INTERVIEW

Notes from a informal conversation with Essie Aylor Nicholson, November 28, 1995.

Mrs. Nicholson was married to James Aylor who died in 1988. Both of his brothers are also deceased. Although she never lived at Thoroughfare Mountain Farm, Mrs. Nicholson remembered some of the stories that Mr. Aylor has told her and their children about the things that happened there when he was growing up as a boy.

Mrs. Nicholson remembers her husband, James, would tell them, that horses with riders would run up the driveway, but the horses were headless, and they would disappear. One day, one of James' brother was out riding on the farm and he reported seeing a rider dressed like a Confederate soldier coming toward him on a horse, but the horse had no head. There is a graveyard near the house where soldiers who fought in the Cedar Mountain Battle are buried.

In the house, the family would hear loud noises that sounded like doors opening and closing. James' father would go check to see if someone had entered the house; there was never anyone or anything there. They stacked wood in front of the door in hall in hopes that the door would stay closed. They would hear a loud noise, sounding as if the wood pile had fallen, but when his Father would go out to see what had happened, he would find that every piece of wood was in place.

Also the Berry family had lived there before the Aylor family. They had a baby which they neglected and starved to death in the cellar. Mr. Aylor told his wife that you would hear a baby crying in the cellar, but the members of the Aylor family could find no baby in the cellar and no explanation for these sounds.

Mrs. Nicholson remembers another story that Mr. Aylor had told her. Mr. Aylor, his father, and his brothers went hunting on the farm one day. The hunting dogs had treed something and were barking. When they looked up the tree to see what the dogs had cornered, they saw a white thing--like a cloud--hovering over the tree. It suddenly fell toward the ground and vanished before hitting the ground. The dogs tucked their tail between their legs as though they had been beaten, and ran away from the site.

The researcher also had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Aylor's daughter, Judy. She has never seen any of this phenomena, but she remembers her father telling these stories about the farm where he grew up.