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The public library on Morristown road in Bernardsville is located in a beautiful eighteenth-century building in rural Somerset County, New Jersey. Built in 1710 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the building served as a tavern and farmhouse before its current incarnation as town library. Like countless other libraries throughout the U.S., the Bernardsville library serves as a meeting place, resource center, and quiet sanctuary for local citizens. Helpful and knowledgeable librarians answer questions and guide intrepid readers through book racks and the Dewey Decimal System. Unlike most libraries, however, Bernardsville is cheerfully inclined to point out that one of its card holders has never checked out a book. The holder of that card is one Miss Phyllis Parker. Phyllis, you see, is a ghost.
Since the late nineteenth century there have been documented reports of paranormal phenomena in connection with the building, but it is popularly believed that the origins of the haunting can be traced to early 1777, when the building was the Vealtown Tavern (Vealtown was Bernardsville's original name). Troops from General Washington's Continental Army frequented the tavern on the campaign from Princeton to Morristown. The innkeeper, Captain Parker, ran the tavern with the help of his daughter Phyllis, who was reportedly in love with the local physician, Dr. Byram.
In January 1777, General Anthony Wayne and his staff stopped at the inn for a night of relaxation. While there, the General's courier pouch containing vital secret documents was stolen. Everyone in the tavern at the time of the theft was accounted for with the exception of Dr. Byram. When Captain Parker described the doctor to Wayne, the general immedi
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ately recognized him as the notorious Tory spy, Aaron Wilde. Byram/Wilde was kept under surveillance and soon arrested by Continental forces with the stolen documents on his person. He was tried, convicted, and hanged on the spot. Captain Parker retrieved Byram's body and, determined to provide a proper burial for the man his daughter loved, secured the body in a wooden crate and returned it to the inn to await burial the next day. Parker told his daughter the crate contained the body of an executed spy, but he could not bring himself to tell her it was her beloved Dr. Byram.
Late that night, soldiers heard the sounds of chopping and tearing wood. It is not known why Phyllis frantically tore open the crate with a hatchet, or why she may have suspected Byram was inside. Perhaps she overheard Wayne's troops talking about it earlier that evening. The next sound heard was the horrendous, night-shattering scream of a young woman whose mind snapped upon the sight of her lover's dead body. Local history maintains that the event left Phyllis hopelessly insane. There is no record of her life after this point, or of her death, but it is believed that the ghost of Phyllis Parker returns to the site of this tragic occurrence on cold winter nights to replay the drama for new and unsuspecting audiences.
The Hauntings Begin
While there were earlier local rumors about the house being haunted, the first solid reports of haunting activity began in about 1875 when the property was being used as a private residence. The occupants reported various auditory phenomena such as footsteps, the sounds of
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