The Eccentric Wealthy Heiress

Sarah Lockwood Pardee

Young Sarah was just an ordinary girl of the nineteenth century. However, she had more advantages than many other young ladies. She had the benefits of a superior education in private schools. She could play the piano extremely well, as most young ladies of that era. She was also fluid in four different languages. Sarah was the daughter of Leonard Pardee and Sarah W (Burns) Pardee of New Haven, Connecticut. Sarah was small, petite, and pretty. She was very active socially. In fact, she was sometimes referred to as the “Belle of New Haven.”

Sarah Weds William Winchester

The American Civil War was still raging on when Sarah Pardee married William Winchester, the only son of Oliver Fisher Winchester. Sarah was twenty three when she married William on Sept 30th 1862 and her new husband was thirty. The wedding despite the civil war was a great social event because the groom was from a wealthy family who owned Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Sarah’s father in law had started out with a business making men’s clothing. However, in 1857, Oliver saw great opportunity in the rifle business with the coming civil war.

Little Annie Winchester

After the wedding Sarah and William settled down to a busy life as newlyweds. Sarah became involved with various social functions and charity events while William learned the rifle business from his father. Soon Sarah was expecting their first, and as it turned out their only child, a daughter Annie Winchester. Their happiness with their infant daughter was short, a mere forty days and little Annie passed away on July 24, 1866 leaving grief stricken parents. Just fifteen years later, Sarah lost William who died in 1881 leaving Sarah a very wealthy young lonely widow.

The Lonely Widow

We can only image the pain and loneliness that the young widow must have endured after losing her only child and her husband. Rumors are that Sarah begin to visit a psychic and somehow she began to blame the Winchester guns as the reason for her misery. Perhaps she felt that losing her own child and husband was a curse or punishment for all the lives that had been lost due to a Winchester rifle. Perhaps she felt that all the millions she had inherited had those dead souls blood on them. It’s really impossible to fully understand what motivated Sarah to think like this. Or was she just severely depressed?

Sarah Moves to Santa Clara County CA

In 1886 Sarah Winchester moved across the country to Ca to begin a new chapter in her live. Perhaps the rumors were true that a psychic had influenced her move but it seems there were other reasons. After losing her husband it could be that she wanted a fresh start. Another theory suggested by a distant family member is that her doctor advised her to move due to health concerns. My guess is that all this factors combined is why Sarah Winchester made the decision to move to Ca.

Building the Famous Winchester Mystery House

When Sarah arrived in San Jose, Ca in 1886, she immediately purchased a small farmhouse. It had a lot of acreage. The first thing she did was to hire a crew of men. They started remodeling and building more rooms to the house. Gossip followed about the wealthy heiress as she added more rooms and the house grew. In 1906 California suffered from the Great Earthquake and the earthquake also destroyed parts of the Winchester mansion. While it had grown to a seven story house, some of those upper stories suffered earthquake damage. At that point Sarah decided to build no higher than the four remaining levels. Perhaps this explains the parts of the house where stairways go nowhere. Other odd features exist if these areas were simply closed off and never repaired. But now the house continued to expand outward inside of adding more stories.

Sarah the Legend

The work continued, the house grew and so did the gossip about the eccentrically wealthy Winchester widow. The stories began that Sarah was building the house to appease the souls that had been killed with the Winchester rifles.

Sarah’s story and the legend of the Winchester Mystery House fascinates me and I hope to one day visit this mansion.