Sarah "Sally" Winchester Part I
With the "Winchester" movie coming out next month a friend asked me to write about the real story so here is a quicky about the actually amazing and not haunted Mrs. Winchester.
First I'd like to start by stating I love the Mystery House in San Jose, it is a great attraction (I have a Skeleton Key Membership btw) & on it's own it is an interesting piece of history. It is still owned privately by descendants of the amusement park promoter who originally rented the house after Mrs. Winchester's passing, but it is just that, an attraction. The Mystery House is a humbug (Sidenote: I recommend checking out P.T. Barnum's book The Humbugs of the World, read for free here) & the fact that it is still ongoing, let alone a great thriving fun attraction that without it this house would have probably been raised long ago instead of still being preserved. History has a strange way of surviving when dressed as something else, when the rumors are passed as fact, just don't go to it expecting to see ghosts that aren't there. Instead go to appreciate the attraction itself, look for remnants of an inventive independent lady, and then check out the gift shop, like a victorian I'm a sucker for souvenirs (specially when they're printed with "13", spiderwebs or ghosty, even when inaccurate).
The story of a woman haunted by ghosts slain by guns that made her late husband's fortune and incessantly building to extend her own life is a good story, a really good story & that is why it has existed for a century, but that story is completely separate from history. Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester, better known as "Sally" after her grandmother who passed about the time she was born, was an educated, independent, family oriented, woman who also suffered dear losses that left her wealthy not haunted.
The not-cursed-fortune
It was a different era, different mindset, there was a Wild West, and thanks to creative ad campaigns including Teddy Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, the Winchester repeating arms that revolutionized rifle firearms was known as the "Gun that won the west". Guns represented independence, they weren't being viewed as a trigger back then (get it, I made a bad pun, okay moving on). The Winchester Rifle, has its own history but for us and the sake of time I'll just catch the gist for what it concerns us. Before the guns, Oliver Winchester made mens shirts, revolutionized those too with where to place the shoulder seam and even began production utilizing sewing machines making the bulk of their wealth, but "the house that shirt money built" just does not have the same ring to it. As a savvy businessman he then saw opportunity with a failing part of Smith & Wesson firearms and invested with other stockholders into repeating arms but it wasn't until Benjamin Tyler Henry improved the design did the firearm begin to take off & Henry Rifle was manufactured for about 6 years. Winchester actually never cared about putting his name on the gun but after Henry tried to muscle his way to take over the company, Winchester pulled out his money, began Winchester Repeating Arms Company with improvement in design by Nelson King, & Henry's crumpled. William Winchester, Oliver's only son, who worked for the company oversaw some expansion in San Francisco, and during one of these trips Sarah sat for her portrait photograph seen above.
After attending Young Ladies Collegiate Institute Sarah and William Wirt Winchester were married in 1862, and had one daughter, Annie in 1866, who passed away due to Marasmus, a condition where she could not digest, build proteins from food and slowly died. Heartbroken the couple welcomed the distraction of building the family home for themselves and the senior Winchesters. They both thoroughly enjoyed the process and built a beautiful home in New Haven, Connecticut, something they did together. This happiness was cut short when Sarah's own mother passed May 11, 1880, father-in-law Oliver passed December 11, 1880 followed closely by March 7, 1881 leaving Sarah deeply heartbroken and a principal stockholder in the Winchester company, further increasing after Jane Winchester's death March 23, 1898. This not only left her a sizeable inheritance but with a generous income.
The Move West
Sorry there was no psychic visit advising a solo widow west for no good reason. Sarah was very much not alone as she headed to the opposite side of the country, (to not-unfamiliar territory, remember she and William had visited the area before) but she not only purchased property for herself but for her sisters and their families. You lose your mother, the love of your life, your only child, dear father-in-law you've been living with and see if you don't want a fresh start somewhere else, plus she had the money to do it, so why not?
