Calud, D., & O’Connor, C. (2009). Beds,"Spooks and “Spirits”: Winery at Marjim Manor. In HauntedBuffalo: Ghosts in the Queen City (Haunted America) (e-bookedition, pp. 42–46). The History Press.
Daniel Klaes. (2016, August 11). BehindThe Shadows—S4E41(Marjim Manor). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPVUiNhesRM&t=126s
Dr. Chas. A. Ring Dies In His Chair. (1908,February 29). Buffalo Courier. http://newscomwc.newspapers.com/image/370258421/?terms=%22Charles%20A.%20Ring%22&pqsid=QV-w-sFoCwGcj6mQdP1cPw%3A1184000%3A401194203&match=1
Ghost Stories, Sightings and Experienceswith our Spirits at The Winery at Marjim Manor. (n.d.).Retrieved May 21, 2021, from https://marjimmanor.com/legend_current_ghost_sightings.html
Haunted Ghost Wineries Across The UnitedStates. (2016, October 28). Uncorked: The Blog. https://www.cawineclub.com/blog/haunted-ghost-wineries-across-united-states/
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Lewis E Merritt (1833-1865)—Find AGrave... (n.d.). Retrieved May 21, 2021, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114506704/lewis-e-merritt
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Marjim Manor. (2018). In Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marjim_Manor&oldid=833048263
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Neighbors, J. (2012, October 3). Joy’s JOYof Wine: Haunted Wineries of the Eastern U.S. Joy’s JOY ofWine. http://joysjoyofwine.blogspot.com/2012/10/haunted-wineries-of-eastern-us.html
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Obituary for Florella C. Morse RIPLEY.(1908, September 16). The Buffalo Enquirer, 9.
Obituary of Shubal Merritt. (1881, March 7).Buffalo Morning Express, page 6.
Our Resident Ghosts at the Winery atMarjim Manor in Appleton, NY. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2021,from https://marjimmanor.com/legend_ghosts.html
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The Spirit Guide: Marjim Manor.(2020, July 8). https://spookeats.com/2020/07/08/the-spirit-guide-marjim-manor/
Winery at Marjim Manor. (n.d.).Haunted History Trail of New York State. Retrieved May 20, 2021,from https://hauntedhistorytrail.com/explore/winery-at-marjim-manor
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Crimes &Witch-Demeanors, I’m your host, Joshua Spellman. On Crimes and Witch-Demeanorswe go further than the wikipedia page and dive into the archivalrecord to discover the truth behind your favorite ghostlytales.
I hope everyone is doing well and that you enjoyedlast week’s diversion from the usual. If you didn’t, nowworries! Today I’mback to my old hijinks and looking at a really fun historic hauntthat I so desperately hoped to be true.
I love wine, I truly do, and it’s one of the reasonsI love Western New York and Southern Ontario — we have so manygreat wineries — and many of them are haunted. Today I’ll be telling thealleged —and I mean alleged— tale of Marjim Manor, a haunted wineryin the Hamlet of Appleton, New York.
Sounds quaint, right? Wrong. Tales of murderous FreeMasons and a mysterious death curse plague this winery - andspoiler, a dog dies in the end. But how much of it istrue? That’s whatwe’re here to find out. So let’s dive right in to thepurported past of Marjim Manor…
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In order to fully encapsulate the story of MarjimManor, or at least the story of its ghosts, we must begin in 1826with a man by the name of William Morgan. William Morgan was abricklayer from Virginia who moved to Batavia, New York in1824. Once hearrived in the small village, he attempted to join the localmasonic lodge.
Morgan claimed that he had joined the Masons inanother country, and his in-depth knowledge of their most secretrituals appeared to confirm this. Despite this, his applicationto the lodge was rejected. In a fury, Morgan threatenedto publish a tell-all book that would expose the Free Masons andtheir deeply hidden secrets. Morgan recruited a localprinter, David Miller, to his cause to publish his expose.
However, before any copies could be printed, Miller’sprinting press and his office mysteriously burned down and Morganwas arrested for overdue bills. Miller paid Morgan’s bail butjust as Morgan was released, he was locked up again for anotherpast-due bill in the neighboring town of Canandaigua.
Unfortunately, Miller was not able to come to therescue of Morgan this time - the loss of his business and the firstset of bail had depleted what little funds he had. Fortune was on Morgan’s side,however, as a mysterious stranger paid his bail and arranged for acarriage to pick him up outside the jail.
The carriage appeared to be headed to Canada,allegedly to prevent Morgan from being arrested again on similarcharges…but the carriage made an unexpected stop at Fort Niagara topick up a few new passengers. It was here when a handful ofMasons grabbed Morgan, tied him with rope, and carried him onto aboat bound for Canada.. However…while the Masons madeit safely across the Niagara River and Lake Ontario…Morgan didnot.
The Masons had tied William Morgan to a large rockand tossed him overboard into the seemingly endless depths of theGreat Lake.William Morgan died just off the shore of modern-day MarjimManor. A large,natural stone served as a marker for the site of Morgan’sdeath.
8 years later the parcel of land that served asWilliam Morgan’s death site was purchased by Schubal ScudderMerritt. Merrittpromptly set to work on building his dream-home, constructing a9,500 square foot manor made of stones imported fromItaly. Gardens andorchards were planted on the surrounding land and a rock garden wasartfully placed around the large stone that marked the site ofWilliam Morgan’s death. The estate was proudly deemed“Appleton Manor”, named so for the hamlet in the town of Newfanelocated just south of the property.
Merritt lived on the property with his wife SophiaSpencer Wilson, his son Lewis, and his two daughters Phoebe Sophiaand Cordelia Marie. They lived in bliss for quitesome time until March of 1864 when Sophia passed away. Sophias death set theirfortune on its head and things only went downhill from there andmarked the beginning of the curse of Marjim Manor.
The very next year, Schubal and his son Lewisreturned from a hunting trip. Lewis had gone upstairs whileSchubal remained in the parlor to clean their guns. While upstairs, Lewis hadopened a letter from the University of Rochester stating that histuition had been raised to $12 a semester. Shocked an appalled at this,Lewis ran down stairs and burst through the French doors of theparlor to tell his father. Unfortunately, Schubal wasstartled by his son’s dramatic entrance and the gun he was cleaningwas accidentally set off — shooting and killing Lewis on thespot. Lewis diedon the spot, at 3:00pm on Thursday.
This tragic accident sent Schubal into a spiral ofguilt and anxiety.He demanded that the French doors to the parlor be permanentlysealed in order to prevent another tragedy and to help block awaythe memory of that tragic day. Years passed before SchubalMerritt also died in the home on March 2, 1881…at3:00pm. It wasalso a Thursday.
After Merritt’s passing his daughter Phoebe Sophiaand her husband Lucius Adams moved into the family home afterbuying Cordelia’s share of the farm. They lived inpeace, raisingtheir daughter Elizabeth, void of tragedy for years…until one day,while Phoebe was in the parlor with her husband — the French doors,which had been permanently sealed for years, blew wideopen. With a gasp,Phoebe fell to the floor - dead. Again, at 3 o’clock on aThursday afternoon.
Phoebe’s husband and daughter moved out of the homeshortly after and it began to rent the property. They had rented the home to aman by the name of John Morely, who, while he had died on aTuesday, his body wasn’t found until…3:00pm that Thursday.
Fed up with the constant tragedy, and the apparentcurse, the family eventually sold the property to Dr. Charles A.Ring. Dr. CharlesRing had been the very first director of the esteemed, and veryhaunted, Richardson Olmsted Complex — or the Buffalo InsaneAsylum. Dr. Ringand his wife, Estelle Morse, had dreamt of escaping the city ofBuffalo to begin farming.
Dr. Ring and his wife ended up being excellentfarmers and were well-known in the region for their outstandingpeach crops.However, it seems that the Ring family could not escape the samefate that befell the Merritts. On a Thursday afternoon at 3o’clock the servants in the home heard a loud bang coming fromupstairs. Theservants rushed to the second floor office of Dr. Ring and foundhim dead at his desk from no apparent cause. The bang they had heard wasthe sound of his skull smashing onto his solid oak desk.
Estelle maintained the peach farm for as long as shecould before dying of old age. Marjim Manor was then sold tothe Sisters of St. Joseph to be used as a summer retreat and a campfor young girls.
The Sisters of St. Joseph had a dog named Luke, whowas doted upon by both the Sisters and the children who attendedcamp. One day Lukewas in the parlor, curled up by the fireplace, when he abruptly satup and ran over to the French doors. He barked at them three timesbefore going back to his spot by the fireplace, laying down, anddying. It was3:00pm on a Thursday.
The victims of this apparent curse still haunt thegrounds today, making their presence known to all those who visitthe grounds. Wasthis land cursed by the death of the alleged freemason WilliamMorgan or has this land always been a place of tragedy? You can still visit MarjimManor today, as it operates as a winery and a wedding venue.
No one has died there in quite some time…but I adviseyou to perhaps avoid scheduling your visit at 3 o’clock on aThursday…just in case…
_____
Oh boy. I don’t even know where tobegin with this one. I kind of what you to dumpmost of what I just told you out of your skull, because it’s eithernot true or incredibly confused, but either way, like ice wine,it’s cause for upset.
A lot of the initial story I obtained from abook titled Haunted Buffalo: Ghosts in the Queen City byDwayne Claude and Cassidy O’Connor. It’s a nice place to start,but dear god. The inaccuracies. Even the misspellings, butthese error aren’t isolated to this book alone and actually plaguemost of the retellings on the internet and television as well.
The book started of on the wrongest of feet withciting Schubal Merritt’s name as Sue-bell. Which sounds likesomeone who identifies as a woman and/or a cow.
But the thing that intrigued be about this particularstory at Marjim Manor is what a great narrative and curse thatfollows the occupants of this land and it’s something that could beeasily verified or debunked. Well, sort of. You’ll see.
The story of William Morgan and his attempt toswindle the Free Masons is true up until hisdisappearance. Noone really knows what happened to him — whether he was murdered orsimply escaped to Canada. It’s actually a much moreinvolved story in its own right and the local library in Bataviahas a number of materials related to the story — but that’s notwhat we’re here for.
The story states that Schubal Merritt built hismansion as soon as he bought the land, but in fact it was actuallythe third house they had built on the property. The Merritt’s first built alog cabin, then a frame house, and finally, once their business wasturning real profits, they built the manor in 1854.
Sophia enjoyed the house for a decade before dying oftuberculosis in 1864. Now a year after this is whentheir son Lewis tragically died from a gunshot wound in theparlor…or is it?It turns out that story is just that…a story. Lewis wasn’t shot and killedby his father, instead, like his mother, he also died oftuberculosis.
As the story goes Schubal Merritt himself died onMarch 2, 1881…on a Thursday at 3 just like his son. The tale goes on to say thatPhoebe inherited the home but ended up dying as the French doorsblew open at 3pm on a Thursday.
Of course there are more deaths, but let’s look atthe Merritt family first. I definitely had some troublelocating the records of their death because somehow in thesame incredibly small town there was another SchubalMerritt and another Sophia Spencer Wilson who were notmarried to each other. This sent me into aspiral. But don’tworry, I came out of it and found the right people.
Part of the confusion is the book and many othersources provide variant spellings for Merritt, either one “t” ortwo, as well as various spellings for the daughter Phoebe.
Adding to the confusion is that Lewis Merritt has twograves in two different cemeteries, both providing different deathdates and middle initials. One grave with theinscription of Lewis W. Merritt claimed he died on the 22nd of Mayin 1863 and the age of 29. Which…would have been aFriday, not a Thursday. The other grave, for Lewis E.Merritt claimed he died on the 22nd of May 1865 at the age of31…the generally accepted date, which…would have been a Monday.
Okay, strike one!
Well, what about Old Schubal Merritt? Maybe he died on a Thursday,since the day of March 2, 1881 is always cited in thestory. Oh, what’sthat? That wasactually a Wednesday? Yikes. People use this date all thetime and never bothered to check. I confirmed it with hisgravesite and an excerpt from the Neighborhood Newssection of the March 7, 1881 Buffalo Morning Express thatstates “Mr. Shubal Merritt, an old and much esteemed citizen ofNewfane died on the 2nd”
Strikeeeeeee two!
Okay, well what about Phoebe? Her grave states she died onApril 9, 1921 which was a Saturday. BUTaccording to the NY State Death Index she actually passed away onApril 7th which is in fact a Thursday! Woo! We finally have a Thursdaydeath in the house…right? Well…no. Phoebe and her husband Luciusnever moved into the home after Shubal’s death. They immediately sold theproperty to Dr. Ring. And Phoebe died in 1921,outliving the next tenants by over a decade.
Now, even the Dr. Ring parts of the story are sus butthey also tell us how this Urban Legend began. The story goes that Dr. Ringmoved into the home with his fiancé, Estelle Morse. No. Dr. Ring moved in with hiswife, Hannah Denelia Ripley Farwell. How Estelle comes into thepicture is…confusing.
Hannah’s father, Reverend Allen Plumb Ripley had asecond wife, Florella Celeste Morse…who had a half-sister EliaEstelle Morse.Confused yet? Itgets more confusing.
Hannah, Dr. Ring’s wife, died in the home in 1907.However, in January of 1908 he named Elia Estelle Morse, his latewife’s step-mother’s half-sister the heir of theestate. Hemysteriously dropped dead the very next month.
What about Dr. Ring? When did he die? According to his grave hedied on the 29th of February, 1908 but according to the BuffaloCourier he passed away the evening prior, as stated, on the28th. The currentowner of the house states that it was the 28th and is adamant thatthis is the only death in the home to be on a Thursdayafternoon.However, whichever date you go with, it was either a Saturday and aFriday, respectively, and definitely not a Thursday despite theowner’s claims.
Which is strange, because the owner maintains thatnone of the Merritt’s died on a Thursday afternoon but claims thatthe whole of the Ring family did. Which…you guessed it…alsoisn’t accurate.
Estelle moved into the home promptly after Dr. Ring’sdeath with her half-sister, Florella, who was Hannah’s…Hannah’sstep…mother-in-law? It’s all very confusing andstrange. It was ascandal at theme that Estelle inherited the property. She was a shrewdbusinesswoman so it’s no surprise she managed to wrestle theproperty from Dr. Ring. A shame he died only a monthafter he put her in the will…but I digress.
Florella died later that year on September 14,1908. Again, theowner claims this was one of the Thursday deaths. I am here once again to tellyou it was a Monday.
Estelle ended up marrying a farmer who was acaretaker at Marjim Manor until they left the home in1922. Marjim Manorwent into foreclosure before being taken up by the Sisters of St.Joseph who used it has a summer home and a retreat for deafchildren from St.Mary’s School of the Deaf. The book states they had adog named Luke who died, which is partially true. The dog did die, as allliving things do, but his name was actually Duke. Luke would make more biblicalsense, but you know, he looked more like a Duke. There are photographs of him,but unfortunately I have no way of verifying when he died.
So how did these rumors start? It turns out that EstelleMorse was the one to start spreading these rumors in an article ina The New York World published in 1908. This article wasan interview with Estelle that praised her for being such a greatbusinesswoman. I’msure she wove this tale to try and drum up some interest in herwinery. Now, whilethe source of this information is the owner of the manor, whichseems slightly unreliable, I have no reason to doubt it — there isa framed version of it hanging in the home.
In fact, a ghostly occurrence happened with thisframed article. Itwas the day of Estelle’s birthday. The bartender poured a glassof a sweet red wine in honor of her and claimed that it was “Asweet red wine for a lady that may have not been so sweet” and justas the bartender had said that, the framed article flew from thewall and broke the frame’s glass. Apparently she resented thatremark.
One of the most active place for ghosts in the houseis the front stairs. The Ghost Hunter’s show heardsomeone say “Who’s in my house?” Without even utilizing their EVPequipment. A youngman in Victorian dress has been seen in that very spot — could itbe the ghost of Lewis?
The covered front porch is another hotspot forparanormal activity. Estelle Morse is said togreet visitors as they come in the home. It has also been reported onmany occasions that people have seen an older gentleman upstairswho began complaining about that same front porch. This is most likely SchubalMerritt, as that particular front porch as not a part of the homewhen he built it.
A former employee and her family acted as wintercaretakers for Marjim Manor since they lived up the street from theproperty. One daythey were making their rounds and making sure the home was in orderand that none of the pipes had froze. As they were making theirlast passes downstairs an alarm clock started ringingupstairs. Theywent upstairs to turn off the alarm clock but were shocked to findthat while it was still going off…it was not plugged into thewall.
But all encounters have not been friendly. The homewas also a part of the underground railroad (many orchards were inthe area at the time — one of my favorites, Murphy’s orchard was aswell). Sadly, eventhough they were part of the underground railroad, escaped slavesmay have to hide for days or weeks in the dark in extremely crampedquarters, literally underground.
Because of the psychic energy and trauma, visitorsexperience the feeling an intense sadness in the area. Others are instead pinched,poked, and pushed which may indicate a more aggressive ormalevolent presence…but I’m willing to bet maybe the victims ofthese ghostly encounters were just racists and the ghosts of theescaped slaves were just having some harmless revenge.
