Northampton Township, Then and Now

Random doors open and close in unoccupied rooms...lamps turn on and off for no apparent reason...children’s footsteps creak under the floorboards above...light-hearted voices shriek with joy outside the front window, but no one is there...dishes shuffle in and out, back and forth, in the cupboards that store them...cellar doors open automatically, letting in a cold puff of air...barely audible male and female arguing emanates through a closed-off attic room....

These supernatural scenes and the imagery they evoke aren’t a setting for the next Poltergeist movie, but are vivid accounts of ghostly happenings reported by Northampton residents, circa 1940. So authentic are they that the Northampton Library’s Archive Room keeps clippings of these unusual and unexplained phenomena. Meeting these unsettled spirits and learning where they lurked offer insight into the mysterious early history of this community. Could Northampton be labeled a ghost town?

The Cornell home at 987 Second Street Pike was the site of the frivolous ghostly youngsters who reportedly took refuge at the property, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing, but mostly causing dismay to the property’s owners. The original house was built about 1702 but it wasn’t until John and Margaret Gallagher purchased the home from John and Margaret Cornell hundreds of years later that the feisty antics and disquieting ‘noises’ began.

The Gallaghers used the property not only as a residence but also as a business, selling candles, candies and small gifts. When John, the father of the couple’s five children, was injured in an auto accident, he was forced to sell his farm and earn his living making candles and tending to the gift shop. Perhaps the small ghostly predecessors were protesting a business being run in their beloved family home? Or were they simply searching for earthly playmates and newfound friends in the form of the Gallagher children?

Where did these ghostly children come from? What were they doing? Why can’t they be still? These are questions that author Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey wanted answered when she set out to write her book, Ghosts in the Valley, parts of which are photocopied and available for viewing in the library’s treasure trove of archives.

It’s easy to rationalize and explain away this paranormal activity. Could the little ghouls who frolicked in the house along with the Gallaghers actually be the Gallagher clan themselves playing games on their parents? Skeptics beware: research shows that this is not the case. This theory was nixed mainly because in each of the ghostly ‘appearances,’ every one of the Gallagher children was present and accounted for. They were either sleeping soundly in their beds or easily within view of the parents. To date, there has been no rational explanation as to how, and why, these mystical encounters occurred.

The same explanation holds true for the case of the phantom arguing couple who were heard over and over again on the upper floors of their large and beautiful home, which is now the site of the Churchville Nature Center. The ghostly couple made themselves known when they reportedly turned lamps on and off and rummaged through dishes in the cupboards.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much recorded on what happened to the ghosts after their initial ‘sightings’ on any of these properties. Early residents and local history buffs are invited to fill in the missing information.

In the meantime, plan a visit to the library’s Archive Room to brush elbows with some of Northampton’s earliest residents, their antics and artifacts. In this tiny room, tucked away on the left side of the library, you’ll find the history magnificent, the ghost stories intriguing and the hands-on experience fascinating.

Visit www.northamptontownship.com for more information.

References

Jeffery, Adi-Kent Thomas. Ghosts in the Valley. Archive clippings Northampton Township. 2007. Seaboard Press: Rockville, MD.