The Ghost of Tory Pines 

"Seek and thee shall find the room where the gruesome scene took place"

     Etched in coal down in the cellar on one of the brick arches supporting the 8 fireplaces.  MY EVENT:   (Note, I was a nonbeliever and king of the skeptics until it happened)

    I actually had two experiences, the first I was awoken in a state of fear and saw only a white cloud type image for about 3 seconds.  I put my head back down on the pillow and went back to sleep.

    The second:   To my best guess it may have been about 2-3AM and we were living in the brick wing of Tory Pines.  I was awoken in a state of fear like I had never ever had before.  I sensed someone was in the room.  As I pop up to a sitting position in the bed, it was as though I startled this person.   I will never forget what he looked like.  He was an old black man maybe 60 yrs + with a broad large nose.  He had on a long trench coat with an old battered hat with a brim all crocked and bent.  But he wasn't in the flesh, he was in a whitish image, I had a real clear image of him.

      As I startled him, he began walking toward an open doorway beside the bed (about 12 ft.) and just before he got to the doorway he paused for a moment turned his head back toward me and looked me in the eye, then turned back and proceeded through the opening.   For whatever reason, I did not scream or wake Janice.   I put my head back down and went back to sleep.

RUMORS OF OUR GHOST:   Now to you non-believers,, I was asked to do an interview with renowned ghost authorities and I was resistant because I was so busy doing everything at the resort, but I finally gave in offering to have lunch with this chap and I shared every bit of detail including he asking about my sleeping habits (I was a notorious sound sleeper) and when I finished my account I said well what do you think?   He responded "I believed every word you said"  Then he told me why.   It's most often that sound sleepers have these encounters because we enter into "A 6th sense"  and quite frankly it was exactly that why I woke up in such fear because I sensed someone was in the room looking at us in bed.

A LITTLE HISTORY:   The Old Gibson Tavern was built in 1799 and boasted 8 working fireplaces and it was on an old gravel road called the 2nd New Hampshire Turnpike, the major stagecoach route to Canada.   There was actually a large vertical piece of granite just below the dwelling which was the site of the toll gate.    As the inscription in the cellar indicates, folklore over the years feels that a slave was captured on the premises trying to escape to Canada and was tortured and killed inside the old tavern and the spirit is his ghost haunting the property.  There were also rumors of a secret room in the house which we could never find but there were large spaces from the main brick arches that supported the fireplaces that were free-standing and the built the house around the arches, consequently, there were large spaces where one could hide if they chose.

AND THERE WERE MORE ENCOUNTERS:   We had a young single lady who worked at the resort that was given a room in the main house and after several months of employment she asked to speak to me finally saying "I can't take it any longer, this thing won't leave me alone at night speaking of what she described as a white cloud-like appearance.  I understood that this young lady was the one who contacted the ghost expert that interviewed me.

Lastly, one of the chefs lived in a room in the main building (where I had my first experience a few years earlier)  and he told all of the staff one evening he went up to his room and sat on the bed to watch TV and as he was sitting there he felt the spot on the bed 18" next to him depressed as though someone had sat beside him.  He fell to his knees and said "God please don't forsake me" terrified!

Needless to say, as the host and owner after dinner many evening I shared the ghost story with many guests by the fireplace and became a pretty good storyteller.   When finished most were at the edges of their chair.

So I hope you don't wake up screaming this evening after reading this.  But every word is true, "so help me god"   
Here's a photo during that period at Tory Pines and note my executive secretary to my left.  That's my daughter Jocelyn taking notes