Built in 1898, this Biloxi estate was home to ghosts of 2 girls and a mysterious locket

There are plenty of well-known ghost stories along the Mississippi Coast, as well as some lesser-known tales.

Sun Herald readers contacted us in 2014 to share some shivery tales — like this one involving a disappearing locket at a historic home in downtown Biloxi.

Joy Brown and her husband, Robert Newton, once lived in a Queen Anne–style house on Howard Avenue. Built in about 1898, it was originally was owned by John Swetman and his wife.

“It seems they must have expected to have a lot of children because there were so many rooms,” Brown said. “But I understand they had no children.”

Nevertheless, Brown and her daughter would see two little girls in the house.

“They were on the upper floor. They seemed to be happy. They had long, blonde, curly hair, and wore 1900s dress — long-waisted dresses and bows in their hair. I thought they might be sisters because their dresses were very much alike,” she said.

“The thing about the house is, I never felt anything negative,” Brown said. “In fact, there was a person I swear helped me.”

Brown said she believes a mysterious man in work clothes who stood in the doorway of a high-ceilinged room she was painting helped her find some missing tools.

“I just knew it was John (Swetman),” she said.

But the most outstanding experience she had in the house involved a tiny gold locket.

“It was just Robert and me living at home,” she said. “I went into the den, and on the table in there, I saw some sort of jewelry. I knew it wasn’t mine. I wear only white gold or silver, but this was yellow gold. I looked at it. I knew it wasn’t a cheap piece of fashion jewelry. This was an old locket with some etching, that was worn. I opened it, but there was no picture inside. It was pretty, and the necklace part was small.

“My granddaughter was about to have her first birthday, so I thought I would give it to her.”

Brown did give it to her granddaughter, who wore it for her first-birthday photo.

“A while later, I wondered why I hadn’t seen it again, so I asked her mother why she didn’t wear it. My daughter said, ‘It’s absolutely disappeared. I have no idea where it is.’ She said it wasn’t misplaced. It hasn’t been seen since.”

Do you want to find lesser-known ghost stories from the Gulfport-Biloxi metro? Many are mentioned in “Haunted Mississippi Gulf Coast” by Bud Steed.

This story was originally published February 8, 2023 at 7:30 AM.