Curses

Ok, I'm not saying I believe in them, but I had an interesting conversation with one of my guests this morning... This is something that's come up before, because this house has a very STRONG feminine energy. Almost everyone who's been here and senses these things agrees. What's odd about that is the house through its history has been primarily occupied by women. Mary Jameson was widowed in 1901 and lived here (with her widowed sister!) for another 26 years. Charlotte Jameson was widowed and lived her alone for 25 years. The next owners divorced and the wife inherited the house. The next owners had a son who wound up in the State Hospital. My own husband left and I've been here alone nearly 2 years, and my husband has said more than once he felt the house 'drove' him away. Okay, admit it...this is all a bit weird. My guest suggested there might be a curse on the house. So I started asking myself, who would have cursed the house?

The answer came relatively easily. It must have been Sallie Tom Jameson. Since I haven't done what I intended and written much about the Jameson women, maybe now is the time to explain why it might have been Sallie who cursed the house... The truth is, I don't think she cursed the house so much as the women in the family. Here's why...

Sallie Tom Jameson was the sister of the man who lived in my house, John Jameson (Jr.). She and her sister Elizabeth (Bettie) were schoolteachers in Kentucky and both engaged to gentlemen from that state. They were to be married here in Fulton (at their mother's home north of town) on the same day. Two weeks before the wedding, Sallie Tom took ill and died. Her betrothed didn't even make it to Fulton in time for her funeral, and supposedly wept for an extended time on her grave. But her sister Bettie went ahead with her own marriage. Fine and dandy... Bettie had a son that was named after Sallie's fiance, Richard Reid Rogers. But 10 years later, Bettie's husband died...so what did Bettie do? Well, she waited an appropriate amount of time (4 years) and then she married Sallie's betrothed!! Right in this very house!! So, Bettie lost her first husband, and it was downhill from there. Sallie's fiance and Bettie's second husband, Richard Reid, was horsewhipped and committed suicide in 1884; Sallie's brother John (Mary's husband) died in this house suddenly in 1901; Sallie's nephew Harris died in 1893; Sallie's nephew John died in the early 1900s; Charlotte's husband Boulware Jameson died here in 1956; the next owners divorced and the wife got the house; Sallie Tom's niece and namesake died in this house, unmarried, at 23; Doll Jameson never married; Bessie Jameson (Bettie's namesake) died in a tragic fire at 4 years; and last but not least has been my own abandonment.

Was Sallie a woman scorned who wished no one happiness if her own couldn't be granted? It certainly didn't seem so from reading her obituary, which said she was glad to go to God, but only wished she had had more time in this life. Did she change her mind before she crossed over? Did she curse the Jameson family and occupants of the home where Bettie married Sallie's lover?

The certainly doesn't 'feel' cursed, but if it is, I wonder how one goes about removing one? ;) I have no idea. Might be something worth exploring. All I'm saying is that I don't want to live in a house that rejects men. Now or ever. I haven't become that cynical about love....yet.