Ultimately it was to be Ezra's son Josiah who would return to Westport -- now called Necropolis, "the City of the Dead" -- and seek to reclaim the family fortunes.

In 1877, following the death of his father Ezra in Providence that previous winter and twenty-eight years after the epidemic had wiped out the Westport branch of his family, Josiah Merrihew came back to Necropolis. He was not alone; Josiah brought his wife, Grace, and their 3 children -- Miles, Nathan, and Felicity -- with him.

Josiah Merrihew was an ambitious and ruthless man. The new railroad offered an opportunity, and Josiah took it. Following his forebears, Josiah set up the Merrihew Steamboat and Rail Lines, moving grain and livestock east and passengers west. In the post-war boom, the Merrihew name became synonymous once more with power and wealth, and Josiah set about to rebuild Bellweather House and make it even grander than before.

Concerned with restoring the family name and prestige, Josiah Merrihew put little stock in the dark tales, dismissing them as "rubbish" and "country superstition". When he was advised to find another, more wholesome place to settle his family, he would have none of it. He would clear the land, restore Bellweather House, and bring back the glittering reputation of the house and the Merrihew name. In a fit of temper, he swore nothing was going to interfere with his dreams -- not even the Devil himself. With that declaration, Josiah set dire and malevolent forces in motion.

Repairs proceeded on the old decaying mansion. Incidents of disappearing workmen and ghastly screams heard in the dead of night were dismissed. Bellweather House rose in majestic grandeur like a phoenix from the ashes. Instead of the lonely hooting of owls, or the flapping of bat wings, the sounds of music and gaiety now spilled from the brightly-lit mansion. Whatever ghosts there may have been were made quiet by the vibrant life of the Merrihews. Or were they? Within twelve years, the Merrihews of Necropolis would cease to exist, victims of a dreadful curse.

Some say the Merrihew Curse did not originate with Josiah, but rather in the ruined castle he had moved stone by stone from Europe to the estate in Necropolis, to be reassembled on the grounds. Legend had it that a previous lord of the castle had murdered his wife in a fit of jealousy, then sealed her body in the castle walls to hide his crime. It was the shade of the murdered Lady Morel that drove her faithless spouse and his beautiful new young bride first to insanity, and then grisly death. So it went for all owners of that cursed pile -- each meeting an unnatural and often horrible demise.

Did Lady Morel's restless spirit haunt the structure still? Surely something dark and nameless stalked the gloomy halls and dank rooms of the castle. Was it her tortured soul, unable to find eternal peace, that wailed and cried for revenge on moonless nights? 
 

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