Mansfield House

My family moved to Mansfield, GA in 1974, when I was eight years old and my sister, Kelly, was twelve. Our two-story Victorian was a real beauty. Built in 1902, it also included an old carriage house, a cook house, two duck ponds, and the most amazing spread out garden gone to seed you ever saw. I remember the beautiful, abundant daffodils in the spring, and sweet-peas of every color grew rampant on the old, rusty fence.

The house was definitely haunted. One of the more frequent occurrences was what my family called "the marble in the bathtub." One would hear the downstairs shower curtain rustle, and the distinctive sound of those rings jangling. So, the person who heard this would walk into the bathroom and pull back the shower curtain. While looking down into the tub (which was fiberglass) you would hear the sound of what seemed to be a marble dropping into a ceramic tub, rolling down its length, and rolling around a drain before falling into it. There would be nothing visible to the eye in the dry tub.

When we moved in, my mother was in the kitchen hanging decorative spoons on the wall. As she turned away, one of the spoons flew off the wall and landed all the way across the room. She also heard the laughter of a woman on several occasions when she was alone in the house.

There was a long flight of stairs that lead to my older sister's bedroom. This was in a central hallway that ran from the front to the back of the house. Sometimes we would hear footsteps running up wooden stairs.....except that when we lived there the stairs were carpeted. More than once, when we as a family sat watching television in the downstairs den, we would hear the sound of something heavy being dragged over the rafters in the unfinished attic floor. One time (this was never repeated) we all watched the doorknob on a closed door slowly turn one way and then the other.

My parents' bedroom was what used to be the parlor in olden days, where they laid the bodies of those who passed away for viewing and mourning. Dad slept in the daytime because he worked the night shift at AT&T. He would sometimes be awakened by the sound of the swing on the porch hitting the wall, but when he looked outside, the swing would be completely still.

Last but not least, my "soldier."I was walking down the hallway one day heading toward the back of the house, when I saw the dim image of what appeared to be a man. He was rather short and and wore a long, green overcoat with metal buttons that came to midcalf. He had a cap on he head that had a flat top and was also greenish. He turned his head in my direction (although he had a completely blank look on his face, as though he was unaware of me) and then he walked through the wall and was gone. He had the look of a washed out old photo. His color, though visible, was extremely pale. This was the only apparition ever spotted at this house, though sometimes if you were looking in the mirror in the middle bedroom you might see something dart by the open doorway it reflected (it led out into the hall.) This was just a bare glimmer of fast movement you might happen to see every once in a while.

We moved from the house when I was about eleven, and I have dreamed about it since then, although not in a long time. In my dream I am in the house and I cannot get the lights to work. I am afraid, as it is very dark. I make my way to the attic and it is lit with a cold, blue, very dim light. I can see the outlines of people in the dark corners and I know they are dead.Then I wake up. About 6 years ago, I told my dad and my sister about the dreams, and they were amazed. It seems as if they had experienced similar dreams. Also, my mother kept in touch with the new owners and the wife said they had seen and heard some strange things, but that the husband was reluctant to admit it.

I don't know what was there at Mansfield house, but I do know it left an impression on my family. We are all intrigued and somewhat still creeped out by the fact that we actually lived in a bona fide haunted house. We can recount it now with amazement, but at the time it happened, it was pretty scary. I hope you enjoyed my story.