Marengo continued

A lot of people from the military bases travel to Europe and tell people, "If you ever get to Montgomery, you ought to go to Marengo." Even throughout the U.S., people have heard about this. We were contacted one time by a lady and her husband who were writing a book. They had studied visual phenomenon in Graceland as it related to sightings of Elvis Presley in and around the property. They had heard about Marengo and did a lengthy interview about what had happened. How they heard about it, I don’t know.

Dr. Reese was called out one night to see a patient. His wife didn’t like to be left by herself. During that time, the story was told that there was a local gypsy in this area. His wife was in so much fear that someone would find the door key that Dr. Reese had hid outside and would enter the house while he was gone. She took the key to a gypsy and had a curse put on it so that if anyone even touched that key, it would burn them. That key is still in the door. It’s the same key, but as to whether it worked or not, I do not know.

Kathleen Powell and her husband held a party here many years ago. When the party was over, James left Marengo to take the help home, and when he returned, Mrs. Powell had shot herself. Paramedics were called, and the ambulance came, and they got Mrs. Powell and attempted to take her to a hospital in Montgomery, but she died on the way. I think the police initially called it a homicide, and later it was determined to be a suicide. Information that I have heard about it from people who lived in the community at that time said that the crutches were on one side of the bed and the weapon was on the other. They don’t really seem to feel it was a suicide. That’s the approximate time when this house went through a renovation. I understand that about $250,000 was spent on this house around 1960, and that would have been a tremendous amount of money at that time. As to whether it was a homicide or a suicide, I don’t think anyone would ever know. But a lot of people think that the voice or the laughter that has been heard in this house could be hers.

I also had a situation where I woke up early one morning because someone was outside my bedroom door calling my name. I said, "Who is it? I got up and went all through the house. Every door in the house was locked. There was no way that someone could have gotten in there, but yet there was someone standing outside my door calling my name.

The Montgomery Advertiser did a segment a year or two ago at Halloween on the house. In 1966, my family and I lived in England in a small town called St. Ives. We had only been in England about three months. The houses are relatively close together. There was a knock on the door, and it was this English lady and she told my mother in 1966 that her mother had just died. She was 86 years old. And she had a little cup and saucer with her and she said, "I want you to have this." It was very bewildering to my parents because they didn’t know these people. They didn’t know the mother. They didn’t know why anyone would be appearing at their door like that with a cup and saucer. Well, my parents took it and put it up And all these events happened unbeknownst to me. It stayed packed up for 20 or 25 years. When we came to Marengo, my mother was getting things out to put in t he house. I guess I had been here two years when I was in this front room one day where this cup and saucer is, and I was building a fire beaus it was the wintertime. It was freezing cold. Then I noticed the cup and saucer. It was the first time I had ever paid any attention to it. I picked the cup up and looked at the bottom of it. It had some little markings on it. It came to worry me. I picked up the saucer and looked at it, and it about scared me to death. On the bottom of the saucer, it said, "This cup and saucer was made by Wedgwood China in England for James Powell and son." I had no knowledge of where that cup and saucer had come from. I asked my parents about it, and they told me where the cup and saucer had come from. Being in England in 1966, a total stranger hands you a saucer with that specific name on it is more that a coincidence. James Powell lived here in the late ‘40’s through the mid ‘60’s.

The ghost stories have affected our business in a bad way. If anything, it has induced people to come. For the most part, the appearances have been friendly ones. The lady from Birmingham went through the house a second time with a tape recorder and made the statement that there isn’t anyone who has ever lived in this home who has ever been happy. I don’t know if there is a cloud hanging over Marengo that has caused people to be unhappy. I have lived here many years, and I can’t say that I’m an unhappy fellow.

The lady from Birmingham seemed to feel that he [Mr. Howard] had a tendency toward rage and violence. And when she was in that room to the left as you go through the front door, she indicated that the doctor at that time had placed either money or valuables or documents in that trunk that he did not want her to see. And she also went on to say that she had felt something like a horse crop strike her across her back when she was in that room, like she was being beaten. And she could actually feel the blood running down her back where it cut her back. From that indication is where she derived the point that that was probably what had happened to the lady. She probably had an untimely death due to domestic violence.

Marengo (continued)

Marengo
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