Mysterious Mrs. Crouch

I am continually amazed at how many “fans” and “followers” our resident ghost, Mrs. Crouch, has!  She’s really become a sort of celebrity in her own right.  Who’da thunk it?  What is especially intriguing to me is that many of those who mention her — on Facebook or in response to one of my blogs — seem to be very great Mrs. Crouch fans even though, often, they don’t really know very much about her.

Well, in truth, neither do I, but what is known I’ve written about fairly extensively — not only in my blogs, but more fully in my two ghost story books.  Between them — Ghost Stories of the Long Beach Peninsula and Historic Haunts of the Long Beach Peninsula — I believe that all the historic/biographical information available about her is contained in two chapters, one per book.  We do know where and when she was born, where and when she died, where she is buried, that she had a lovely singing voice and that she had a toddler-aged daughter.  And only a bit more.  After all, she was a real person, she did live in this house in Oysterville, and she did drown in the Willapa River.

Josiah Crouch — San Quentin Mug Shot 1897

That is not to say that more facts won’t be forthcoming.  Cousin Ralph is always on the lookout and there’s certainly the chance that old news reports or official documents of one kind or another will become available online.  That’s exactly what happened in the case of Reverend Josiah.  Documentation released from San Quentin Prison in California and discovered long after my first ghost book was published, actually inspired the follow-up book.

But, most current “information” about shy Sarah Crouch is from personal observation of the unexplained phenomena that occur in this erstwhile parsonage.  Although we attribute these occurrences to Mrs. C. (and, just lately, perhaps also to Mr. C.) it is all speculation and guesswork on our part.

And, you will remember, I don’t really believe in ghosts…