The Hewit Mansion

When I was a little girl my mother worked as a landscaper and gardener for a nice old woman named Mrs. Hewit who lived in a huge mansion in the woods near my home. It was very old and had a long history, so I'll tell you a few of the experiences we've had while my mother was working there.

My mom told me this first story:

Once while Mrs. Hewit had gone on vacation and all the maids and such had already gone home, it was only my mom and another worker left in the house. Then my mom and the other worker heard a woman singing from somewhere on the other side of the house near the big spiral stair-case.

At first they thought someone had left a radio on or something but when they thought about it no one had and no one else was there with them. They decided to leave as soon as possible.

When they asked Mrs. Hewit about it later she told them that a woman who once lived there a long time ago had fallen down the stairs and died. She had always loved to sing.

Another experience in that house was involving the same long, white carpeted spiral stair-case.

When I was very young I used to play on those stairs with my little sister and one day while we were playing I looked down and saw this blonde lady wearing a long white dress lying at the bottom of the stairs. At the time I didn't know about my mom's experience with the singing lady and didn't know what to think. I went over to tell my sister but when we looked back at it, she was gone. Being real little I soon forgot about it and didn't really think about until my mother told me a few years later about what happened to her.

Then once about a year later I was looking out one of the upstairs windows and saw children playing in the backyard. So I ran downstairs and when my mom asked me where I was going I said "I'm going out back to play with the other kids!" and before she could say anything I was out the door. But when I got there, the was absolutely no one there. Almost every day we went there I would look out that window and see children playing in the yard, but as soon as I got out back to see them they were gone. Pretty soon I stopped going out after them and just sat there and watched them. All I really remember about them was that they were always dressed in old style clothes like from the 1800's and that every time I would go up there to the window to watch them they always did the exact same things and played the exact same games every time. Pretty soon I started getting scared of the children outside, beginning to think they were ghosts (which I now know they were) and stopped going up to the window.

Another thing that happened at that house while I was still little... they had an in-ground pool out on the side of the mansion and every once in a while I would just catch a glimpse of this little boy with short brown hair wearing red swim shorts. It turns out that a little boy who used to live there drowned in that pool not long ago. In fact; I think he was related to Mrs. Hewit.

Well, thanx for listening to my stories. But remember this: if you live in or not far from Rock Island, Illinois you don't live far from the old Hewit Mansion...