| A family mystery, about what some secretly regarded | | | | daughter who wrote the ghost story used names that |
| as a true ghost story, became part of my family | | | | easily identified the characters. I would have thought |
| research when the yellowing, fragile page of a | | | | that she would have used completely fictitious names, |
| newspaper dated Tuesday, October 19th, 1880, turned | | | | if it was just a 'story'. Then, a letter written by Emilie's |
| up in the old family records I was studying. I was trying | | | | mother-in-law in 1880 said that the story was, "written |
| to find out why people left their homes and families to | | | | by a sister of my daughter-in-law, all she writes in it is |
| emigrate to Australia. The Ghost Story presented me | | | | true and happened to the Everett family". |
| with a reason I had not previously considered, for one | | | | One of Emilie's grand daughters told me that her |
| family's departure from the Old Country. | | | | mother also said that it was a true ghost story. Then, |
| Family legend surrounds the Everett family as a result | | | | after I had written about the story on my family |
| of the curious story of the Everett Ghost. Curious, not | | | | website, another relative produced a watercolor of the |
| because the story itself is remarkable, but because | | | | haunted house, painted by one of the other Everett |
| there were those who said it was true. The story was | | | | daughters. |
| written by one of the five daughters of Arundel | | | | Could it really be a true ghost story? |
| Everett, and printed in Melbourne by the Echo | | | | For me as a family historian, the final act of the |
| Newspaper in 1880. | | | | mystery concerns the death of Arundel Everett, some |
| The story tells how the girls' father bought a large | | | | seventeen years after he and his family fled from the |
| house, referred to as "Hayes' Castle", in a village on | | | | haunted house. |
| the outskirts of London, which turned out to be | | | | His body was found on the road from Nanango to |
| haunted. | | | | Toromeo, Queensland, on 23rd April 1867. The place |
| It tells how Uncle William and Aunt Mary came to visit | | | | where his body was found was about seven miles |
| and spent the night, but refused to stay longer as they | | | | from Toromeo. The inquest held the next day |
| believed the house was haunted. Another Aunt, Etta, | | | | described Everett, as a contractor, as 5ft 4in, light hair |
| fled her room in the middle of the night, in the belief that | | | | with grey beard. He had been staying for a day or |
| a strange presence had entered. One of the children, | | | | two at a hotel at Nanango and had told one of the |
| Emilie, who was the baby of the family at the time, | | | | witnesses that he had fallen off the roof of a house |
| saw a strange man on the stairs, and the older children | | | | he had been building. He was walking from Nanango to |
| also saw strange things that could not be accounted | | | | Toromeo, and stopped for a short time with James |
| for. | | | | Holt, a miner, and six men in his company, who were |
| After a very short time in residence, some renovations | | | | resting beside the road. Everett proceeded on his |
| revealed the probable cause of the haunting. Human | | | | journey and was found dead or dying some time later, |
| remains were found in secret chambers below the | | | | when Holt's party caught up with him. |
| house. The family vacated the house immediately | | | | Some injuries on the body were attributed to his |
| after that, and left England as soon as they could. That | | | | supposed fall from the roof. Cause of death was |
| was the end of the ghost story, but not the the end of | | | | unknown, possibly exhaustion or heart disease. No |
| family mystery. | | | | person suspected. No one accused. No suspicious |
| The story made me curious, firstly because the | | | | circumstances. |