The Haunted Mansion

"I’m not going back in there, if that’s what you’re thinking about doing." Betty stated, in a firm voice.

"I’ll ask around, and see what I can find out about the place." Jill volunteered.

"Why the sudden interest in that old place. It’s stood there for years and years, with no one being interested, and all of a sudden, you just can’t wait to get in the place." Betty complained, and then continued on down Oak street, leaving Jill to look longingly at the old house.

"Well, I need a subject for my senior years history paper, and there’s just something about that place." Jill commented, following Betty. "We could make it a joint project."

Later that evening, Jill mentioned the mansion to her mother.

"Gracious girl! Why the sudden interest in the old Kimball Mansion? No one’s lived there for as long as I can remember. The county owned it for years, and finally deeded it to the town, to get rid of it. The town didn’t want it, but since it’s inside the new city limits, they had to take it." Mrs. Baker replied.

"Don’t know really, I was just looking at it this morning, and wondering."

"Wondering what dear?" Mrs. Baker asked absently, as Jill took the dishes form the dish washer, and handed them to her to be put neatly in their place. Mrs. Baker was one of those people who believed very strongly, everything had a place, and that’s where you should return it when you used it.

"If I really wanted to know about the place, where could I find out?" Jill asked, putting the last plate, very carefully in its place.

"You could try the hall of records. Mrs. Thornton is the city historian. She could point you in the right direction, but don’t go messing around there, unless you get permission from the right people, and you’ll have to find out who they are." Mrs. Baker cautioned.

"If I could get enough information on the place it would make a very interesting paper for my history class," Jill responded.

CHAPTER 2

Fact Finding Mission

Jill spent the weekend, and every afternoon, after school, for the next two weeks dragging Betty to every place in town that had any information on town history. Mrs. Thornton had suggested they make a trip to the county seat to check the records at the county court house, because all of the information that the Town had on the mansion began when the county insisted the property reverted to the town at the time the city limits were expanded to enclose the land the mansion stood on. One Friday, after school Betty and Jill borrowed Mrs. Baker’s car and drove to the county seat. The assessor’s office had records on the house and property that went back to pre civil-war days. They even had a set of blueprints that had been registered with the county, in the eighteen nineties, when the place was remodeled.

"What a find!" Jill exclaimed, looking over the sheets in the old ledger. "I don’t suppose there‘s a chance I could get a copy of these?" She asked the clerk, who was waiting to close the office, and go home to her family.

"If you insist," she growled, in an unfriendly manner. "Bring the ledger along. I’m sure not going to drag it down to the copy room for you."