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CHOWAN
BEACH
RECREATION ASSOCIATION, INC.
CHOWAN BEACH, NORTH CAROLINA
The History
of Chowan Beach
by George Farrell and Rawl Gelinas
Preface Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10
Part Eight
As
Jack
Fletcher
continued his restoration of the main
house on Bandon (including replacing by
his own sad count 135 broken windows)
slowly he and Inglis were able to
partially leave behind them the ‘colonial’
style of life they had endured through the
first part of their tenure at Bandon. The
indoor plumbing was restored and the
kitchen completed, although they continued
for a long time to heat solely with the
fireplaces and their light came from
candles and oil lamps, not electricity.
Nonetheless the house slowly became a
showpiece. A note of interest is that
Inglis Fletcher is reputed to have led the
way in the practice of opening historic
homes to the public for the Edenton
Pilgrimage, started in 1949.
Bandon
house
consisted of nine rooms. Upon entering the
front door the library was to the right
and the dining room to the left, in the
rear of the first floor was a large formal
drawing room and, one assumes, the
kitchen. That would leave five rooms for
the upstairs. We know she did most of her
writing in the River Room on that floor so
probably the rest were bedrooms. Perhaps
one had been transformed into a bathroom,
as there is mention of there having been
one installed. The gracious appearance of
the downstairs seems not to have continued
to the second floor as one source tells of
fallen plaster and rats being seen running
across the rafters. But, when one
considers the condition of Bandon when
they purchased it and that Jack, who was
at that time an elderly man, did all of
the work himself, the progress that he did
make is astonishing.
There
is
a fascinating story concerning the second
floor. One night Mrs. Fletcher heard
noises that sounded as though several
people, heavily loaded were climbing the
stairs to the second floor. As there was
no one there she concluded that this was
the ghostly reenactment of a tragic past
happening. During the tenancy of Charles
E. Johnson, in fact during a party, a boat
carrying a flag at half-mast docked and
men came up the path bearing the body of
his son, Dr. Daniel Johnson. Dr. Daniel,
it is said, seduced the wife of a Hertford
lawyer. The wronged husband challenged Dr.
Daniel to a duel and, even though he was
reputed to be almost blind, the lawyer hit
and killed the doctor, who had refused to
even fire his gun. As the story goes
Charles had his son buried underneath the
front window, where Charles sat all day,
each and every day and stared sadly at the
grave, never again known to smile. There
are other accounts of strange noises and
of apparitions being seen by moonlight,
wandering on the grounds, half seen among
the mosses trailing from the trees.
Perhaps the reputation that Bandon bore of
being haunted was true?
Most
of
the information for this chapter was
obtained from Inglis Fletcher of Bandon
Plantation by Richard Walser; The UNC
Library, 1952; Mrs. Fletcher's Eden by Roy
Thompson; The Chowan Herald, 1975 and
Bandon a Brief History of a Chowan County
Plantation by Jerry L. Cross, 1986.
On To Part Nine
Copyright © 2013 The Chowan
Beach Recreation Association, Inc.
Portions Copyright © 2010 George Farrell
and Rawl Gelinas