BryonySeries: Beulah County Legends

Last week, I wrote an introduction to the fictional Beulah County in the ByronySeries.

Today are the seven mysteries associated with the county.

They are told through the eyes of the Munsonville's first librarian, as she reviews them over lunch during her first train ride in the early 1960s in the BryonySeries novel "House on Top of the Hill."

At noon, June Clements headed for the dining car and ordered a simple meal: a roast turkey sandwich with potato chips, crisp pickles, and hot tea. Then she pulled out her notebook and reviewed her scant research of Munsonville’s origins, legends, and scandals in order of their appearances. The more June learned, the more June questioned – and the more June wondered…

Owen Munson: Wealthy Scottish/Italian mustang runner and mill owner. Founded Munsonville in 1835 when he bought a large parcel of land from – who?

She couldn’t find a shred of evidence that Owen Munson purchased the land that he later established into a Utopian community. Nor could she find a shred of evidence of who owned this uppermost part of Michigan before Owen did. And if anyone could find elusive evidence, she could.

Strange, indeed.

June sipped and stared at the words, thinking.

Someone must have staked his claim into the land, for it escaped becoming an official territory of Michigan until after Owen’s death, when Munsonville went to Beulah County.

But who claimed it first?

John Simons:. World renowned pianist and composer, son of a highly successful industrialist banker. Raised on Fifth Avenue. Attended the once prestigious and now-defunct Wesley Music Conservatory in Connecticut. Married Bryony Marseilles, daughter of a Munsonville minister, on Christmas Eve, 1893. Bought an unknown acreage of woods, named it for himself, and built a mansion on a hill. Abruptly left Munsonville two years later after death of wife and baby in childbirth. Died at age ninety-two in 1955. Mansion and estate intact and rumored to be haunted.

And yet – why, with all the places in the world John Simons had traveled, why had John Simons gone to Munsonville? With all the women he might have married, why had he chosen the pastor’s daughter and built his home in such a remote area?

Educated, cultured music enthusiasts still appreciated Simons’ work, even though the commoners gravitated toward the current rock and roll heartthrobs.

But she had attended John Simons’ final concert in New York. He was outstanding, certainly worth the half a week’s pay the tickets cost. A John Simons ghost story could positively impact tourism – for the right tourists. Yet, time and again, Munsonville failed to acquire the estate, and the ghostly rumor persisted.

Why?

Siren Spell: Least known of the Beulah County legends, despite receiving much press shortly after it occurred. On October 15, 1894, a violent storm sprang up and drowned most of the Munsonvillian men while they fished off their boats on Lake Munson. Only one man returned,

Legend blamed the drownings on sirens, but time drowned even the legends. Why?

The Ghost of Highway 7: Yes, the most famous of the legends because it involved a lesbian ghost and notorious individuals. The lovers were Shirley Wraith, daughter of William Wraith, corrupt mayor of Thornton in the 1940s and Marjorie Mejoriak, daughter and lover of crime lord Michael Mejoriak. Shirley died instantly under a full moon on July 19, 1940, on Beulah County’s Highway 7, when the car Marjorie was driving left the roadway and plowed into a tree. Majorie’s body was found the following day in a fishing cabin in Munsonville. William Wraith subsequently bought the vacant lot at the site and named it Wraith Park. Through the years, motorists claim they’ve seen Shirley and Marjorie walking down Highway 7 toward Munsonville – especially when the moon is full. Legend says Wraith Park is exactly as it’s named: a place for wraiths to park.

Arvid Borgstrom Scandal: Arvid Borgstrom was a Scandinavian who moved to Munsonville around 1885 with his twin sons Erland and Erasmus, who were also fine fishermen. He hanged the following year, the gruesome murder of his wife Astrid Borgstrom, who had been filleted alive. Owen Munson was arrested for harboring Arvid. But those charges were dropped. Erland and Erasmus were among the villagers who drowned in the storm of October 15, 1894.

Mustang Horse Operation: Owen Munson and Clyde Fisher ran an operation that rounded up Mustangs, sent them to Fisher Farm, where they trained and then sold them to ranchers or the U.S. Army. Those that couldn’t be trained or were maimed were killed and sold for their products: leather and horse meat.

The Devil’s Moonshine: The most perplexing operation of them all. One of the barns had a distillery where Clyde prepared, and Owen distributed, “The Devil’s Moonshine” across the United States. Two of their most notorious smugglers were Douglas and Marion Copeland, a pair of newlyweds who bought Munsonville Inn with their banker parents’ money more than thirty years ago, where they remained to this day, operating the inn, instead of facing arrest and prison – even though everyone knew they lived there.

And there you have it. Seven mysteries that are still mysteries in 2025.

And we haven't even gotten into the mysteries or the notoreity that's later than the early 1960s.

For instance, in the late 1980s, the medical director at Jenson Memorial Hospital had produced convincing evidence that Dr. Rothgard had been stealing patient blood samples and experimenting with them at his home. 

During the investigation, authorities discovered freezers full of blood on Dr. Rothgard’s property. The judge ruled Dr. Rothgard mentally unfit, dissolved his practice, and ordered twenty-four hour supervision.

Because of state budget cuts, no other suitable facility could offer mental health services to elderly patients than Golden Years Retirement Home in Thornton.

And that didn't turn out well.

But Dr. Rothgard is a mystery for another blog.