brooksville area. According
to eighteen sixty tax records, there were fifty six enslaved
(04:31):
people on that plantation that year. After the Emancipation Proclamation,
many of the people enslaved by the family continued to
work on the property as paid laborers. John L. May
died of tuberculosis in the house in eighteen fifty eight,
and his funeral took place in the parlor of the home.
Marina May, then only twenty five, remained in the home
(04:53):
with daughters Matilda and Anne, running the plantation by herself.
Marina eventually remarried on Christmas Day of eighteen sixty six
to Frank Saxon. They married in the parlor, the same
room John May's funeral had been held eight years earlier.
Saxon is described by the Hernando Historic Museum Association as
(05:17):
a Confederate hero who fought in the Confederate Army's Florida
Third Regiment, in a unit called the Hernando Wildcats. He
was the first soldier wounded in the Battle of Honeymoon
near Jacksonville. Altogether, he was wounded five times during the
war and captured twice. According to saxon manners history, his
(05:37):
major wound was received in the Battle of Terryville, where
he was left for dead but recovered in a Union hospital.
At the war's surrender, he secretly carried his unit's battle
flag back to Brooksville, walking the seven hundred eighty seven
miles from the hospital to Brooksville. He later donated the
flag to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia,
(05:58):
where it is conserved and on displace. Frank and Marina's
infant son, Franklin Schmid Saxon, died at the age of
five weeks in eighteen sixty seven. Two years later, Marina
died shortly after giving birth to a daughter named jesse May.
The cause was given as child bed fever, a post
birth infection. The Saxon family wasn't done with its string
(06:20):
of terrible losses. Jesse May died at only three years old,
in the same room where her mother and her brother
had passed away. In eighteen seventy seven, Frank was implicated,
although never charged, in the murder of a local reverend,
a man who was formerly enslaved by the May family.
Reverend Arthur Saint Clair, rose to local prominence in his freedom.
(06:42):
According to the Tampa Bay Times, he was a Baptist minister,
community activist, and three time Republican candidate for the state legislature.
He also served as a voter registrar, deputy sheriff, county commissioner,
captain in the state militia, and delegate to the eighteen
seventy six Republican State Conveyed on May sixth, eighteen seventy seven,
(07:03):
Saint Clair officiated a marriage between an interracial couple, David James,
who was black, and Lizzie Day, who was white. The
next day, The Tampa Bay Times reported a group of
white men that included Frank Saxon and the county judge
went to the home of the couple to warn them
of impending danger. Believing the visitors intended to harm the couple,
(07:25):
neighbors opened fire. As a result, James was wounded and
neighbor Coles Feaster was killed. Three of the four white
men were wounded. The social climate of the day has
been characterized by the newspaper as lawless because of actions
like city Judge William Center reinforcing the message of what
was almost certainly not intended as a harmless visit when
(07:48):
he returned to the couple the next day, telling them
that the visit of the previous evening had been strictly
out of concern for their safety. Center also told them
that they would be safe until James's wounds healed and
they could leave town. They moved to Tampa about six
weeks later. On June twenty sixth, eighteen seventy seven, Reverend
Saint Clair and several others were returning from a political
(08:11):
meeting when they were surrounded by a group of twenty men,
which included Saxon. The men shot and killed Saint Clair
along with another man a woman who was traveling with them.
Mary Turner, afraid for her safety, initially told an inquest
that she could not identify any of the twenty men
who accosted them. However, she later recanted this testimony, stating
(08:34):
that she had feared for her life at the inquest
because many of those on the jury had been perpetrators
of the crime. At that time, she did identify many
of the men at the murder and testified that George
Cross was the shooter. Among the men she named was
Frank Saxon. As The Tampa Bay Times wrote, a resolution
passed later at a meeting in Brooksville chiding the editors
(08:57):
of the Sunland Tribune and the Ocala Banner for p
hnting the false statements of Mary Turner. The Tampa Guardian,
edited by James T. Magbie, had refused to publish the resolution,
claiming that it was full of damn lies. Many of
the signers of the resolution were either related to or
business partners of those thought to be implicated in the shooting.
(09:18):
Early in the morning of September twenty ninth, eighteen seventy seven,
the courthouse, containing Mary Turner's sworn statements and other documents
relating to the trial, burned down. One contemporary newspaper reported
that the walls of the building had been doused in kerosene,
as The Hernando Sun reported, there were at least ten
Florida courthouse fires around the time of the Hernando Courthouse fire,
(09:42):
most of these fires directly attributable to arson. Because of
the fire, no one was ever indicted for the murder
of Arthur Saint Clair. This fire, which incinerated most of
the county records, also destroyed many records related to the
May Stringer House, including any record of why Jesse May
(10:03):
Saxon died. Saxon sold the house, and in eighteen eighty
five it was purchased by doctor Sheldon Stringer Senior. He
turned the home into the Grand manner it is today,
adding ten rooms across four stories and a tower and
wrap around porch. The house is gray with white trim
and green and white accents on gingerbread trim. An example
(10:26):
of late eighteen hundred s painted lady Victorian architecture. Stringer
was a fan of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel House of the
Seven Gables, adding four more to the home to give
it a total of seven. The doctor lived in the
home and also used it for his medical practice. During
this time. Some say that it functioned as something of
(10:47):
a sanatorium to patients suffering yellow fever and smallpox, although
this claim appears to be unsubstantiated by the historical records.
Doctor Stringer died in April nineteen o three at age
six after an unidentified illness. His son, doctor Sheldon Stringer, Junior,
took over and ran the practice for several years. Frank
(11:08):
Saxon died in February nineteen twenty two at the age
of eighty one. Saxon isn't buried on the property of
the May Stringer House, but many other members of the
May and Saxon families are, including John el May, Marina
Jesse May, and an infant son of John and Marina.
There are also an unknown number of enslaved people buried
(11:30):
on the property. In nineteen fifty, doctor Stringer's granddaughter Betty,
sold the home and it became a rental property that,
as David Lapam wrote in Ghost Hunting Florida, then was
abandoned and suffered heavy damage from vagrants. The house became
a museum in the early nineteen eighties. After it was condemned,
(11:51):
the community raised money to restore it. The May Stringer
House was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in nineteen ninety seven. The first of the home has
doctor Stringer's office, as well as the parlor, dining room,
and kitchen. A post mortem photograph of Jesse May Saxon
hangs on the wall in the parlor, the only known
(12:11):
photograph of the child, showing her in a crib surrounded
by a floral wreath. On the second floor, there are
bedrooms on either side of a central hallway and another
wraparound porch. The museum also has an attic, which is
currently used as storage for items not on display in
the museum. According to the Hernando Historic Museum Association, the
(12:34):
museum comprises exhibit rooms with a Victorian look, with rooms
devoted to specific themes such as elegant dining room, Victorian bedrooms,
military room, an eighteen eighties doctor's office, and a nineteen
hundreds communication room which features some of Florida's earliest telephones.
A lot of decommunication people report experiencing, though is from
(12:57):
spirits of the departed. Diev Obbay Times says the May
Stringer House is said to be floored as most haunted home.
Over eighty ghost hunting groups have investigated the house over
the years. One museum Dosn't Bonnie Litorno describes the house
as being like grand central station for ghosts. Footsteps, cold spots,
(13:21):
and voices, including children's laughter, have been reported throughout the house.
People say they've seen a mysterious black mist at the home,
and shadows have been said to move. Some say they
smell the scent of phantom food in the dining room
after the house is locked up for the night. Staffs
say they've seen lights go back on inside. Others have
(13:43):
seen what they describe as glowing orbs of light in
the home. According to reports, there are at least eleven
separate spirits who have been reported at the May Stringer House.
Some say they've experienced the ghosts of Marina May Saxon.
Others believe they've heard Jesse May crying for her long
lost mother. As Greg Jenkins wrote in Florida's ghostly legends
(14:06):
and haunted folklore. Although she never knew her mother, jesse
May was said to have missed her so terribly that
she would wake up in the middle of the night
and walk around the house crying out for her. Some
believe that when she got sick, she willed herself to
die in order to find her lost mom. Many people
have reported a disembodied voice saying Mama, Mama. Jesse May
(14:29):
is said to be protective of her toys and dolls.
People say that if they've been moved by the Docins,
her toys will show up in odd places, especially a
baby doll in a crib, possibly jesse May or the
ghost of another little girl. Has been known to rearrange teacups.
One year, Docins were setting up for a Mother's Day
celebration and set out several teacups. When they returned to
(14:51):
the house the following day, another tea cup had been
added to the table. As TC. Cottrell described in Ghostly Encounters,
This is happened for several days before it was discovered
that the cups were being moved from the china cabinet
by unexplained hands each night. Some believe Jesse wanted to
add extra tea cups so perhaps her own mother would
(15:12):
have a place at the table. Another spirit, known as
mister Nasty, for his angry demeanor and bad behavior, is
said to curse visitors. He sometimes said to have been
a patient of doctor Stringer's who suffered a gunshot wound,
but some claim he hung himself in the attic of
the house after his wife was unfaithful. Mister Nasty is
(15:33):
most commonly reported in the attic and is said to
be especially hostile to women who enter the house. Women
report being touched and hit by him. Others say that
his spirit is attached to an old actor's trunk that
was donated to the museum and is located in the attic.
Another spirit, described as playful and protective, a World War
(15:54):
One soldier named James, is said to haunt the property.
Some say James was a guest at the hall at
some point in the past. He's most often encountered in
the bedroom above the doctor's office, where it's said that
he was staying. One woman who lived in that bedroom
when the main Stringer house was a rental property, is
said that she and her sister awoke one night and
(16:14):
saw a soldier in a World War One uniform standing
at the foot of their bed. James is believed to
have been distraught over his love marrying another man, and
because of this he gravitates towards younger women, sometimes even
pinching their behinds. It is said that a World War
Two soldier ghost is also present in the house. He
(16:35):
is believed to have been killed in action and is
looking for his dog, who survived. This man doesn't have
any particular connection to the house itself, but some of
his belongings are in the museum today, including his diary
of his time in the Canine Corps. A Confederate soldier
has also been seen sitting in the old wooden wheelchair
in the restored doctor's office. The ghosts of several of
(16:57):
doctor Stringer's patients, believed to have died of smallpox and
yellow fever, are also said to be present in the house.
Another man is rumored to linger at the house, having
been shot and died on the porch before he could
reach the doctor. According to ghost encounters. Some say that
this was a drive by shooting that was committed on horseback,
and some say they have seen doctor Stringer himself in
(17:20):
the home who appears on the front stairs of the
house wearing a black coat. As ghost Hunting Florida describes,
he doesn't do anything, just stands right below the landing
like he was shocked seeing a badly injured patient down
in the waiting room. Now, if you watch the episode
of Kindred Spirits filmed the May Stringer House, you're very
familiar with our upcoming guest, Autumn Rush. She was visibly
(17:42):
emotional due to the paranormal activities she's encountered there over
the years, and now is a great chance for an
update and to see what activity is going on there today.
So that is coming up after the break. I am
(18:11):
now joined by the lovely Autumn Resh, who is the
curator for the May Stringer House. And if you watched
the episode of my TV show Kindred Spirits that we
filmed there, you are familiar with Autumn. So thank you
for joining me. It's so nice to hear your voice.
Thank you for having me my pleasure. You know, it's
funny I would say that there are certain people that
(18:33):
have been featured on Kindred Spirits, so we get asked
about a lot, and you are one of them because
you were very emotional during the investigation. Definitely very scared
to be there, which is hard to do when you're
at work, so everyone wants to know, how are you, Autumn.
I am doing really well. Probably one of the more
well known haunts there is that there is a gentleman
(18:55):
in the attic who is definitely grumpy, and it's seems
like he might be associated with a trunk that is there,
and I think our ultimate plan was to kind of
infuse the trunk with more positive things, so people would
write positive letters and happy things and put them in
(19:16):
the trunk. Do you think that's kind of alleviated it
at all? I think so they do it every so often.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
They'll come and they'll leave a note. He I believe
likes the attention. So I think he's much more much
less aggressive. Can we say, yeah, that's good?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah he was. I investigated up there and he was
very touchy. There was a lot of like pinching, you know.
I was doing the Esta's method with the blindfold, and
I remember Adam getting all like defensive, like he was
going to beat up this ghost fors for pinching us.
But now is that just kind of going back. I
(19:58):
actually learned a lot going through the history for this podcast.
Like I learned a lot about the history of the
house when we did the investigation, but I learned just
some other additional things, just like how heavily investigated the
house is I didn't realize that like eighty plus groups
have been in there investigating, which I think is super impressive.
How do you think that's affected the activity there?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That's actually a great question. I have noticed that the
activity ramps up when we have a lot of people
at the house. We call him Dary, the one in
the attic that's associated with the trunk Gary. He gets
he gets a little show Offrey if a lot of
people are there, he believes if not a dog and
pony show. So sometimes sometimes he won't, but most of
(20:42):
the time he will.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I think that.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Multiple groups investigating the house for as long as they
have been kind of intrigues our residents, so they'll they'll
come out and kind of interact, if you will. So
I think it really supports spiritual environment with all of
the investigation.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Right, And I feel like you guys are really good
about making sure people are super respectful as well as
they investigate, which I think kind of lends to.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
The vibe there overall. Oh, absolutely absolutely, And we remember
that it's a museum first and foremost, so everybody who
comes in is really expected to maintain certain standards. They
have to be respectful to the spirits and they also
have to be respectful to the artifacts.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Absolutely, and there are a lot of artifacts, something like
eleven thousand if I remember. Yes, Yes, we have a
lot of artifacts. So one of the neat things when
we're investigating is sometimes we're in these locations that are
just filled with really cool things, and it's very easy
to get distracted in the main streamer house because everywhere
you go there's something else really cool that you want
(21:48):
to look at and you want to tinker with.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But I also thought it kind of made it hard
to investigate because you're like, any one of these items
could be associated with a haunting. Do you think there's
any anything else in the house besides the trunk that
seems to be that seems to have any energy attached
to it?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Oh? Absolutely absolutely. We have a handful of named spirits
and we occasionally get we call them the transient spirits
that come in and out, and we also get new
artifacts all the time, and with those artifacts, activity will
ramp up. So our theory is that sometimes these artifacts
have attachments. The tank is a great example of that.
(22:28):
So we didn't have the issues when the issues in
the attic rather prior to having the trunk, and then
once we got the trunk, we really really had some
ramped up activity.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, and that was the way that kind of we
wanted to make sure it was actually the trunk, and
we actually dragged the trunk down stairs to see if
the activity followed it, and it did. And we've used
that quite a few times since, Like, it's seems so
obvious and I don't know why we didn't think of
it before, to just if you want to see if
(23:01):
an object has some sort of haunting attached to it,
just move it somewhere else and see if that same
activity happens, which it did. They started When people come visit,
even during the day, what kind of activity do they encounter?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Most often, well, we do history tours during the day
and sometimes had some unanticipated bonuses. Should we say, some
people are more receptive to it, some people don't want
anything to do with it, Various things from footsteps to
knocking to people being touched. More recently, we have had
a phantom smell that seems to migrate all over the house.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
It smells like a dead critter.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So yeah, so we had assumed that perhaps maybe a
squirrel had gotten into some part of the house and
passed away. However, it has been months and it is
moving around the house. So we really don't have an explanation.
But the day, the day shift, and a lot of
our daytime yests do get to experience that phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That's unpleasant. Yes, Now, speaking of unpleasant phenomena, you sent
me an EVP that you captured recently. Now I listened
to it and I hear the word bitch. Is someone
calling you a bitch? That?
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yes, we're not sure who it is.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Some think it might be.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
The gentleman associated with the trunk. Others things it might
be one of our other spirits.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
But yes, I was in the house moving.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Some artifacts for a plaster job that we were having done,
and I heard the door of the bathroom jiggling. I
was the only person in the house, and for some
reason I got brave and I went to film it,
and at the time I did not hear anything.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
So the door stopped jiggling.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Everything stopped and I went back to my work. Well
that evening, I just happened to watch the video and
I had my headphones on and I heard it day
and I couldn't hear it a person, but he was
very prominent afterwards.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, I heard it, and so I'll go ahead and
play that for everyone.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
It's interesting that, Yeah, you were alone in the house,
he said, yep, okay, And so I'm very proud of
you for being alone in the house. You know that
was hard for you for a long time. Yeah, uh uh.
And so that's and you were you actually were experiencing phenomenon.
So then you picked up and started recording, which I
tell people to do this a lot, because sometimes you
will capture a voice. And like, you didn't hear this
(25:36):
at the time. So that's super interesting. And now, how
do you feel like now that when you heard that,
were you okay going back to the house after that?
Or you know, this seems like kind of could be
a new spirit of some sort because the other guy's
up in the attic and this is like broad daylight. Yes,
I don't know where you were, yeah, but downstairs.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And the doctor's office.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
So afterwards, after I heard it, I was a little sketchy.
I didn't want to go in by myself, so I
did have co workers and my husband and you know,
various friends. They usually come and set with me while
I'm doing my work. We're we're not sure if this
entity is affiliated with a shadow person that we've been
(26:26):
saying frequently downstairs, so we're kind of just keeping our
eyes opening. But I don't, you know, I'm not in
any danger. I don't feel like I would be in
any danger. It's just more or less like somebody's watching
me and it's a little freaky, So I just want
somebody with me.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, no, that makes sense. So the shadow figure, how
often are you experiencing this? Now?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I have seen him personally twice, and other people other
dozents have also seen him around, and he's usually in
the evening time. When I saw him, he was after
aboard me and I had walked to the front door
to make sure it was locked, and I had my
cell phone light because we had already shut everything down.
And when I got to the foyer, I shined my
(27:08):
light towards the door and he was standing between myself
and the door, and immediate immediate shock, and of course
I turn around and go straight back to the gift shop.
And I got one of my co workers and we
both returned to the front door, and now he was
on the stairs. He was not standing between us anymore,
so he had moved.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Yes, and we both left. And it's very unusual that
this particular coworker that I was with gets unnerved like that.
But the minute she saw him and I saw him
at the same time, she said, let's get out of here.
And as we were heading back to the door, she
did turn around and said that he was standing in
front of the stairs at that point, so he was moving.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
That is very creepy, yes, to say the least, you know,
and it's not often that you, you know, someone sees
his shadow and goes to get someone else and says,
this is what I saw, and then you both see
it again, you know, many times it's kind of like
it's gone at that point. Yeah, but not only did
(28:12):
you both see it at the same time, but he
definitely was trying to make himself known, Like as you
were leaving, he was coming down the stairs. So I
what was the energy like in the room at that time?
I obviously you feel kind of scared, like somebody's watching you.
What was the vibe overall?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Very heavy? He's when he's around, We find that it's
it's a little more heavy than usual. I have not
seen him upstairs, he's usually downstairs, but definitely a heavy
vibe to him.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
That kind of activity almost seems like he really wants
you to know that he's there for some reason.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Now, I was reading, and I don't remember if we
encountered this there or if we talked about it while
you were there. I was reading that sometimes people experience
a little girl in the house has Is that something
you're familiar with?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yes, yeah, I have heard several guests tell me about
the little girl.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
We think it could be Jesse May.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
She was an infant at the time she passed, and
she would have passed in the late eighteen hundreds from.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
An unknown cause.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
That being said, there are several children in the house,
so it's hard to tell when the little girl is
speaking or if one of the other girls are speaking.
There's also a little boy so and he sounds very
much like a little girl when he is audible when
you hear him. So the only time I have encountered
one of the little ones was again in the doctor's
office and I heard him laugh, and I thought it
(29:35):
was potentially a guest who had, you know, come in
the back door. But there was nobody besides myself and
my coworker who was another touring docent, and she also
heard it. So we looked around. We didn't find anything
out of place, but it was it was very clear
like he was standing probably a couple of feet away,
he or she. I wasn't sure if we could if
(29:57):
it was a little boy or little girl.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, yeah, I know, kids kind of tend to sound
the same at that age, and it's hard to discern.
You know, if you're talking to now, what would you say,
is are the hot spots in the house like obviously
the attic, but it sounds like the doctor's office is well.
Are there certain areas that seem to have more activity?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Absolutely, there is the second floor landing that is by far,
I'd have to say the second most active area in
the house, attic being the first. Jesse Maine's room is
right there, so we have a lot of activity there
in jesse May's room and next door in the communications room.
There are several different entities in some of the jocents
(30:39):
who have been there a longer time than me can
kind of shoell them apart when they make themselves known.
I'm only able to do it with a couple of them,
you know, of course, the spirit with the chunk Gary
and I can tell if there is another one James,
I can tell if he's there. But that's a very
active area. The doctor's office has actually been more active
as of late, and were not sure why. And it
(31:01):
was right after the time when I was called a rich.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Oh okay, did you guys get any new artifacts in there? Surprisingly? No,
because I was thinking he was maybe a tribute.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
To an artifact. But we did not have any new
artifacts in the doctor's office at that time. We did
get a victrolla, okay victrolla around that time, but that
was I did place that in the parlor, so he
could possibly be associated with that, or it could just
be one of the grumpy ones upstairs that's coming down,
but we're not one hundred percent sure.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Now, is this the same victrola that you had before,
or did you get another one in addition to that?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
It was it's another one in addition to that one.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Oh okay, I do remember that that caused activity when
we played that, that definitely changed the kind of feeling
of the house overall. There was something about that first
Victrola that just really triggered something. I think that just
goes for music overall, and a lot of investment stigations.
But we, uh, I think we were allowed to touch it. Yeah,
(32:06):
of course, I'm like, wait a minute, did we were
we not supposed to mess with that? You're just fine?
Uh Yeah. So that definitely did kind of spike some activity.
I mean, that was one of those cases like if
people watch it on TV, that's great, but I don't
know that they we were able to kind of convey
(32:27):
just how much happened in forty three minutes on television.
That's one of the harder parts of being like doing
a televised investigation is you can't really get into it.
Like one of the most shocking moments for me was
when we arrived. You had a lot of trouble with
this attic entity you personally, and you were utterly terrified,
and we were going up the second floor to talk
(32:52):
about it, and I think we were trying to avoid
going in, but as soon as we got up there,
you were like visibly like nope, nope, I can feel him.
I can feel him, and like you knew he was there,
and we were like, how is this possible? And we
looked and someone like the crew or someone had left
the attic door open and you didn't know that, you
(33:14):
just felt him, which to me is one of the
most kind of wild moments that I've had during an
investigation that you were so in tune to this presence
you knew he was not in the attic at that point.
And so does do you think he moves around? Like
It's funny because when we close the door, he would,
but if you leave the door open, I felt like
(33:35):
he was kind of brave. Does he move around the house?
He does?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
He does move around the house. There is something additional
up there. We're not exactly sure who he is, so
it's hard to tell when either one of them came
down which one it is. But yes, we do believe
that he does move around the house. And when he
does come down, he gets very close and I could
feel him because he almost.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
He touches me.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
He's very touchy, very touchy feely.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah, I think he enjoys that a little bit. And
you know, and I is it's hard because you know
That's one of those things people ask, like, how do
you make someone like that move on? And how do
you make them leave? And uh, I wish, yeah, I
wish it was as simple as waving some sage and
(34:22):
being like be gone. You know, Yeah, it doesn't work
that way. You just kind of have to stand your
ground and try to kind of counteract them with different energy,
which it sounds like you guys are. But so do
you think that was who that shadow was that you
saw that night?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
You know, I don't think so. And the only reason
being is I have never seen Gary. I've never seen
him with my eyes. This one was very, very, very prominent.
So he made me weaken the knees. That's how much
you've garried me, right, I did not get the Gary feeling.
Gary's almost I don't say that he's mischievous.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I don't think he's evil. I think he I think
him scaring me like.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
He is entertained with that, right, And that's we're growing together,
him and I because he knows now at this point
that you know, he can be softy and I won't
get one hundred percent scared. But yeah, this shadow entity
that was down there, he he definitely scared me to
the point of knowing that I think it would be
a little step further than what Gary would.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Do, right, I mean, there's just something to be said
for the unknown in general. Like if you even saw
just a stranger, a live person, that would probably be scarier.
But like any like stranger standing there staring you down
in a dark foyer, Like, that's a scary moment, absolutely
you know, a shadow figure or not?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (35:49):
So, Now what about other just kind of things that
go on. I read a lot about lights going on
and off and doors opening and closing, Like are these
things you guys just deal with on the daily?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Oh? Yeah, yes. Sometimes we come in to open up
and we will find that artifacts have been moved. We
have an extensive alarm system, so it gets triggered from
the inside all the time. Oh and there's nobody inside,
so we will find. A big one is jesse May's ball.
We have a plastic ball that lives under her bed
(36:21):
and we use it for people who come to investigate
so they can bring it out. Sometimes we'll find that
out in the room. Sometimes we'll find the shoes that
are in the master's bedroom. They'll be moved to the
middle of the room or move to a different area.
So they're very they're very prominent there. They know that
they are the residents and it is their house, and
(36:43):
they pretty much do what they want. But yes, we'll
find lights on all the time, doors shut that weren't
shut before, things like that almost daily.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
And now do you think that so I know that
the house kind of sat vacant for a while, and
do you think that coming in and kind of renovating
it and bringing all these things in, do you think
that that made them happy? Or I mean, I don't
know if you could even answer that question, but do
you think that that was kind of for the good
of them? Do you think they enjoy that? Yeah, if
(37:14):
I had to.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Speculate, I would think that there are a good amount
of them that enjoyed that, because there are a handful
that seemed to enjoy just having people in the house.
I think the children are probably a big one on that.
They really seem to enjoy having a few of our
investigators in their one in particular, her name is Brooke.
But yeah, I feel like some of them it was
(37:37):
for the better for them, and some of them are
just grumpy altogether.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, I mean there's also a lot of speculation about
kind of unmarked graves on the property. Have you been
able to kind of narrow down where those could be
or have you guys tried to find them in any way,
we have tried to find them.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
At the time that they would have been buried, it
would have been one hundred and sixty acre parcel. So
there's a very good chance that those graves, it would
have been the little family plot for the May family.
There's a very good chance that those graves are under
the street or under a local business, but we have
not been able to locate them yet.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, that's a tough one, you know. It's I live
in a very old house, a three hundred year old house,
and there's a graveyard, a little cemetery family plot like
kind of up in the front yard. And I imagine
that if this place had not been saved by a
local nonprofit, that entire family would probably be under someone's
(38:40):
house at this point.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Yeah, it's hard to imagine, but you know, that's just
how they did things. Then there's I mean, especially where
we where you are is very historic. Where I am
in New England's very historic, and it's so I grew
up in California, where this didn't really happen. I mean,
obviously we had some like gold Rush era graves here
and there, but like the fact that there were so
many family plots back then, it didn't really occur to
(39:05):
me how common that was until I started coming to
New England and going to the South a lot. Oh yes, definitely.
Now have you has anyone ever just kind of had
enough of the house and had to leave other than you,
which you are destly a success story. That's why I
love that you're like comfortable in the space because I
(39:28):
felt so bad for you when I first met you.
And I've met a few people like that where I'm like,
oh my gosh, this is I need them to be
able to go to work or be in their house
and not be afraid. So yeah, but anyway, has anyone
kind of just had had to leave, had enough, never
coming back.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
We have not had jocents per se that will do that.
But I have had two separate touring groups who who
did leave.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
They didn't finish the tour.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
One of them was present with me in the attic
when my picked up, and I couldn't feel it because
it was an a bonytail that freaked them out to
the point where they did not finish the tour.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
And then a second guest.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
It was just her and I, and she was very
gung ho about hearing the spirits, and it was a
history tour, so I was like, hey, listen, sister, let's
not just it's just you and me, so let's yeah,
let's not call THEEF guys up. But we were up
on the step and floor landing and she was a
little disappointed that she had not had an experience. And
as she was telling me this, we heard a whistle
(40:31):
plan as day, right behind her. Both of us jumped
and she took off towards the stairs. So of course
I went behind her because we don't want to fall
down those old stairs. No, and she did end up
leaving that day as well.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I always wonder why they choose to whistle, like I
have encountered many a whistling ghost, and I, first of all,
I can barely understand how they can make voice like
a disembodied voice. How that can happen. Whistle is especially
kind of uh. It makes no sense to me how
(41:04):
they do it, but they do, and so that's that's interesting. Yeah,
I think sometimes say people that you know, be careful
what you wish for, ye know exactly. She's just kind
of the perfect example of that. So well, I mean,
as always, I'm sorry I slag my Dower as always. Uh,
(41:25):
I mean, you guys have just a ton of activity.
It's it's kind of out of the way Brooksville, Florida.
You know, it's not a place that I think a
lot of people were familiar with until they saw this house,
this gorgeous home with all this crazy history. So if
people do want to visit, like, what do they have
to do?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Well, there are no reservations needed during the day for
the history tour right now. For the ghost tour, we're
booked out well into next year, so that takes a
little bit. But just come on down during our open
hours and we will give you a tour. The day
tour is totally totally guided by one of our docents,
and it's a really good time.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to see. I really
enjoyed my time there, and you guys are all lovely.
I love the care that you all have for that
house and how well you kind of look over your
ghosts and your artifacts and make sure the history is
told so well done. Thank you so much. We just
love it. Well. Thank you for chatting, and hopefully I
(42:25):
will come visit you guys again soon. It's definitely on
the list of one of my places I want to
return to sooner rather than later. So a film, yeah,
just let me know. On there all the time, all right,
Thank you so much, Autumn. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Oh, you are welcome.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
The main Stringer House is such a complicated haunting, one
that has to be handled delicately and with utmost respect.
It's strange to look at a beautiful mansion and think
about all the darkness it has seen. Everything that happened
inside its walls wonderful and terrible. But how fortunate are we,
(43:04):
as lovers of history and those with the longing to
never repeat it that those walls quite literally talk. I
suppose it's up to us to listen and learn. I
Amy Bruney and this was Haunted Road.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Haunted Road is hosted and written by me Amy Bruney,
with additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassandra de Alba.
This show is edited and produced by rema El Kali,
with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke,
Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Haunted Road is a production
(43:46):
of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Learn
more about this show over at Grimandmild dot com, and
for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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