Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1914 — SEE TROUBLED SPIRIT [ARTICLE]

SEE TROUBLED SPIRIT

MANY AVER IT IS THE GHOST OF MATTHEW VASSAR.

Whether Or Not the Founder of Famous College Is Revisiting the Earth, the House He Lived in Is for Sale.

The ghost of Matthew Vassar, founder of Vassar college, is said to be haunting an old farmhouse, once owned by him, on the New Hackensack road between Red Oak Mills and New Hackensack. Within the last four months three families have moved from the place in terror. The present owner, who scoffs at the report, has nevertheless placed "for sale” signs on the old house, as he cannot rent it. Henry I. Stonebridge, a Schenectady man, who turned farmer for his health, moved from the house recently. The spectacle of the ghost standing at. the foot of their bed was too much for Stonebridge and his wife. The apparition, they assert, exactly resembled the best existing portraits of Matthew Vassar.

The Stonebridge family had occupied the house but one month. “ For some time uncanny noises had been disturbing their sleep. It sounded at times as though some person were walking up and down the front stairs. At midnight peculiar noises would come fro m.the cellar. The sounds resembled groans and dreadful moaning. One night about 1 a m., as near as Mr. Stonebridge was able to tell, he and his wife were awakened by a feeling as though cold fingers had been passed across their throats. They opened their eyes almost simultaneously and saw a ghostly figure, which stood erect with Anger pointed straight at them. Without sound the specter moved away from the bed and vanished through the open window. One experience of this sort was enough for Mr. Stonebridge, who at once began packing up his goods. John C. Rogers, a farmhand, occupied the old house four months ago, and was the first man to move therefrom because of the ghost. He says that it permitted not an hour’s steady sleep after midnight. His oldest daughter waked one night and saw the ghost of Vassar pacing back and forth over the floor without making a sound. The young woman screamed and brought her father to the bedroom, but by that time the wraith had vanished. The same thing happened olf the following night. The family then moved in haste.