Upchurch

For months and months, I’ll walk through the house without having any kind of feeling. But the other day, I was in the kitchen washing dishes and all of a sudden, I saw this figure, and I thought it was one of the children, so I said, "Hey!" and I felt so foolish afterwards because I had spoken to it [the ghost], and there was no one there. And I thought, "O.K. There it goes again." But it’s always like that. You just get an impression of something moving by you or something. That’s the first time I’ve ever talked to it and thought it was somebody, and I felt so silly afterwards—not the least bit scared—and nobody was around to see me. It was like a child running through with a white T-shirt. I just saw it out of the corner of my eye. You get either a light or dark feeling. Before, it had been dark. I don’t know how to describe it. It is either like a shadowing silhouette or light.

[Several years ago] we were sitting at the kitchen table, and it’s a round table, and my son had the only view of the T.V. in the other room. There was nobody else in the house except us, and he said, "Who’s that that just walked by?" He saw it out of the corner of his eye. My husband does not believe in any of this. He said, "Don’t even say it" [whenever I see or hear something].

My neighbor saw it once too. We were standing here in at the doorway talking. We were visiting, and she was fixin’ to leave, and I was standing with my back to the front porch and she was looking in and we were standing there talking for a while, and she said, "Who’s that just went upstairs?" Up to that time, I had been the only one who had seen or heard anything.

It looks like a dust bunny going through. You’re not just that scared of it. It’s not that type of ghost. It’s not like you think of a ghost.

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the house or if it was just my imagination. There were no children in the neighborhood, no babies. We were doing work in it. I’d be upstairs, and I could hear babies—you know, cryin’ and playin’. At first, I shout, "Oh, that’s just somebody outside." Everytime Id’ hear it, I’d go, "Whoa!" and there’d be nobody there. I never did find out where it came from.

The house was built by Captain James Dent. Its always been a male that I’ve seen up until I saw the figure in the kitchen. Betty [Pate] got the impression that it was a man. That’s just the feeling you get.

I think that when you are adults, you are not as open to this sort of thing as children are. I think a lot of adults think it must be something else. The kids would laugh about mama’s ghost. Only one of them actually saw it.

It always appeared either in the kitchen or in the oldest part of the house. This part of the house was a log cabin. We had the ceiling lowered. Over the years, different architectural patterns have been added. Our nursery was a screen porch. The college had rented it out to students for years. They had taken all of the architectural elements out of the house. None of the mantles or moldings or doors were left. It was rented out as apartments. We had a fire from the squirrels chewing the wires in the attic. We have had to do some major remodeling.

Last updated 07/24/01

Upchurch House By Diana Upchurch

Upchurch House
By Diana Upchurch