Walk Among the Shadows - Portland’s Inferno 1866, Fire and Resurgence
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During the dark nights at the end of October, spirits rose from their eternal rest in Eastern Cemetery to delight visitors who dared to walk down Funeral Lane.
A year after the Civil War ended, Portland planned a July 4 celebration. By the next morning, much of Portland Neck had burned to ashes. Spirits who showed themselves were:
- Journalist John Neal with a firsthand report
- William Ruby, Portland’s first Black fireman
- John M. Brown on the ruin of his sugar house
- Cyrus and Florence Curtis, offering a child’s point of view
- Anne Longfellow Pierce, the poet’s sister
- George Marsh, landscape painter
- Elizabeth Pearson Day, who survived two Portland fires