The Main House 

The Chapel

Haunted House

Description

This Greek Revival-venacular style estate was built ca. 1848.  It has two large rooms downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs.  The kitchen was housed it a seperate building behind the house; it was later added to the back.  There were several outlying buildings---a barn, a small gist mill, a smokehouse, a greenhouse among them---but over the years they either burned or collapsed due to neglect.  Of note is the chapel, constructed of cut stone and slate and patterned on a more Gothic style, which remains in remarkable condition. 

Brief History

The mansion whose ghastly and terrifying presence graces the outskirts of Pleasant Port was built by Col. Thomas Clarins, a minor commander in the Union Army for his first wife Kitty White. Right from the start the mansion seemed to attract tragedy and disaster. During the two years of construction over fifteen laborers died due to accidents. Several died from falls with eyewitnesses later saying it looked like the men were pushed from the scaffolding they were working on. Three men died, at different times, by falling in front of horse or oxen drawn carts. Another was dissipated when a window pane somehow flew through the air. Others choked, were burned to death, or simply disappeared and their bodies were found days later. A passing preacher called the place “pure evil.”

Despite the events during the building process the Colonel and his bride moved in and soon Kitty was pregnant. Her joy was to be short lived. She delivered a still born daughter. Later that year, she was again pregnant and again she gave birth to another stillborn little girl. A year later Kitty was pregnant again and this time gave birth to a healthy baby boy who was named Henry after his father. Soon after a healthy little girl was born and was named Mary. A year later Kitty gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, who they named Simon and Hannah.

Sadly, the Kitty’s happiness was only for a few fleeting years. Little Henry died at age four when he injured by falling knives while playing in the kitchen. Lucy died at age two when she fell ill with tuberculosis. After coughing up blood for several days her little body gave out. Then Hannah died of hundreds of bee stings at age three. She was playing in the garden and disturbed a hive. The servants tried to get to the screaming child but they were too late. Due to the condition of the body, Kitty was not permitted to see the body before burial. Finally Simon was attacked by the family dog, a normally gentle old bloodhound. Witnesses say it honestly looked like the dog was trying to get something or someone off the child.

Kitty never recovered from the loss of, in total, all six children. It seemed overnight Kitty went mad. One day, a servant saw her sitting by the fire holding a little bundle – rocking and cooing to it. When the servant inquired as to what she was doing the Mistress simply answered she was “rocking my sweet babe to slumber.” With that Kitty pulled the blacked aside to reveal one of Hannah’s many baby dolls. When Colonel Clarins was informed about his wife’s behavior he had several specialists called in but they could do nothing. Slowly Kitty withdrew further and further into her fantasy land. One night a struggle overheard coming from the Jade Room (the Master Bedroom). When one servant went to investigate they found the Mistress dead in her bed. She was twenty seven years old. She looked peaceful enough but her little baby doll, always with her, was nowhere to be found. It was later discovered during a yearly outhouse cleaning. Whispers among servants and locals alike said that Thomas killed his wife out of shame for what she had become. She was buried in a small grave with her children around her.

Almost twenty years later Colonel Clarins married again; this time to a Dutch immigrant named Wilhelmina Vossen. Wilhelmina was much younger than her husband and knew very little of what had happened to his first wife. All she knew was he was a rich widower with no children and she was a poor immigrant with no relatives or contacts in the area. He seemed a perfect husband. Soon after their wedding Wilhelmina was pregnant with her first child. Unlike her predecessor her first child was born alive but badly deformed. Later they also found out the child was slow. Doctors advised the Colonel the child would die early due to its defects. They were wrong and the child lived. When the boy, who they named Judah, was six or seven his parents (his father mostly…Wilhelmina was a weak willed woman who did as her husband said) was placed in a special suite of room with his own servants to look after him. The entrance to the room was hidden and only the Colonel and the servants who cared for Judah knew where it was hidden.

In the years to come the couple had two daughters, fine strong girls who married well and moved out of the area. In the diaries later found by the girls own children stories of ghostly children’s voices and other happens are recorded.

Col. Clarins is known to have drowned in the little pond that is on the property. The man, by the end of his life, was very much a drunk and the official report is that he went wandering while in a drunken stupor, fell in the pond, and drowned. Many people, including a gardener who saw Col. Clarins head into the woods, believe he was following someone. Most agree it would have to be the ghost of either his dead wife or one of his children who died far too young. No matter, his body was dragged out of the water and buried in the local cemetery,

Wilhelmina lived the next twenty five years a wealthy widow. Her favorite color was red and with the death of her husband, who was very controlling, she took to wearing a bright red dress everyday. One day she descended the grand staircase to for a walk, as she did everyday. After a few hours, the servants began to worry about her and a few of the hall boys went out to look for her. After searching until well after dark, all they returned with was her red bonnet, which they found tangled in a few spidery tree branches.

After all of that, the house remained empty, save for a few people who scoffed at the tales of the tragic Clarins family. Those brave, or foolish enough, to move in, moved out within a week of their arrival. The mansion has been empty for over fifty years now, the last residents lasting only two days and feeling in the middle of the night. Now and then, teams of paranormal investigators will explore the mansion, and simply report what the old locals already know.

Legends

The Red Lady, a female shape in a smoky red mist, appears at the top and bottom of the grand staircase. This specter is believed to be Mrs. Wilhelmina Clarins, second wife and widow of Thomas Henry Clarins, the man who built the mansion. She was fond of red clothing and the last time anyone ever saw her was as she was descending the stairs to go for a walk. She was never seen or heard from again.

In the kitchen visitors have reported hearing a child’s laughter and seeing little hand and nose prints on the inside of windows. Several children have lived and died in the mansion in the last one hundred and seventy years.

More disturbing than child’s laughter in the kitchen is the reported sound of an infant wailing in and around the servant’s quarters on the second story of the mansion.

It is said that the male Clarins spent many hours in the chapel, praying and confessing his sins.  Today, people claim to hear a man whispering and mummuring old prayers inside.

At the bottom of the little pond on the property visitors have seen the body of a man at the bottom, eyes open. They look away and the body is gone. Col. Clarins drowned in the same pond.

Investigators who have stayed overnight in the Jade Room, have reported hearing a man and a woman arguing. The Jade Room was the bedroom of Col. Clarins and both of his wives.

Rumor has it that Colonel Clarins and his second wife, Wilhelmina Clarins, had a deformed and mentally handicapped son. They expected him to die at a young age and when he did not they had him placed into a special suite of room with his own personal servants to look after him. Visitors report hearing voiced behind the walls and also of hearing a man sob gently and the hushed voiced of several people trying to comfort him.

People walking and driving by have reported seeing lights in the windows of the mansion even though no one is there.

Likewise, faces have been seen in widows.

A woman has been seen running through the gardens holding a cloth baby doll. Most people believe this to be the first wife of Col. Clarins, Kitty. None of her children ever survived past their fourth year and she went mad with her grief. She fixated all of her love and attention on the doll and called it her own. Many people speculate that the Colonel killed her out of shame.

The voices of men can be heard all throughout the mansion and surroundings grounds.

A ghostly dog is seen lying in front of the fireplace.

Eerie blue light is seen hovering over the child’s cemetery at the back of the property.