May-Stringer House

My History Project
Jul 27, 2017 · 5 min read

You’ve just arrived at another day for work at the May-Stringer House and Museum in Brooksville, FL. You’ve been assigned the menial task of cleaning and appraising a couple of ancient dolls that lie in rest in a crib in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. All goes well, you take the dolls away, get their dresses cleaned and the appraisal goes much better than expected. All in a day’s work!

You return to the house to greet your fellow volunteers and to put the dolls back in the crib. You climb up the front set of stairs, round the corner, and stand in the doorway to the child’s bedroom. What you see stops you in your tracks. You don’t dare take another step. You scramble back down the stairs in a flustered rush to meet your fellow volunteers to try and explain what has just happened. You spit out a series of nonsensical words, inviting strange stares from your friends.

They decide to come back up the stairs with you to see what all the fuss is about. They stop in their tracks at the threshold before them. The crib in which the dolls were originally resting has been dismantled and pieces have been violently strewn across the floor of the bedroom. Not a living soul has stepped upstairs while you were with the appraiser. What happened? Who did this? The docent of the house makes her way upstairs and says with a nonchalant shrug, “Oh, that was just Jessie May. Don’t remove her toys from her room, and there shouldn’t be any more issues”.

Jessie May, or as it is sometimes spelled “Mae”, spent her life in a large house in the small town of Brooksville, FL. But let’s explore some historical background before we get into her story.

May-Stringer Museum in Brooksville, FL

A newly married couple, Marena and John L. May, purchased 160 acres of land in the newly settled town of Brooksville. John decided to build a house on the property in 1855, a new home for his wife and two daughters, Matilda and Annie.

The happy family lived in the house for 3 years before tragedy struck. Tuberculosis was spreading rapidly during that time, and while Marena and her daughters were lucky enough not to contract the disease, John was not so lucky. He died of tuberculosis in 1858.

Marena, being a strong-willed and independent woman, lived in the house as a widow for 8 years, raising her two daughters on her own. In those days, 8 years was an unusually long time for a woman to spend as a widow.

With life being as tough as it was in a newly established town, it was curious why Marena refused to marry soon after her husband had died. Marena did eventually remarry in 1866, to a celebrated Confederate war hero named Frank Saxon. Little Jessie May Saxon was born soon after in 1869.

Unfortunately, Marena never got the chance to hold her newborn daughter.

Marena passed as a result of childbirth complications. Jessie went on to live a healthy and happy life, at least for the next three years. Rumors speculate that Jessie was pushed off of the second floor balcony of her home. Other theories point to an illness, but Jessie’s post-mortem photographs show no sign of illness or trauma. The truth will likely never be known, as the Brooksville courthouse that held Jessie death records burned down in the 1870s, only a few years after Jessie’s death.

After Jessie’s passing, one would presume that she would be buried in the family plot with her mother. However, rumors claim that she is buried somewhere on the immediate property, close to the house. Jessie is not given a headstone in the family plot, so it can be assumed that she was not buried with her family. No one knows why this is the case, and no one has yet to find her remains. Speculations are that given the amount of paranormal activity attributed to Jessie, there could be fear of disturbing her remains and prompting even more supernatural occurrences.

Picture of Jessie May post-mortem in her crib

A few years after his wife and daughter’s death, Saxon sold the home to Dr. Sheldon Stringer. Stringer added an additional 10 rooms to the house, including a small room for his medical practice. His office slowly transformed into a sanatorium for small pox and yellow fever victims, among his day-to-day patients. Most of these terminally ill individuals died in the house, adding to the now impressive body count.

Due to the large number of deaths on the property, it is not surprising that hauntings and unexplained phenomena are continually reported to this day.

After being abandoned and in disrepair for a number of years, the Hernando Historical Society purchased it in 1981. Construction workers and volunteers were brought in to jump-start the repair efforts that the house badly needed.

Frequent reports came in from the staff hearing voices and footsteps in the abandoned portions of the house. Children’s laughter, cold spots, mists, moving and eerie shadows, and glowing orbs also frequented complaints about working conditions. No children or outside personnel were allowed onsite, and the property was thoroughly examined each day, before and after work for the day began.

Jessie May enters the reports when workers began reporting hearing a child wailing. The rumors conclude that this is Jessie May, being a “lost spirit calling out for the mother she never knew”.

Two dolls in Jessie May’s Crib in her old bedroom

While Jessie May is the most widely known spirit to reside in the house, per her wailing and the incident with volunteers removing her dolls, she is not alone. Other supposed spirits include: Marena May (died of childbirth), Dr. Stringer’s patients (died of smallpox and yellow fever), and a malevolent spirit known to paranormal researchers as “Mr. Nasty”.

To continue reading, please visit: https://my-history-project.com

Sources: http://ghostsnghouls.com/2013/02/03/may-stringer-house-haunted/

Thanks to Sierra Farrands

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