The Roberts Castle
These photos were taken in June, 2002 at a castle here in the United States.
Some observers see ghostly shapes in the windows, but I'll let others decide.
This castle was built in 1894 for a Civil War general. It's been owned by my husband's aunt since the early 1940's. There have always been stories about spirits there.
When we were visiting several years ago, I decided to take an afternoon nap in the 2nd floor tower room toward the front of the castle (windows on the right on the 2nd floor in the photo on the left above). I was awakened when I heard someone walking across the floor in the 3rd floor tower room. Whoever it was, they were wearing heavy shoes (or boots) because the sound was loud. That room hadn't been used in years. I heard a man speak a single word but I didn't understand what he said. I asked him to repeat it but I never did hear anything.
I went downstairs to ask my husband why he had been upstairs in the tower room walking so heavily. He said he hadn't been up there and then pointed to his shoes. He was wearing his usual tennis shoes so I knew it wasn't him.
His aunt smiled and said I had met "the ghost". She said she used to take afternoon naps in the same room I had been in and that a young gentleman, dressed in black, sometimes appeared to her.
She told me to go up to her bedroom on the 2nd floor and get a suitcase that she had filled with stories of the castle and its first owners. Just what I wanted to do...go back upstairs. I reluctantly went up and got the suitcase.
After reading about the history of the castle and about the original owners, we came to the same conclusion. The man I heard (and she had seen in the past) was probably the son-in-law of General Roberts (the original owner).
General Roberts’ daughter, Isabel, was married to a young man in the castle. In 1919, the son-in-law died in the house. He died from the flu which was a wartime flu epidemic. It was a global disaster that killed between 20 million and 40 million people. It was reported that more people died from this flu (known as the Spanish Influenza) in one year than in the four years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague in the mid-14th century.
Soon after his son-in-law's death, General Roberts moved his wife and daughter to California where they all later died. It seems that the son-in-law still hasn't left and must be waiting for his family to return for him.
In the years since this happened, there have been nights when we've seen shadows and heard someone walking up and down the long hallway. Could it be that Isabel has returned to find her love lost so many years ago?
Additional photos of the Roberts Castle:
The Haunted Lizzie Borden House
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