There is no end of “scary” stories in Stratford. There are the well-worn ones, like the strange occurrences at the Phelps mansion on Elm Street in 1851; the plethora of accused witch Goody Bassett haunting places like the Phelps Mansion and the Shakespeare Theatre; the demons coming from the heavens during native American pow-wows in the late 1600s; the unsolved brutal murders of Rose Ambler and Phoebe Brush in 1883; and, of course, the sea monsters at Stratford Point.
Some of the lesser known, or completely unknown, “scary” Stratford stories are just as mysterious, perplexing, and unsettling as are the more familiar ones. Take, for instance, the now non-existent home which stood near the intersection of Barnum Avenue and West Broad Street in 1885. The home was known as the Osborne home, however the hauntings began with Johnathan Riggs, who owned the home in 1880.
Apparently, Mr. Riggs was an abuser of Mrs. Riggs. So much so, that he caused her death. Almost immediately he began to hear strange footsteps in the house. Next came loud noises, which awakened everyone in the house at night. The loud noises were soon replaced by even louder moanings and groanings. Suffering the noise as long as he could, Mr. Riggs swallowed poison and died, apparently as a way to end these eerie torments.
Charles Blakeslee, a prominent stone mason and builder, rented the haunted house shortly after Mr. Riggs’ death, and with his wife and son, Clayton, moved in. Mr. Blakeslee rented the upper floor to William Curtis and his wife. Almost immediately, noises were heard nightly and the women of the house were kept busy hunting for their source. Sometimes they heard a loud crash, as though a hundred dishes had been hurled down the front stairway. Soon, Mrs. Blakeslee had had enough and insisted the family relocate to more serene digs.
Mr. and Mrs. Elihu Osborne and their niece, Mrs. Emma Best, moved in. As long as Mr. Osborne lived, the noises were less frequent, but following Elihu’s death, a whole host of hobgoblins seem to have been let loose. Mrs. Osborne said that not only did she hear the pounding and tramping of midnight visitors, but that groans, as of persons in distress, were often heard, and they were so distinct as to cause her to search the rooms.
Soon the Osbornes escaped the “haunted” home. The house is no longer standing, but its unseen noisemaker(s) likely relocated elsewhere in Stratford. At one time, there were those in Stratford who believed Rose Ambler had been murdered in this home in 1883. However, the site of her murder was, actually, the road leading to Oronoque.
A different type of scary story entered Stratford’s pantheon of fear when Jeremiah Fleming moved to Peace Street in 1917. Jeremiah was listed in the 1917 Stratford directory as a “drop forger”. (A drop forger is a skilled metalworking craftsman who shapes metal using the drop forging process, a technique in which a heated metal billet is struck by a falling hammer (or powered drop hammer) into a die to form a precise, high‑strength component). There is no listing for Jeremiah before or after 1917 so, obviously, his stay in Stratford was a brief one.
At some point, the drop forging skills possessed by Jeremiah were supplanted, or augmented, by his interest in snake oil production. He ordered 300 rattlesnakes from Texas to be delivered to his home on Peace Street in September 1917. Mr. Fleming was already keeping a pet Gila monster in his home. Mr. Fleming planned to use his rattlesnakes to make “snake oil”.
According to Jeremiah, he had traveled to all the towns in the United States over a period of 16 years selling his snake oil. He was planning on traveling to Huntington, Connecticut the week after his shipment of rattlesnakes arrived to sell his snake oil and show off some of his pet rattlesnakes and Gila monster. I wish I could have been on Peace Street the day his snake shipment arrived. It would seem that it would be very difficult to hide the arrival of 300 rattlesnakes, no matter how they came packaged.
A different type of “scary” occurred in December 1951 when Mrs. Harold (Ossie) Elliott decided to more fully familiarize herself with her neighbor, Peter Jones. She and Peter went for a December evening’s drive, which ultimately ended with more familiarization in Seaside Park, Bridgeport. Once the car came to a stop at Seaside Park, Harold Elliott leapt from the trunk of the car, confronting the canoodling couple wielding a broken broomstick.
While Harold confronted Peter with the broomstick, Mrs. Elliott jumped from the car, scantily clad with no overcoat, and disappeared into the night. Peter ended up with one end of the broomstick in his eye, and Harold escaped in the erstwhile love-mobile. Mrs. Elliott was subsequently found by Bridgeport Police wandering the streets of Bridgeport.
Peter was taken to the hospital and Harold drove the love-mobile to his home at 1476 Linden Avenue. As Harold was exiting the car, he discovered Peter’s trousers draped over the passenger seat of the car.
There are many ways to be frightened in Stratford during the Halloween season. However, one thing we’ve learned from Ossie Elliott’s experience is that if you’re planning to expand your romantic interests by going for an evening ride with your neighbor, before driving off into the night, always be sure to check for “junk in your trunk”.
