Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky listener. Discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: The fire had burned low, a sense of loneliness crept
Speaker 1: over me. I arose and undressed, moving on tiptoe about
Speaker 1: the room, doing stealthily what I had to do, as
Speaker 1: if I were environed by sleeping enemies, whose slumbers it
Speaker 1: would be fatal to break. I covered up in bed
Speaker 1: and lay listening to the rain and wind in the
Speaker 1: faint breaking of distance shutters, till they lulled me to sleep.
Speaker 1: I slept profoundly, but how long I do not know.
Speaker 1: All at once I found myself awake and filled with
Speaker 1: a shuddering expectancy. All was still all but my own heart.
Speaker 1: I could hear it beat Presently. The bedclothes began to
Speaker 1: slip away, slowly toward the foot of the bed, as
Speaker 1: if someone were pulling them. I could not stir, I
Speaker 1: could not speak. Still, the blanket slipped deliberately away till
Speaker 1: my breast was uncovered. Then with a great effort I
Speaker 1: seized them and drew them over my head. I waited, listened,
Speaker 1: waited once more, that steady poll began, and once more
Speaker 1: I lay torpid a century of dragging seconds till my
Speaker 1: breast was naked again. At last, I roused my energies
Speaker 1: and snatched the covers back to their place, and held
Speaker 1: them with a strong grip. I waited by and by,
Speaker 1: I felt a faint tug, and took a fresh grip.
Speaker 1: The tug strengthened to a steady strain. It grew stronger
Speaker 1: and stronger. My hold parted, and for the third time,
Speaker 1: the blanket slid away. I groaned. An answering groan came
Speaker 1: from the foot of the bed. Beaded drops of sweat
Speaker 1: stood upon my forehead. I was more dead than alive.
Speaker 1: Presently I heard a heavy footstep in my room, the
Speaker 1: step of an elephant. It seemed to me it was
Speaker 1: not like anything human, but it was moving from me.
Speaker 1: There was relief in that I heard. It approached the door,
Speaker 1: pass out without moving bolt or lock, and wander away
Speaker 1: among the dismal corridors, straining the floors and joyce till
Speaker 1: they creaked again as it passed, and then silence reigned
Speaker 1: once more. This is an excerpt from a short story
Speaker 1: written by one Mark Twain or Samuel Clemens. The story
Speaker 1: is aptly named a ghost story, and I won't spoil
Speaker 1: it for you, but as many Mark Twain stories go,
Speaker 1: there is a very humorous whist to this one in
Speaker 1: the end. Yet, while Mark Twain treated spiritualism with his
Speaker 1: usual cynicism and wit, when his own personal losses became unbearable,
Speaker 1: he like many others of the time, dabbled and spiritualism
Speaker 1: out of grief and desperation. That grief and desperation is
Speaker 1: said to still hang over a home he considered to
Speaker 1: be the happiest of any he had, until tragedy prevented
Speaker 1: him from ever returning in life anyway. I'm Amy Brunei,
Speaker 1: and this is haunted road of all the beautiful towns.
Speaker 1: It has been my fortune to see. This is the chief.
Speaker 1: You do not know what beauty is if you have
Speaker 1: not been here. This was a quote by Mark Twain
Speaker 1: after he was introduced to Hartford, Connecticut by his publisher
Speaker 1: in the eighteen sixties. Samuel and Olivia Clemens worked with
Speaker 1: architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design their dream home there,
Speaker 1: with construction beginning in eighteen seventy three. The family moved
Speaker 1: in on September nineteen seventy four, while much work still remained,
Speaker 1: construction delays and the ever increasing costs of building their
Speaker 1: dream home frustrated Sam. The house is eleven thousand, five
Speaker 1: hundred square feet and boasts twenty five rooms over three floors.
Speaker 1: It cost forty to forty five thousand dollars to build,
Speaker 1: but after renovations in eighteen eighty one, the homes total
Speaker 1: cost was seventy thousand dollars, almost one point nine million
Speaker 1: dollars in today's market. The art of this home is incredible.
Speaker 1: In addition to the team of artists Clemens brought into
Speaker 1: the home, the Tiffany and Company interior design firm was
Speaker 1: brought in. The styles reflect cultures from around the world.
Speaker 1: Clemens biographer Justin Kaplan has called it part steamboat, part
Speaker 1: medieval fortress, and part cuckoo clock. The focal point of
Speaker 1: the master bedroom is the couple's elaborately carved bed, which
Speaker 1: they purchased in eighteen seventy eight in Venice, which Sam
Speaker 1: brought with him wherever he went. It's even rumored he
Speaker 1: died in that bed in nineteen They had some very
Speaker 1: notable neighbors like Harriet Beecher Stowe Hartford had become a
Speaker 1: destination for successful figures of this ilk. Sam was known
Speaker 1: for his hosting and some of his guests included George Washington,
Speaker 1: Cable and Edwin Booth, the older brother of John Wilkes.
Speaker 1: The billiard room was Sam's office and favorite space, and
Speaker 1: it was reserved for men's cigars, alcohol, cursing, and the housekeepers.
Speaker 1: The pool table that is currently in the room was
Speaker 1: a gift from a friend in nineteen o four. In
Speaker 1: that room, he also worked on many of his most
Speaker 1: notable books, including the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Life
Speaker 1: on the Mississippi. In the Clemens family moved to Europe
Speaker 1: due to financial issues. They would never live in the
Speaker 1: Hartford home again, where the family enjoyed what was described
Speaker 1: as the happiest and most productive years. They moved to Europe,
Speaker 1: where the cost of living was more accessible. Meanwhile, Clemens
Speaker 1: tried to make up these losses by embarking on a
Speaker 1: lecture tour through the continent, but it wasn't enough to
Speaker 1: get them back home. The Hartford house was rented out.
Speaker 1: He returned to the much loved family home once in
Speaker 1: As soon as I entered the door, I was seized
Speaker 1: with a furious desire to have us all in this
Speaker 1: house again and right away. In the midst of the
Speaker 1: family's financial struggles and the lecture tour in Europe, Sam
Speaker 1: held out hope that the family would soon reunite in England.
Speaker 1: Daughters Jean and Susie were staying with friends in Hartford
Speaker 1: and sent a message across the pond to their parents
Speaker 1: and sister Clara. Susie had fallen ill with a fever.
Speaker 1: The trip was postponed, but there was much hope that
Speaker 1: Susie would recover, albeit after a lengthy period. With this news,
Speaker 1: Olivia and Clara returned to the US, while Sam stayed
Speaker 1: to work on a book and find better housing for
Speaker 1: the family's return to England. Three days later, on August eighteen,
Speaker 1: alone in their rented house in Guildford, Sam received another
Speaker 1: telegram from the States. Susie was dead. Susie had been
Speaker 1: staying with friends in Hartford, but spent time in the
Speaker 1: family home where she could sing and play piano. A
Speaker 1: fever came on, but Susie held out hope that a
Speaker 1: spiritual healer, not a doctor, which your her ailment. She
Speaker 1: was eventually overruled and a doctor was called in She
Speaker 1: was suffering from spinal meningitis, and the next two weeks
Speaker 1: were full of escalating delirium. Like a ghost, she wandered
Speaker 1: through the house of her childhood. She found a gown
Speaker 1: of livies hanging in a closet, and, believing it was
Speaker 1: her mother and that she had died, kissed it and cried.
Speaker 1: As the infection made its way through her body, it
Speaker 1: took her sight and then her wakefulness. Susie was in
Speaker 1: a coma before she died at twenty four years old.
Speaker 1: Sam was across the ocean and devastated. Her mother and
Speaker 1: sister Clara were on a boat making the crossing, and
Speaker 1: they didn't know that Susie had passed when they landed.
Speaker 1: Letters from Sam awaited. He bore much guilt for her death.
Speaker 1: He wrote to his wife the day after Susie's death
Speaker 1: August nineteen eight. She died in our own house, not
Speaker 1: in another's. Died where every little thing was familiar and beloved.
Speaker 1: Died where she had spent all her life until Mike
Speaker 1: Primes made her a popper and an exile. How good
Speaker 1: it is that she got home again. After her death,
Speaker 1: the Clemons family was too heartbroken to continue living in
Speaker 1: the home, it marked the end of an era. In
Speaker 1: nineteen o three, the Clemons sold the home to Richard
Speaker 1: Bissell and his family, who occupied the home until nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 1: Between nineteen seventeen and nineteen twenty two, the Kingswood School
Speaker 1: for Boys rented the home. After the school was done,
Speaker 1: the home was purchased by a developer with an apartment
Speaker 1: complex in mind. Originally, they wanted to tear down the
Speaker 1: home and replace it with set apartment complex, but thanks
Speaker 1: to significant public outcry, they kept the structure and refitted
Speaker 1: the inside for their purposes. There were eleven apartments, and
Speaker 1: all with the basement serving as a large dining hall.
Speaker 1: Each apartment had a fireplace and kitchenett. In nineteen twenty nine,
Speaker 1: the home was threatened with demolition, but was saved by
Speaker 1: Arriet Beecher Stowe's grand niece, Katherine Seymour Day. That year,
Speaker 1: the Friends of Hartford, with Katherine Seymour Day at the Helm,
Speaker 1: purchased the Clemens home with the purpose of saving and
Speaker 1: restoring Mark Quayne's house. From nineteen thirty until nineteen fifty six,
Speaker 1: the organization rented out the first floor to the Mark
Speaker 1: Twayne Branch of the Hartford Public Library. The residential spaces
Speaker 1: of the home are rented out as apartments throughout the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. Finally, formal restoration of the house began in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, the same year the Mark Twain House
Speaker 1: was designated a National Historic Landmark. Everything was completed in
Speaker 1: time for the one hundred year anniversary of the home's
Speaker 1: construction in nineteen seventy four. The museum opened in two
Speaker 1: thousand three, and big renovations took place in the following year.
Speaker 1: Now as far back as the nineteen sixties. In nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: there have been reports of ghostly happenings at the Mark
Speaker 1: Quayin House. But who could possibly still be roaming those
Speaker 1: old halls and why? There is rumor of at least
Speaker 1: one death in the home when it was divided into apartments.
Speaker 1: Supposedly someone died in a bathtub in one of the units,
Speaker 1: but we were unable to verify this. Also, Mark Twain's
Speaker 1: bed that he supposedly died in is very much in
Speaker 1: the home and on display. In my experience, there are
Speaker 1: certain claims of apparitions that seem to happen over and
Speaker 1: over again. Probably one of the most commonly reported specters
Speaker 1: is a woman in white. However, this could actually be
Speaker 1: a location for the spirit of a woman in white
Speaker 1: is actually justified. Over the years, there have been reports
Speaker 1: of employees and visitors seeing the apparition of a young
Speaker 1: woman in a long white dress roaming the halls, much
Speaker 1: like Susie actually did in her final days. Of course,
Speaker 1: Mark Twain himself is believed to linger in spirit form
Speaker 1: in the much beloved office from where he worked and played.
Speaker 1: The billiard room on the top floor is considered one
Speaker 1: of the most haunted where Twain smoked cigars, and to
Speaker 1: this day some aim they can smell the smoke and
Speaker 1: the fire alarm will randomly go off. Apparently, Clemmons had
Speaker 1: a twenty to forty cigar a day habit. The third
Speaker 1: spirit is attributed to the family's long term butler, George Griffin.
Speaker 1: Griffin was born into slavery in Maryland, probably around the
Speaker 1: middle of the nineteenth century. After the Emancipation Proclamation, he
Speaker 1: acted as a body servant for a Union general during
Speaker 1: the Civil War. According to an unpublished manuscript of Clemens,
Speaker 1: his wife, Mary, was a dressmaker. They had one daughter together.
Speaker 1: According to sources, Griffin was a deacon in the Methodist
Speaker 1: Episcopal Church, active political leader and family man. Clemens wrote
Speaker 1: quite highly of his butler of seventeen years, and it
Speaker 1: seems like he was more family than employee. George was
Speaker 1: an accident, he said, he came to wash some windows
Speaker 1: and remained for half a generation. He was a Maryland
Speaker 1: slave by birth. The proclamation set him free, and as
Speaker 1: a young fellow he saw his fair share of the
Speaker 1: Civil War as body servant to General Devon's. He was handsome,
Speaker 1: well built, shrewd, wise, polite, always good natured, cheerful to gaiety, honest, religious,
Speaker 1: a cautious truth speaker, devoted friend to the family, champion
Speaker 1: of its interests, a sort of idol to the children,
Speaker 1: and a trial to Mrs Clements. Not in always button several.
Speaker 1: There was nothing commonplace about George. He had a remarkable
Speaker 1: good head. His promise was good, his note was good.
Speaker 1: He could be trusted to any extent with money or
Speaker 1: other valuables. He had the respect and I may say
Speaker 1: the warm, friendly regard of every visiting intimate of our house.
Speaker 1: To me, that sounds like someone anyone would be lucky
Speaker 1: to have around. Although George died elsewhere he was closely
Speaker 1: linked to the family. Even after buying a home in
Speaker 1: the city, he maintained a room in the family home.
Speaker 1: So obviously, so much emotion in history tied in the
Speaker 1: Market Queen House in Hartford, Connecticut. I have investigated and
Speaker 1: visited a few times and had some pretty crazy experiences
Speaker 1: in the process. Up next, we'll talk to Mallory Howard,
Speaker 1: one of the curators of the museum. She's got some
Speaker 1: amazing history to fill us in on and some pretty
Speaker 1: great ghost stories as well. So right now I am
Speaker 1: joined by Mallory Howard, who is the assistant curator at
Speaker 1: the Mark Twain House and Museum. I appreciate you taking
Speaker 1: a time to chat with me today, Mallory, Oh, no problem,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here. One thing that has always
Speaker 1: stood out to me about the Mark Twain House, having
Speaker 1: been there quite a few times, is just how much
Speaker 1: you all seem to kind of embrace it's haunted history
Speaker 1: or its potential ghosts. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1: Were you ready for that when you joined the team.
Speaker 1: I actually joined at a really pivotal time, I think
Speaker 1: for embracing that aspect of our history. Prior to that,
Speaker 1: I think over the years, it was kind of kept quiet,
Speaker 1: and you know, people would have experiences and they would
Speaker 1: maybe talk to each other a little bit about it,
Speaker 1: but other than that, they really weren't supposed to chat
Speaker 1: with visitors or make it known. But when I came
Speaker 1: on board, that started to change where we really wanted
Speaker 1: to be more vocal about what people are experiencing and
Speaker 1: the history of the house and the history of Twain.
Speaker 1: And I think it really evolved at the perfect time.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny years ago. Actually, I think Adam
Speaker 1: and I did. I think it was either a conference
Speaker 1: call or a video call before COVID even it was
Speaker 1: with the Mark Twain House, and you all had kind
Speaker 1: of assembled a few other historic locations, and I feel
Speaker 1: like you all were just kind of trying to share
Speaker 1: the wealth and kind of say, you know, hey, this
Speaker 1: has been really good for us. Obviously not exploiting or
Speaker 1: making up ghosts, but if you happen to be a
Speaker 1: historic location that is haunted, kind of being able to
Speaker 1: respectfully use that to your advantage. And I know that
Speaker 1: at the time you were kind of relaying that you
Speaker 1: had a really successful I think it's either like a
Speaker 1: ghost tour, ghost walk at night. That brought in a
Speaker 1: lot of extra revenue, which I think is huge for
Speaker 1: these historic spots, especially right now. Oh yes, absolutely. You know,
Speaker 1: we weren't the first. Other places had done it before,
Speaker 1: and we started to look at them to get an
Speaker 1: idea of how we wanted to go about it, and
Speaker 1: then our ghost cours really took off. And even at
Speaker 1: a lot of museum conferences there are a lot of
Speaker 1: panels discussing whether ghost tours are a good idea, should
Speaker 1: you be doing it, what benefit do you have from
Speaker 1: doing it? And there's still mixed opinions. Some places really
Speaker 1: don't believe that they should be doing that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: In other places that like us, have embraced it, and
Speaker 1: I for one especially, I'm so glad we're doing that
Speaker 1: because it brings us an entirely new audience. You know,
Speaker 1: people come to the Mark Twain how for our ghost
Speaker 1: stories that have never visited before and had no interest
Speaker 1: in visiting, and so when they come and take a
Speaker 1: tour with us, you know, not only are we talking
Speaker 1: about the experiences that staff and visitors have had over
Speaker 1: the years, we're talking about, you know, the episodes of
Speaker 1: ghost hunters and what evidence was captured, but also the
Speaker 1: history of Mark Twain and the house and how he
Speaker 1: felt about spiritualism and how he used ghost stories in
Speaker 1: his literature. So it's more than just oh, come and
Speaker 1: learn about hauntings. We've really connected it to being historical
Speaker 1: as well. I think that's huge, and I think it's
Speaker 1: really a big deal too for like a lot of
Speaker 1: young people. You know. I know that my father when
Speaker 1: I was a child definitely used my interest in the
Speaker 1: supernatural to take me to historic places under the guise
Speaker 1: of them being haunted. But then at the same time
Speaker 1: I was learning so much about history, and so I
Speaker 1: could definitely see teenagers not maybe being as interested in
Speaker 1: casual daytime tour as you know, turning out the lights
Speaker 1: at night and walking around the Mark Twain House and
Speaker 1: learning about everything you just said, which I think that's
Speaker 1: really cool. I think it's a great opportunity. Yes, we've
Speaker 1: had people before that their first visit has been on
Speaker 1: a ghost tour and they're coming just to hear spooky
Speaker 1: stories and see if they can experience anything. And we've
Speaker 1: had many people over the years come up to us
Speaker 1: after those tours and say that was fascinating. I'm definitely
Speaker 1: coming back for a daytime tour. I want to learn
Speaker 1: more about Mark Twain and his family and the house,
Speaker 1: and so ghost tours has been a way to get
Speaker 1: people hooked and then they become, you know, lifelong contributors
Speaker 1: or members or fans of the house. And so we've
Speaker 1: really expanded our base that way. I love that, and
Speaker 1: that's really the premise for this podcast. You know, we
Speaker 1: always start the first half taking a really deep dive
Speaker 1: into the history of a place, and then we talk
Speaker 1: about the ghosts. So who do you think is haunting
Speaker 1: the Mark Twain House. I'm sure there's probably a few prospects. Yes.
Speaker 1: So the to that I think are doing the majority
Speaker 1: of it would be Susie Clemmens, who is Twain's oldest
Speaker 1: daughter who died at twenty four of spinal meningitis in
Speaker 1: the house, as well as George Griffin, who was their
Speaker 1: African American butler. He was a former enslaved person that
Speaker 1: made his way up north after the Civil War. He
Speaker 1: was eventually hired as the family's butler and he worked
Speaker 1: here all the years the family lived in the house.
Speaker 1: I would say those two are probably the biggest people
Speaker 1: that we think are still around but there are also
Speaker 1: some things that could be attributed to Sam Clemens or
Speaker 1: Mark Twain himself. Right, And I mean, obviously he didn't
Speaker 1: die in the home, but the house seemed like it
Speaker 1: was incredibly special to him and the family. Yes, the
Speaker 1: house in Hartford was the longest he lived anywhere. It
Speaker 1: was definitely the happiest and most productive years of his life.
Speaker 1: And he even went on to say he could never
Speaker 1: enter the house unmoved, that's how much it meant him.
Speaker 1: So I think truly if he was going to come
Speaker 1: back and have the ability to the Hartford houses where
Speaker 1: he would go. Right, that makes sense. No, what kind
Speaker 1: of activity are people experiencing in the home? What would
Speaker 1: you say is the most common paranormal activity reported? I
Speaker 1: would say probably the most common activity would be cigar
Speaker 1: smoke is one of them, for sure. Um. I actually
Speaker 1: don't get in the house as much as I used to,
Speaker 1: but I had to take a few tours recently and unprompted,
Speaker 1: a woman said to me, did anyone else smells cigar
Speaker 1: smoke in the billiard room? And I said that you've
Speaker 1: hit the nail on the head. I was like, we
Speaker 1: get that all the time, that people will smell this
Speaker 1: phantom cigar smoke only in the billiard room, and not
Speaker 1: everyone smells it. And we've even had the fire alarm
Speaker 1: go off in there and the fire department show up
Speaker 1: and run upstairs and nothing's going on. But we've had
Speaker 1: firefighter smelling cigar smoke and room in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. So that is definitely one of the biggest claim.
Speaker 1: The other I would say it's kind of funny because
Speaker 1: it seems like they're almost pranks. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: people saying that they feel like a child is tugging
Speaker 1: on their shirt or their jacket, their clothing. We've had
Speaker 1: jewelry fall off on their own only in the library specifically,
Speaker 1: you know, watches, bracelets that just come off and fall
Speaker 1: to the floor. And we've also had a sighting of
Speaker 1: what we call the woman in White several times throughout
Speaker 1: the house, which we believe to be Susie. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. Footsteps, muttering or murmuring when
Speaker 1: no one else is in the house, So a very
Speaker 1: wide variety of things happening. Have you ever had any
Speaker 1: guests become so frightened that they've left, Yes, we've had
Speaker 1: that happen a few times, one of which was a
Speaker 1: woman who actually was heading up to the third floor
Speaker 1: landing of the house and felt a presence push her
Speaker 1: up against the wall, and she even started speaking differently,
Speaker 1: her voice tone changed. Her daughter was so freaked out
Speaker 1: by it they ended up leaving the tour. We've also
Speaker 1: had several people who have said that they get extreme
Speaker 1: neck pain or stiffness and that they've had to leave
Speaker 1: the house during tours because of that, and as soon
Speaker 1: as they walk out the door, the pain dissipates. Would
Speaker 1: that have been like a symptom that his daughter would
Speaker 1: have experienced maybe yes, because of her spinal meningitis, that stiffness,
Speaker 1: that neck pain would have been a symptom. Okay, that
Speaker 1: experience he's saying with like the pushing, that seems really
Speaker 1: kind of out of character. I'm assuming things like that
Speaker 1: don't happen very often. Yeah, that's one of the more
Speaker 1: unusual ones. There was also an incident where a security
Speaker 1: guard was closing up for the night and had a tray,
Speaker 1: a metal tray thrown at him and it hit a
Speaker 1: pipe over his head. So those three things things, you know,
Speaker 1: the woman being pushed against the wall, the neck pain,
Speaker 1: and the trade being thrown are unusual for us. Most
Speaker 1: of the things that happen are sort of playful, like
Speaker 1: I said, pranks things like that, but very rarely are
Speaker 1: they dangerous or mean or anything like that. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: what would you say, are things that you do around
Speaker 1: the house that might make activity kind of spike? LETNA say,
Speaker 1: there hasn't seemed to be too much of a pattern
Speaker 1: for that. It's really seemed sporadic and random as far
Speaker 1: as when things happen. They'll be periods where there'll be
Speaker 1: several tours in one week where people have experiences with
Speaker 1: cigar smoke or jewelry falling off or tugging, and then
Speaker 1: we'll go sometimes weeks months at a time with nothing,
Speaker 1: no reports. So there doesn't seem to be a real
Speaker 1: pattern of when the activity happens to spike and when
Speaker 1: it doesn't. How have things been during like the shutdowns
Speaker 1: and everything? I am assuming that you are posed for
Speaker 1: a period of time. Did anything seem to respond to that,
Speaker 1: Not that I know of, especially because there weren't people
Speaker 1: going through the house. I don't know if that makes
Speaker 1: a difference or not. But there's been a couple of
Speaker 1: my colleagues who have gone through the house who have
Speaker 1: had a couple of things happened to them, you know, noises, muttering,
Speaker 1: known for lights to go on and off. Not sure
Speaker 1: exactly what causes that. We had one security guard who
Speaker 1: went into vacuum and he turned for a second to
Speaker 1: turn the light off, and when he turned back, the
Speaker 1: vacuum cord was completely tangled and crazy not and he's like,
Speaker 1: there's no way that could have happened with my back
Speaker 1: turned for a second. So things still happened, but it
Speaker 1: seems that it slowed down once the house is really
Speaker 1: shut down and no one was in there. Right. It's
Speaker 1: funny because some of the places that you know, we've investigated,
Speaker 1: when people came back, the activity almost started ramping up,
Speaker 1: almost like these spirits were lonely or they weren't confused. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's what's so weird, is you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: just a couple of weeks ago, I had to pitch
Speaker 1: in with tours and that woman, unprompted, said, oh, I
Speaker 1: did anyone else smell that. I smelled cigar smoke in
Speaker 1: the billiard room, and I thought, wow, I haven't been
Speaker 1: in the house in a while. But it's just all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's the claim started coming back again.
Speaker 1: That's a really common report, the cigar smoke thing, and
Speaker 1: I've tried to debunk it so many times in other locations,
Speaker 1: and like sometimes people speculated it's like completely just seeped
Speaker 1: into the wood over so many years of smoking in there.
Speaker 1: But like at some point it's so overwhelming it can't
Speaker 1: just be coming from the wood, because I have smelled
Speaker 1: it a few times in locations and I'm like, there's
Speaker 1: no way this is just coming from old wood, right,
Speaker 1: And especially the time we had the smoke alarm go
Speaker 1: off in the middle of the night enough to trigger
Speaker 1: it where the fire department had to come and respond
Speaker 1: to it, and then they all smelled that snat, So
Speaker 1: it just seems like it couldn't have just been from
Speaker 1: sitting around. Yeah, exactly. Are all the artifacts in the
Speaker 1: building Are those original to the family or those things
Speaker 1: brought in from elsewhere? So it's a mixture. We have
Speaker 1: some objects and artifacts in the house that are original
Speaker 1: to the Clemens and the Langdon family, which is Olivia's family,
Speaker 1: and then the rest would be pieces from the Victorian
Speaker 1: period that they didn't necessarily own. What type of things
Speaker 1: that they would have purchased to decorate the house with.
Speaker 1: And then do you think that any of those pieces
Speaker 1: might have something to do with activity happening in the house. Well,
Speaker 1: I think two of the pieces we're really important to him,
Speaker 1: one of which was the billiard table. It's the last
Speaker 1: one he owned before he died, so it wasn't the
Speaker 1: one originally that was in the Hartford house when he
Speaker 1: was living here, but is one that he owned. He
Speaker 1: loved to play billiards. We have photographs of him sticking
Speaker 1: kittens into the pockets of the billiard table when he's older, uh,
Speaker 1: and he it's just something he really enjoyed doing. And
Speaker 1: the other piece would be the Angel bed. We call
Speaker 1: it in the bedroom for Sam and Livy, and it's
Speaker 1: the one they used when they were living at Hartford.
Speaker 1: He brought it with him when he moved to his
Speaker 1: last home and running Connecticut, and that piece is very
Speaker 1: special to them. The girls, their daughters would sleep in
Speaker 1: it when they weren't feeling well or they had bad dreams.
Speaker 1: We have photographs of him in that bed, so I
Speaker 1: think that's a really meaningful piece as well. Is that
Speaker 1: the bed that they purchased in Venice, because I think
Speaker 1: I've read that he may have even passed away in
Speaker 1: that bed. Yes, that is the bed that they purchased
Speaker 1: in Venice. There's debate about whether that was the bed
Speaker 1: he slept in another one when he was in Running, Connecticut,
Speaker 1: so we were never able to confirm which bed is
Speaker 1: the one he died in. But it's definitely a possibility. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's good to know now. It sounds like the death
Speaker 1: of Susie seemed very impactful for them, like it seemed
Speaker 1: very traumatic. I know they couldn't be there, and I
Speaker 1: know you said that you see this woman in white
Speaker 1: that people assume as Susie, and I feel like every
Speaker 1: good haunted location needs a woman in white. Is there
Speaker 1: any other activity that you've had surrounding her that's identifiable
Speaker 1: or that you think is specifically being caused by her ghost.
Speaker 1: I think it's hard to tell because of the sort
Speaker 1: of childlike pranks I mentioned, with the tugging on the
Speaker 1: outfits and the jewelry falling off. So I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if Susie is a part of that, or maybe it's
Speaker 1: just her sisters, but I think definitely the woman in
Speaker 1: white is the one that is associated with her, especially
Speaker 1: because when she had spinal meningitis, she was known to
Speaker 1: wander around the house sort of deliriously. She would even
Speaker 1: sing songs like the trolley Cars go up the Street
Speaker 1: from Mark Twain's daughter, and it just seemed like it
Speaker 1: fits so well that she would be coming back and
Speaker 1: sort of wandering around the house still espec actually, since
Speaker 1: both her parents and one of her sisters were not
Speaker 1: able to be with her during this illness and her death. Now,
Speaker 1: how involved was the Clemens family was spiritualism? Is that
Speaker 1: a belief system that they subscribed to. It's interesting because
Speaker 1: Mark Twain kind of went back and forth about that.
Speaker 1: Earlier in his career. He actually worked for a newspaper
Speaker 1: in San Francisco and his job was to attend seances
Speaker 1: and try to debunk the spiritualists and prove that they
Speaker 1: were frauds and showcase how they did it. And most
Speaker 1: of them he was able to figure out. There are
Speaker 1: a couple that he just couldn't seem to prove how
Speaker 1: they did it. But for the most part during that
Speaker 1: time period, he really was not a believer. But once
Speaker 1: tragedy really started to hit close to home, his tunes
Speaker 1: started to change a little bit. He had his youngest
Speaker 1: brother died in a accident on the Mississippi River and
Speaker 1: that really started to haunt him in a way and
Speaker 1: change his thought on it. And then, of course, and
Speaker 1: Susie died, Sam and his wife Olivia decided that they
Speaker 1: wanted to try to reach out and contact her. So
Speaker 1: when they were in London a few years after she died,
Speaker 1: they actually went to a medium and hoped that the
Speaker 1: medium could reach out to Susie. They brought one of
Speaker 1: her brooches, hoping that that would help the connection, and
Speaker 1: they sort of got a mixed bag. Sam wasn't really
Speaker 1: happy with the results of it, but it just shows
Speaker 1: that throughout his life he really went back and forth
Speaker 1: as to whether to believe or not, and I think
Speaker 1: he really wanted to, especially when he faced tragedy in
Speaker 1: his own life, right. I mean, I think that a
Speaker 1: lot of people struggled with that during that time period
Speaker 1: because it was so you know it spiritualism was completely
Speaker 1: fraught with fraud. But then there were you know, some
Speaker 1: people who kind of um still left people stumped. So
Speaker 1: it's hard to tell, you know, who was legit and
Speaker 1: who was just taking advantage. Well, That's interesting because it
Speaker 1: makes me wonder. You know, when people go in and
Speaker 1: they're investigating, then the spirits there could be very familiar
Speaker 1: with what it is that they are trying to do.
Speaker 1: Have you guys ever done any seances in the house. No,
Speaker 1: not trying to reach out to anyone in the Clemens family.
Speaker 1: You know, We've had a one or two of private ones,
Speaker 1: but nothing directly for the family. Although we did have
Speaker 1: Lorraine Warren visit a couple of times, and she believed
Speaker 1: that she was feeling sort of Susie spirit. She said
Speaker 1: that she felt ill, felt that there was sadness, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing, right, that would make sense Like I
Speaker 1: was saying before, that just sounded like it was just
Speaker 1: such a tragedy to the family and the fact that
Speaker 1: she was you know, I think she was on her
Speaker 1: own right. They weren't even with her. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: very interesting how it went about her family. Twain and
Speaker 1: his wife Livy, as well as their middle daughter Clara.
Speaker 1: We're on a worldwide lecture tour for him to pay
Speaker 1: off some of his debt that he incurred, and Susie
Speaker 1: and the youngest daughter, Jean, were staying with family and
Speaker 1: Elmira and we're getting ready to meet the rest of
Speaker 1: the family in England, where they decided to stop in
Speaker 1: Hartford to visit some old neighbors and friends, and that's
Speaker 1: when Susie started to get sick and they decided to
Speaker 1: bring her into the house, which was being rented at
Speaker 1: the time, thinking the surroundings would comfort her. And the
Speaker 1: family got the news in England that she was sick,
Speaker 1: and Olivia and Clara immediately headed back here to meet
Speaker 1: with her, and unfortunately they were about halfway across the
Speaker 1: ocean when Sam got a telegram saying that Susie was
Speaker 1: peacefully released today and his heart absolutely broke knowing that
Speaker 1: his wife and daughter were going to be greeted with
Speaker 1: the news, and he was never able to say goodbye.
Speaker 1: He didn't attend her funeral, and this really was just
Speaker 1: a huge blow to him. Yeah, yeah, it seems that way. Well,
Speaker 1: the history of the home is fascinating and the ghosts
Speaker 1: are as well. And how can people find out more?
Speaker 1: What do you all have coming up, especially for fall?
Speaker 1: So if you are interested in any of our ghost tours,
Speaker 1: the best way would be to go to our website
Speaker 1: which is www dot Mark Twain House dot Org and
Speaker 1: that would have all the information about when we're having
Speaker 1: our ghost tours. They're called Braveyard Shift tours, and obviously
Speaker 1: they ramp up a lot in September and October. Who
Speaker 1: knows what will happen with COVID unfortunately, but right now
Speaker 1: we're planning on moving forward with them. Okay, perfect, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure that people will be reaching out and I
Speaker 1: really do appreciate you taking the time to chat with
Speaker 1: me today. I love hearing the ghost stories. I love
Speaker 1: visiting the Mark Twain House. I can't wait to get back.
Speaker 1: Last time I was there, I think I lived in California,
Speaker 1: and now I'm a new Englander, so there's no reason
Speaker 1: why I can't just pop over. Yeah, you have to
Speaker 1: come and see what's been happening since the last time
Speaker 1: you were a year. Yeah for are well, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Marie. I appreciate it. The Mark Twain House
Speaker 1: isn't some terrifying dark place, but it stands as not
Speaker 1: only an imperative piece of history, but also a perfect
Speaker 1: example of how some haunts are born not by tragedy
Speaker 1: and darkness, but by love, nostalgia, and grief. I believe
Speaker 1: that the museum's work and bringing the home back to
Speaker 1: its original glory and keeping it aligned with the vision
Speaker 1: Clemens and his family had for it so long ago.
Speaker 1: Has very much acted as a beacon for him and
Speaker 1: anyone who was closely associated with the home. I also
Speaker 1: think there are many years of history left to research,
Speaker 1: and that some of those ghosts may be more modern
Speaker 1: or left from some of the homes other incarnations. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, please go visit and take a moment to
Speaker 1: sit and softly ponder how dear the home was to
Speaker 1: the Clemmons family, and take a deep breath. Maybe you'll
Speaker 1: catch a hint of cigar smoke. I'm Amy Bruney, and
Speaker 1: this was Haunted Road. M Haunted Road is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
Speaker 1: The podcast is written and hosted by Amy Bruney. Executive
Speaker 1: producers include Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The
Speaker 1: show is produced by rema Ill Kali and Trevor Young.
Speaker 1: Taylor Haggerdorn is the show's researcher. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.