Episode 1

June 03, 2021

00:37:35

S2E1: The Lady Was a Spy in Shelbyville, TN

S2E1: The Lady Was a Spy in Shelbyville, TN
Common Mystics
S2E1: The Lady Was a Spy in Shelbyville, TN

Jun 03 2021 | 00:37:35

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Show Notes

The Common Mystics podcast is back for another season! On this first episode of Season 2, Jennifer and Jill revisit their journey to Shelbyville, Tennessee. Calling out from beyond the grave is the spirit of a Civil War spy. Legend has it that Pauline Cushman led a daring and adventurous life during the 1860's. A scout and spy for the Union, she met danger head on with cleverness and courage. Yet the legend of her exploits isn't nearly as interesting as the intimate tale of a woman caught between the crushing forces of a nation at war. Listen in as the sisters uncover the untold story of Pauline's life and finally give a voice to her tenacious spirit. Transcripts of this episode can be found here: Transcript S2E1_ The Lady Was a Spy in Shelbyville, TN Link not working? Find transcripts to our pods and more at https://commonmystics.net/  Thanks for listening! Support us on Patreon and get exclusive bonus content and monthly video calls with Jen & Jill!!! https://www.patreon.com/commonmystics
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Episode Transcript

Common Mystics Podcast Season 2 Episode 1: The Lady Was a Spy in Shelbyville, TN www.commonmystics.net 00:01:10 On this episode of Common Mystics we revisit our journey to Shelbyville, Tennessee, where we were compelled by spirit to tell the true story of one notable Civil War spy. I'm Jennifer James. I'm Jill Stanley. We're psychics. We're sisters. We are Common Mystics and we're back for Season Two. Yay! So thank you to all of our listeners from last season who are back. We love you. And our newbies who are just tuning in. Thank you so much for listening and supporting us. So let's circle back to Shelbyville, Tennessee. You may recall from Episode 10 Season One that we were visiting our sister Kim and her husband, Chris, in Nashville, Tennessee. And we stopped in the town of Shelbyville at a local cemetery where we found that episode's story (Where the Soldiers Lie in Shelbyville, Tennessee) before we left Kim's house. Do you want to describe what was happening before we got to Shelbyville? Oh my gosh. So we were going to leave and find an adventure with our sister Kim. And we were like, “Hey, Chris, have a good day! We're off.” And he's like, “Well, wait a minute. Let me tell you where you should go if you want to find…” We were covering our ears,“We can't hear you! Lalalala!” I was like, “Do you not listen to this podcast???” And he didn't. You know that it's not about going to where we know ghosts are. It's about listening to the spirits that guide us, Chris. 00:02:47 Anyway, so instead of telling us where to go, he was humoring us. He was like, “Oh, okay, girls, I'm just going to write some destinations down here and we'll see how you do.” Three. He wrote three destinations in nearby Nashville, Tennessee. And he put them face down on the kitchen counter and he's like, “Alright, I'm going to write three things down.” And we're like, “Okay, you do that. Just don't tell us.” We couldn't get out of there fast enough. We're like, no, no, no, no, no. So we left and we will circle back to that later. And we got in the car and we set our intention. And our intention as always, is to find a verifiable story that we do not know, unknown to us. Right. And most importantly, to give voice to the voiceless. That's right. So we're in the car. 00:03:34 We think, as you may recall, we're headed towards Lynchburg, but we end up stopping in the little town of Shelbyville, Tennessee, where we immediately know if you recall from Season One, Episode 10, that we're supposed to be in this town. Right? Right. We actually stopped at Shelbyville just to do a little shopping on the way to Lynchburg. That's right. But then while we were in the town, it became immediately clear that we needed to stay there. We were compelled to say, but while we were in the car, Jill, you were getting some impressions. I was. I was seeing in my mind's eye, the steeple of a church, and I was seeing, again, that stacked stone border wall around a property or structure. Right. As we were walking through Shelbyville was there anything in particular you were picking up on? Because I remember one hit you got that was really cool to me. 00:04:26 Yeah. Well, we were on those old streets and I stopped for a minute because I don't know how to describe this, but it's almost like I felt the energy of a lot of horses on the street. Like if I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine the spirits of horses, like running through the streets. I remember you moving your arms as if you were directing like a plane, right? You're like, I just feel running, running horses running. It was really cool. I was like, uh, are you okay? I was like, where are you right now, Jennifer? Where are you? As we're walking around the town square, I see the church, a church in the distance on one of the corners. So we're like, we should check it out. As we're walking towards this church, we notice that the church is surrounded, its property is surrounded, by a stacked rock border wall. 00:05:20 So we're following the border wall down this hill. And in the shadow of the steeple of the church, there is this really cool looking building that totally intrigued us. So of course we approach it and try to get in. Right. That was super cool that we saw your church from your impression in the car. We saw the border wall and followed it right down to this crazy structure, which, and I'll describe it here, ended up being the Old Bedford County Jail. Hmm. Okay. So this jail looked super serious. It was super fortified, built with these big limestone bricks all around. And the only windows were these narrow little slits. Oh my gosh. They're like six inches wide. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. Creepy. Yeah. There's no way someone was getting out of that building. So of course we're walking around this structure completely in awe of all the energy coming out of it. And we were getting some impressions in that space. That's right. What were you picking up on? You know, honestly, Jen, I think you and I were validating each other's impressions. Yeah. We were both, independent of each other, picking up on a female energy which was weird. So when we were talking about it, it was weird that we both were like, yeah, I know for sure. So we're picking up on this woman prisoner vibe. Right. But even then it felt off. Right. It felt off because it didn't feel right that a woman prisoner would be held in a jail with men, first of all. But I kept feeling a woman's energy. What else were you feeling about that? I was feeling, and I don't know if you remember who this is, but Mary Surratt. She was a conspirator with John Wilkes Booth who was eventually executed for conspiring to kill President Lincoln after the Civil War. 00:07:21 So you’re getting an impression, and we talk about this a lot- how spirit will provide you or bring up your own memory to give you a clue as to what the information is that you're getting... Right. Exactly. ...and the impression you were getting was of this female, historical woman, Mary Surratt, who was alive during the Civil War and convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to death and executed. Right. Exactly. Wow. Okay. And I also was getting the feeling, there was a quote that kept going in my mind from the movie version of the book The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. It was the quote where Edmond is in this fortified prison. And he says, “I'm innocent.” And the guard says to him, “Of course, you're innocent. This is where we put the people that they're most ashamed of.” Uh, so that quote kept running through my mind. 00:08:20 Like they were ashamed of the prisoner that they had held here. Wow. Wow. I remember you saying that and thinking how odd that we're, like, getting these feelings, but it's not quite right. Right. And what did we discover when we were walking around? I can't remember. Did we discover why we felt like it was off? Was there any kind of indication? There was because on the actual building was a sign that said that that particular building was erected in 1867. And the reason that that didn't mesh with our other impressions was because we were getting a Civil War feeling and the Civil War ended in 1865. So this actual structure that we were getting these impressions from was built after the time period that we were referencing from our, from our hits. Does that make sense? It does make sense. So we were confused on the spot, right? 00:09:19 Did we do research on the building? I remember trying to research who was in the building, but did we research the actual jail? We did find a little bit about the Old Bedford Jail. It was known as Rock House Jail, and it was built right in the public square of Shelbyville, Tennessee. If you go to the little town, it's really odd because there are all these quaint little shops and antique stores, and then there's this prison, right. That looks so out of place, but so cool. Um, but yeah, so it's pretty much in the public square there. It was built between 1866 and 1867. Again, that would've been after the end of the Civil War. And it was built from solid hand hewn limestone. And it was said to be one of the most secure jails in all of Tennessee, I believe it. So we left. 00:10:11 And if you can remember from, again, Season One Episode 10, at this point, we have a story. We know we're feeling our story, but Kim is like, “We need to go to the cemetery.” Remember? And that's, that's what led us to Where the Soldiers Lie. Right. But even then we already knew we had a story in Shelbyville. I was super excited to get back and do the research. So let's dive right in. As I said earlier, I was focusing on prisoners in that jail, which again, seemed confusing, but that's what I was focusing on. And I was just wasting a bunch of time going down rabbit holes. But Jen, you found something really cool that may have checked out. What'd you get? Well, I was doing research, not of the jail, like you were, and the prisoners in that jail, I was doing research of the history of the town of Shelbyville. 00:10:59 Okay. Yeah. And I did find that there was a female prisoner from the Civil War times. Shut your mouth. Right. Who was held in the town of Shelbyville. I don't believe a word you're saying. Do you want me to tell you a little bit about it? Please. Her name was Pauline Cushman. Okay. And she was born in New Orleans in 1833. Now, she grew up in Michigan with her family. At the age of 18 she moved to New York state and became an actress. So it's interesting already about her early life as she lived in the South and she moved to the North. Right. So really, you know, she's got roots in both places. Interesting. So she toured as an actress. She spent time in New Orleans and she met and married her husband in 1855. His name was Charles Dickinson (no relation to Charles Dickens from our Christmas bonus episode). 00:12:03 Right. So she married a musician named Charles Dickinson. Now when the Civil War broke out in 1861, her husband Charles enlisted in the Union army as a musician. And unfortunately he became ill and died in 1862. Oh. That sucks. Pauline returned to the stage. And she actually had to leave her children with her in-laws so that she could make a living as an actress. Wow. So that's kind of a synopsis of her early life. Okay. You mentioned that she was a notable spy. How did that come about? Yeah. So here's a really interesting part of her life, during the Civil War. I mentioned that she was an actress and she was touring the country with a theater group. That's cool. It is. When she was doing a play in Louisville, Kentucky, it was during that time that she suddenly left the theater company for a life of espionage. 00:13:03 Wow right now. The details of that we'll discuss a little later, but she followed the Confederate troops and reported back on their movements to the Union. So she ended up acting as a spy for the Union. She was twice suspected of being a spy by the Confederates. And she was twice taken prisoner. And both times she escaped. Oh my God. I know. It was super exciting. If you read about her exploits, they're really pretty interesting. But it was while she was in Shelbyville, Tennessee, she was caught there with certain documents and those documents detailed the position of the Confederates. And they were hidden, like, in her boots, in her underclothes, you like. Well, I do not know... No I didn't... No, I'm holding those for a friend. Those aren’t my boots. Those aren’t my boots. Those aren’t my maps. Anyway... and when they found her with those documents, I mean, that was pretty incriminating. 00:14:05 And there was no way she could talk herself out of that. So she was tried as a spy, finally, and she was sentenced to hang and she was actually going to be put to death except she was ill. And so the general said, no, we're going to wait until you get better before we murder you. That makes sense. We want you in the best of health before we kill you. Exactly. Because this needs to be a decent hanging. Oh my gosh. Generous. Thank you. That's ridiculous. Anyway, but it was during that pause while she was ill, that she was miraculously rescued when the Union troops came through Shelbyville and captured it for the North and she was saved. Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. Like, what a nail biter! Oh my gosh. Okay. So she is in prison. There are Northern soldiers, giddy upping... 00:15:00 Listeners, if you could see what Jill is doing right now, she is galloping like a horse. So yeah, that's really helpful, Jill. He's galloping in and he saves her. Do we have any account or are there any details about what actually happened? Because I would love to know how that unraveled or unfolded. There are some accounts of the time written in the 1860s. So, um, one of them was from the Detroit Tribune in 1864. And the title of this article is “A Thrilling Narrative, Miss Pauline Cushman, the Federal Scout and Spy”. And it kind of details that she had actually been imprisoned in Shelbyville for three months. She was held captive in that city. Oh my gosh. And she sent to the general several times asking for mercy. And of course he would not, he would not, he was like, sorry, get yourself better and then we’ll kill you. He was a real hard ass about spying. 00:15:58 Um, and it wasn't until the Northerners came into the city and released her. So all of that portion of her story was written in the paper. In fact, as a thrilling narrative, it was actually written in a very exciting sort of way. Were there other accounts of her time with the Union being a spy that were also captured in a very fantastical way? Well, there was another article from the Republican Democrat out of Ravenna, Ohio in 1862. And the title is called The Romance of War. So it's like Bridgerton. No, no, it is nothing like that. I love Bridgerton but does come off as mommy porn a little bit like halfway into the season. Stop it. You have to watch it, if not for anything else but Simon. You made this dirty. He's hot. Back to the Romance of War from the Republican Democrat. 1862. Okay. So there's this major Fullerton, right? And he's of the Union forces and he's on horseback galloping through. All right. Here's... there you go. Jill's galloping like a horse. Perfect. Thanks Jill. Are you going to give us a little neigh or whinny? Okay. 00:17:22 Leave it in, leave it in. Don't you dare edit that out. So General Fullerton was on horseback, galloping through the streets of Shelbyville, right? Okay. So they've captured Shelbyville. The Confederates who are holding this city are now escaping, right? They're fleeing, he passes this old dingy house and it's almost completely hidden from his view by the trees, but there's a lady and she's, she's yelling at him through a window and she's wearing a night robe and she's beckoning him to her and she won't stop. And she's like frantically beckoning him and others, like the, the people on the streets were like, don't stop there. Don't stop. Just, you know, keep going. And there was actually a rebel, a Confederate man who was like, you can't come in here. And so he's like, oh, I'm coming in. 00:18:21 Anyway, so he gets to the house and they try to keep him from entering, but he busts his way through because he is a soldier. Right. Anyway, he pushes him aside. He gets in… [It sounds hot. I'm just saying. Really, really?] So there, he finds that the woman who was beckoning him from the window was Miss Pauline Cushman, the famous actress. Oh my gosh. She was ill, of course, as we know. Right. And she was nervous. And she had been through hardships of being imprisoned there for three months and just suffering the indignities and the insult of her captors. Right. And she caught him by the hand and said, thank God you all have come at last! I'm safe now! And then that's when she told him how she was going through the rebel lines from Nashville to Shelbyville when she was found to be a spy and captured and was held there. 00:19:14 Um, when the Confederates left Shelbyville, they didn't take her with them because they left in such haste and they didn't at that point have the transportation to be able to transport a prisoner effectively out of the city. In my mind, I feel like it was like every man for themselves and they just scattered. Right. And she was in a night robe because they had stolen all of her belongings, all of her clothes, anything worth anything. That had to be hard to be rescued in your nightgown. I mean, honestly, she was probably just happy to be rescued at all. But all indecent. Yeah. Do you, um, can you imagine that? And this account was written up with this kind of detail from 1862? It does sound... I was taken in by it. It does sound very romantic. It does really. I mean, honestly, just the way he, like, barged in. Yeah. 00:19:59 Okay. Let's go back. So after she was rescued, she was given an honorary commission as a major of the Calvary by President Lincoln. So she was actually honored by the Union army. Yes. By President Lincoln, two generals and the future president. So the army took care of her then? Well kind of, they acknowledged her. They're, like, good girl. So did she get a pension? She did not. If you got a pension you would have been like, uh, like literally taken care of. She did not get a pension. And as a matter of fact, not only did she not get a pension, but you know, her first husband that died in the war? Yeah. She had a fight to even get his pension based on his service. All right. Well, that shit doesn't seem right. So Jill, do you want to tell us what happened next in her life? What happened next after the war? It's a sad story. Okay. Her babies, they passed away in 1868. Both of them. The two children that she left with her in-laws. Yes. Nice job in laws, by the way. Really, you had one job. 00:21:04 She spent the rest of the war and the years after being an actress and she went around describing her stories in the army and really doing it up because that's what people wanted to hear. Well, yeah, that's a compelling story. Right? The romance of war, the thrilling accounts of this female spy. Exactly. And so even like, do you know, um, PT, Barnum? From Barnum and Bailey? I do. The circus man. Yes. He hired her to be in his circus and she would describe [her exploits] in great romantic detail. Well that make sense. Yes. That makes sense. Because the army wasn't supporting her, so she would need to make a living. Exactly. And that's how she chose to do it. And that went on for quite a bit of time. And then a friend of hers- not even a friend, I would say an acquaintance who happened to hear some of her performances- had written a book about her life in that same fantastical mythical kind of verbiage banter. 00:22:04 Yes. And that was about 20 years after her service. And in this book actually entitled The Life of Pauline Cushman and was a very romantic, flowery, fantastical, mythical account of her exploits. And the language was literally like “such a woman a soldier could worship,” like that, the language this man used in his book. So it sounds like after the war, her story was really told as kind of this mythical, romantic, exciting story of a beautiful actress turned spy during the war. And that she took on these dangerous exploits willingly in service to her country. That's right. That was the whole narrative that was being, that was being told over and over again. And partly by her, mostly by her. Yeah. At the time. And when you look back, that's really the story that you get, even from modern sources. Exactly. In 1872, she married a man named August in San Francisco, but the marriage ended just a little after a year because he had passed away. 00:23:13 Then, again, she married in 1879 and she married a man in the Arizona territory and they operated a hotel at the time. So that's how she was making money. And they adopted a daughter. They did. They adopted a daughter, Emma. But poor little Emma passed away. I know. Oh. One after another. I know. And after Emma died, the marriage fell apart and they separated in 1890. Eventually she moved back to San Francisco and she was impoverished. Why Jill? She had issues apparently coming from her time in the army and being imprisoned. She had really bad rheumatoid arthritis or rheumatism. And she lived on that little pension that she had to fight for through her husband or her first husband's service in the Union army. In 1893, Jen, Pauline passed away of an opiate overdose and some suspect that it was suicide, that she did it intentionally because her rheumatism was keeping her from earning any kind of living wage. 00:24:18 So, what a sad ending to such an exciting, romantic story. Poor Pauline. It was like one thing after another. I guess my first question is... It sounds like Pauline has been written about, her story has been out there for almost 150 years now. Right. Let me do the math. So why are we talking about her? Why do you think we were called to talk for her? Or were we even called to talk for her? I honestly believe that this is our girl and she is our story. And I think part of it is that we have to bring the truth behind the myth and the fluff. Okay. So what do you mean when you say that? I mean that her story has been hyperbolic. It has been just exaggerated, larger than life and that's not really the research, the actual, tangible research that we found... it's different than the legend. 00:25:19 So let's talk about those differences. Break it down. So Pauline is an actress. She's in Louisville, Kentucky. Right? Tell me a little bit about what some accounts state about her, for lack of a better word, exploits in Kentucky. What are they saying about her? This is really disturbing, and it just bothers me because here we have a woman and this is how they describe her behavior. Some accounts say that she was accused of being a Southern sympathizer. By whom? By the Union soldiers, obviously, or some of the union or Northern sympathizers in the area. Right. So, and they describe that as her being “intimate,” quote unquote, with some Confederate soldiers. Yeah. That, that strikes a nerve with me because the implication is that she's sleeping around with Southern soldiers. Exactly. And if you put this in perspective, if you're onstage and you are a beautiful actress, if soldiers with guns and power, of either side, come to you and want to be, quote unquote, “intimate,” what are you going to do? 00:26:32 Exactly. You know? So I don't know. I would kind of have to flirt it off. I mean, just being a woman, you know what I mean? It's uncomfortable and you have to kind of be kind, but it makes it sound that she was sleeping around. Like she was bumping uglies. Please! Yeah. It's an expression. Another account... Do you want to take this one? Sure. So remember when I said that she was in Kentucky, in Louisville, and doing that play. She was. Okay. So here is what some accounts describe as happening. So Pauline is approached by some Confederate soldiers and they say, Hey, Pauline, we will give you $300 if, when you're on stage during your performance tonight, you salute and give a toast to the president of the Confederacy. Just to put this in context, she would be like an influencer, like an Instagram influencer of the day, because she's popular and she's performing, right? 00:27:31 So they're, like, use your influence to cheer our cause and the Confederate president. Right? Right. And so this makes her feel very uncomfortable right away, because she's not a political figure. She's not trying to be a political figure. She's an entertainer. Right? So she reports this to the Union officers. So she goes to some Union officers and says, Hey, um, I was approached by some Confederates and they are trying to pay me to give this toast to Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy. And I know that shit's going to go down if I do this. I don't even want to be involved. Exactly. Well, the union officers say, No, no, no, do it. We want you to do it. And so now what? So now she gets back on stage. She takes the $300 and she does it. She toasts the Confederate president. 00:28:23 Right. Well, what do you think happened? Oh God. Of course that was a controversial move. And she was fired. She was fired by the theater company. So now she has no job. What does she do? Well, she goes back to the Union officers and she's like, yeah, nice advice, man. Right? I did what you told me to do. Now, like half the city is really mad at me and, and, and I don't have a job. And so the Union officers say, oh, well now you're a spy for us, because now all of these Confederate soldiers think that you are in with them and you are some sympathizer of theirs and on their side and, also, maybe apparently already bumping uglies. So you have an in. Gross. Yes. And so now you're going to follow them around and report back to us. That's a really different narrative than someone deciding to become a spy and signing up for this exciting life. 00:29:17 Yeah. To me, it sounds like she literally had no choices and she might've been put in that position by the direction of men. Right. Right. It just makes you look at the whole thing really differently. Sure does. And then after time, her story was romanticized, not only by the press that published elements of her as thrilling narratives and a romance, but also by herself, right? By herself because she was trying to make a living. And so if other people are going to capitalize on her life and her exploits, of course, she's going to. Right. I mean, that just makes sense, but again, just trying to survive. So do you believe that we were meant to tell Pauline's story? I do. Absolutely. Absolutely. Pauline was beautiful. She was daring. She was brave. And I think she was all those things. And I think she wanted to let people know that she was doing these things to survive, not for the glory. 00:30:20 Right. She was just trying to make her way through a difficult situation. And that's very different than the romanticized thrilling tales that she herself even had to, to perpetuate because she was trying just to survive. And ultimately she died a sad and lonely death, unable to work. And she was impoverished and in pain. And she was trying to dull her physical and psychological pain and ended up killing herself with opium. That is so sad, poor Pauline. But that is not where her story ends. Where does it end? It ends with us. Stop it. No, seriously. She really was brave. And she was daring and she was all those wonderful things because she was a survivor. Right. Because she did what she had to do to make a living, and survive. Right. Right. And ultimately she just couldn't carry the burden of what she endured any longer. 00:31:18 And when I say what she endured, I'm not talking about war. I'm really talking about people taking advantage of her and putting her in hard situations where she had to navigate. Yeah. As a woman, as a woman, with no power. Yeah. Gosh, that sucks. So yeah, I believe we were meant to tell the story of Pauline because the stories that are out there now continue to be those mythical exaggerated, silly accounts that really don't get to the heart of what she was all about. I think for me, my biggest problem with the stories isn't them being mythical and fantastical, it's that they painted that she had a choice, that she made the choice, and she didn't make the choice. She was put in a position and she had to play the cards she was dealt. She was used as a pawn by both sides. Yeah. 00:32:05 So let's debrief, debrief. Jen, hit me. Oh my gosh. Horses in the streets. Tell me. You know what? The cavalry was in Shelbyville. There would have been horses up and down those streets. Like, I am not even lying. And of course that Union officer who actually found her was on a horse in the street. So that turned out to be significant. Yes. Tell me about the church steeple in the border wall. The church literally was a sign to guide us down that hill, along the border wall. And in the shadow of the steeple was the prison. Crazy. The prison itself, the prison itself... And here's the confusing part... She was not in that prison. She was not. So why do you think we were led specifically to the old county jail? I think it's a metaphor, a metaphor for, for imprisonment, right? 00:33:03 She was imprisoned. Now, does anybody know the actual location of the building in which she was imprisoned? They don't know. And is it likely that that building is still there? Probably not. Probably not. Even if we saw that building, it would not say “prisoner.” Right. So it would be like an old house. So how clever for spirit to, like, lead us to this prison to kind of say, Hey girls, here's our prisoner. Yeah, totally. And the woman prisoner idea of Mary Surrat. I know. She was the first woman executed by America basically. Did you know that? Well, you just said it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I did not realize that. And Pauline would have been like a close second or third? No, she would have been in the first. Pauline would have been the first because she would have been executed before the end of the war 00:33:53 Shut up. Yeah. You didn't realize that Pauline would have been the first for the Confederates? I am... I am dumbfounded right now. Yeah. That is crazy. Absolutely. And The Count of Monte Cristo? They couldn't have been feeling good about hanging a woman too. Not only that, but what about the whole ashamed feeling? Let's talk a little bit about that. Why would the Confederates feel ashamed? They were culpable for putting her in that very situation. And also they're probably ashamed that they allowed a woman to steal their secrets. That's on you, bro. That's on you. You left them out. You left them out. You put your shit away. Where'd you leave it? Where did you leave it? In conclusion, Jen, bring it home for me. Okay. Two really weird coincidences with this story. Hmm. Okay. And one is that when we didn't know what we had. 00:34:55 We knew we had a story in Shelbyville. We knew it was somehow related to the prison, but you weren't getting anything on prisoners that were in that particular building to give voice to. Note that we're saying “prison,” but we really mean “jail”. It's the old county jail. Sorry about that. I was sitting at my computer in my dining room and something kept telling me, go to your bookshelf downstairs in your basement. Just go to your bookshelf downstairs in your basement. I've never done this before researching any of our other stories. But I have some books in my basement. I went down and I took a look and I pulled out one that had to do with the civil war. I went to the index and I looked up Shelbyville and there was one reference to Shelbyville. And when I turned to that page, it was a story of Pauline Cushman. Shut up. 00:35:40 I'm not even kidding. So I feel like with 100% certainty, her story was the one we were supposed to tell. And I do feel like in my house, during the research, she was pointing me to her story. Absolutely. Not only was she pointing it, pointing to her story saying, tell it, but she wanted to be clear. I was all those things. I was brave. I was talented, but I did it because I had to do it. Right. I did not make that choice. I would rather just been an actress. Oh, I just got goosebumps, Jill. But she did what she had to do to survive. Wow. And, Jill, what about that Post-it note that our brother-in-law put on the island with all of the names of the places that he thought we should go. There were three different locations, Jen. Yes. When we were leaving Shelbyville, Chris called Kim and he was like, “Where are you guys at?” 00:36:34 And Kim's like, “We're in Shelbyville.” And he goes, “Shut up!” And he took a photograph of the sticky note and he sent it to Kim while we were in the car. And sure enough, Shelbyville was among the three locations that he wrote down. That is insane. Do you know what this means? That means we have to go back to Nashville because there are two other, two other locations on that sticky note. Get our sister suite ready! Yes. Yes. And yes. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you guys. Jill, tell the people where they can find us. Well, check out our website, commonmystics.net. Check out our Facebook page and our Instagram account at Common Mystics. Find us on Amazon music, Google podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, Tune-in and Apple Podcasts where you can leave us a positive review so other people can find us. Thank you so much. Thank you. We just got done! Season two! Episode one! Whew. Good night.

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