Marriage is a beautiful tradition that celebrates the love between two people who promise to cherish each other until death do they part.
Unfortunately, some people don’t accept death as the end and go to great lengths to keep the love alive.
The Fulford Place in Brockville is known to the public as a museum displaying rare antiquities, furnishings and tales of its previous inhabitants, including its first owner, Senator George Taylor Fulford with his wife Mary Wilder White.
George had made his fortune by running his own drug store and later coining the pharmaceutical “miracle” of Pink Pill for Pale People.
Everything seemed to be going well for George until his untimely death in 1905. While travelling through Newton, Massachusetts via chauffeured open roadster with his business partner, Willis T. Hanson, his vehicle slammed into the side of a streetcar while crossing a blind intersection.
The chauffeur died of head trauma from the crash and George died several days later, succumbing to his injuries at the age of 53. Willis assumed George’s role of management of his Canadian and foreign business.
Mary was distraught in losing her beloved husband and never remarried, not because she couldn’t find another husband, but because she wasn’t ready to let go of George. Mary was reportedly very spiritual and fascinated by the occult and the afterlife.
It’s said that Mary hosted many seances after her husband’s death, hoping to connect with him once more. Fellow paranormal enthusiast and close friend of Mary, Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King would often attend these seances.
Communing with the dead would almost become an obsession for both Mary and William. The Prime Minister was even known to stay at the Fulford Place long after Mary’s death in 1946 as a close friend to her family.
It’s said that Mary’s spirit still haunts the mansion to this day, desperately trying to reunite with her beloved George. Over the years, new inhabitants of the property have come in contact with unexplainable occurrences.
There have been accounts of people being pinned to their beds by an unseen entity. Others claim that doors slammed in empty rooms and that certain objects would disappear, only to reappear in the weirdest places.
It’s almost like Mary is trying to tell new residents that they are not welcome in her house.
Paranormal investigators have reported sudden drops in temperature while inside the house. Others claim to see strange light anomalies and significant EMF readings that could not be explained.
Some have even said they’ve seen a floating apparition aimlessly roaming the halls.
While the mansion stands as a local museum to the public, most people feel uneasy when exploring the building. Some people feel as though they are being watched by an unknown presence, as if several of the paintings’ eyes follow your every move.
Some describe the portrait of Mary herself as the creepiest part of the museum, with her blank expression and dark, piercing eyes. It’s as if Mary White herself is staring right through you.
Reporter/Photographer for Chesterville Record and Eastern Ontario Agrinews. Currently working on Record segment, “Chilling Tales from Beyond”