The Winchester House
Story★★★At the height of the Civil War, Oliver Winchester married Sarah Pardee of New Haven, Connecticut. Oliver Winchester was the man who invented the Winchester rifle, the first true repeating rifle, and it was put to great use by the Union Army during the War. Because of that, he amassed an incredible fortune, ma.king the young couple rich beyond belie( Four years later, they gave birth to a little girl named Annie, but the baby died when about two weeks old, and Sarah was so shattered that she withdrew into herself and nearly lost her mind.
Several years later, William himself developed tuberculosis and died. Sarah became heir of a vast fortune, but no amount of money would assuage her grie( She possessed no answer to the death or loneliness that overwhelmed her.
At a friend’s suggestion, Sarah sought help from a spiritist. During the session, the medium said, “Your husband is here. He says there is a curse on your family which took his life and that of your child. It is a curse that has resulted from the terrible weapon created by the Winchester family.
Thousands of persons have died because of it and their spirits are now seeking vengeance.” Sarah was told that she, too, would soon die unless she sold out in New Haven and moved west. She would be guided by her husband who would tell her where to stop and build a house. 1John- Roger and Peter McWilliams, Do It (Los Angeles: Prelude Press, 1991), 65. ,D
The point
Sarah Pardee Winchester, widow of the Winchester rifle inventor, grieves the deaths of her husband and daughter and, haunted by a spiritist's curse, constructs a continuously-expanding mansion—the historical Winchester Mystery House.