The Mysterious Case of Adelaide Quaye
Hey readers, I’ve had a lot going on recently so I apologize for my lack of posts. I hope that I might get back to regularly posting, but I cannot make any promises. I’ve had a lot of recent discoveries, not only in the sense of the strange and unusual but also about myself.
That being said, while doing some research for a friend, I came across an individual that I felt drawn to learn more about. Unfortunately, there isn’t much about her which only makes her a greater enigma. It appears she is yet another woman lost to history, and ‘woman’ is a bit of a stretch as she was only 25 years old when she disappeared.
Born in the incredibly harsh winter of 1816 she became one of the youngest heiresses in the South after her parents both perished about a year after she was born. Her father died in the nearby lake after drowning, which is odd enough when one considers he was born and raised in the area. If he didn’t know how to swim, which was unlikely, he would have known better than to step foot into the deep lake. And this is looking past the idea he wouldn’t have avoided it because of the obvious alligators that commonly reside in Georgia lakes.
About three months after her father passed, her mother was mistakenly killed by a stray bullet shot in the nearby town of Sidon. It took yet another month for her mother to fully pass from her injury. And as far as I can tell, no one was ever charged for her murder. No one knows where the bullet came from.
Looking past her strange heritage, she was lucky(ish) to have a cousin who lived nearby willing to take her under his care. This of course seems like it was a ploy for him to gain control of the Quaye plantation which was one of the most wealthy estates profiting from sugar, and tobacco.
Shortly after Adelaide turned 13, her cousin Elmer Howine proposed to marry her. She would accept his proposal, but only if he were to dig her a well on a specific part of the property. You can imagine how strange of a request this must have been. But he accepted. As the story goes:
He sent off one of the many slaves on the property to deal with the digging, but Adelaide stopped him.
“My request is that you are the one to dig the well and set the bricks. We can only get married once you, and you alone have finished this task.”
There is plenty of speculation as to why she may have done this. Most suspect she wished to hold off the wedding for as long as possible. Elmer wasn’t exactly known for his handiness and certainly had never had any need to build a well in his life before. Still, he was determined to do so. I have my own personal theory as part of her reasoning, but it isn’t important to the story.
Two years later he finally finished the well, and as promised she accepted his proposal. It’s shortly after their marriage, however, that Elmer seemed to feel as if Adelaide was more distant than ever towards him (can’t imagine why…). He remarked in his journal that she was “Overly empathetic” and “far too interested in the health of the cattle”, Cattle, of course, referring to actual human beings. This theme, however, continues all the way up until her disappearance. The suspected day of her disappearance is the only two pages that have been ripped out of Elmer's journal and so is the truth of what happened that day as well.
Two months after his wife's disappearance he closes the wildly successful plantation, moves, and forbids anyone from ever returning to the property. To this day people have been known to go missing when traversing private property.
That being said, while doing some research for a friend, I came across an individual that I felt drawn to learn more about. Unfortunately, there isn’t much about her which only makes her a greater enigma. It appears she is yet another woman lost to history, and ‘woman’ is a bit of a stretch as she was only 25 years old when she disappeared.
Born in the incredibly harsh winter of 1816 she became one of the youngest heiresses in the South after her parents both perished about a year after she was born. Her father died in the nearby lake after drowning, which is odd enough when one considers he was born and raised in the area. If he didn’t know how to swim, which was unlikely, he would have known better than to step foot into the deep lake. And this is looking past the idea he wouldn’t have avoided it because of the obvious alligators that commonly reside in Georgia lakes.
About three months after her father passed, her mother was mistakenly killed by a stray bullet shot in the nearby town of Sidon. It took yet another month for her mother to fully pass from her injury. And as far as I can tell, no one was ever charged for her murder. No one knows where the bullet came from.
Looking past her strange heritage, she was lucky(ish) to have a cousin who lived nearby willing to take her under his care. This of course seems like it was a ploy for him to gain control of the Quaye plantation which was one of the most wealthy estates profiting from sugar, and tobacco.
Shortly after Adelaide turned 13, her cousin Elmer Howine proposed to marry her. She would accept his proposal, but only if he were to dig her a well on a specific part of the property. You can imagine how strange of a request this must have been. But he accepted. As the story goes:
He sent off one of the many slaves on the property to deal with the digging, but Adelaide stopped him.
“My request is that you are the one to dig the well and set the bricks. We can only get married once you, and you alone have finished this task.”
There is plenty of speculation as to why she may have done this. Most suspect she wished to hold off the wedding for as long as possible. Elmer wasn’t exactly known for his handiness and certainly had never had any need to build a well in his life before. Still, he was determined to do so. I have my own personal theory as part of her reasoning, but it isn’t important to the story.
Two years later he finally finished the well, and as promised she accepted his proposal. It’s shortly after their marriage, however, that Elmer seemed to feel as if Adelaide was more distant than ever towards him (can’t imagine why…). He remarked in his journal that she was “Overly empathetic” and “far too interested in the health of the cattle”, Cattle, of course, referring to actual human beings. This theme, however, continues all the way up until her disappearance. The suspected day of her disappearance is the only two pages that have been ripped out of Elmer's journal and so is the truth of what happened that day as well.
Two months after his wife's disappearance he closes the wildly successful plantation, moves, and forbids anyone from ever returning to the property. To this day people have been known to go missing when traversing private property.
So the question is:
What happened to Adelaide Quaye?
There’s no good answer to this, and there is plenty of speculation. Some of which, I highly doubt the truth of. Some claim she was a witch or a vampire. Some say she was killed by her husband and now haunts the estate. However, doing some more digging on Adelaide, and her father, it seems there might be another answer.
As mentioned before Adelaide was very empathetic towards others, a trait she shared with her father. Both seemed to be interested in healing arts and were less religious than the people of that time. Because of this, people feared them both to use witchcraft. Some went as far as to claim the family made a deal with the devil which was why their land was so wildly successful. But knowing what I do now, I doubt this was the case.
There is still more digging I need to do for this case, and I think the best place to start is in the abandoned Quaye plantation. Should anyone venture into it themselves, I ask kindly that you message me with anything interesting that you might find.
What happened to Adelaide Quaye?
There’s no good answer to this, and there is plenty of speculation. Some of which, I highly doubt the truth of. Some claim she was a witch or a vampire. Some say she was killed by her husband and now haunts the estate. However, doing some more digging on Adelaide, and her father, it seems there might be another answer.
As mentioned before Adelaide was very empathetic towards others, a trait she shared with her father. Both seemed to be interested in healing arts and were less religious than the people of that time. Because of this, people feared them both to use witchcraft. Some went as far as to claim the family made a deal with the devil which was why their land was so wildly successful. But knowing what I do now, I doubt this was the case.
There is still more digging I need to do for this case, and I think the best place to start is in the abandoned Quaye plantation. Should anyone venture into it themselves, I ask kindly that you message me with anything interesting that you might find.
This topic is truly fascinating, and while I understand your policy of not endorsing specific theories, I'm incredibly curious to hear your personal thoughts on what might have transpired in her case. Could you share your theories with me?
ReplyDelete