The Lyster Mystery

John Lyster (1825-1903) was a civil warsman warrior/gunman. He was also creepy. John’s father, George, died when John was 10. He was married to Lydia Winchester in 1846, and they had 4 children. They moved into Williams Manor in 1849. Lydia and John were very close throughout the 1850s. In 1861, John joined the Civil War. He was away all the time while the family stayed home, in Charleston, Virginia. One day/night, in 1863, a Confederate broke into his family’s home while he was away. John came home just as he entered, and the man shot his whole family and killed them as John watched. John, sickened, shot back and killed the shooter and fell on his knees.

For the rest of John’s life, he mourned alone in this house. The location around his house was flooded in 1870 and the entire town was destroyed; survivors fled. But John and his huge manor, still intact but wet and destroyed mainly in the first floor, stayed. There were reports that children who still stayed in the town, or came around the town, seen him looking out the window, sometimes writing at his desk next to the window on a rainy day. Soon, parents told their children to stay away from his house, after the disappearance of a young schoolboy in the area in 1876 (the case is still debated). The manor, overtime, rotted and soiled, while John did the same. John never left the home, though there are some cases where people seen him walking around his home in dispair, sad on a rainy day. John stayed in this house because the memories him and his family shared throughout it.

John started getting old overtime. He rotted away with his house. Soon, and to this day, there is nothing around the manor. Nothing but dead plants, muddy ground, and rainy days. Before the 1863 murder, the town was thriving and fun and shiny, like John. Scientists seen a change in the towns whole weather from 1862/63, to 1870. In 1899, John came down with a severe sickness. For weeks, he stayed in his home. Bill Witherson (1872-1945), had a camera (old daguerreotype). He was lucky to get a picture of him, the only known picture of John Lyster in known existence (at the time, only people to deserved pictures got them since they were rare, John was common). John’s sickness rotted him slowly but fast. In late 1902, at age 77, John started dying. On January 2nd, 1903, John died, sad lifed, in the house at his desk. His body was not found until April 1903. This was because, no one EVER entered his house. John is said to be the only person to enter his house from 1863, to 1903; 40 years of no one. John is said to have only left his house twice, once in 1899 and once another time (unknown).



By the time investigators entered his home wonderi ng why they have not seen him at all in 4 months. By the time they found him, his body was molding at his desk, his arm bone starting to show through his flesh. His room was dark and gloomy. There was blood everywhere as well, from where he appeared to cut himself or something in his time. Some blood was even older than 35 years old. There are samples from under the bed covers and other places, of his childrens’ and wife’s blood that still splattered today. It was over 60 years after his death, in 1965, when his only surviving son’s great great grandchild, Jake Lyster (1932-2005), investigator, looked into the mystery. He took blood samples out of the house, and discovered something worth sharing. The house appeared to be haunted, as voices and shadows were heard and seen. Hardly anyone today enters the house. Many Ghost television shows target the manor as a good place to shoot. In 2006, the Federal Housing Commision (FHC) put a red tag on the house, and no one but officials is allowed in at all, no questions, due to ANOTHER disappearance of a child in 2005. To this day, the mystery stands alone. What did John do in the 40 years alone in that house after his family’s death? What mysteries are there? Are there mysteries?, asks people. Writings throughout time, were discovered at his desk. Many works of literature, and John remains as one of the most prized 19th century writers in history to this day. One book he wrote, “The Hollow Man”, was found. The book was completed, and was about a man, who enjoyed time with his family, the time of his life, before Satan arose and stole them away. The man in the book then became a serial killer and murdered countless children and women. The book was planned to have a sequel, but John died before he could make it. It was wrote from 1869 to 1892, with 1,560 pages (long ass book by a man with a few pens and some paper). The book is believed to be in John’s own image.

John’s descendants prefer to stay out of their great grandfather’s troubles, and enjoy life. So to this day, this mystery remains disputed, and will stay that way..

Family:

Edmund Lyster (1769-1836)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Righteous;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">George Lyster(son) (1795-1835).

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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Righteous;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Steve Lyster (1854-1927)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Righteous;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Jacob Lyster (1888-1970)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Righteous;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Jim Lyster (1905-1985)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Righteous;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Jake Lyster (1932-2005)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Righteous;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Chris Lyster (b. 1961)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Righteous;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Daniel Lyster (b. 1995)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;font-family:Righteous;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Seth Lyster (b. 2012)