A four year old child named Annie haunts Cry Baby Bridge (formerly called Mill Dam Bridge). The Bridge runs over East Creek on L.Q. Powell Road in Marion Station, Somerset County, MD.
The Haunted Legend
The legend of a child haunting the bridge tells of a young mother and her 4 year old daughter, Annie traveling by horse and carriage down what is now LQ Powell Road. They were headed for Tulls Corner in a thunder storm. Something spooked the horse when it was crossing the bridge over East Creek (then known as Mill Dam Bridge). The horse bolted and the child rolled out of the carriage and into the creek.
Hearing the frantic cries of her little girl, the mother jumped into the creek to save Annie. But the current carried her away. She drowned and wasn’t found until days later, her body having been mostly eaten by crabs.
In later years – and today, people who fish off the bridge at night and people who live nearby claimed to be able to faintly hear the frantic cries of a child out in the creek. They all recount the cries the same way. It would start as a faint sound in the distance. Then the sound of frantic child’s cry would become more clear then … it would abruptly stop (as if going under water).
There is a heavy energy at the bridge, and East Creek winds through marshland as far as the eye can see. The bridge is located near the Samuel Tull House – one of the most haunted houses in Somerset County. It’s also relatively close to St. Paul’s Cemetery where Luke’s Grave is. Ask anyone what the most haunted place in Somerset County is? They’ll say “Luke’s Grave.” So Cry Baby Bridge sits in the most haunted section of the county.
Verifiable Facts
I extracted this legend from the folklore collection in the Nabb Research Center at Salisbury University. Woodrow T. Wilson of Crisfield also recounts the story in his book Quindocqua, Maryland: Indian Country published in 1980.
Wilson states that when he decided to put this tale in his book a Mrs. Stella Conner Bradshaw reviewed his manuscript and told him that she knew that story well because the child who drowned was her father’s sister. She had heard the story growing up. She knew the child’s name was Annie and that she was four years old when the accident occurred and that she was buried at St. Paul’s Cemetery (yes, the one with Luke’s Grave).
WEIRD TWIST – I took a tour group by bus on a haunted tour of Crisfield and Marion Station back in February of 2010. After visiting Cry Baby Bridge and the Tull House, we stopped at St. Paul’s Cemetery to see Luke’s Grave. One of my guests named Becky who lived in Parksley, Virginia asked me about the child – Annie who died in East Creek. I told her I didn’t know any more than what I stated on the tour, but I had notes at home. She asked if I could find out the child’s full name. Becky said she seemed to remember a story her grandmother told her about a family member who lost a child to drowning when a horse bolted and a carriage tipped over.
After doing a little research I found out that the local newspaper reported the incident after it happened. It noted that Annie Florence Conner who was born December 10, 1871, died by drowning when she fell from a carriage into East Creek on July 29, 1875. I sent an email to Becky telling her what I found out. Becky wrote back that the story of Annie and the story her grandmother told her were one in the same. Becky’s Great Grandmother, Mollie Conner was Annie’s sister.
What are the chances I’d have a relative of the victim on my tour?
