Phortickaus

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Circa 1866, a home named after the family who built and founded it was recognized in a small, remote part of Frederick in Maryland state.

The family's last title was Phortickaus, (poor-tik-oss) commonly misspelled/misinterpreted as "Pordikos" (Pronunciation the same) The family was quite large and consisted of eleven members - Samantha Belmont and Kristov Phortickaus, Samantha's mother Myrtle, and their eight children, all of whom were daughters. In birth order, these daughters were:

  • Lois (born 1869-died 1899)
  • Michelle (born 1871-died 1904)
  • Agatha (born 1871-died 1891)
  • Esther (born 1873-died 1915)
  • Clara (born 1875-died 1887)
  • Cristina (born 1880-died 1956)
  • Katherine (born 1881-died 1979)
  • Miriam (born 1890-died 1893)
  • Stephanie (born 1900-Date of death unknown)

Stephanie's name on this chart appears double-starred because she was an important part of the story of Phortickaus. Stephanie was born the illegitimate daughter of the family. Her mother Samantha (while still married to Kristov) was having an affair with long time friend, Nathaniel Parkington, and thus Stephanie was born.

Trying to convince Kristov that the baby girl was his was hard enough, especially when she grew older, and showed no likeness to her surrogate father, or Samantha. Several years later, in 1905, Stephanie was nearing her fifth birthday, her birth father Nathaniel made a terrible mistake; coming over to the Phortickaus family home to deliver a present to his little daughter. While talking with Samantha in the parlor room, Kristov hears everything and draws the final conclusion of his beloved wife committing adultery. Angry and vengeful, he beats and then shoots Nathaniel to the point of death. Katherine and Esther, two of Stephanie's more understanding half-sisters tried to console her in any way possible, but nothing helped. It was later said that Kristov had buried Nathaniel's body beneath the dirt floor cellar of the Phortickaus home, he, Samantha, and Stephanie almost never spoke again, even while under the same roof.

Many more years later, in 1920, all but three of the Phortickaus sisters had died. Shockingly enough, besides Stephanie, only Katherine and Esther remained; the very two, and the only two who made any attempts to comfort her in the family's troubled times. Stephanie was now nineteen going on twenty and Kristov was becoming older and iller by the day, in late February 1920, he died of pneumonia. During this year, Samantha paid particular attention to Stephanie, for no apparent reason just yet. However, on the evening of Stephanie's twentieth birthday, Samantha pulled her aside, flogging her and blaming her callously for her constantly unhappy life. That night, bruised and bloody, Stephanie sat awake, and around midnight, smelled smoke. When she rushed downstairs she found the whole place ablaze. and her two sisters collapsed on the floor, Samantha was nowhere in sight.

Samantha had set fire to her own beloved home to rid herself of Stephanie, but wound up losing everying but. Stephanie escaped the fire that night, and never returned to her home again.

There are currently other legends on the Phortickaus family and their strange home and family lifestyle, but this is the most intricate and up to date version available.