Our rumrunners even had a ghost help
them with their business. Ghosts had always played a major role in the
area; superstition about ghosts and the spirit world seemed to be a
way of life into the great beyond. The bloody hand story in the Grayson
Hotel; the ghost at Harry Baird's house (behind where Stedman's store
is today); the lady in the window at Captain Long's residence; and the
topper of then all - the headless ghost of Mrs. Dan Irwin.
In the last century, Dan Irwin, a bank
accountant was forced to flee his native Ireland and arrived here in
1838. It was while on a short visit to Saint John that he met and married
the women destined to become famous as that haunting figure in the traditional
white robe. Shortly after his marriage, Irwin built a tavern (The Irwin
Inn) that became a rough hangout of sailors and those who enjoyed the
dregs of society. It had a reputation that would put a red-light district
to shame.
One morning the Inn was found in ashes;
no trace of Irwin or a boarder, Frank Brown. Some days later, strangers
noticed the little dog of Irwin's was acting in a most unusual manner
almost as if it was trying to tell them a major secret. They followed
the little dog to the base of a tree and there they discovered Mrs.
Irwin's head. The crime was never solved. Many would claim to see her
ghost while traveling the road late at night.
Others claimed to be ghost viewers while
picking blue-berries near Indian Rock Cottages which was not far from
where the Inn once stood. It was on this that the smugglers capitalized
and created their own ghost in the south end of town.