It’s the first day of winter. That means Christmas isn’t far away; the time when people around the world celebrate the birth of Christ and share in the spirit of giving. It’s also the time of Christmas spirits; images widely known as a result of “A Christmas Carol”. But Christmas ghost stories aren’t limited to Charles Dickens’ classic tale.
As Andy Williams sings, “It’s the hap-happiest season of all. There’ll be parties for toasting, marshmallows for roasting and caroling out in the snow. There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”
Have you ever wondered what that line about “scary ghost stories” means in the classic Christmas song by Andy Williams? Immediate thoughts might lead to Ebenezer Scrooge and those spirits that visited a drafty, old Victorian house one Christmas Eve.
Marley: “I come tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. You will be visited by three spirits.”
Scrooge: “What? Was that the chance of hope that you mentioned, Jacob? I think I’d rather not.”
And who would? But visits from ghosts on Christmas Eve wasn’t a phenomena limited to the imagination of Charles Dickens.
According to British humorist Jerome K. Jerome’s 1891 anthology of ghost stories, “Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories. Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about specters.”
In fact, historians argue that Dickens single-handedly saved Christmas from dying in England during the Industrial Revolution by re-introducing the centuries-old tradition of telling a Christmas Eve ghost tale.
Narrator: “Old Marley was as dead as a door nail. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story I’m going to relate….”
Telling Christmas ghost tales isn’t a tradition here on the Northern Plains, but we certainly have all the makings for at least one South Dakota specter story: an old Queen Anne house, a lonely old man writing in his wife’s Bible - and the tragic tale that surrounds them both.
W.E. Adams: “Now, after 45 years of married life, find myself deprived of my loving wife and both of my dear daughters. I feel like one forsaken and do not see ahead of me in this world much, if any, happiness…”
Shortly before December 22, 1925, what would have been his wedding anniversary; Deadwood businessman W.E. Adams took pen in hand to record his feelings about the death of his wife, Alice, his daughter, Helen and his newborn baby granddaughter. All three had died within 48 hours of each other the previous June. His oldest daughter, Lucile, had died a decade earlier.
Adams did remarry, but his happiness ended after seven years when W.E. died of a stroke in the Deadwood house that bears his name.
Mary, the second Mrs. Adams; returned to Deadwood each year to visit, but never stayed in the family home. Rumors began to circulate that the spirits in The Adams House didn’t rest easy.
“Thank you so much for welcoming us into your house tonight. We’re just here to try and document your presence…so…if you are here in this room with us…could you please…” says Josh Wennes of Black Hills Paranormal Investigations.
Wennes recently conducted a series of tours at The Adams House to research the many reports of unusual activity that have been witnessed here over the years. Everything from shadow figures, to murmuring, whistling and footsteps when no one else is in the building.
I explore the century-old house with Josh and several other guests at about 1 a.m. – with the lights off. Needless to say, there are quite a few unexplained…events.
Man: “Did anyone else hear that noise? You did?
Woman 2: “And I looked over there and the chair was rocking.”
Woman 3: “And there was a clear impression, as if someone had been laying on the bed.” 20
So, who made the noise? Was Alice Adams rocking in her chair? Had W.E. been lying in the bed where he died? Odd events like these have been taking place here for nearly one hundred years now and the paranormal investigators aren’t saying what – or who – causes them. But they do admit that strange things can happen at The Adams House on any day of the year, including Christmas.