Haunted Cape Cod

By Barbara Sillery

The lively ghosts found on this magical, mysterious Massachusetts island include a pirate, a preacher, a witch, a whaling captain, and a sea captain's wife. The area's history stretches back to the Indians of thousands of years ago, to the Vikings, to the Pilgrims, until the present day. This book highlights the most interesting stories, featuring such sites as a haunted rare-books store, several inns, a guesthouse, a tavern, and a theater.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Sep 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781455626434

Barbara Sillery

An award-winning producer and writer, Barbara Sillery admits a penchant for the paranormal and a fascination with the past. Her passion for antiques introduced her to the world of the supernatural, and her interest in the story behind each piece led to her desire to capture their colorful history. After spending years in New Orleans absorbing and documenting regional history, she now resides on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Book preview

1

A Tangled Tale

High in the wooded hills above Falmouth, two brothers built two mammoth mansions: Highfield Hall and Tanglewood. One mansion lives on, while the saga of the souls of the lost mansion has migrated to the structure still standing. Tracking the origins of any good ghost story is much like an archeological dig—each fragmented artifact or bone must be carefully dusted off and held to the light to discern where it fits.

Popular local legend holds that the ghost of Highfield Hall is Emily Beebe. Her heels make tiny clicking sounds as she descends the main staircase from her second-floor bedroom to the wide central hallway. The phantom Emily is on her way to join brother Arthur and his wife for a glittering dinner party at their Tanglewood estate. Alas, poor Emily gets lost in the woods because her brother’s home has vanished. The confused spirit wanders aimlessly until she finds the path back to Highfield, where she is doomed to repeat her nocturnal journey over and over.

Besieged by requests from various ghost-hunting groups to communicate with the spirit—or spirits—of Highfield Hall, the non-profit board that manages the historic property originally refused. We did forbid it for a long time, but in 2012 we relented, says a resigned Barbara J. Milligan, former CEO and president of Highfield Hall and Gardens. Last year, we said, yes—let’s just get it over with. The reversal of the no-ghost-hunting policy came about because the board felt that an additional source of revenue would be helpful. We opened ourselves up to the possibilities that maybe there was something we could use for an entertaining tour. Milligan avoids identifying the paranormal group that was allowed to conduct the investigation. They came in and made a presentation to us afterwards. They told us, ‘We definitely found entities,’ or whatever they call it. There is a tinge of regret in Milligan’s voice as she relates the conclusion of the investigation. They had to work very hard to show us anything. They played a digital recording back for us and they say it’s a voice, an EVP [Electronic Voice Phenomenon]. After listening to the recording several times, Milligan told the investigators that the EVP sounds like a member of your team. The investigators then produced images of orbs. Many parapsychologists define orbs as balls of energy or light that are the remnants of the deceased, much like fingerprints left behind. Milligan asked the paranormal team whose spirit they thought they had found. They told us, ‘We believe this is Emily because she died here.’ And I’m like, ‘No, she didn’t.’

Emily’s ghost reputedly walks down the staircase at Highfield Hall.

The knowledgeable executive in her fitted lime-green jacket rolls blue eyes beneath a halo of pale blonde waves. She is aware that this group, like so many others, has identified the wrong Emily. She is probably talked about the most because she lived the longest, so she is part of the story, but Emily Beebe of Highfield Hall lived until she was almost eighty and died in Boston. Both Milligan and Highfield Hall’s board of directors abandoned the idea of a haunted tour of the historic home. We thought if there is anything . . . to these ghost stories, let’s just use it to make money. That is one of the reasons we brought this paranormal group in . . . but there was not enough to hang any program on.

Yet, there was more than one Emily in the family, and the true Beebe family history is rife with depression, mental illness, shootings, and suicides. The two family mansions, Highfield Hall and Tanglewood, suffered from neglect, abandonment, lawsuits—and in the case of Tanglewood, total demolition. Reports of hauntings, apparitions, and paranormal activities flourished from the time the last Beebe left the premises in 1932.

With the arrival of the railroad in Falmouth in 1872, the small farming and fishing community emerged as a prime summer destination for residents of sweltering cities such as Boston and New York. Wealthy manufacturing czar James Madison Beebe was among the first to see the town’s potential. James and his wife, Esther, purchased a summer home they called Vineyard Lodge on Shore Street. With an eye for future expansion, James Beebe also purchased seven hundred acres of prime hill land above the railroad station.

J. Arthur Beebe’s Tanglewood mansion, prior to demolition.

Shortly after their father’s death in 1875, two of his sons built grand residences on the hill that would be known as Beebe Woods. In 1878, Pierson Beebe, along with another brother, Frank, and their sister Emily moved into Highfield Hall. A year later, brother J. Arthur Beebe oversaw the construction of an adjacent mansion, Tanglewood, a little farther uphill.

When the paranormal group identified Emily as the ghost of Highfield Hall, they may have had the right name but referred to the wrong girl at the wrong house. For a time, there were three Emilys in the Beebe family all living on the conjoined estates of Highfield Hall and Tanglewood.

The haunted Beebe family. Top row: Emily Appleton. Next row: J. Arthur Beebe, with a straw hat; his daughter, Emily Esther; Pierson, with a boutonniere; and a bearded Frank. Next row: The first Emily. Bottom row: Young Arthur Appleton, in a white cap and knickers; Charles Philip; and Mary Louisa, with a parasol.

James Madison Beebe’s progeny, seven in all, were Emily Brown, Mary Louisa, Charles Edwin, Edward Pierson, James Arthur, and Franklin (Frank). Also a part of the enclave were J. Arthur’s wife, Emily Appleton, and their children: Arthur Appleton (eldest), Charles Philip (youngest), and, in between her brothers, Emily Esther, named for her mother and grandmother.

Along with a large contingent of house servants, gardeners, and assorted staff, Beebe Woods bustled with activity. Frequent visitors and house guests swelled these numbers so that Highfield Hall and Tanglewood appeared as a village unto itself.

Siblings Pierson, Frank, and socialite sister Emily never married. They split their time between their Boston townhomes and Highfield Hall in Falmouth. They threw lavish parties, traveled extensively in Europe, and enjoyed the finest life had to offer.

For other family members, life was not as kind. Oldest brother Charles died unexpectedly while traveling in France in 1866; he was only twenty-seven. Mary Louisa died of a rare form of cancer in 1883. Fannie, the only sister to marry, lost her husband just two years after their 1866 wedding. Fannie became a single mother to two toddlers.

For J. Arthur and his wife, Emily Appleton Beebe, life unraveled quickly. Death, like an insidious monster, grabbed them in its talons and would not let go. In 1900, their twenty-eight-year-old son committed suicide. Young Arthur Appleton graduated from Harvard Medical School and was completing a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital when he walked into his room at the family home in Boston and shot himself.

Son Arthur’s death almost seemed preordained. In July of 1893, seven years prior, a flurry of newspapers erroneously reported that J. Arthur Beebe’s son had drowned in a boating accident. Young Arthur was sailing that day on his boat, the Nobska, and took first place in the regatta. A fellow competitor, Henry Bellows, was the actual drowning victim. The Boston Globe later published a correction under the headline Arthur Beebe Not Drowned, but the shock of the false report may have caused irreparable damage. When Arthur chose to end his life with a bullet, his mother, Emily Appleton Beebe, and his sister, Emily Esther, did not attend his funeral, as both were said to suffer from a nervous condition. Rumors persisted in Falmouth that there was a taint in the Appleton blood. Emily Appleton Beebe was remembered as a very quiet person who was deeply depressed. The inconsolable mother died in 1911.

Having lost one child to suicide, and perhaps to avert any future repercussions, J. Arthur packed up his distraught daughter for a series of lengthy trips abroad. Eerily, in 1912, another false news report preceded their deaths. The premature announcement, if it had come to pass, would have doomed the pair: J. Arthur Beebe and daughter Emily are booked to return from Europe on the new liner, Titanic. The father-daughter duo missed the ill-fated ship, yet death was not averted.

Less than a year later, Emily chose to copy her brother. She entered a room at the Hotel Touraine in Boston, locked the door, pulled out a revolver, and shot herself in the chest. When the news reached J. Arthur, he ordered his chauffeur to race to his daughter’s side. In his haste, the chauffeur struck and killed ten-year-old Henry Sombaulski, who was crossing the road. The newspapers vilified the chauffeur, Arthur, and Emily: Society Girl Imitated Her Brother’s Little Suicide Stunt. They implied that if Arthur’s spoiled debutante daughter hadn’t gone "the