On Sunday, April 26, 1896, at about 11:00 p.m., as the residents of Saxton Heights were settled in their beds for the night, an unearthly bone-chilling sound stirred them from their slumber. They heard a woman screaming as if she were being murdered. The screaming went on for some time. The residents pulled on their clothes and ran out of their houses to aid the woman in peril.
That particular night was the Full Pink Moon, named for the time in spring when the creeping phlox blooms. The full moon illuminated the entire Grove, and as there was very little underbrush, their view was unobstructed.
When they reached the spot where they believed the sound to be emanating from, they found no woman. No attacker. No signs of a struggle.
The skeptics among the residents dismissed the occurrence as a prankster with far too much time on their hands, but admitted to hearing and seeing strange things. Many stated it was not the first time they had heard the unearthly screams. Others went on to state they had seen a white “wraithlike” figure flitting about the Grove on many occasions.
Whether prankster or apparition, we will never know. If the residents of Saxton Heights continued to be plagued by the screams in the night, they never said. By day, Corby Grove was a bustling leisure destination with the citizens of St. Joseph. It would even become the focal point of the Parkway System under Landscape Architect George Burnap's design in 1918, which was a direct result of Charles Mulford Robinson's report on St. Joseph.