When my parents decided to buy an abandoned mansion on Park Street in Newport, NH in the late 1950s, they were repeatedly warned against doing so by numerous people who claimed the place was haunted. As the story went, a young man had killed himself in one of the upstairs bedrooms after being jilted by his fiancee. His parents, upon finding his body, left the house almost immediately, and never again set foot in the place. It then remained unoccupied -- and slowly decaying -- for many, many years, and ultimately became known as the haunted house of Newport. My folks went ahead and bought it anyway -- they couldnt turn away when their low-ball offer was accepted -- and it soon was transformed into our beloved childhood home. Over the years, however, I wondered about the identity of the young man, and this past weekend -- after a great deal of sleuthing -- I finally found him. He was Henry W. Barton, age 23, the only child of Hubbard Barton, a newspaper editor in Newport, and his wife, Ella (Wilmarth) Barton. Henrys death record is below -- he died on 21 February 1914 after cutting his throat with a razor. (According to my mothers version, the suicide took place in the front upstairs bedroom later occupied by my sister Carol.) I am posting this as a memorial to Henry and his tragic end. Wish he could have gotten past the rejection and still lived a good full life. By the way, if there was a ghost of Henry W. Barton, we never saw him. Of course, David, Alan, Carol, and I were so loud and rambunctious that any efforts to haunt us were entirely drowned out...
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 18:59:25 +0000
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