Capital Theatre’s Séance and Ghost Show
Greeneville
There was a very exciting vaudeville act that came to the Capital Theatre at 104 South Main Street, where, what appeared to be a physical medium showed off his skills. The Greeneville Sun article on March 18, 1939, explained that the medium, Dr. Bey Shan, could make the séance table float above the heads of the audience during a spiritualist session to communicate with those who have passed away.
Asbury United Methodist Church
Greeneville
Legend maintains that in 1875, Adelaide E. “Ada” Jordan-Ripley (1836 – 1902) had received the money to allow the original church from a traveling Methodist preacher who had helped the spirit of a murdered young lady while after spending a single night in her former home.
According to their History section on the church’s website, the congregation had been meeting at a private home in downtown Greeneville in 1874. That same year, an unnamed traveling preacher was in town and spent the night at an abandoned home at current-day nearby Barton Ridge. The house had the stigma of being considered haunted.
Folklore maintains that he met the ghost of a former resident, an unnamed young lady in white, who told him she had been murdered in the home because she wouldn’t reveal the location of her money to intruders. She made a deal with the preacher and told him as long as he split the money with her still-living brother, he could have half.
He gave Ada $800 of the money so that she could donate it to Reverend James A. Mitchell to build their church.