Do you believe in curses? - The T. B. Scott Mansion

This article is from the www.examiner.com

April 29, 11:40 AM by Kathie Kessler

Not far from Wausau, lies a building that is said to be built on cursed land. Merrill, originally named Jenny Bull Falls was a logging town that began with a French trading post in 1843. The native American Indians that lived there welcomed the traders and treated them with hospitality. It is said, one of the white men fell in love with the chief's daughter whom he nick-named Jenny. There are several versions of how Jenny died, some say she became pregnant and took her own life by throwing herself into the river, some say she died in childbirth and yet others say she died from the flu contracted from the white settlers. What ever the case was, the distraught chief buried his daughter on a hillside across from his village and cursed the hill for all eternity to remain sacred to the memory of his child, and that the land “never do any white man any good”.

A settlers village was built near the hill and just as the chief decreed, the camp was plagued by death and misfortune.

In 1884, Thomas Blythe Scott, a local lumber baron bought land on the hill to build a large home. The curse returns as Thomas himself died in 1886 at the age of 57 before the house was even finished. Within a year his wife Ann died. Walter, their son, hired an architect to finish the house. The architect stabbed him to death.

In 1893 a man named Kuechle purchased the property. He soon lost all his money on a bad investment and had to mortgage the house to a Mr. Tony Barsanti. Barsanti foreclosed on Mr. Kuechle, who promptly went insane and died in an asylum. This same year, Barsanti met his own untimely end, as he was stabbed to death while waiting for a train in Chicago. In 1901 the house was purchased by George Gibson who went out to inspect the property and vanished, never to be seen again. Mary Fellhaber bought the house in 1906 and she soon became ill and died.

A man called "Popcorn Dan" was the caretaker of the property until 1912 when he too died after booking passage on the Titanic. Mr. Lloydsen took up the task of caretaker until 1919 when he drank himself to death.

The widower of Mary Fellhaber finally gave the property to the city in 1923, and it became home to the Sisters of the Holy Cross who have seemed to have quelled the curse with their devotion to God and healing. Although, to this day there are still stories of ghostly sightings and paranormal activity in the old mansion.

Are you a local resident with a ghost story to tell? I am looking for local stories of haunted places, paranormal experiences, even UFO sightings! If you have a story and would like to be interviewed for an article (anonymously if requested) please EMAIL Kathie Kessler