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Haunted Eastern Shore: Ghostly Tales
Patty Cannon, a Canadian by birth married a Delaware
man and moved to the Seaford area in the early
nineteenth century. She became involved in illegal
slave trade, kidnapping, torturing, and selling
African Americans (both free and slave) into
southern slave markets.
She was feared by many and blazed a murderous trail
of crime, theft, and murder up and down the Eastern
Shore. Her home and farmland straddled Dorchester
and Caroline Counties, with portions of land in
Sussex County, Delaware. Legend states that when the
law was coming after her, she'd flee to a part of
her land that was out of the arresting officer's
jurisdiction.
Around 1829 all three law enforcement entities
pursued her simultaneously to arrest her on charges
of murder. The jurisdictions agreed to let Sussex
County, Delaware have the arrest, and the arresting
officer took Patty Cannon to the jail in Georgetown,
DE. It is widely believed that once in her jail
cell, Patty voluntarily took poison she had
concealed in the hem of her dress. She was found
dead in her cell, and was buried outside the
jailhouse in a pauper's grave.... never being
brought to trial for her horrendous crimes.
Years later, the jail needed a parking lot and
decided to convert the pauper's grave yard into an
needed area for parking automobiles. Patty was
exhumed and re-interred, but somehow a law
enforcement deputy took possession of her skull to
keep as a morose souvenir. The skull remained in the
deputy's family until they lent it to the Dover,
Delaware Public Library.... where it still resides
in the office of the Director, tightly secured in a
train case with documentation of its provenance.
I was able to visit the library, speak to the
Director, read the documentation and hold Patty's
still "very hard" head. Very creepy... very sad ...
yet interesting to handle such a tangible link to
the Eastern Shore's haunted past. Below is a
photo I snapped of the relic.
More on Patty Cannon's trail of tears and her
disconnected remains is covered in "Haunted
Eastern Shore."
OTHER HAUNTED STORIES ...
Hope House |
Hanging Tree |
Patty Cannon |
Capt. Leonard Tawes |
Tales From Down Below, Lower Dorchester
| Two Haunted
Tales from Somerset |
Crisfield Tales
Haunted Eastern Shore
Ghostly Tales from East of the
Chesapeake
by Mindie Burgoyne
ISBN: 1596297204
PRICE: $17.99
160 Pages
Published by History Press
Haunted America series
ON SALE NOW!!!
Order Your Copy Today
BECOME A FAN of Haunted Eastern Shore
Book Description:
They walk beside the
murky waters of the Chesapeake Bay,
linger among the fetid swamps and
roam the manor halls. These are the
tormented souls who refuse to leave
the sites of their demise. From
pitiless smugglers to reluctant
brides, the ghostly figures of the
Eastern Shore are at once terrifying
and tragic. Mindie Burgoyne takes
readers on a spine-tingling journey
as she recounts the grisly events at
the Cosden Murder Farm and the
infamous legend of Patty Cannon.
Tread the foggy lanes of Kent Manor
Inn and linger among Revolutionary
War dead to discover the
otherworldly occupants of Maryland's
most haunted shore.
Haunted sites
mentioned in the book include:
-
Cecil County -
Holly Hall, Old Bohemia,
Mitchell House
-
Kent County -
Cosden Murder Farm, White House
Farm, St. Paul's Cemetery &
Bridge, Kitty Knight House
-
Queen Anne's
County - Bloomingdale, Kent
Manor Inn
-
Caroline County
- The Tale of Wish Shepherd, The
Murder Sallie Dean, Athol - a
Child's Ghost in Henderson,
Willson's Chance
-
Talbot County -
The Lost City of Dover,
Whitemarsh Cemetery, The
Wilderness, Tunis Mills Hanging
Tree
-
Dorchester
County - Shoal Creek Manor,
Patty Cannon's Trail of Tears,
Suicide Bridge, Green Briar
Swamp & Big Lizz, Tales From
Down Below
-
Wicomico County
- The Ghost Light Road
-
Worcester County
- Cellar House, the Snow Hill
Inn
-
Somerset County
- Ananias Crockett's House,
Holland's Island, Vance Miles
House.
Tales include
narratives given to Salisbury
University Folklore students thirty
years ago, describing hauntings,
ghosts and legends of the Eastern
Shore.
Order Your Copy Today
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