Max_Writer

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On Friday, May 25, 1928, two disparate men got off the train in Lenoir, North Carolina. Daniel Fuller was short and skinny and his companion, Bill McAfee, was tall and solid. They got directions to the offices of Atkinson, Birch, and Fisher and were soon talking to Mr. Atkinson, a slim man in his mid-thirties with round glasses.

“So, you’re Mr. Fuller?” Mr. Atkinson asked.

“Yes, I am,” Fuller replied.

“I got the keys to the Campbell House right here,” Atkinson said, handing over a ring of large keys.

“All right,” Fuller said.

“They did some damage last year, some fellows that came in, and so we had to nail the front and the back door shut because they broke the locks.”

“Okay.”

“Apparently there was a ... I don’t know if you read about it in the papers or not, but there was some gunplay of some kind and there was an arrest and a trial. I’m not sure exactly what happened but the Campbell house is about a mile south of the town of Mortimer.”

“Right.”

“Which is down the line. You can take the train from Lenoir right up to the town; that’s what I’d advise. The roads take a lot longer and they are rough on an automobile.”

“Okay.”

“There’s also some old books or something that had been left before. It was decided by Mr. Abington to return those to the house. You’ll find them in the study. They’re some old moldy books and papers in a manila folder. That’s all up there.”

“The keys go to various doors in the house, I take it?”

“Yes sir. One goes to the front and back doors and the kitchen. The rest are for interior doors. There’s also some outbuildings but they’re in bad shape. I wouldn’t mess with them if I were you.”

“Okay.”

“The Campbell House is intact. I was up there last year after everything happened that happened and I made sure it was closed up tight again. They apparently broke some windows and ... I don’t know what they were doing.”

“I read about some earlier instances – about a disappearance?”

“There’s a lot of things surrounding the Campbell House. There was a girl disappeared up there a few years back, vanished. There was a man was torn apart by wild animals. All that stuff was in the paper. There was a man who got spooked or something, or maybe he was probably drunk, and drove his motorcar right off the end of Wilson Creed Road, where it ends there at one of those creeks up there. Right over the edge. Killed instantly.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah, there’s some strange stuff. The house kind of smelled when I was there last time.”

“Smelled?”

“You know, like animals had been there. Maybe rats or something had got in.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I was only there long enough to close it up. They’d opened up all the shutters on the ground floor and broke a couple of windows. It was a mess, I tell you what.”

“Okay.”

“Anything else you need from me, sir?”

“I’m just kind of curious as to what kind of mess. Was it like people had broken in just to try to find stuff?”

“The front and the back door was broken into. These people had been sent up there to investigate ... last year there was ... people in Mortimer were scared silly about people they’d seen in the woods or something.”

“Right.”

“It’s a small town. Mortimer’s only got about a hundred people living there.”

“Okay.”

“There was a fire back in ’16. Then there was a flood. Burned up the woods and then knocked down the lumber mill. Ritter Lumber Company pulled out and then in ‘22, United Mills came in with a cotton mill. They hired people who were still living in the area. But then, back in ‘25 they had another fire. This one came up from below, and did more damage to the area. They haven’t had much luck in Mortimer.”

“Okay.”

Fuller and McAfee headed to the sheriff’s office next. They found that Sheriff F.T. Sherrill was not in but they talked to a deputy Clarke, who said he’d leave a message for the sheriff. He assured them that he would let the sheriff know that they had stopped by.

They went to the Lenoir News-Topic, which was obviously a small paper. They met Fred May, the publisher.

“I’ve been hired to investigate the Campbell House and I was wondering if I could look at older articles pertaining to the previous instances there,” Fuller finally said to the man.

“Yes sir, we’ve got that,” Mr. May replied. “You know, it seems like, every year, they send somebody down there and somebody comes over to see some articles about the Campbell House. So, I put them all in a file. You’re a little early. They usually come in June, it seems like. We just had one in the paper a couple of weeks ago.”

He found an older newspaper and handed it to Fuller, who saw that it was the same article as the clipping that had come with the letter from Abington. Then May looked for the file.

“Now, are they planning on sending somebody next year?” May asked. “Because I can keep this, just in case.”

“Um ...” Fuller said.

“I’m just kidding, son,” May said with a smile. “I’m just kidding.”

“Has anything happened to the previous investigators?” Fuller asked.

“I can only tell you what I’ve heard because they didn’t say anything officially and there was no ... well, last year, there was a sheriff’s report,” May said, still looking for the file.

“Right.”

“Apparently, one of their number, a doctor–” May started to say, then stopped and pulled out a manila envelope. “Here’s the file, son.”

He handed it to Fuller. It had several newspaper clippings within.

“Apparently, last year there was some shenanigans of some kind,” May went on. “There was a Doctor Gibbens who was with them, who shot a reporter that was in their group. There were six of them come up. That was the day after they came by to see me. Dr. Gibbens, he was found guilty, but instead of being sent to jail – you see he’d been in the Great War and it had unhinged his mind somewhat. So, he was actually committed to Danvers State Hospital up in Massachusetts. That was where he was from. It took a lot of lawyering to get that done.”

He started to rummage through older newspapers and finally came up with one that contained an article about a trial that took place the year before and how Gibbens was found guilty but committed to a mental hospital. There were some details about the trial and the victim was continually listed as “the handsome Mr. Simon” throughout. According to the article, the defendant attacked him without due provocation or just cause while they were examining the body of a dead animal. Mr. May said that he was unable to get an interview with Mr. Simon or Dr. Gibbens or any of the others who were up there, though he had talked to them the day before.

He also told Fuller that two men went up to investigate the house two years before and one had come back with a gunshot wound, allegedly from a misfire from a weapon, and the other had been attacked by a bear. They had been tending by a company doctor in Mortimer but the story never made the paper. He also told Fuller that three years before, he had also dealt with some people looking for the same articles.

He left Fuller and McAfee alone to look over the articles.

The oldest was from the Daily Evening Lenoir Topic, dated March 19, 1885. It read:


Widow dies in her sleep

Widow Annie Brewster of Edgemont died in her sleep of apparent natural causes on
March 14.

Widow Brewster lived in Caldwell County her whole life, moving from Lenoir to Edgemont
on Wilson Creek after her husband died in 1874. She was well loved and respected by the
community. She had lived in the “Campbell House” on Wilson Creek and scoffed at local
rumors that the house was haunted.

Her obituary can be found on page 2.


The obituary read:


Anne Cartman Brewster
July 17, 1787
March 14, 1886

EDGEMONT, – Anne Cartman Brewster, 98, widow of Nathanial Lane Brewster, died peacefully
in her sleep on March 14, 1886.

Born near Lenoir (then called Tucker’s Barn) in 1787, she was married to Nathanial Lane Brewster
in 1809. He died in 1874 of natural causes.

Mrs. Brewster worked in the community and raised three beautiful children. She was a member
of several clubs and societies in Lenoir.

She is survived by her son George Brewster of Raleigh.


An article from the Daily Evening Lenoir Topic dated Tuesday, September 20, 1886, read:


Church purchases rectory

Wilson Creek Presbyterian Church finally has a permanent home.

The Wilson Creek Presbyterian Church has purchased from Caldwell County the deed
and land to the abandoned Campbell House. This addition to church property will be used
as a rectory and residence for any ministers there.

“I am very pleased,” said Reverend Wilbur Thompson, the minister of the small chapel
south of Edgemont. “I lived in Edgemont and it was a five mile ride to the church.”

Though the church building has stood on the site since 1785, no other buildings aside from
a small shed are on the property. With the addition of the Campbell House, which stands on
a ridge connected to Yellow Buck Mountain overlooking the Wilson Gorge, the church owns
a large section of the mountain.

The house was most recently the property of Annie Brewster of Edgemont. However, upon
her death last year, her only heir could not be located. The property reverted to the county.
A petition by the church to buy the property was met with open arms by Caldwell County.


Another article from Daily Evening Lenoir Topic dated Friday, July 22, 1887, read:


Minister found dead
Fate of church remains uncertain

Reverend Wilbur Thompson was found dead in the Rectory of the Wilson Creek Presbyterian
Church on Thursday morning.

According to police, Reverend Thompson had an appointment with a young couple to discuss
a wedding planned for August. When he didn’t answer his door, they investigated and found
the minister dead in the master bedroom upstairs. The body was brought to Lenoir where it
was examined this morning, but no indication of how Reverend Thompson died has yet been
released.

The Wilson Creek Presbyterian Church purchased the Campbell House, on a ridge jutting
out from Yellow Buck Mountain, just last year for use as a rectory. With the unexplained death,
the fate of the church is uncertain. Wilson Creek Presbyterian Church is the only church on
Wilson Creek but, according to locals, attendance has fallen off in the last 10 years.

Campbell House has a bleak reputation. Originally built by William Campbell in the late
18th Century, it has been abandoned as often as lived in. Rumor has it that six Union soldiers
died in the house during the War Between the States. Others are said to have left the house
in terror of something and there is even a story told in the Wilson Creek gorge of a young child
dying there 30 years ago. Whatever it is that taints that house has struck again.

Reverend Thompson’s obituary appears on pg. 2.


The obituary read:


Reverend Wilbur Thompson
March 1, 1846 - July 21, 1887

EDGEMONT – Reverend Wilbur Thompson, 41, died in the rectory of the Wilson Creek
Presbyterian Church on July 21, 1887.

Born in Chapel Hill, Reverend Thompson attended the University of North Carolina
and then Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va.

He has ministered to those in the church for the last 20 years at various churches in the
south, his most recent being at Wilson Creek Presbyterian Church, where he served for
three years.

He will be missed by his flock.