The Ashley-Alexander House outside Little Rock is an unassuming historic treasure with a ghostly legend and a curse.
Originally dubbed the Ashley Mill Plantation, the home was built around 1835 near Scott, Arkansas (12 miles from Little Rock) by Chester Ashley, a wealthy landowner and a prominent man in the annals of that state who served as US Senator from 1844 to 1848. Ashley died in 1848.
Afterward, Watt Worthen took possession of the plantation for another ten years until Arthur L. Alexander arrived in Arkansas in 1883 with his three cousins. The family first settled in Scott and Arthur began work as a bookkeeper at Fred Bryson’s plantation. In 1897, he married Otelia George and they moved into the Ashley Mill Plantation in December the following year despite not having much money. But Otelia was a driven women and the two soon made a successful pair in the region. Arthur Lee Alexander died in December 1938.
It is through Otelia that we know of the home’s haunting and of the curse she says has been placed upon it.
The strange goings-on manifested early. Shortly after moving in, Otelia spotted a black woman in the reflection of her mirror. However, as she spun to face the woman, the new owner was startled to see the apparition suddenly vanish. Frightened, she asked the staff who the woman was and found out that one of the previous owners had bore a child with a slave. The owner then sent the woman and child way, which angered the new mother who placed a curse on the home. Every five years, they say, some tragedy would befall the owners and occupants of the house.
Balking at such superstitious nonsense, Otelia plowed on as she always had. “Don’t think for a moment that I believe in ghosts,” she was once reported as saying in a newspaper article from 1949. Still, she couldn’t deny the uncanny occurrence of marked tragedies every five years for the next fifty: deaths, fires, floods, financial problems. Each seemed to come about five years apart.
Chester Ashley
On June 1st, 1791, Chester Ashley was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. In 1813, he received his legal degree from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Before relocating to the West, he temporarily practiced law in Hudson, New York. Before settling in Missouri, Ashley originally made her home in Edwardsville, Illinois. He arrived in Little Rock in 1820, and he wed Mary Watkins Worthington Elliott of St. Genevieve, Missouri, a year later.
One of the first attorneys to settle in LR, Ashley became deeply involved in the legal battle over who should have owned the land that is now downtown LR. Land speculators from two different organizations had competing claims on the property; one group based its claim on New Madrid certificates, while the other group referred to pre-emption claims.
Owners of land devastated by the New Madrid Earthquakes in 1811–1812 received New Madrid certificates from the federal government. You might make a claim for public land in an amount equivalent to your own land’s loss due to the earthquake. Squatters who had previously made a home along the AR River sold pre-emption claims.
The federal government granted these early settlers the “right of pre-emption”—first choice—to purchase the property when it was put up for sale since they had advanced the frontier. Although Ashley’s client, the New Madrid faction, was unsuccessful in court, the two groups ultimately reached an agreement and divided downtown LR among themselves. In the end, Ashley’s ownership of a significant portion of downtown Little Rock would add to his fortune; in fact, due to his substantial landholdings, he was likely the richest Arkansan at the time and was hence referred to as “the father of LR.” Ashley also took part in the legal battle for the transfer of the territory capital from LR to Arkansas Post (1821).
The Rose Law Firm was founded in 1820 when Chester Ashley and Robert Crittenden formed a partnership to practice law. It is the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi River. Ashley continued to practice law and teamed up with George C. Watkins when Ashley and Crittenden’s partnership terminated due to political disagreements (Crittenden belonged to the pre-emption side) (who later became chief justice of the AR Supreme Court and partnered with Uriah Milton Rose, thus the name of the law firm today).
Ashley built a one and a half story brick home on the southeast corner of Markham and Scott streets in the mid-1820s (current location of The Hop and the AR Times). The entire block between Markham, Scott, Second, and Cumberland was his to possess.
The home was expanded and given a Greek Revival makeover in the 1840s, with a 2-story portico supported by 6 Doric columns. It was referred to as the “Ashley Mansion” from this point on. The orchard, stables, conservatory, big garden, and stone carriage house were all located on the remainder of the block. [The Oakleaf Hotel ultimately replaced the Ashley Mansion, which was destroyed in 1900.
Ashley was the third Arkansaw to be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1844. He served until his death on April 29, 1848, after being re-elected in 1846. Both Chester Street in LR and Ashley County have his name.
