title: Ghost Stories of Woodlawn Plantation
author:  Judy McElhaney 
description: George Washington selected 2,000 acres of verdant Virginia countryside for Woodlawn Plantation - his wedding present to foster daughter Eleanor (Nelly) Parke Custis and favorite nephew, Major Lawrence Lewis.  After choosing Dr. William Thornton, architect of the U.S. Capitol, to draw up plans for the mansion, he often rode from Mt. Vernon, three miles away, to personally supervise construction.  
  Tragically, Washington died before its completion and, according to historic records, never stepped foot in the finished manor.  Or did he?
  Some witnesses believe his great obsession for Woodlawn compels his ghost to return, even to this day, time after time, circling the drive in moonlight on his great white horse.  Others claim it is indeed the image of Washington's foot (dressed in a buckle shoe) that was captured accidentally in a contemporary photograph of needlework on a chair. 
  Such unexplained mysteries are among many strange phenomena that surprise Woodlawn visitors year after year: glowing masked figures and eerie footsteps in the night, billowing circles of light, the aura of an impish girl, locked doors, candles that relight by themselves, an unseen presence that terrifies resident cats and chaotic events caused by wrathful spirits trapped in the "Well of Souls.":  
  Skeptics beware!  You too may believe in ghosts after reading these compelling, enduring and convincing tales of the specters that haunt Woodlawn Plantation.
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  The Goodwood Ghost Story  
    
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
  # The Goodwood Ghost Story
  
  
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  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  MY wife's sister, Mrs M-, was left a widow at the age of thirty-five, with two
  children, girls, of whom she was passionately fond. She carried on the
  draper's business at Bognor, established by her husband. Being still a very
  handsome woman, there were several suitors for her hand. The only favoured one
  amongst them was a Mr Barton. My wife never liked this Mr Barton, and made no
  secret of her feelings to her sister, whom she frequently told that Mr Barton
  only wanted to be master of the little haberdashery shop in Bognor. He was a
  man in poor circumstances, and had no other motive in his proposal of
  marriage, so my wife thought, than to better himself.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  On the 23rd of August 1831 Mrs M- arranged to go with Bart