Evidence of one Civil War era visitor found
By ASHLEY ADAMS
Evening Sun Reporter

Almost every room and item in the home of Jill Little and Merton Smith
has a story to tell.
There is a blood stain on the wall in the craft room.
They say doorbell chimes in the dining room either ring on their own or
crash to the floor for no reason.
Crystal candlestick holders shatter.
Burnt matches can be found throughout the house.

Little and Smith say they have grown accustomed to their spirit "house
guests." But one guest who might have been in the house years ago has
sparked the couple's interest.
Found nestled in a secret room, behind a fake wall in the attic were 22
medical and school books. All the books bore the name of Dr. John
Culbertson, a Hanover physician from the Civil War era.
Whether he lived there or just visited, Little and Smith are not sure.
But they do know that the house in the 200 block of York Street has a
long history about which they don't know much.
An attic surprise
As Smith walks up the creaking stairs to the A-frame attic, he explains
the age of the house. Pointing to the log rafters, Smith said the house
on York Street dates back to the early 1800s. A newer addition was built
in later years.
Weaving his way around some of the boxes in the room, Smith makes his
way to the wall farthest from the steps. A small crack can be seen in
between two wood boards.

"We were up here looking for something and I saw a crack in the wall,"
Smith said. "I shined a flashlight into it and saw a book behind the
wall."
Squinting his eyes and peering into the crack, Smith can see another
room in the attic purposely hidden by a fake wall. Behind that wall,
Smith and Little found Culbertson's medical and school books.
Culbertson was a prominent physician in Hanover for 40 years. He moved
from his native Ireland to Hanover in 1840.
During the Civil War, Culbertson was one of many doctors who treated
wounded soldiers on the streets of Hanover and at local makeshift
hospitals.

According to documents from the York County Courthouse, Culbertson owned
an office and another piece of property on Baltimore Street. He never
owned a home on York Street, but one did stand at the location where
Little and Smith live.
Brushing the dust off a book, Little picks it up and flips it open.
"There are handwritten prescriptions that Dr. Culbertson wrote for
culling blood," Little said. "He sure wrote a lot of prescriptions."
Also in one of the books is a braid of hair.
In another book is a newspaper clipping about a new type anesthesia.
And tucked in another book is a list of people who owe the doctor money.
It has a date of October 1865 on it.

Little and Smith contacted an auction house in New York to determine the
price of the historical books. But the couple was unsure how old the
books were so the auction house was unable to determine the value.
But it doesn't matter to the couple how much money the books could
fetch.
"They've been here all these years, we might as well keep them in the
house," Little said.
A host of ghosts
Sitting in their cozy living room, Little and Smith laugh over the
various "events" that have happened throughout the time they have lived
on York Street.
"Things were happening and we just blew them off," Little said. "I
didn't believe in ghosts before, but I do now."
Little and Smith moved into their house in July of 1999. Not too long
after that, weird things began happening.

Smith said it all started when the two would hear music in the evening
before going to bed.
"I'd turn out the light and go to bed and I would hear this beautiful
music," Smith said. "I thought it was all in my head so I didn't say
anything to Jill. It went on for a couple of weeks so I finally said
something to her. She was hearing it, too."
Then, in September of that year, Smith bought Little a dozen roses for
her birthday. Little put six roses in a vase on the dinning room table
and the rest on her dresser in the bedroom.
One morning, as Smith was downstairs with the two cats, he heard a crash
upstairs. Laying in the middle of the bedroom floor was the vase,
smashed to pieces. As he bent to pick up the mess he noticed one of the
roses' buds had been cut clean off the stem.

"That's when we knew something was up," Smith said.
Little and Smith have had seven or eight psychics at their house over
the past seven years. The first one came three months after they moved
in. All agree that the house is haunted.
"I find it comforting," Smith said about the ghosts. "I have always been
interested in all that."
And the couple even made friends with one ghost in particular.
Robert Graves was believed to have been a Confederate soldier. One of
the psychics told Little and Smith that he was in the 38th Georgia
Infantry. The couple has since researched the ghost and found him in the
37th Georgia Infantry.

The story goes that Graves joined the Army with his friend Jonathan. The
two made a pact to never leave each other. During the Battle of Hanover,
Graves was killed. Jonathan was injured and brought back to the home on
York Street for surgery. Not knowing he was dead, Graves' spirit
followed his friend.
Neither the 37th or 38th Georgia Infantry were present during the Battle
of Hanover.
Jonathan was supposedly operated on in the same room where a blood stain
appears on the wall.

Jonathan died but Graves remained, waiting for his friend so they could
go home together.
"Robert is our 'Civil War guy,'" Little said with a smile on her face.
Although he likes to play tricks on the couple, such as ringing the
doorbell constantly – one time ringing the bell incisively on the
anniversary of the Battle of Hanover – and knocking the chimes to the
ground, Little and Smith still speak of him fondly.

But Little and Smith don't care if people believe their stories, of
which there are many, they say. They insist they have video proof of the
ghosts.
The couple bought an infrared camera and set it up at night to catch any
ghostly happenings.
In one video tape, Little points to two shadowy figures sitting on the
couch in the living room.
"The one on the left is a little old lady knitting," she said. "The
other is Robert."

And if that isn't enough evidence, Smith pops another tape into the VCR.
In this tape, as Little, Smith and a psychic sit in a darkened living
room, with the windows boarded up, small white orbs of light zoom across
the screen. Once, a lighted V-shaped image flies across the screen.

But everything that has happened over the years hasn't frightened the
couple enough to leave the house.
"The ghosts feel the warmth and love that is in this house so they come
and stay for awhile," Little said.