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The Visitors in the Barn
Dad (Chauncy Union Porter) worked here at the mine for a year or
more. Then came to Centerville and worked for Uncle Nathan. One day
when he and Uncle Nathan were hoeing in the garden, Dad saw two
very peculiar looking people coming down toward them. He asked
Uncle Nathan "Who are these funny looking people coming down the
path? Uncle leaned on his hoe and said, rather dejectedly - "Go and
ask them what they want." When dad asked them what they wanted,
the man stomped his foot and said something that sounded like
"money". "We have no money. You get the hell out of here." They
seemed furious, but they left and went toward the barn. They
turned to go and dad followed them out to the barn. There was a
high rock foundation under this barn, which necessitated a flight
of steps up to the barn. Dad followed them up the steps, but when
he got in the barn he could see neither hair nor hide of their
visitors. So he ran down the steps on the opposite side into the
corral and searched high and low, to no avail. And was he
flabbergasted. So he sent back to Uncle Nathan and said, "This
thing looks pretty spooky to me. I was hot on their trail and
searched everywhere, nook, crook, and corner; but no sign of them
did I see after they entered the barn. "How do you account for
that, Uncle Nathan?"
Then uncle told him of their experience with
these strange long-departed people. He said, "When we first moved
to this place, we had some distance to carry water, but there
were so many things to be done, building the home, fencing land,
plowing, planting and reaping, that we had no time for the
digging of a well. But eventually we got things in shape on the
place, and had some time to spend at other things. So we started
digging for water. After we had dug some eight or ten feet we
began to dig up bones. At first we could not make out what kind
of bones they were, then we unearthed a skull, and we knew that
they were human bones and we were living on some sort of ancient
burial ground; And that night, I was dragged from my bed and
suspended over that hole in the ground and would have been sent
to my doom had God not heard my prayers and answered them. I
would have been destroyed in the flesh then and there. This thing
was repeated several times; and finally, we sent for the
authorities of the Church to come and rebuke them. When the
authorities came, they asked me to tell them all about my
experience with these strange creatures; when I finished, they
said I had built my place on the burial ground of the. Gadianton
Robbers who lived in the time of Nephi. The spirits of these
bodies were troubled over this disturbance. Later a goodly number
of the leaders of the Church came back to our place, including
President Brigham Young. President Young walked all around the
well and all around the yard tapping the ground with his cane.
Finally he came and stood near the well. He looked up, then
President Young rebuked these spirits and, dedicated this spot of
ground to God. He commanded these spirits to depart! And although
they had no power over us after that, you can see my boy that
they are still hanging around occasionally.
Excerpt from the History of Sanford Porter (1790-1874)
Copied by
Muzetta Porter Burton about '1945.
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