Ghost

From Lequear�s �Traditions of Hunterdon� pp. 81-2:

The same wagon that conveyed Jim�s body away from Flemington was seen the next morning about daybreak in front of Mr. John Runk�s dwelling, at Runk�s Mills. Dr. Coryell at that time boarded at Mr. Runk�s. He was a young and promising physician, and considered best qualified of any in the vicinity to anatomize the body. So Capt. Peter Case, now of Lumberville, Pa., was employed to deliver it at the Doctor�s residence. The body was ordered to the old oil mill. The person who carried it in took hold of the feet, threw it over his shoulder, and in this manner carried it to the third story of the mill, where it was deposited upon some rough boards laid on trestles. Dr. Coryell had met with an accident a day or two before and was disabled, so that he could not well attend to his subject. The clothing was removed and thrown in a corner, where, in all probability, it remains to this day. The person who then owned the mill says he never heard of its being removed, and the fact of its being there makes that spot a ghostly place even now.

The body of �Little Jim� remained in the mill for some weeks, and on several occasions the men of the neighborhood would assemble there to see the �little nigger cut up.� One drunken fellow, on being bantered for a quart of rum, at a piece of the flesh. At last the sensation became a little too strong, and the authorities interfered and ordered the body to be removed. Dr. Coryell not being able to attend to it, those having charge sent it to Quakertown, where it was finished up for a physician�s study.

But this was not the last of �Little Jim.� His spirit still walked abroad. Below the oil mill lived a Dutchman who was very superstitious. One Sunday evening a party of neighbors concluded to have some sport. It was well known that the man referred to was afraid to pass the mill, even in the daytime. Dr. Coryell procured a sheet and went to the third story of the mill, where the clothes lay. Others went down the creek and invited Peter to take a walk up the stream, while the remainder of the party concealed themselves in some bushes to witness the scene that was to follow.

Just as the dusk of evening came on, the party, with their unsuspecting neighbor in charge, neared the mill. They began to throw out obscure hints about what might be seen at night in the haunted spot. Peter proposed to return, but just then the third story mill door swung slowly open, and Peter�s companion dropped, in apparent deadly fright, upon the ground, for there, clinging to the hoisting rope, was a shrouded figure that Peter took for the spirit of the young Negro. He ran screaming from the spot, while those in the bushes, ready to split with laughter, fell upon their prostrate companion, and rolled in convulsions for several minutes.

Peter never passed that mill again; he would go miles around first. The participators in this practical joke are some of the living, respected members of society, and tell this story and laugh till tears roll down their cheeks.

Lequear's articles were originally published 1869-70.
"Little Jim" Guise was hung for murder on the 28th of November 1828.