State

the house before their deaths." At a later time, a farm worker, who was dying of consumption in the upstairs bedroom, saw a girl riding down the road on a white horse. But. the fact was. no one had passed that dead-end path all day. In 1909 during the last illness of Elisha Lister, who had a stroke, one of Lister’s cousins, who was a lifelong friend and a man of the same age as he, was staying in the house. Lister’s cousin and another man were sitting on the porch, talking casually, when the cousin "suddenly pointed to the road, unable to speak, clutched his chest and died instantly." Markham reported. Fred Markham's mother (Goldie Lister Markham) and father mewed into the house in 1920. In 1923 (Fred wrote), "She was swinging on the front porch with her infant son in her lap. She looked toward the road and saw some¬ one dressed in shimmering white, riding a white horse. “She called to them and receiving no answer, gathered the babe in her arms and walked to meet them. Halfway down the gateway path the horse and rider vanished before her eyes . . . The next day. the infant son was taken ill and died within a week.” The infant was Fred Markham’s older brother. When Fred was 2 'h years old. in the late 1920’s, his family left the Shan- nonhouse place for good; left it because Fred was so ill that they wanted to be in town, near a doctor. But others — tenants and their families, many of whom had never heard the story of the curse nor of the ghost lived in the house from time to time, and people continued to die there. Edna Morrisctte (Mrs. Norman K.) Shannonhouse of Elizabeth City is a genealogist and family historian. She is the author of books on the Morrisctte and Shannonhouse families, and co¬ author (with Wilma C. Spence) of North Carolina Bible Records (1974). She is also, by marriage, the great-niece of Ellanora Shannonhouse. She and Fred Markham’s mother talked about the Shannonhouse home. “She told me.” Edna said, “that at the time Fred’s brother died, the walls in the back corner of the parlor kept up a continual cracking sound. When the little boy breathed his last, the creaking stopped.” In addition. Edna recalled, “all through the years, chairs rocked and doors opened in that house without cause.” One Sunday afternoon, the fam¬ ily heard a noise in the upstairs bed¬ room directly above them, a noise that sounded as though someone were drag¬ ging a trunk across the floor. But when they investigated, the bedroom was in perfect order, and not occupied by anyone they could sec. In the years after the Markhams left the place, and the house was rented off and on. none of the tenants would stay for long. Once. Edna Shannonhouse said, the tenants moved out in the mid¬ dle of the night. They had lived there only three weeks. "What frightened them so was the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs during the small hours of the night." Edna said. When they investigated those footsteps, there was never anyone there. No remuneration and only scant honor was ever paid a Halifax County inventor who conceived the electrically lighted channel marker that made possi¬ ble safe passage at night in New York harbor and other navigable waters. Peter Evans Smith also had an im¬ portant discovery stolen from him dur¬ ing the Civil War. but history has re¬ corded to his name both notable creations as well as other conspicuous innovations in agriculture and railroading. Born near Scotland Neck in 1829. Smith was educated at Bingham School, at Mebane. and at UNC. His versatile mind led to patented inven¬ tions, including a cotton planter in 1871. with which one man did the work of three: a sulkey plow in 1877; a spark arrestor for woodburning locomotives in 1885. which caused sparks to fall back into the engine instead of on the roadside and ignite fires; a self-coupler for railroad cars, and a rail car switch¬ ing device. During the Civil War while working on the Ram Albemarle. Smith perfected a drill which reduced from 20 to four minutes the time required to cut a hole in iron. His invention, stolen, was even patented by another person before the war ended. "A young daughter of those tenants said that she was sleeping in the front bedroom and heard the footsteps on the stairs, and that time they kept coming down the hall. The door to her bedroom opened and she felt the weight of some¬ one sitting down on the foot of her bed. She screamed and turned on the light and . . . nothing." There was nothing visible there. Over the subsequent years the 1816 house has fallen slowly into ruin, pro¬ viding another brooding image for the moon to silhouette. The last death in the house was in 1968 or;'69. Fred Markham said. Nobody at all has lived there since. Except, perhaps. Ellanora. who could not die so young. Never On Sunday Early recognizing the need for rail service between Scotland Neck and Halifax. Smith donated his services to survey the right-of-way. eventually a gift to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He was then employed to carry the railroad to Kinston. Washington and other eastern points. While making the survey to Washington, the ACL Chief of Construction arrived by private car at the camp site one Saturday night. On Sunday morning he wanted to go over the line. "I can’t do it." answered Smith, ac¬ cording to his daughter. Miss Lena H. Smith, in her signed article in the Scotland Neck Commonwealth, July L3. 1928. "You must. I came for that purpose." said the chief. "I can’t break God’s divine law for any man." Smith replied. "I resign now. get you another man to do your work." The Chief stayed over, surveyed the line on Monday. The daughter wrote that her father "made his hands keep Sunday properly even when they were camped in the woods along the proposed rail line." Lighted Buoys But his most important contribution The World Owes Peter Evans Smith A prolific* Tar Heel inventor whose most notable contribution was never rewarded. By BILLY ARTIII R 14 THE STATE. DECEMBER 1984