Did you know?

Located in Hancock County is a home that has other worldly claims.  Known as “Samandka” it’s actually a “hybrid” of three different homes built into one.  The only issue is that all three appeared to be “haunted.”  As always, let’s share the history and what we know.

“Samandka” is a mix up of the names of the owners who bought the “homestead.”  Sam and Katherine Hollis bought the home in 1945, but according to “Haunted Central Georgia” by Jim Miles, it was built in 1786!  As mentioned above, the house was eventually made bigger by two other houses being “grafted” into the original. 

What we found intriguing is that this story made its way into the Atlanta Journal Constitution Sunday Magazine edition back in 1973.  The author of the story was Olive Ann Burns, who was a very well known author in Georgia.  She named it “The Ghosts of Samandka Make a Lot of Noise.”

We must point out that the only two places this legend was found are the article and book mentioned above.  Because it is privately owned, we didn’t want to dig any further.  With that said, we did speak with a project manager with a project from the Historic Preservation Commission in the area and they confirmed that the home was real and the tales and claims were too.  That would be a first for us by the way.  To flat out be told that yes, indeed it is real by someone with historical knowledge of the area. 

What about the two homes that were added on?  The first was known as the “Brookins-Mullally House” originally constructed in 1812.  The other was the “Cooper House” which was built in 1820.  The Cooper house was an Inn at one time and has seen its share of violence with even murder being a claim.

So what went on in the home?  As Burns pointed out, Noises.  This will be the longest description we’ve ever given to a ” haunted” claim, and we’re still cutting it very short.  Some of the claims are listed below:

“The sounds of loud glass breaking just to find nothing shattered or out of sorts.  Chains dragging across the upper floor.  Heavy footsteps when no one else was in the home.  Katherine Hollis herself, even believed that the “ghost” were from the different homes and stayed in their respective areas!  She even stated that there was a headless man witnessed by one of their guests.  The family cat got the wits scared out of her one night as well.  What makes this house unique from other claims, is that in the 70’s, it’s alleged that poltergeist began to happen as well.  All of this, as usual, are just claims.  We don’t deny or confirm them, but it’s incredibly remarkable if you read what has been written about the home.“

There are always reasons to cover historical places (preservation needs, awareness etc) but we usually don’t cover residences.  We chose this one because of the unbelievable claims and the fact that Sam and Katherine were well-known people in the area.  Even today, their relatives and family still are.  We have been told that it’s a fact that it’s not likely these stories were fabricated for attention or any other reason besides the truth.  Because of that, it was one of those stories that made us scratch our heads and go “hmm?“.  As always, you’ll have to read the full story and decide for yourself!

Hey!  We hope you liked this story!  Whenever we cover work done by someone else, we purposefully leave a lot out to encourage you to buy the book!  Check out “Haunted Central Georgia” by Jim Miles from Amazon to learn more about this Hancock County location. Check out hancockcountyga.gov for more information about the county.

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