I’m running late, ran out of time before I needed to leave for the grocery run. Overcast skies, high 70.
Well, we start our tour of the ghostly happenings around the Green Mountain State.
We start at the Green Mountain Cemetery in Montpelier.
According to author Thea Lewis, the grave of John Hubbard contains far more than meets the eye. In her book Wicked Vermont, she describes how Hubbard, a young man who preferred easy money to honest money, pulled a fast one with his aunt’s inheritance, swindling the rightful recipients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the late 1800s.
Fanny Hubbard Kellogg, who had died both childless and a widow, had originally planned to leave her $300,000 estate to the city of Montpelier. But sniffing out an opportunity, the ne’er-do-well Hubbard decided that such an amount rightfully belonged to whoever wanted it most—namely, himself. After staging an invalid reading of probate documents using his own duped relatives, he claimed the inheritance as his own, enraging the Montpelier city leaders and setting off a battle in court.
Before a ruling could be made the city settled for $30,000 and the Kellogg- Hubbard was built. As Lewis describes, that he died a few years thereafter of liver cancer felt like divine retribution for his sins, but the story didn’t end there.
Hubbard’s funeral monument at Green Mount Cemetery took the form of one of Greek mythology’s most famous figures: Thanatos, or death personified, here depicted as a lady wearing a black shroud. Black Agnes, or ‘Black Aggie’, designed by the sculptor Karl Bitter, has become a popular destination for visitors in the area, but it’s possible that she—like the man she commemorates—may exact a price. TBC
I think I’m running out of room. May the Lord bless thee and keep thee.
Hi Vagabonds
I’m running late, ran out of time before I needed to leave for the grocery run. Overcast skies, high 70.
Well, we start our tour of the ghostly happenings around the Green Mountain State.
We start at the Green Mountain Cemetery in Montpelier.
According to author Thea Lewis, the grave of John Hubbard contains far more than meets the eye. In her book Wicked Vermont, she describes how Hubbard, a young man who preferred easy money to honest money, pulled a fast one with his aunt’s inheritance, swindling the rightful recipients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the late 1800s.
Fanny Hubbard Kellogg, who had died both childless and a widow, had originally planned to leave her $300,000 estate to the city of Montpelier. But sniffing out an opportunity, the ne’er-do-well Hubbard decided that such an amount rightfully belonged to whoever wanted it most—namely, himself. After staging an invalid reading of probate documents using his own duped relatives, he claimed the inheritance as his own, enraging the Montpelier city leaders and setting off a battle in court.
Before a ruling could be made the city settled for $30,000 and the Kellogg- Hubbard was built. As Lewis describes, that he died a few years thereafter of liver cancer felt like divine retribution for his sins, but the story didn’t end there.
Hubbard’s funeral monument at Green Mount Cemetery took the form of one of Greek mythology’s most famous figures: Thanatos, or death personified, here depicted as a lady wearing a black shroud. Black Agnes, or ‘Black Aggie’, designed by the sculptor Karl Bitter, has become a popular destination for visitors in the area, but it’s possible that she—like the man she commemorates—may exact a price. TBC
I think I’m running out of room. May the Lord bless thee and keep thee.
ttfn