NOTE:
The following story was posted with permission from The Newport/Gem
State Miner Newspaper - Fall 2002 Horizon
The
Haunted House of Laclede
Fall
2002
By
Andrea Evans
Halloween
tends to invoke in all of us, young and old, thoughts of ghosts,
goblins, witches, and haunted houses. And this time of year
we hear many tales of haunted houses, haunted hotels and ghost
stories, even in this area. There are even some local places
rumored to be haunted.
One
place is the old River Birch Farm Bed and Breakfast in Laclede,
now occupied by its owner for more than 30 years, Dale Robertson.
Lizzy Ellersick, the original owner, howev er, may still be
"occupying" the home as well.
The
House of Envy
Lizzy's brother built the house for her in 1903. For its time,
the house was quite magnificent, and was even considered the
nicest house in the countryside, Robertson said. Some of its
outstanding features, which are quite rare for the time, included
a furnace in the basement, whcih provided central heating
for the home. It also had infoor plumbing, which meant there
was a toilet in the house.
The
Ellersicks earned theri money from the sawmill that was on
their property. Even this was quite modern for its time. It
was planar engineered and ran off a central steam engine.
All parts of the mill were run through a belt and pulley system.
The Ellersicks were quite successful in the lumber business...until
the mill was completely destroyed by fire in about 1914. Back
then fire control was not very good. Once the mill caught
fire, there was no way of stopping it. Having no insurance,
the Ellersicks were virtually wiped out.
Neighborhood
Eccentric
No mill meant no money. And when the Ellersicks stopped making
money, Lizzy threw her husband, C. William Ellersick, out.
From then on, Lizzy lived in the house by herself. She closed
off the entire six-bedroom, five-bathroom house except for
the kitchen and one bedroom just off the kitchen.
It
is rumored that the people in town, especially the kids, thought
she was kind of weird. They treated her like she was some
kind of a special scary person, Robertson said. Kids would
sneak up on her while she was gardening or fishing and then
run off. She was considered the neighborhood witch, possibly
just because she lived in such a big house all by herself,
Robertson said. Regardless of her reputation, Lizzy continued
to live in her house until Oct. 26, 1960, when she died.
Rebuilding
a Home
It was 1969 when Robertson bought the house. Before
that it was vacant for a number of years. Locals called it
the haunted house of Laclede. The brave ones even went through
it at night.
When Robertson bought it, though, it had been vandalized and
had bad water damage from a leaky roof. In fact, the only
reason be bought it was for the waterfront property.
He
initially planned to tear the old house down because it was
in such terrible shape. But the house was so well made it
took him two weeks just to take off the front porch. It was
then he realized it was worth trying to save. The house was
built out of the best tamarack or larch the mill could cut,
he said.
"The
house is built like a rock," Robertson said. "It's
like a fortress alsmost."
The
basic part of the house was still in pretty good shape. About
five years after buying it, Robertson decided he would like
the house better if it were closer to the river instead of
right near the railroad tracks.
Although
he thought it would be impossible to move such a big house,
he was proven wrong. The Engblom Brothers of Priest River
managed to move the house about 200 yards and put it on a
new foundation right by the river.
"I
was truly amazed that they could do that," Robertson
said.
Then
he started rebuilding it, working on it a little bit at a
time while still living in Seattle. In the late 1970s he finally
moved into the house, living in the kitchen, since it was
the only room finished.
But
a s a commercial airline pilot, Robertson was often gone for
days at a time, even sometimes for as long as a month at a
time. His property managers came up with the idea of turning
the house into a bed and breakfast, an idea Robertson appearantly
thought was a good one.
In
about 1980 he opened his house up as the River Birch Farm
Bed & Breakfast. When he was home, he lived in the main
part of the house and ran the bed and breakfast along with
the managers he hired to take over while he was away.
Lizzy
Lingers
The operation turned out to be a success. The bed and breakfast
was featured twice in Sunset Magazine and on a Spokane news
station.
"The
house got a lot of publicity while it was a bed and breakfast,"
Robertson said.
But
at times, Lizzy seemingly wanted to let people knwo that it
was her house people were staying in. For the interest of
the guest, Robertson told most people about the story of Lizzy.
He
said he would ease them into it. If they seemed uneasy about
it he would stop. "Some people actually are easily frightened
by that kind of thing," he said.
Others
would return, asking to stay in lizzy's old room. Some quests
reported hearing different noises in the house, like someone
walking through the upstairs or the sound of doors opening
and closing. Bit no one has ever clained to have actually
seen Lizzy.
"I
hear noises every night in the house. The old house creaks
like crazy," Robertson said,, even though he said he
doesn't believe in ghosts.
Margaret
Locatell, who Robertson calls the "resident grandmother,"
also has heard some strange noises while staying in the house.
She now lives in what used to be the carrage house.
It
was slowley converted into a work shop and then a house. One
night, while sleeping in one of the six bedrooms, she said
she was awakened. "I heard some kind of noise and I said,
'Lizzy, will you keep quiet? I want to sleep!' And she was
quiet," Locatell said.
But
Locatell couldn't really describe the noise. She said it was
"just a noise."
Locatello,
who has lived there for almost 20 years, still finds old pieces
of dishes and other items that belonged to Lizzy around the
house. Robertson closed down the bed and breakfast in about
1995 after he retired.
The
managers of the operation also were ready to retire at that
time. Since then, Robertson has lived in the house but now
has it up for sale.
"It's
just too big to maintain," he said. He wants to stay
in the area, though. He plans to build a smaller house just
a little ways down the river. But his hope is that whoever
buys the River Birch Farm, with its 400 feed of waterfront
and 2.5 acres, will reopen it as a bed and breakfast.
Lizzy
just might enjoy making her presence known to her houseguests
again.
"I'm
sure that she was a very good person," Robertson said. |
