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Spirituous Dispute
Fall River, Massachusetts
February 8, 1889
"There is a lively row going on in Flint Village over the property of the late Bridget McDade, who died about a month ago, leaving a will in which she bequeathed a cottage house and lot of land for her step-daughter, Mary McDade.
Now Dr. Mary J. Packard comes forward with a claim on the property, which she alleges was deeded to her by the late Mrs. McDade for $17 a rod. The deed is duly signed, witnessed and recorded, and Mrs. Packard is determined upon taking possession.
Mary McDade insists that it was the intention of the late Mrs. McDade to transfer the 40 rods of the land in question to Mrs. Packard, and that her ignorance was played upon, and that without knowing what she was doing signed away the whole lot, which contains 61 rods.
Mrs. Packard found argument of no avail and Wednesday concluded to take forcible possession, and visited the cottage with that object in view. The visitor found the door locked, but that was no barrier. She procured an axe and cut her way into the lower tenement. After surveying the premises she left, but before departing affixed a padlock on the door, so that it could not be opened by Mary McDade. Her work did not frighten Mary McDade a little bit, for she maintained control of the property and collected the rent.
Mrs. Packard, seeing that she could not intimidate Mary McDade, is alleged to have conjured up a spirit in the form of a woman to frighten her into relinquishing the property. The spirit climbed up the stairs at Mary McDade's tenement at night and pounded upon her door, but the occupant was not in the least disturbed. A man who lived upstairs was not so brave. He met the spirit in the entry one night, clothed in white, and before sunrise next morning his furniture was in the street and was looking for another tenement.
The ghost business did not have the least effect upon the heir under the will, and she has put the case into the hands of a lawyer, who will wrestle with the ghost question and the disputed title. In the meantime Mary McDade is lying in wait for the ghost with an axe, and upon its next visit the spectre will receive a warm reception."
