Do you want to hear a ghost story? It’s a good one, I promise. It has all the elements of a classic tale and, best of all, it’s true. Or is it? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
Our story takes place in a suburban New York town in the 1890s. It had been an especially harsh winter, and a heavy blanket of snow covered everything. Late one evening, Dr. Silas W. Mitchell was reading in his home office when a sharp rapping sounded at his front door.
Upon opening it, he found a girl of about twelve standing on his stoop in the driving snow. She wore a tattered red cloak and a thin dress, entirely unsuitable for the frigid night. Desperate, she begged the doctor to come help her sick mother. At first, Dr. Mitchell refused, explaining that he no longer made house calls and suggesting another physician. But the girl insisted there was no time—he had to come at once. Reluctantly, the doctor packed up his kit and followed her into the storm.
They trudged more than a mile through the swirling snow, the icy wind stinging their faces and drenching their clothes. At last, they arrived at a dilapidated house in the poorer section of town. The girl led him inside and up a narrow staircase to a small bedroom, where her mother lay unconscious in bed. She thanked him again before quietly slipping out of the room, leaving Dr. Mitchell to his work.
The woman was suffering from pneumonia, a condition often fatal if left untreated. Mitchell worked through the night, uncertain whether she would survive. Then, just as dawn broke, the fever subsided. A short while later, the woman awoke, startled to find a doctor at her bedside. He explained what had happened and how close she had come to death.
The woman was grateful but confused—how had he come to be in her home?
Dr. Mitchell told her all thanks belonged to her daughter, who had braved the storm to find help just in time. At this, the woman’s expression darkened with disbelief. She insisted she had no daughter.
Puzzled, Mitchell described the girl and her clothing in detail. The woman’s eyes filled with tears. Her only child, she explained, had died months earlier. She did not appreciate the cruel joke. To prove her point, she directed him to a closet, where he found the girl’s red cloak and dress. Both were bone dry—impossible if they had been out in a snowstorm just hours earlier.
For a man of science, it was a vexing contradiction. Skeptical by nature, Dr. Mitchell did not believe in ghosts, yet he could not dismiss what he had experienced with his own eyes. He told the story often over the years, insisting on its truth until his death in 1914.
But was it?
His status as a respected physician lends some credibility to the tale. In fact, his account was so compelling that at least half a dozen variations have surfaced in ghost anthologies, each citing a different doctor, in a different town, at a different time—all presenting the story as fact. In this way, the tale has become woven into American folklore, rippling through time and culture.
As for the authenticity of the original, Dr. Mitchell left behind a few intriguing clues. Several personal letters show he was directly asked about the story. His responses were playful but evasive, hinting that it had been a joke taken too far. Perhaps the most revealing clue appears in his 1909 novel, Characteristics, in which his protagonist states:
“It is dangerous to tell a ghost-story nowadays. . . . A friend of mine once told one in print out of his wicked head, just for the fun of it. It was about a little dead child who rang up a doctor one night and took him to see her dying mother. Since then, he has been the prey of collectors of such marvels. Psychical societies write to him; anxious believers and disbelievers in the supernatural assail him with letters. He has written some fifty to lay this ghost. How could he predict a day when he would be taken seriously?”
So, is it true or not? I won’t say either way—some things are best left to mystery.
To me, what matters is that we want to believe. Even if it was a fabrication, the story invokes hope and faith—two things often in short supply.
Jason Roberts is a Seattle-based author noted for his acclaimed western horror series The Dead Wind Trilogy as well as other works of cosmic horror infused with historical fiction. His web-based series, Dark Distractions examines paranormal mysteries, unexplained phenomena, and all things strange.
