Death Is The Rider
DEATH IS THE RIDER
by Fred P. Markham, III
From the Pasquotank Historical Society yearbook
Volume 3, 1975
I. the last to be born in the old Shannonhouse home, have woven a tale of the house, a girl, and a
curse. For those not of superstitious nature, it is hoped that this will be a story to entertain. Maybe
there are those among you who recognize there are powers beyond our ken.
The old house, weatherbeaten and aged by Time's relentless passage, still stands on the southern
tip of Pasquotank County, near the Albemarle Sound, a proud relic of Old Southern Prosperity and
Fantasy
which has faded for more than a hundred bittersweet years - now to be lost to all but unreconcilable
dreamers.
This typical Planter's-Style structure was built by Thomas L. Shannonhouse between1814 and
1816. Its exterior - modest enough in appearance - leads to an interior featuring four foot pine-
paneled wainscoting, massive mortised-through paneled doors resplendent with hand-wrought
H & L hinges. Telltale prints remain where once there were steady latches, long since pilfered by
dollar conscious tenants lured with hard cash offers from antique lovers.
Mr. Shannonhouse moved his young wife, Elizabeth, and their children into this house upon its
completion. The youngest son, John McMorrine Shannonhouse, was the only son to remain at
home and look after the land.
Thomas L. Shannonhouse was an early convert to John Wesley's Methodism, as found on his flat
tombstone which reads that he died in 1842, having been a Methodist for 27 years. The first
permanent Methodist Church - also the oldest church building in Pasquotank County - was
erected in 1826 on lands given by John Tooley, son of Betsy and Adam Tooley, who granted the
deed for the property on which Elizabeth City was founded.
Mr. Thomas Shannonhouse headed the Church's founding committee. A name was sought for the
new house of worship. Since its membership comprised a smattering of former Primitive Baptists,
Episcopalians, Society of Friends as well as Methodists, Mrs. Elizabeth Shannonhouse is said
to have exclaimed, "Since we are all coming together, why not call it Union?" and Union has been
the name of the church for almost 150 years.
Thomas Shannonhouse's granddaughter, Ellanora, daughter of his son John, in terms of today,
was a child prodigy. At 16 the girl's knowledge and wit had surpassed the tutors hired by her
father to coach her. Endowed by nature with doll-like features of face and figure, a honey-milk
complexion topped with a crown of raven-black hair which flowed about her waist, she was indeed
sought after by all the young swains in the countryside. A disposition imbued with gaiety and
laughter infected all who gained her company.
In accordance with his beloved daughter's wishes, knowing her innate love of animals, John
Shannonhouse gave her a spirited young pony on the occasion of her sixteenth birthday. Then
on a Sunday in late summer of that year, Ellanora mounted the young stallion, rode at a fast pace,
and as she entered the Union Church yard, the pony reared up wildly (probably frightened by a
dreaded Cottonmouth in the ditch, though the exact cause is unknown), throwing the rider violently
to the ground. The father picked up the crushed body of his little girl and carried her home.
Two days later, in the moments before death claimed her, the embittered father swore at her
bedside, "My most cherished possession has been taken from me. I hope all who inhabit this
house may know the pangs of death which so pain me!"
-2-
On reply came Ellanora's last words, "But father, I can't die so young."
Later, the Shannonhouse heirs sold the house to Ephraim Stanton. Two small Stanton children
contracted diphtheria and died. It was claimed that a vague presence pervaded the house before
their death.
The home and lands were then purchased by Elisha Lister in 1870. Three of his small children died
with communicable diseases. A grandchild died of the same. All demises were preceded by the
awareness of a stranger on the premises.
A laborer, in his last hours of fitful consumption, leaped from his bed on the second floor, babbling
about seeing from the window a girl riding down the road on a white horse. Investigation revealed
that no one had passed the dead-end path since the day before. Blood stains still remain upon
the floor in mute testimony of this man's protesting struggle when he died that night.
In 1909 Mr. Lister was paralyzed with a stroke. During the interim of illness and death, witnesses
attest to the following: In the empty parlor each night the Grandfather's clock would strike
upwards to 20 or 30 times upon the hour of nine, until someone entered the room. It would then
cease striking and perform normally. This old clock, still cherished in the family, has never
performed so, either before or since that time.
Additionally, three persons were standing in the hallway when they heard a man and a girl talking
loudly on the front piazza. Investigation revealed that the porch swing was swaying violently,
though there was no one around and there was not a breath of wind to cause its motion in the
dead calm of a humid August afternoon. The following day, voices were heard in the parlor. On
entering the room, two witnesses saw Mr. Lister's favorite chair swaying to and fro, in motion
apparently gained from no natural cause.
Mr. Lister's lifelong friend, they being the same age, was staying at the house at this time.
Seated on the porch, on an old Quaker Meeting House bench, talking to another friend, he
suddenly pointed toward the road, unable to speak, clutched his chest and died instantly.
In 1920, Mr. Lister's daughter and her bridegroom moved into the old house. Three years later
she was swinging on the front porch with her infant son in her lap. She looked toward the road
and saw someone dressed in shimmering white, riding a white horse. They approached the front
gate and stopped. She called to them and receiving no answer, gathered the babe in her arms
and walked to meet them. Halfway down the gateway path the rider and horse vanished before
her eyes. The mistress of the house reported the incident to her husband when he returned from
the fields that night. The next day, the infant son was taken ill and died within a week.
In the years spanning from 1927, the old Shannonhouse Place has been occupied by tenants.
Death claimed children in two families. One of these was aware of some hidden being about the
place prior to the child's death. The other had a vivid dream about finding gold buried in the front
yard at an exact location. Though he dug all about the immediate area, nothing of value was
uncovered. Neither tenant had previous knowledge of legends surrounding the place.
The last occupant of the house died as he was refuelling a coal stove in the parlor. For a month
prior to his death, he frequently told about a feeling of sixth sense forewarning him of impending
death.
(Note: The old Shannonhouse Place is no longer standing. The location of it was near Lister's
Corner on what is now Rebellion Point Road. It was about a quarter of a mile from the
intersection of Dry Ridge, Leigh Farm, Esclip, and Rebellion Point Roads. Union Methodist
Church is still standing about one and a half miles distant on Esclip Road)
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