Ghosthunting Maryland. Michael J. Varhola
reproduction of the portrait Poe painted of Virginia after she died in 1847; a reprint of the 1849 obituary from the October 24, 1849 edition of the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper; and Poe’s original announcement about the creation of The Stylus, a literary magazine that never got off the ground.
Strange phenomena people have reported at the site include the sensation of someone tapping them on the shoulders, mysterious muttering voices, lights moving around in the house when no one was in it, inexplicable cold spots, windows flying open or slamming shut—and, in at least one case, a window falling out of its frame and smashing onto the floor.
Some people have, predictably, also claimed to see the ghost of Poe in this house—and perhaps part of his spirit does remain behind there residually, or visits periodically during its rounds to the many other sites where people have seen it. What even more people have claimed to see or otherwise sense, however, is a specter that many have described as a heavyset, middle-aged woman. Who she might be, however—and whether or not she has any connection to Poe—remains unclear, and further investigation would seem to be in order.
Spotlight on Ghosts: Inspired Ghost Tracking
Inspired Ghost Tracking is a meetup group of like-minded people who visit haunted sites, share paranormal experiences, and arrange for experts in the field to come to their monthly meetings and speak about subjects like ghosthunting techniques. The group is headquartered in Odenton, Maryland, about halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and was founded by Margaret Ehrlich in October 2008. The group has visited Westminster Hall and Churchyard in Baltimore, the Fells Point neighborhood in the same city, and the haunted Ramblewood House in Darlington, Maryland.
“I’ve always been interested in the paranormal,” Margaret told me, noting that she once lived in a haunted house. She never really delved into it, however, until after becoming single in 2008 and having the opportunity to pursue some of her own interests, particularly energy healing (e.g., Reiki). She was also interested in joining some sort of a ghosthunting group, but could not find one in or around Anne Arundel County, the part of Maryland in which she lived.
After her friend Christy Puglisi suggested the name Inspired Ghost Tracking for the group she was thinking of starting, Margaret was inspired to move ahead with doing so right before Halloween of 2008. Six people showed up for her first event, as compared to around fifty at a recent one, and the group now has about eighty registered members. And the organizational needs of the group have increased so much that Margaret has had to recruit a number of assistants—who have included Julie Leese, Maria Blume, Amy Twigg, Ed, Darla, and Wendy Super—to help her coordinate events and activities.
Central
Ellicott City
Ilchester
Pikesville
CHAPTER 5
Druid Ridge Cemetery
PIKESVILLE
The Blackshere monument at Druid Ridge Cemetery is one of the spots at the site around which people have reported paranormal phenomena.
Almost as soon as the sculpture was in place, it acquired a reputation as something supernatural. Groundskeepers would apprehend two or three teenagers a week trying to test their nerve. The cemetery became a popular site for midnight fraternity initiations, where an anxious pledge might be required to sit on the lap of “Black Aggie” to see whether it was true that her arms would reach out and embrace you. It was said that her eyes turned red after midnight, and that anyone returning her earthly stare would go blind. Just as the clock struck twelve, it was claimed, she would let out a blood-curdling shriek, over a background of clanking chains.
—Mary Ellen Thomsen, Druid Ridge Cemetery
ANY SEARCH FOR INFORMATION about paranormal activity at Druid Ridge Cemetery will turn up innumerable references to the legend of “Black Aggie,” a statue with which there is associated a strange story replete with peculiar details both mundane and preternatural. This is somewhat unfortunate, in that on the one hand it draws attention away from more worthy and genuine stories associated with the beautiful site—and on the other that the statue has not actually resided on the site for more than forty years, despite references in sources published since then that implies it still does.
In 1925, Felix Agnus, a U.S. Army brevet general during the Civil War who thereafter became a prominent publisher, placed over the grave of his wife the bronze statue of an androgynous robed figure by sculptor Edward L.A. Pausch. Controversy sprung up almost immediately around the sculpture, which was an unauthorized, some said inferior, reproduction of an allegorical statue by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens erected at the Adams Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery, in Washington, D.C. (ironically, the name Black Aggie has subsequently been applied by many to the original). Agnus successfully sued the party who sold him the imitation statue but thereafter refused to remove it from the gravesite.
Perhaps it would have been better if he had. Almost immediately, the statue became a magnet for young vandals whose criminal depredations were dismissed by those whose property was not being destroyed as “rites of passage.” For four decades, people performed inane rituals at the site, scrawled obscenities on the statue and the marble pedestal upon which it rested, and in one case, actually chopped off part of the statue with a hacksaw.
Eventually, the despairing Agnus family decided to have the statue removed from the site to a place where it might be appreciated. The Maryland Institute of Art expressed interest in the statue but refused to pay for a base to support it. The Smithsonian Institution accepted it in 1967 and promptly put it into apparently permanent deep storage, despite the family’s belief that it would be given a prominent place. It was eventually moved to the rear courtyard of the Dolly Madison House, now part of the Federal Courts building in Washington, D.C. (although legends persist in some circles that the statue was never actually removed from Druid Ridge Cemetery and is actually buried beneath the Agnus family gravesite or hidden elsewhere on the burial grounds).
While removal of the statue ended the history of pranks and vandalism associated specifically with it and the Agnus plot, it did not end the incidence of apparently genuine paranormal phenomena reported by visitors to the site, and it remains a popular venue for investigators.
Psychic Beverly Litsinger of the Maryland Ghosts and Spirits Association, for example, has detected spiritual presences at Druid Ridge Cemetery. She also told me about the apparition of a dark, shadowy figure that appears in the middle of the cemetery and can be seen walking toward one of the graves. Other people have reported a wide variety of other phenomena at specific areas around the cemetery—especially around the Gail, Marburg, and Blackshere family burial plots—to include orbs, mists, EVPs, and apparitions.
Much of such activity, to include phenomena similar to what was traditionally associated with Black Aggie, has been reported around the striking green bronze Gail monument, a distinctly female figure that, despite the fact that it looks very little like Black Aggie, is often erroneously identified with the more famous statue. It is worth noting, however, that many of the stories about Black Aggie mention physical characteristics that it does not have (e.g., an arm that could be sawed off), but which the Gail statue does. This statue is located just a few hundred feet away from where Black Aggie formerly sat.
My mother and I visited Druid Ridge Cemetery in early June 2009 and were immediately struck with the magnificence and size of the place, a sprawling, 208-acre site that is truly a city of the dead. The cemetery includes