TALES FROM THE DARK
Statesville cryptid and ghost girl gave frights across North Carolina from 1890-1900s
Georgiana Simon, left, and Steve Hill stand under an illustration of the Santer at the Statesville Historical Collection.
An illustration of the Santer in the Sept. 4, 1890, edition of The Landmark.
FROM ASHEVILLE TO GREENSBORO
A dark cat-like creature with flaming eyes, a barbed tail and webbed feet lurking in back alleys.
A small girl with dripping hair dressed in a soaked white dress haunting a hotel.
These are some of the spooky tales surrounding the history of a city in Iredell County.
Steve Hill, a local historian and author, documented some of the dark and creepy tales of Statesville in his new book, "Statesville After Dark: Worst of the 'Best Town in North Carolina.'" The book is filled with haunted interactions, cryptids and crimes.
Hill's book includes QR codes to play original folk songs written and performed by Hill.
The Santer
The Santer is a creature that was first documented roaming the streets of Statesville.
The strange creature was also reported in places from Greensboro up to the Appalachian Mountains between the 1890s and the 1930s, according to Statesville Record & Landmark archives.
When the Santer first rose to fame, the Statesville Record & Landmark was known as The Landmark. The publisher at the time was Joseph Pearson Caldwell.
"(Caldwell) would kind of tease (other editors across the state) by using the Santer, and they would laugh. They thought it's funny, and it's kind of a big joke," Hill said. "But along the same lines, Caldwell was selling advertising and he was selling newspapers. The Santer was making him pretty rich, for that time period. The Santer was a moneymaker for The Landmark newspaper. It went on for years and years and even on into the early 1900s, up in the '30s. People from time to time when they saw some kind of mysterious thing they couldn't explain in the darkness, they would blame it on the Santer."
Caldwell would republish articles from other newspapers across the state that referenced "The Landmark's Santer." Some articles came from South Carolina and Virginia, according to Statesville Record & Landmark archives.
Hill said the Santer became like Statesville's own Boogeyman. A story for parents to tell their children to keep them inside at night.
"It was a story that was useful for those partakers of alcohol in the saloons of Statesville of the day because they could use it as an excuse for not coming home on time," Hill said. "As I said in the book, 'Sorry, honey. Sorry, I'm late, but I ran into the Santer and he chased me all over town.'"
People would report seeing the cat-like creature roaming through alleys in the city. According to the old stories, the Santer had an appetite for livestock and pets.
"(The Santer) had a barbed tail. It had flipper-types of feet, webbed feet with claws. It had a beak, and it had fire coal eyes. So, if you can imagine that kind of critter walking around, looming around the back alleys and back streets of Statesville, that would have been it," Hill said. "Back here behind the building we're (the Statesville Historical Collection) in, it was seen a lot over here. That little alley that goes down behind the Bristol Cafe, that's where a couple of saloons were. (The Santer) was seen on that alley a lot."
In 1890, a man came to the Statesville Record & Landmark to draw the creature he encountered. Hill has a copy of the drawing hanging at the Statesville Historical Collection. The wall where the Santer drawing hangs is devoted to Statesville's dark past, including murders, mysteries and tragedies.
Multiple drawn renditions of the Santer were published in the Statesville Record & Landmark during the 1890s and early 1900s.
Georgiana Simon, 21, is a history student at Appalachian State University. Simon works as an intern at the Statesville Historical Collection.
"What interests me most about the Santer is that you hear all these other stories of other places, like the Mothman. They each have their own creepy creature, and I didn't know that Statesville, we had our own creepy creature who was also apparently seen in other counties, too," Simon said. "He's been everywhere. A lot of people described him as a dog, a cat, a mountain lion. Someone described him as an otter, and somehow, we ended up with (the newspaper drawing) as kind of the baseline of what the Santer is, which I think is pretty creepy."
Hill said there are multiple theories of how the creature got its name. One suggestion is that Santer is a variation of the word centaur. Simon added that another speculation is the name means "to roam around."
In some of the earliest stories published by the Statesville Record & Landmark, the Santer is also referred to as "the Glutton." An article from 1949 said the Santer may be a creature from Cherokee folklore called the Wampus. Other articles speculated the Santer was a creature that escaped from a man in Greensboro.
Joseph Caldwell later said the entire story of the Santer was a figment of people's imaginations. An 1890s version of click-bait.
Ghost girl Arlene
After walking through the entrance of the Statesville Historical Collection, a mannequin of a small girl stands to the left of the storefront.
The little girl has long dark hair and a white dress. The mannequin is a replica of a ghost many people have claimed to see in the building of the old Vance Hotel.
"Little Arlene has been seen roaming in the Vance Hotel for many, many years," Hill said. "She's always seen in a wet white gown with dripping wet hair, and people had assumed on up until recently that she must have drowned in the swimming pool because of her outfit. But one winter, I spent a snow day going through the Statesville Record & Landmark newspapers from over the years, and there's never been a child drowned in the Vance Hotel swimming pool."
There weren't any drownings ever listed at the Vance Hotel, Hill said.
Hill and his colleague Nancy Davis did find that a girl died from the Spanish influenza when the location of the hotel was previously a boarding house. The little girl's name was Arlene Mitchell.
Hill has a black and white photo of Arlene taken at the former boarding house displayed with the mannequin.
The Statesville Historical Collection is located at 117 S. Center St. in Statesville. It is open on Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Hill said appointments can be made to view the collection at other times.
Hill's book, "Statesville After Dark," can be purchased at the Statesville Historical Collection, the Wandering Crow Bookshop in Statesville, GG's Art Frames Gifts in Statesville and online at Red Hawk Publications and Amazon.
Sarah Johnson is the courts and breaking news reporter for the Hickory Daily Record.
