エピソード

  • The Crossroads Lamp: Why Someone Lights a Dead Man's Vigil Tonight

    The Crossroads Lamp: Why Someone Lights a Dead Man's Vigil Tonight
    2026/07/28
    The Crossroads Lamp: Why Someone Lights a Dead Man's Vigil Tonight

    A quiet kerosene lantern has been relit at a locked crossroads for more than a century, its wick trimmed and reservoir full despite a padlock untouched since 1922-yet the same heel-to-toe footprint, 11.75 inches, appears in official logs across decades. Who keeps climbing a locked gate to tend a dead man's light, and why has that exact print been recorded by different deputies for 100+ years?

    In this episode, we follow the records and the people who preserved them to trace how a county surveyor's routine visit turned into a century-old mystery. The episode covers the constable log entries, archival discoveries by a folklorist, and the life and death of the man connected to the lamp-so why did the lamp persist after Terry Price died in 1911?

    Person: Keith Mitchell
    Event: Lantern found on June 4, 2019
    Person: Julie Boyd
    Date: Terry Price death recorded August 1911
    Location: Cutter Road, Garnet, Tennessee

    - The padlock on the gate had not been touched; no scratches were found on it.
    - The only footprint recorded at the lamp was heel-to-toe, measuring eleven and three-quarter inches.
    - The constable log contains thirty-one separate lantern entries between 1912 and 2018.
    - Twenty-two of those thirty-one entries specifically note the same 11.75-inch boot print.
    - Terry Price began hanging a lantern at the crossroads on each new moon after his wife Vera died in March 1911.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The Pump Handle, the Missing Shoe, and the Boy Who Vanished

    The Pump Handle, the Missing Shoe, and the Boy Who Vanished
    2026/07/27
    The Pump Handle, the Missing Shoe, and the Boy Who Vanished

    A cast-iron pump handle was found pressed fourteen inches into a four-acre field with a child's leather shoe knotted to its neck - both photographed in May 2011 - and the paper trail that followed reaches back ninety years to a vanished farmhand and a blank in a church register. Who decided a seven-year-old would be denied the communicant column in the burial record, and what else did the town quietly erase?

    In this episode, we follow the discoveries made in uncatalogued town boxes and county ledgers, tracing how a 2011 field find connects to records from 1919-1922 and the people named in those documents, and we ask whether local power shaped which men stayed and which disappeared.

    Person: Jean Hamilton
    Date: May 2011
    Location: Carrow Bend, Varnell
    Person: Clara Moss
    Person: Dean Quinn

    - The pump handle was cast iron, roughly thirty inches long and painted red, pressed fourteen inches into the ground.
    - Jean Hamilton photographed the pump handle and a child's shoe the moment she found them in May 2011.
    - The child's shoe had leather nearly blackened and the lace still knotted.
    - Clara Moss was seven years old and recorded in the Congregational burial register as dying in May 1922 with cause of death listed as fever.
    - Dean Quinn, age twenty-four, appears on the Carrow payroll for three Fridays in April and two in May 1922; the second Friday in May is his last payroll entry.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    21 分
  • The Sack of Forty-One Letters: Why Mail Stopped Finding Him

    The Sack of Forty-One Letters: Why Mail Stopped Finding Him
    2026/07/27
    The Sack of Forty-One Letters: Why Mail Stopped Finding Him

    A dry canvas sack on a muddy culvert held forty-one letters addressed to a man who sorted mail for thirty years, yet none reached him-how did letters logged as received disappear into a single, repeated set of initials? What secret kept a postal worker’s own correspondence from ever finding him?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery and archival trail that ties a Dalton Flats post office ledger, a consistent collector’s notation, and a decades-long string of unanswered letters together, asking who collected these letters and why they never reached Gary Wallace.

    Person: Melvin Donnelly
    Date: April 11, 2009
    Person: Gary Wallace
    Location: Dalton Flats main branch post office
    Person: Patricia Ogle

    - The sack was found dry on April 11, 2009, despite two days of heavy rain that saturated the surrounding ground.
    - Gary Wallace began working at the Dalton Flats main branch in April 1968 at age 30 and worked at the sorting window for thirty years.
    - Forty-seven pieces of mail were logged under G. Wallace in the branch ledger from 1971 to 1988.
    - Thirty-one of the forty-seven ledger entries show the same pickup initials: W.B., identified as Walter Beem.
    - Patricia Ogle mailed letters to Gary from 1971 through 1988 and her last letter was postmarked March 1996 but did not receive a reply.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    20 分
  • They Buried Her Name: The Music Box That Remembered Mara

    They Buried Her Name: The Music Box That Remembered Mara
    2026/07/27
    They Buried Her Name: The Music Box That Remembered Mara

    A dry music box found on a frozen shelf in a flooded ditch played a lullaby every child in Havelock Bend knew - the town called it the Mara song, but the name Mara was scrubbed from public record for 158 years. How did a melody become the only surviving trace of a buried infant and the woman who vanished with her?

    In this episode, we trace the paper trail and town decisions that connect a found music box, a forbidden newspaper notice, and a lone baptismal entry. What the episode covers is the baptism of Mara Andrews, the unexplained prohibition on discussing "the matter of the infant Andrews," and the disappearance of Kathleen Andrews - and it asks how a community can erase a person while a song keeps her memory alive.

    Person: Kathleen Andrews
    Person: Mara Andrews
    Date: 6 March 2009
    Date: 5 May 1883
    Location: Havelock Bend

    - A wooden music box was found on the east side of the Prentiss farm at 5:45 a.m, on 6 March 2009.
    - Mara Andrews was baptized at Grace Fellowship Church on 14 February 1883; her name appears only once in 158 years of baptismal records.
    - A three-line notice prohibiting public discussion of "the matter of the infant Andrews" was published in the Aldrich Recorder on 9 May 1883.
    - Selectmen met on 5 May 1883 and decided Mara would be buried in the potter's field in unconsecrated ground with no marker.
    - Kathleen Andrews rented the Hooper cottage from November 1882 through April 1883 and left without collecting her security deposit; her abandoned beehives were removed in July 1883.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    24 分
  • The Bricked Window: Child's Chair, Tin Cup, Missing Teacher

    The Bricked Window: Child's Chair, Tin Cup, Missing Teacher
    2026/07/27
    The Bricked Window: Child's Chair, Tin Cup, Missing Teacher

    A century-old schoolhouse kept a secret pressed into brick: a near-black child's chair and a tin cup were found sealed inside a bricked-over window after frost displaced a few lower bricks. The building had been sealed since September 1899 and no one touched that room for 120 years - so who placed the chair before the wall was finished, and why was the south window bricked the same year a six-year-old boy died of exposure?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery from the frost-heave crack on February 11, 2019, through the photograph that reached county and college hands, and the archival ledger that records a single terse decision in September 1899 to brick the south window. What does that ledger entry, the chair, and the county folklore about the "Hollow Teacher" suggest about the missing pieces of the story?

    Person: Judith Lawson
    Date: February 11, 2019
    Location: Pelham School, south wall
    Person: Christine Duncan
    Event: School board voted to brick the south window in September 1899

    - The Pelham School building was sealed since September 1899 and untouched for 120 years.
    - On February 11, 2019, a frost-heave displaced three or four bricks revealing a child's chair and a tin cup inside a bricked window.
    - Monica Rice arrived as Pelham School teacher in September 1897, was approximately 30 years old, and had a two-year contract at $22 per month.
    - Thomas Greer, age six, walked a mile to school and died of exposure on February 14, 1899, as recorded in the Methodist church register.
    - The September 1899 school board ledger entry records a three-to-one vote to brick the south window in Pelham School.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    24 分
  • The Chair on Frozen Water: Gloria's Pond and a Quiet Vanishing

    The Chair on Frozen Water: Gloria's Pond and a Quiet Vanishing
    2026/07/27
    The Chair on Frozen Water: Gloria's Pond and a Quiet Vanishing

    Cold and lonely: a wooden folding chair was found sitting upright, sixty yards from shore on the ice of Gloria's Pond with no footprints, no drag marks, and the surrounding ice unbroken - so how did it get there, and why did the town let a forty-six-year-old woman's death be filed under "weather"?

    In this episode, we trace the sparse records and local memories that connect a dismissed housekeeper, a missing week’s wages, and a one-day coroner’s inquest that returned a verdict of accidental death. What really happened between January 10 and January 14, 1922 - and who stood to benefit from the silence?

    Person: Gloria Hansen
    Date: January 14, 1922 (inquest); body found January 11, 1922
    Location: Dunnett impoundment known as Gloria's Pond, Dunmore Township
    Status: Verdict - accidental death; cause: exposure and immersion
    Witness: Robert Dunnett - testified he dismissed Hansen on January 10 and paid two weeks' wages

    - A wooden folding chair was found at the center of the frozen pond, sixty yards from the nearest bank, facing east.
    - Gloria Hansen was about forty-six years old and had been housekeeper for the Dunnett family for roughly eight years.
    - Gloria carried a folding wooden chair to the Dunmore Methodist fellowship hall every Wednesday for six years to unlock the door and arrange seating.
    - The boarding house ledger recorded Gloria left a trunk containing one dress, two aprons, a pair of worn boots, and one folding wooden chair.
    - The coroner Frederick Alms convened an inquest on January 14, 1922, and filed the case under "weather incidents" with the cause listed as exposure and immersion.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    20 分
  • The Seven Candles Left for Arden: A Hundred-Year Vigil in Frost

    The Seven Candles Left for Arden: A Hundred-Year Vigil in Frost
    2026/07/27
    The Seven Candles Left for Arden: A Hundred-Year Vigil in Frost

    A folded table, seven white pillar candles burned to different heights, dried larkspur and statice, and a laminated card reading ARDEN left on frozen grass - someone stood in subfreezing darkness and waited for seven candles to burn down. The objects connect a 2019 discovery to a pattern that started in December 1861 and reappeared in December 1912; what exactly were they keeping vigil for, and why did the number seven repeat across a century?

    In this episode, we trace the documented moments that link a clearing in Marsh Pasture to records in Harwick’s church register, a general store ledger and a priest’s letters, following the question that began with a frozen field and a single annotated entry: who was Arden, and who kept her light burning?

    Person: Arden Cole
    Date: December 14, 1861
    Person: Rachel Burns
    Date: December 6-14, 1912
    Event: Discovery of seven candles in clearing on December 14, 2019

    - Edward Stewart noted the clearing clear on December 13, 2019 and found a table with seven burned white pillar candles on December 14, 2019 at 6:15 a.m.
    - The laminated card found at the 2019 site bore a single word in blue ink: ARDEN, and the cloth beneath the table was dry while the grass was frozen.
    - Harwick church register recorded Arden Cole’s death on December 14, 1861 with the phrase "in the cold of the field," later annotated: "She kept a light burning for what she believed. She was not wrong to do so."
    - Preston Cole’s general store ledger records a purchase by Rachel Burns on December 6, 1912 of seven white candles and "sundry botanicals."
    - Father Owen Marsh documented candles and flowers at the clearing on evenings before December 9, 1912 and wrote a four-page letter to Bishop Aldous Crane asking for guidance; no reply is found in the diocesan archive.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    21 分
  • The Widow Who Kept a Room Warm for 36 Winters

    The Widow Who Kept a Room Warm for 36 Winters
    2026/07/27
    The Widow Who Kept a Room Warm for 36 Winters

    A name appears in an inn ledger every October for thirty-six years: S. Ward, Room seven, Rate: zero, Departure date: blank. A dead woman’s name kept a room from being rented through four different innkeepers-why did payments continue for decades after her death?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events tied to that ledger entry and the bank tracing that links the yearly credit to a living relative, and we follow how a small town’s decisions echoed through records until the last payment stopped-what finally ended the arrangement?

    Person: Sharon Ward
    Date: November 14, 1887
    Location: Harmon House Inn, Fetter Street, Crale, Pennsylvania
    Person: Nora Huse
    Event: Annual payment recorded as "WARD FAMILY ARRANGEMENT" from October 1887 through October 1922

    - Sharon Ward was evicted from her Marne Street house in the first week of November 1887 with less than one day's notice.
    - Sharon died on November 14, 1887 in room seven of the Harmon House Inn; the church register lists "inflammation of the lungs" as cause of death.
    - Innkeeper August Reiter gave Sharon room seven at no charge the month she was evicted and entered "S. Ward. Room seven. Rate: zero. Departure date: blank." in the ledger.
    - Beginning October 1887 and continuing through October 1922, a yearly credit labeled "WARD FAMILY ARRANGEMENT" paid for the room, traced by historian Marcia Snyder to Nora Huse.
    - The ledger entries for the room persisted under four different innkeepers, including a 1909 water-stained note by innkeeper Paul Sefton stating, "The room is spoken for. Do not press the point."

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    24 分