From: Penny McWilliams Holder
Donna Mae McWilliams and Junior Delbert McWilliams (some people either called him JD or Mac). Donna and JD’s son, Danny, was referred to by a lot of his dad’s friends as little Mac.
Mom and Dad married on February 17th, 1961. They each already had 3 children, and before they knew it, they had 2 more. We were in order from oldest to youngest: Ray, Patty, Danny, Steve, Diana, Mary Jo, Kathy, and then me. They moved to Goshen in 1961, but I’m not sure of the exact date. We grew up in the big brown shingled house on 416. It had been many things before becoming a single family home. It had been a boarding house for the workers of the Erie Canal, it had been a hospital during the Cival War, I think it had even been a duplex at one time. It was a little haunted to say the least. Anyone that spent any time there could tell you that. But Dad was a realist and didn’t believe in such things. Until…
When I was away at college, dad came home one day while mom was shopping. He heard my stereo going full blast upstairs and just assumed I had come home for the weekend. He went to the bottom of the stairs and yelled, “I’m home”.The music went off and he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He went back to the kitchen to make himself some coffee, and he heard the music turn back on. He agian went to the bottom of the stairs and yelled. The music stopped again. He finally came up to get me and, lo and behold, I wasn’t home. I was still at college. By the time mom got home, he was a nervous wreck. He told her what had happened, and she said, “I’ve told you for years that this place was haunted.”
But the house is gone now. I wish it was still standing. My whole childhood was spent there, and to tell you the truth, the ghosts didn’t really bother me. When I found out it was gone, I felt my heart break a little. So many memories turned to rubble.
Also:
My cousin, Scott McWilliams, was the one that taught me to ride a bike, and throw a baseball!