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By
Orlando V. Wooten
Of the Times Staff
There
were tales of a baby drowned, and a dagger through the mother's
heart. Grandmothers told of foreign ships slipping up the
black river on moonless night, and of French brandy and perfumes
smuggled ashore through a secret tunnel of soldiers of the
Revolution resting from their wounds in it's beautiful halls,
and of Negro slaves escaping through the swamps to find refuge
and escape in its famous cellar passageway - all these are
part of the truth and half-truth that has drifted through
the mists of time about the Cellar House on the Pocomoke River.
And now
a skeleton has been found in that fabled cellar as workmen
finished restoring the beautiful old plantation home to add
another facet to its fascinating history. John L. Graham III
of Salisbury, owner of the property, said a mason's shovel
recently discovered the remains.
Built
about 1740, the symmetrical, handsomely paneled mansion has
just been completely restored and refinished by Mr. Graham
for modern living, with all its original detail preserved.
Surrounded
by 60 acres of land, the Cellar House is located high on the
banks of a broad reach of the Pocomoke River, one mile down-stream
from Milbourne Landing. There are no nearby homes, and the
only visitors are wild deer of the forest. A stand of large
black walnut trees, unmatched in size and beauty, line the
river bank.
The old
house is frame, with two brick ends. All beams in the cellar
and attic are handhewn, and every nail in the building is
hand-made. No two windows are the same dimension, and much
of the original colonial glass remains intact. H and L hinges
appear on nearly all the doors. The outside doors are thick,
of crossed plank construction. The old home may have originally
have been designed as a fortress against Indian attack.
In the
"greate room" a deep fireplace is marked by a flat
arch in the Elizabethan manner, and the overmantel is paneled
horizontally to the ceiling. Fluted pilasters tie up the fireplace
and the overmantel into one composition. Deep wine cupboards
lie between the fireplace and the wide walls.
The stairway
is of hand-carved, black walnut. All the rooms contain fireplaces,
and are unusually large and airy, beyond the general style
of that period. In the attic on the south end of the building,
a small "lie-on-your-stomach window" was used as
a lookout post by the early residents for an unobstructed
view for miles down the river.
Mr. Graham
is an architect with the Salisbury firm of George, Miles,
and Buhr. He is the designer of nearby Shad Landing State
Park, and is the consulting architect on Pemberton Hall in
its restoration. Now that the two-year restoration of the
Cellar House is complete, Mr. Graham is in no hurry to let
it go. He says he wants just the right tenant who can appreciate
and care for this beautifully preserved old mansion with all
its original paneling.
He had
plans to excavate one of the two "runs" on each
side of the property for a small boat dock or marina, and
may some day erect a small apartment building on the farm
for visitors in the area who want something more comfortable
than the present camping facilities at Milbourne Landing.
The Discovery
of the skeleton in the cellar of the old building brings to
mind the wealth of legend surrounding "Cellar House."
A French sea captain is said to have been it's original builder.
He located on the banks of the Pocomoke because because it
could accommodate ocean-going sailing ships, and because his
young English bride had a brother, William Allen, who had
lived near there.
Soon after
building this elaborate structure, the Frenchman suffered
business losses and became desperate for money He took the
easiest way out, in a manner than he knew, and started smuggling
in an effort to recoup his fortunes. For this purpose, a tunnel
is said to have been built from the edge of the water into
the cellar of the house, giving it its' name. Foundations
of a building that might have been a shipping warehouse have
recently been discovered near the water.
But the
captain was away for a long period of time, and the young
wife grew lonesome and restless in her isolated location,
with no neighbors.
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Salisbury,
MD, Thurs, October 13, 1966 The Daily Times
She became
attached to a younger man also a seasman, whose small vessel
was seen tied up more and more at the wharf there. An affair
developed.
But one
night the captain's ship drifted in with the tide unnoticed
by the people at the house, and the pair were discovered by
the Frenchman. The man escaped, but the disgraced young wife
was banished from the house.
In despair,
the young woman attempted later to return to the shelter of
her husband's home and ask his forgiveness. On the boat trip
up the river, the craft overturned and her infant was drowned.
The woman managed to make her way ashore through the swamps
and forest to the house.
The husband,
however, was far from forgiving. The bitterness of her betrayal
had driven him half mad. At the sight of the young woman,
he dragged her to the bedroom where she had been discovered,
and plunged his long dagger into her torn heart. Not pausing
even to bury the body as it lay in a spreading pool of blood,
the Frenchman gathered up his crew and sailed away. What distant
seas he visited, or what acts he later committed, no one ever
knew.
But the
memory of such a tragedy could never be erased from the Cellar
House, and the old people nearby came to believe that ghosts
from these first inhabitants remained there. They thought
that in the middle of a thunder storm, they could hear the
faint echo of the Frenchman's ship carronade boom through
the forest. They said they could hear the wail of the drowning
infant, and the cries of the wife seeking her lost lover mingle
with the summer fireflies or startle the wild swans as they
flew south at dusk.
The recent
finding of the skeleton in the cellar of the old house was
the first evidence that there might have been some basis to
this tale of violence, Mr. Graham wondered if it might not
bet he remains of the murdered woman, and asked two Delaware
archaeologists, Dr. David Marine of Rehobeth Beach, and Henry
Hutchinson of Bethel, to investigate it, and to help him locate
the mythical tunnel to the cellar.
They say
the skeleton is in all probability that of an Indian., and
that the house may have been built, unknowingly, over the
site of an ancient Indian town. Indian artifacts were found
in the soil around the burial site, and some of the bones
had been broken before the burial in a typical "basket
burial" of old Indian times. They said, "An Indian
wigwam or hut stood where the house now stands, and some Indian
family moved the bones of their loved one and reburied them
under their new home.
The archaeologists
have discovered the brick foundations of what may have been
a warehouse for the plantation near the river, which does
give some credence to the tales of the smuggling and illegal
shipping. An old well has been discovered which will probably
give up many clues. But, no signs of a tunnel, either near
the river or in the cellar, have been found.
Many proud
Eastern Shore names have been connected with the Cellar House.
The Duers owned in in 1795, and Benjamin Dennis later purchased
it, leaving it to his son of Revolutionary War fame. The younger
Dennis was captain of the Wicomico Battalion of Worcester
County in 1776. The Covingtons, Hacks, and Beohms have also
owned the property. Some years ago it was operated as a vegetable
and turkey farm by Miss Calvine, who was famous for packher
skirt, and Miss Clara Mattlage. The quality of their turkeys
were well-known in Eastern markets.
Inconclusive
as the evidence may be as to the existence of the tunnel,
there is no doubt in the minds of many local residents about
the fate of the young Englishwoman. There are men living who
will swear that they remember as children seeing the stains
from her body on the wood floor of the bedroom.
And while
they have never heard it themselves, they have been told by
others who did hear the echo of ship's guns answering lightning
flashes; and they did hear how geese flying low along this
stretch of the Pocomoke in early winter would be answered
by the cries of the mother and child as they sought to join
the wild ones and escape from the reeds and mists of the .....
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