In the county of Antigonish there is a place called Caledonia Mills.
Alexander and Mary MacDonald and their 16 year-old adopted daughter
Mary-Ellen lived in a farm house in this small community.
In
January of 1922, a fire started in part of their house. Oddly it was not
near their fireplace or wood stove. Once extinguished another erupted
in an empty room at the other end of the
home. The family was totally puzzled. Other fires materialized
mysteriously. Wet towels and the patches of wallpaper would burst into
flames. It did not take the family long to realize that there was
something unnatural occurring. With the help of their neighbors they
began to guard the house, hoping to catch an intruding arsonist. Fires
continued to appear out of nowhere, but no arsonist was ever caught. In
total there were 30 unexplained fires.
Fires were not the only
unsolved occurrence at the farm. The MacDonalds would enter their barn
to find ashes in the stored milk and all the animals moved to different
locations within the barn. Soon the family was persuaded to leave the
home while the local authorities investigated. When word of the
mysteries got out reporters arrived to get the scoop. Even Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle was invited to investigate.
The MacDonald’s
daughter Mary-Ellen, came to be known as “Mary-Ellen Spook”. She moved
to Central Canada and no further incidents occurred.
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