Weird Western Maryland

C onfederate Colonel Luke Tiernan Brien, whose ghost supposedly haunts his old home in Urbana, Frederick County, also has the distinction of showing up as a fictional character in a popular alternate-history novel. How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove, published in 1997, won that year’s Sidewise Award for alternate history. One of countless fictional speculations asking, “What if the Confederacy had won the Civil War?” – a speculation that entertains mostly White men – How Few Remain is the first novel in Turtledove’s 11-volume “Southern Victory” series. The not-yet-spectral Colonel Brien appears on Pages 77-78, still a loyal aide to Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and fighting the Union once again, this time in the Second Mexican War of 1881: Most of two decades of garrison duty had laid a heavy patina of routine over the dashing young trooper he’d once been, but, like a lot of the other veteran officers in Stuart’s force, he was starting to shine up once more. … Colonel Brien...

Mark Stroud photo, May 2012 (Graffiti Soldiers) During the Civil War, Landon House in Urbana, Frederick County, was occupied first by Confederate troops, then by Union troops, and on the house’s walls they waged a battle of graffiti. Writing about this episode in 1973, the house’s then-owner, Marion Stancioff, quotes at length from a 1910 volume, Regimental History of 155 th Pennsylvania Volunteers (Antietam to Appomattox) . I have broken up the long paragraphs for ease of online reading. Clearly, the young Pennsylvanians were delighted to bivouac in what had been a girls’ school. One of the rendezvous affording a night's shelte r for the broken down and foot-sore inexperienced soldiers was a Young Ladies' Seminary building rece n tly vacated. There were many rooms and dormitories in the building, also a fine orchard of ripe apples and peaches adjoining, and plenty of limpid water, all of which made it for a night’s lodging a most welcome discovery. All the rooms on the ...

  Landon House, August 2016 (Google). A longstanding legend holds that historic Landon House, in Urbana in Frederick County, was moved to its present location in 1846, but originally was built a century earlier, across the Potomac near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Supposedly, the new owner, the Rev. R.H. Phillips, loved the house but not the location, and had it dismantled and moved 85 miles north, to be reassembled on the Maryland side of the river. Writing of this legend in 1973, the house’s then-owner, Marion Stancioff, was careful in her assessment: While there is no known archival documentation to substantiate this claim, the account exists of the dismantling of the house and its subsequent transportation by barge down the Rappahannock and up the Potomac to Point of Rocks and its re-erection on its present site, as given by two nieces of Reverend Phillips who were still living in Frederick in 1949.   Note that those two women, in retelling the events of 103 years pre...

Historic Landon House in Urbana, Frederick County, is allegedly haunted by a bewildering variety of ghosts, depending on the source consulted. To put it another way, many popular beliefs linked with ghosts have come to be associated with Landon House, for example: Anomalous sounds. At Landon, these include a little boy’s voice; adult screams, prayers and cries of anguish; and the barks, pants, whimpers and snuffles of dogs. Anomalous sensations. At Landon, these include cold spots, taps on the shoulder, and the feeling of being watched. Physical anomalies. At Landon, these include doors that close by themselves, rocking chairs that rock by themselves, and lights that move without a visible source. Apparitions. At Landon, these include a woman with a lantern, a woman (perhaps the same one) who haunts the rooms of children, various Civil War soldiers, and an old man in the basement who sometimes is visible as only a torso and head. Several of these are referenced, apparen...