Haunted Plantation

From 1795 to 1975, Poplar Grove Plantation was in the Foy family.  In the early 1800s, Poplar Grove became one of North Carolina's first and biggest peanut-producing plantations.  The original house burned and was rebuilt in 1850 by Joseph M. Foy, a wealthy and influential man in the state.  His son, Joseph T. Foy, took over the plantation at age fifteen upon his father's death.

In 1975, the plantation was bought by a nonprofit foundation, which restored it as a national historic site and opened it to tours.  But one member of the Foy family refuses to move.

She is Aunt Nora, wife of the young Joseph Foy.  She moved into the house as a young woman following the Civil War and lived there until her death in 1923.  Nora was a lively young woman who etched her name and her husband's into a window pane of the house on their wedding day.  In later years, Nora became a pipe-smoking, joke-cracking character who was community postmistress.  Since her death, her presence has continued to pervade Poplar Grove.  She can sometimes be heard pacing in her upstairs room.  Staff members tell of tricks that Aunt Nora, as she is known, sometimes plays on them.  And occasionally, when all lights are out in the house, a mysterious glow can be seen in the window of Nora's room, particularly near Christmas.

 

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