Name withheld by request.
There is an old cemetery in Richland county just south of Mansfield that is said to be haunted by the spirit of Mary Jane. The cemetery is in an old forest back in the middle of no where, and has one giant tree in the middle of it . The tree in the cemetery is a pine tree, and it is the only pine tree in that whole area of the forest. It is said to have grown right through Mary Jane's grave. The tree is said be one of three or four like it in the country, and the only places they are found is supposedly the resting places of witches. As legend has it, any one who disturbs the tree or the grave itself will die. There is a story told of three young men who urinated on the tree while one stayed behind in the car. Later in a terrible car accident on the way home the three that urinated on the tree died, but the one that didn't walked away from the accident basically unharmed.
This one is pretty straight forward. It also sounds strangely familiar to the Dark Angel tale, or least the part about despoiling the grave resulting in a tragic ending for the wrong doers. Tales like this one could be based more urban legend than fact. Once again the name Mary has been attached to this haunting. Mary seems a very popular name for ghost sin the Buckeye state, along with Cry Baby Bridges. If anyone has more information on this one or a picture of the sight, I would love to have it. I can be contacted at jas1746@greenapple.com.[Editor's note: That email is long defunct. Email me at wintermute@nitemarecafe.com instead of the original author.]
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on on James A Sheets' site.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The Waynesville House
Name withheld by request.
This happened in the mid -Sixties I believe, and it happened to our family. We moved to a rural stately farmhouse in Waynesville, Ohio. The house was built around the Civil War days, and had been added onto, but any way I was about 11 yrs old, the house had many rooms, attics etc. and about 3 fireplaces.. upstairs next to my bedroom was a playroom, a very large room with side attics on both sides of the room. The only way into the playroom was through my bedroom, which I shared with my sister. I would close the playroom door, because frankly the room gave me the creeps, even though it was decorated very nicely, but every time that I would enter the bedroom the play room door would be wide open. On many a night we would wake up and the door would be wide open. We started blocking the playroom door, like I said no one wanted to go in there.
My father said we were making it up, until one evening, actually the middle of the night I woke up to a heavy and constricting feeling. I remember screaming, as the heavy oak door from the playroom was on top of my sister and I. Well my parents just could not believe how that door (taken from its hinges) made its way on top of us. From then on other things started to happen, noises came from the attic surrounding the playroom. Sometimes it sounded like a small child crying very softly and at that point we started to sleep downstairs. When my father opened the little doors that had been bolted shut to the side attics, he found a few toys and a couple of broken dolls, but more interesting was an old passageway that lead down into a false chimney of some sort. It was a very odd house , oddly built inside, doors everywhere, some sealed and so on.
One night while sleeping downstairs, I thought that I heard piano music, we had no piano. We never seemed to get a good nights rest. My mother kept seeing what she said was someone playing with a flashlight. We finally moved into town (Waynesville). The kids we met there did not think that what we told them was at all unusual, everyone had a ghostly experience in Waynesville. After living there a couple of years we moved to a much less Ghostly town.
The author also had a different encounter when he was younger in Hillsboro, Ohio that is worth mentioning. Here it is in his own words.
Maybe ghosts or spirits haunt certain people, or maybe certain people attract spirits, but I have had my share of it. This is my first ghostly experience. It happened when I was around nine yrs. old. We were living temporarily in my mothers childhood home, it was really old and very damp and creaky. It had originally been an old Hotel in the late 1800's in Hillsboro, Ohio. The house needed to be torn down, but like I said it was just temporary, my grandmother had moved many years before and no one had lived there for some time. There were a number of rooms we kids could have slept in but we decided to double up. The upstairs bedrooms were so dark and there were mice in the attic, so right from the start I heard noises at night like some one banging on the wall next to me. My father said it was from a tree, but I looked the next day and there was no tree was near the house. Every night I would anticipate a noise of some kind, I took to sleeping with the pillow over my head.
Then one night I heard my name called I sat up and looked around, but my sister was asleep and I could hear my parents snoring in the next room. Several nights later, same thing happened, I heard my name called, and no one was there. I fell back on my pillow closed my eyes. I got that strange feeling like someone was watching me, so I opened my eyes. To my dismay standing right over my face and above me was the meanest looking old woman with gray scraggly hair. Her face had a green cast to it, and she appeared to be very angry at me. I swear she said get out, but this was coming from inside my head. No one but me saw her. I let out a big scream and ran into my parents bedroom. My father was very annoyed and told me that I was dreaming.
The next day my mother said describe this old lady, so I did. After a few moments she said that she used to see this old woman when she was very little, and in the same part of the house. She always thought that it had just been a bad dream, but I knew I was not dreaming!
The author of this tale may be correct in that some people seem to natural magnets to hauntings, ghosts, etc. Another view is that they are what provides energy for such phenomena to manifest physically. Both tales are chilling, but the face of an old haggard woman glaring down at you in bed gets my vote for the one I would rather not have happen to me. Also, how many of you have heard someone wisper your name in the night?
This post, including commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
This happened in the mid -Sixties I believe, and it happened to our family. We moved to a rural stately farmhouse in Waynesville, Ohio. The house was built around the Civil War days, and had been added onto, but any way I was about 11 yrs old, the house had many rooms, attics etc. and about 3 fireplaces.. upstairs next to my bedroom was a playroom, a very large room with side attics on both sides of the room. The only way into the playroom was through my bedroom, which I shared with my sister. I would close the playroom door, because frankly the room gave me the creeps, even though it was decorated very nicely, but every time that I would enter the bedroom the play room door would be wide open. On many a night we would wake up and the door would be wide open. We started blocking the playroom door, like I said no one wanted to go in there.
My father said we were making it up, until one evening, actually the middle of the night I woke up to a heavy and constricting feeling. I remember screaming, as the heavy oak door from the playroom was on top of my sister and I. Well my parents just could not believe how that door (taken from its hinges) made its way on top of us. From then on other things started to happen, noises came from the attic surrounding the playroom. Sometimes it sounded like a small child crying very softly and at that point we started to sleep downstairs. When my father opened the little doors that had been bolted shut to the side attics, he found a few toys and a couple of broken dolls, but more interesting was an old passageway that lead down into a false chimney of some sort. It was a very odd house , oddly built inside, doors everywhere, some sealed and so on.
One night while sleeping downstairs, I thought that I heard piano music, we had no piano. We never seemed to get a good nights rest. My mother kept seeing what she said was someone playing with a flashlight. We finally moved into town (Waynesville). The kids we met there did not think that what we told them was at all unusual, everyone had a ghostly experience in Waynesville. After living there a couple of years we moved to a much less Ghostly town.
The author also had a different encounter when he was younger in Hillsboro, Ohio that is worth mentioning. Here it is in his own words.
Maybe ghosts or spirits haunt certain people, or maybe certain people attract spirits, but I have had my share of it. This is my first ghostly experience. It happened when I was around nine yrs. old. We were living temporarily in my mothers childhood home, it was really old and very damp and creaky. It had originally been an old Hotel in the late 1800's in Hillsboro, Ohio. The house needed to be torn down, but like I said it was just temporary, my grandmother had moved many years before and no one had lived there for some time. There were a number of rooms we kids could have slept in but we decided to double up. The upstairs bedrooms were so dark and there were mice in the attic, so right from the start I heard noises at night like some one banging on the wall next to me. My father said it was from a tree, but I looked the next day and there was no tree was near the house. Every night I would anticipate a noise of some kind, I took to sleeping with the pillow over my head.
Then one night I heard my name called I sat up and looked around, but my sister was asleep and I could hear my parents snoring in the next room. Several nights later, same thing happened, I heard my name called, and no one was there. I fell back on my pillow closed my eyes. I got that strange feeling like someone was watching me, so I opened my eyes. To my dismay standing right over my face and above me was the meanest looking old woman with gray scraggly hair. Her face had a green cast to it, and she appeared to be very angry at me. I swear she said get out, but this was coming from inside my head. No one but me saw her. I let out a big scream and ran into my parents bedroom. My father was very annoyed and told me that I was dreaming.
The next day my mother said describe this old lady, so I did. After a few moments she said that she used to see this old woman when she was very little, and in the same part of the house. She always thought that it had just been a bad dream, but I knew I was not dreaming!
The author of this tale may be correct in that some people seem to natural magnets to hauntings, ghosts, etc. Another view is that they are what provides energy for such phenomena to manifest physically. Both tales are chilling, but the face of an old haggard woman glaring down at you in bed gets my vote for the one I would rather not have happen to me. Also, how many of you have heard someone wisper your name in the night?
This post, including commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Two Tales From Clermont County
Submitted by Daniel Cope
In Clermont County, Ohio on SR 125 just West of the Village of Bethel, there is a small,unnamed, cemetery. The stones date back two centuries. There is a short dilapidated wooden and wire fence encircling the cemetery with a wooden frame for a gate at the entrance. The gate has long since rotted away. This is low lying flat river land and constantly very windy, but when you approach one particular grave marker the wind inside the cemetery stops, even though it continues to wail outside. The marker reads;
STRANGER, AS YOU ARE NOW
ONCE WAS I.
AS I AM NOW,
SOON YOU WILL BE.
SO PREPARE YOURSELF AND FOLLOW ME.
I have experienced this phenomenon personally on numerous occasions. It has happened each and every time. (Not me, but Daniel Cope.)
This is also a personal experience of mine and my parents, brother and sister. My Father purchased a house at #*** Arlington Dr. in the Sumerside Estates in Clermont County. I was 15, my brother 8 and my sister was 5. The trouble with this house began immediately. Our first night there, I kept hearing a baby crying but could find nothing. The next morning my Mother woke me up stating the she heard a baby's voice calling for it's mommy. I listed quietly and could distinctly hear the work "MOMMY". It sounded like a frightened child. We searched all around the house finding nothing. Mom even called the police who also heard the voice but found nothing.
This went on for weeks, any time we cared to listen and at night when the house was quiet, this child's voice crying for
it's mommy could be heard "distinctly". After a few weeks, the voice changed or rather was added to. First the child then an adult woman could be heard sobbing. Again, this continued for several weeks. My parents would invite friends over just to listen to the noises. It was a little eerie but somehow soothing at the same time.
The next change was a man's voice added to the chorus. First the baby, then the mourning woman the a male voice that seemed to be comforting the woman. Remember that all of this seemed quite benevolent and caused us little concern until after about 9 months of this. Then suddenly the voices changed, you could detect a note of panic in the sounds, we would get up and find the gas on but the pilot lights blown out, windows would break for no apparent reason. On more that one occasion, my Father and I would search around the outside of the house for the prankster who was striking the house with a hammer or other heavy object. We would never find anyone or any sign of anyone or damage. Our front picture window smashed from the inside out with the entire family sitting right there
with no explanation. The overhead garage door on our attached garage opened by it self one night and with a loud crash was torn from it's railing and dropped to the garage floor. On three occasions, a dark, menacing shadow would appear at the end of the hallway. These occasions were particularly awful for out family dog who eventually was found dead at the end of the hallway where the shadow would appear.
There were many more occurrences but I'll close for now by telling you that after one horrible night, my Father moved us into a hotel and paid movers to pack our clothes for us. We never went back. To this day, no one stays in this house for more than a few months then it is empty again.
I have omitted the numerals for the address of the Daniel's former house just in case someone has found a way to tolerate the above described phenomena, or if it has ceased as of now.
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
In Clermont County, Ohio on SR 125 just West of the Village of Bethel, there is a small,unnamed, cemetery. The stones date back two centuries. There is a short dilapidated wooden and wire fence encircling the cemetery with a wooden frame for a gate at the entrance. The gate has long since rotted away. This is low lying flat river land and constantly very windy, but when you approach one particular grave marker the wind inside the cemetery stops, even though it continues to wail outside. The marker reads;
ONCE WAS I.
AS I AM NOW,
SOON YOU WILL BE.
SO PREPARE YOURSELF AND FOLLOW ME.
I have experienced this phenomenon personally on numerous occasions. It has happened each and every time. (Not me, but Daniel Cope.)
This is also a personal experience of mine and my parents, brother and sister. My Father purchased a house at #*** Arlington Dr. in the Sumerside Estates in Clermont County. I was 15, my brother 8 and my sister was 5. The trouble with this house began immediately. Our first night there, I kept hearing a baby crying but could find nothing. The next morning my Mother woke me up stating the she heard a baby's voice calling for it's mommy. I listed quietly and could distinctly hear the work "MOMMY". It sounded like a frightened child. We searched all around the house finding nothing. Mom even called the police who also heard the voice but found nothing.
This went on for weeks, any time we cared to listen and at night when the house was quiet, this child's voice crying for
it's mommy could be heard "distinctly". After a few weeks, the voice changed or rather was added to. First the child then an adult woman could be heard sobbing. Again, this continued for several weeks. My parents would invite friends over just to listen to the noises. It was a little eerie but somehow soothing at the same time.
The next change was a man's voice added to the chorus. First the baby, then the mourning woman the a male voice that seemed to be comforting the woman. Remember that all of this seemed quite benevolent and caused us little concern until after about 9 months of this. Then suddenly the voices changed, you could detect a note of panic in the sounds, we would get up and find the gas on but the pilot lights blown out, windows would break for no apparent reason. On more that one occasion, my Father and I would search around the outside of the house for the prankster who was striking the house with a hammer or other heavy object. We would never find anyone or any sign of anyone or damage. Our front picture window smashed from the inside out with the entire family sitting right there
with no explanation. The overhead garage door on our attached garage opened by it self one night and with a loud crash was torn from it's railing and dropped to the garage floor. On three occasions, a dark, menacing shadow would appear at the end of the hallway. These occasions were particularly awful for out family dog who eventually was found dead at the end of the hallway where the shadow would appear.
There were many more occurrences but I'll close for now by telling you that after one horrible night, my Father moved us into a hotel and paid movers to pack our clothes for us. We never went back. To this day, no one stays in this house for more than a few months then it is empty again.
I have omitted the numerals for the address of the Daniel's former house just in case someone has found a way to tolerate the above described phenomena, or if it has ceased as of now.
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
Monday, October 7, 2013
The Ghost In The Alley
Submitted by Judith Jasper
When I was growing up on Dewey Avenue, in Lancaster, Ohio there was a legend of the footsteps in the alley beside my house. On many a dark night when the moon was waning it is said that a man walks down the alley from Maud Avenue to Dewey Avenue, though it has long been forgotten why he treads his lonely journey. My father used to tell me this tale, and I have heard it from other people who used to live in the neighborhood.
When I was about ten years old I belonged to a little club made up of the girls who lived on or played with the children in the neighborhood around Maud, Dewey and Mulberry Avenues. One night we decided to see if there was any truth to the tale. The moon was in it's last quarter and it was dark and spooky when our little gang gathered in Joyce's garage to wait for the man to walk down the alley. We waited with hearts pounding and a little shiver would escape us with every scraping of a tree limb against the garage windows or any sound we could not immediately identify. To this day I don't know if it was Joyce's older brother or perhaps some boys in the neighborhood playing a prank, but somewhere in the murky darkness late that evening we heard the crunch of gravel outside the garage doors in the alleyway. A few of the braver girls peeked out the garage door...the footsteps crunched on the gravel but pale moonlight revealed no one in the alleyway! Needless to say we were quick to run from the garage to the safety of our homes!
There's a little aside to this tale that makes it very interesting.... one morning I was awakened by the garbage truck grinding away outside my bedroom window, which faced the alley... usually the truck would stop for a few moments, then be on it's way on down the alley. For some strange reason the truck stayed below my window for some time. I was amazed when a police car pulled up at the edge of the alley and two policemen came over to the parked garbage truck. The men in the truck led the policemen to a spot directly below my bedroom window. There in the alley was a deep rut, worn away over time by the flow of traffic in the alleyway. My father came over to the hole and handed one of the policemen a shovel. What could they be wanting to dig up the alley for, I wondered. Was it a buried treasure? As they dug, I watched and waited. Before long the policeman stopped his digging and bent over looking at something in the hole. He stood aside, and to my amazement, as I looked down in the hole, a human skull and other bones lay in the hole. I shivered, for the skull was very small and most surely a child's skull! To this day I have learned nothing of the skeleton found in the alley. My father only had a little to say about it. It was definitely human, of a child about my age. The policemen thought the skeleton had been there for quite some years. My father speculated that it was possible that the child had been buried there before our house was built, when the was a meadow there. Our house was over 60 years old then, in 1957 or so, when this happened.
Who was the little child buried in the alley below my window? Was it a little girl or boy? Could it have been the reason why the sound of a man walking up and down the alley was heard some nights? Was he perhaps searching for his lost child? Or was it the murdered pacing up and down the alley, trying to ease his tormented soul?
I have posted this one pretty much as it was sent to me. This is one have I have not heard of locally, but it does make for some chilling reading. As always I would love to hear from anyone that has more information on this tale. The location is of course the streets named above in Lancaster, Ohio.
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
When I was growing up on Dewey Avenue, in Lancaster, Ohio there was a legend of the footsteps in the alley beside my house. On many a dark night when the moon was waning it is said that a man walks down the alley from Maud Avenue to Dewey Avenue, though it has long been forgotten why he treads his lonely journey. My father used to tell me this tale, and I have heard it from other people who used to live in the neighborhood.
When I was about ten years old I belonged to a little club made up of the girls who lived on or played with the children in the neighborhood around Maud, Dewey and Mulberry Avenues. One night we decided to see if there was any truth to the tale. The moon was in it's last quarter and it was dark and spooky when our little gang gathered in Joyce's garage to wait for the man to walk down the alley. We waited with hearts pounding and a little shiver would escape us with every scraping of a tree limb against the garage windows or any sound we could not immediately identify. To this day I don't know if it was Joyce's older brother or perhaps some boys in the neighborhood playing a prank, but somewhere in the murky darkness late that evening we heard the crunch of gravel outside the garage doors in the alleyway. A few of the braver girls peeked out the garage door...the footsteps crunched on the gravel but pale moonlight revealed no one in the alleyway! Needless to say we were quick to run from the garage to the safety of our homes!
There's a little aside to this tale that makes it very interesting.... one morning I was awakened by the garbage truck grinding away outside my bedroom window, which faced the alley... usually the truck would stop for a few moments, then be on it's way on down the alley. For some strange reason the truck stayed below my window for some time. I was amazed when a police car pulled up at the edge of the alley and two policemen came over to the parked garbage truck. The men in the truck led the policemen to a spot directly below my bedroom window. There in the alley was a deep rut, worn away over time by the flow of traffic in the alleyway. My father came over to the hole and handed one of the policemen a shovel. What could they be wanting to dig up the alley for, I wondered. Was it a buried treasure? As they dug, I watched and waited. Before long the policeman stopped his digging and bent over looking at something in the hole. He stood aside, and to my amazement, as I looked down in the hole, a human skull and other bones lay in the hole. I shivered, for the skull was very small and most surely a child's skull! To this day I have learned nothing of the skeleton found in the alley. My father only had a little to say about it. It was definitely human, of a child about my age. The policemen thought the skeleton had been there for quite some years. My father speculated that it was possible that the child had been buried there before our house was built, when the was a meadow there. Our house was over 60 years old then, in 1957 or so, when this happened.
Who was the little child buried in the alley below my window? Was it a little girl or boy? Could it have been the reason why the sound of a man walking up and down the alley was heard some nights? Was he perhaps searching for his lost child? Or was it the murdered pacing up and down the alley, trying to ease his tormented soul?
I have posted this one pretty much as it was sent to me. This is one have I have not heard of locally, but it does make for some chilling reading. As always I would love to hear from anyone that has more information on this tale. The location is of course the streets named above in Lancaster, Ohio.
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Headless Hattie
As told by David Robinson.
As the story goes, a lady by the name of Hattie was coming home after a day of shopping with her baby. They were traveling along the section of Watkins Road that crossed over Big Walnut Creek, in southeast Columbus, which at that time, about 25 years ago, had an old one lane bridge. As they approached the bridge, another car was traveling in the opposite direction as Hattie and her baby on the other side of the bridge. The elevation of the crest of the bridge prevented the two drivers from seeing the glow of the oncoming headlights of their cars headed in each others direction. As the two cars approached the bridge from both sides, neither knew of the other speeding right towards them. They both drew nearer to the bridge. The other car made it to the bridge before Hattie did, and her car was forced off the side of the bridge, which flipped over guard rail and landed on it's top in the creek. The accident killed both Hattie, who was decapitated, and her young baby. It is now local legend that if you go to the bridge on the night of a full moon, park your car, flash the headlights 12 times, and wait, you will see Headless Hattie carrying her head in the crook of her arm and walking around the area looking for her baby.
The old one lane bridge that the accident happened on has since been replaced by a unusually wide two lane bridge (the old one was much more scary!). The location of the bridge, Franklin County,southeast Columbus, is just off 104, south down Alum Creek Drive till you get to Watkins Road on the left. Go around the bend and take the first left, which will still be Watkins Road. The Big Walnut Creek Bridge will be the first bridge you come to. This bridge is approximately 150 yards from my apartment, where I sit right now.
(This tale sounds similar to the Headless Motorcyclist of Elmore, Ohio.)
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
As the story goes, a lady by the name of Hattie was coming home after a day of shopping with her baby. They were traveling along the section of Watkins Road that crossed over Big Walnut Creek, in southeast Columbus, which at that time, about 25 years ago, had an old one lane bridge. As they approached the bridge, another car was traveling in the opposite direction as Hattie and her baby on the other side of the bridge. The elevation of the crest of the bridge prevented the two drivers from seeing the glow of the oncoming headlights of their cars headed in each others direction. As the two cars approached the bridge from both sides, neither knew of the other speeding right towards them. They both drew nearer to the bridge. The other car made it to the bridge before Hattie did, and her car was forced off the side of the bridge, which flipped over guard rail and landed on it's top in the creek. The accident killed both Hattie, who was decapitated, and her young baby. It is now local legend that if you go to the bridge on the night of a full moon, park your car, flash the headlights 12 times, and wait, you will see Headless Hattie carrying her head in the crook of her arm and walking around the area looking for her baby.
The old one lane bridge that the accident happened on has since been replaced by a unusually wide two lane bridge (the old one was much more scary!). The location of the bridge, Franklin County,southeast Columbus, is just off 104, south down Alum Creek Drive till you get to Watkins Road on the left. Go around the bend and take the first left, which will still be Watkins Road. The Big Walnut Creek Bridge will be the first bridge you come to. This bridge is approximately 150 yards from my apartment, where I sit right now.
(This tale sounds similar to the Headless Motorcyclist of Elmore, Ohio.)
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Moonville
As told presented in WSYX's Ghosts of Columbus and Beyond,
and Haunted Ohio
[affiliate link] by Chris Woodyard.
The Moonville tale is one well known to the students of Athen's resident university "Ohio University" home of the Fighting Bobcats. The town of Moonville today is a ghost town, and yes the pun was intended. If in fact if my sources are correct, not even a building is left standing. It sprang up a 100 years or so ago to house the workers and their families of the local iron furnaces. The old B&O Railroad runs through the area in what is described as one of the most desolate sections of the old railway. What does remain is the old railway tunnel with the town's name embedded in the brick which covers the entrance to the tunnel. With an atmosphere like this one you couldn't help but find a ghost.
The most popular form of the tale is that a conductor of the B&O Railway was having a torrid affair with the wife of one of the engineers. The engineer became enraged when he discover out what his wife was doing with his fellow co-worker. On a dark night the engineer lured the conductor off the train on the pretext that something was wrong with one of the undercarriages of one of the cars. The conductor crawled under the car in question to inspect it for damage. The jealous and enraged engineer then climbed in to the locomotive and gave the old steam engine a full throttle. The conductor hearing the trains familiar rumbling attempted to extract himself from under the now moving train. His attempt as you can guess, failed. The poor hapless man was decapitated, and the engineers revenge on his co-worker realized.
The ghost description is that of a african american man around eight feet tall looking as if he is walking about on stilts. He has a miners oil lamp on his forehead, and can be seen staggering down the tracks on dark nights. Others have seen the more expected headless spectre carrying a lamp walking along the railway searching for his head. Some report just seeing a lamp either green or red in color bobbing up and down the tracks and adjacent woods. The poor mans screams imploring the train to stop can also be heard on some dark quiet nights.
Another variant of the story is that a brakeman had been playing card late one evening and became very drunk. He staggered out on to the tracks after the game had long ended waving his lantern in a vain attempt to stop a passing locomotive. The train ran him down cutting off his head. This one sounds more believable, but the jealous engineer version is more popular.
The last one is either a variant or a separate story all together. It involves a young girl who was struck and decapitated. No explanation of how her demise was achieved is told. Maybe she was caught in the Moonville Tunnel, or on one of the four trestles along the railway, and simply could not get out of the speeding trains way.
The location of this site is in the Zaleski State Forest in Vinton county. The tunnel lies several miles east of Lake Hope on the old B&O railway. I would advise asking one of the locals for directions, or invest in a good county map if you are interested in finding the exact location. My county map shows Moonville which surprised me. The old railway is shown running across Hope Road which is just south of Lake Hope off of Route 278. Moonville is just to the east, just follow the old railway to the tunnel. Here is a link to Rich Moeckel site at http://www.geocities.com/richemt911/ which has detailed information on this area.
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
and Haunted Ohio
[affiliate link] by Chris Woodyard.The Moonville tale is one well known to the students of Athen's resident university "Ohio University" home of the Fighting Bobcats. The town of Moonville today is a ghost town, and yes the pun was intended. If in fact if my sources are correct, not even a building is left standing. It sprang up a 100 years or so ago to house the workers and their families of the local iron furnaces. The old B&O Railroad runs through the area in what is described as one of the most desolate sections of the old railway. What does remain is the old railway tunnel with the town's name embedded in the brick which covers the entrance to the tunnel. With an atmosphere like this one you couldn't help but find a ghost.
The most popular form of the tale is that a conductor of the B&O Railway was having a torrid affair with the wife of one of the engineers. The engineer became enraged when he discover out what his wife was doing with his fellow co-worker. On a dark night the engineer lured the conductor off the train on the pretext that something was wrong with one of the undercarriages of one of the cars. The conductor crawled under the car in question to inspect it for damage. The jealous and enraged engineer then climbed in to the locomotive and gave the old steam engine a full throttle. The conductor hearing the trains familiar rumbling attempted to extract himself from under the now moving train. His attempt as you can guess, failed. The poor hapless man was decapitated, and the engineers revenge on his co-worker realized.
The ghost description is that of a african american man around eight feet tall looking as if he is walking about on stilts. He has a miners oil lamp on his forehead, and can be seen staggering down the tracks on dark nights. Others have seen the more expected headless spectre carrying a lamp walking along the railway searching for his head. Some report just seeing a lamp either green or red in color bobbing up and down the tracks and adjacent woods. The poor mans screams imploring the train to stop can also be heard on some dark quiet nights.
Another variant of the story is that a brakeman had been playing card late one evening and became very drunk. He staggered out on to the tracks after the game had long ended waving his lantern in a vain attempt to stop a passing locomotive. The train ran him down cutting off his head. This one sounds more believable, but the jealous engineer version is more popular.
The last one is either a variant or a separate story all together. It involves a young girl who was struck and decapitated. No explanation of how her demise was achieved is told. Maybe she was caught in the Moonville Tunnel, or on one of the four trestles along the railway, and simply could not get out of the speeding trains way.
The location of this site is in the Zaleski State Forest in Vinton county. The tunnel lies several miles east of Lake Hope on the old B&O railway. I would advise asking one of the locals for directions, or invest in a good county map if you are interested in finding the exact location. My county map shows Moonville which surprised me. The old railway is shown running across Hope Road which is just south of Lake Hope off of Route 278. Moonville is just to the east, just follow the old railway to the tunnel. Here is a link to Rich Moeckel site at http://www.geocities.com/richemt911/ which has detailed information on this area.
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
A Couple of Southern Ohio Haunts
Submitted by Sam Logan that felt my site lacked information about the southern part of the state.
I notice your sight is lacking in stories from Southeastern Ohio, you know, we DO exist. We also have interesting ghost stories. Here's a few:
Top Hat
The man known as top hat has frequented the operating room of Scioto Memorial Hospital for years. He's dressed in 18 Century garb and sports (you guessed it) a top hat. One day a nurse going to the OR was walking by herself down the corridor to the OR and saw this man. The man politely said "Good day madam." and she responded likewise and walked on. It dawned on her as she walked that no one should be in that section of the hospital unless they were dressed in hospital garb. She turned around and saw him fade away.
No one has had unpleasant run-ins with top hat. He's polite and courteous but never stays long to chat. Unfortunately no one knows what happened to this distinguished gentleman.
The White Nun
The former intensive care unit of Mercy Hospital has been the home of the white nun. She's dressed in white and doesn't speak. When she is near, you feel cold and peace. You don't realize that you've been visited by her until she is gone.
Several people have seen her float by hospital rooms, over guards heads and she's been seen on the monitors as well. There was a connection made between the nights she was spotted and when a patient would die. It was theorized that she was the angle of death.
The counterpart to this story is there is the black nun that haunts the floor above her. No one has seen it, but THEY HAVE FELT IT. When the black nun is present, the room temperature drops and you are chilled to the bone with dread and fear. To my knowledge, nothing has happened with this creature. But plenty has happened on this floor, and it started in the early 1980's.
Year ago Our lady of Mercy hospital was ran by the Catholic Church. The hospital had the priest and nuns there as part of its administration. One night the nurses on the floor (I believe it was the step down unit) had a couple of slow nights, and one nurse brought in a Ouija board. The nurses were playing with it. I should add that there was always something wrong with rooms 5, 8 and 237 (I'm guessing on the last one) one nurse asked what was wrong with room 8. Bed sheet would crumple up and things would be misplaced and then placed back again. The board replied l-o-o-k i-n t-h-e m-i-r-r-o-r. The nurses were scared and understandably didn't want to go, but one nurse, a petite brave little redhead, said she would go. She marched up to the room and went to look in the mirror. Every one in the conference room waited for her to come back down. A bloodcurdling scream was heard across the hall. She immediately ran downstairs, quit her job and left. Last I heard, she had moved out west. The nurses were baffled but break was up, so they went back to work. Mother superior, on making her rounds, heard about the Ouija board in the intensive care unit break room, and marched up to get rid of the board. She asked with a furious voice, "Where's that board!". The nurse who brought it in said it was in the break room, where they had left it. Mother superior went into the room to destroy it, but it was nowhere to be found. She searched high and low, but it never surfaced. She went to the nurses station and asked vehemently where it was, but the nurses said it was in the room. The board had hid itself to keep it from being destroyed, or so the legend goes. Since then, odd things have been happening on the floor, particularly the rooms 5 and 8. Bed sheets crumple after being made, equipment and monitors go haywire. One night, and my mother can attest to this, the other hospital in the area was full and was sending a patient over, and standard procedure was to go to the room, turn down the sheets and turn on the monitors. When the monitor was turned on (it was back in the '80's, when it still used paper to print out on) it started to act like it was printing out a heartbeat, then it began to make upside down crosses. It did this several times before the patient was wheeled into the room. The minute the patient came in the room, the monitor quit and went back to a straight line reading.
Some would say that a portal to hell was opened up that day. Oh yeah, and the nurse? Years later after mom started working there and when the catholic church gave up control of the hospital, my mom asked a priest who had been there for a while if there was any truth to the story of the nurse who ventured to room 8. The priest confirmed this and when asked by mom what she saw, his answer was "a demon'. And he left it at that.
I have no first hand knowledge as to the location or authenticity of these tales. I simply have presented them as they were sent to me to provide some information on hauntings in the southern portion of Ohio in which my site is lacking. If anyone has information as to the exact location or to add to the above account, please feel free to contact me atjas1746@greenapple.com. [Editor's note: That email is long defunct. Email me at wintermute@nitemarecafe.com instead of the original author.]
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
I notice your sight is lacking in stories from Southeastern Ohio, you know, we DO exist. We also have interesting ghost stories. Here's a few:
The man known as top hat has frequented the operating room of Scioto Memorial Hospital for years. He's dressed in 18 Century garb and sports (you guessed it) a top hat. One day a nurse going to the OR was walking by herself down the corridor to the OR and saw this man. The man politely said "Good day madam." and she responded likewise and walked on. It dawned on her as she walked that no one should be in that section of the hospital unless they were dressed in hospital garb. She turned around and saw him fade away.
No one has had unpleasant run-ins with top hat. He's polite and courteous but never stays long to chat. Unfortunately no one knows what happened to this distinguished gentleman.
The former intensive care unit of Mercy Hospital has been the home of the white nun. She's dressed in white and doesn't speak. When she is near, you feel cold and peace. You don't realize that you've been visited by her until she is gone.
Several people have seen her float by hospital rooms, over guards heads and she's been seen on the monitors as well. There was a connection made between the nights she was spotted and when a patient would die. It was theorized that she was the angle of death.
The counterpart to this story is there is the black nun that haunts the floor above her. No one has seen it, but THEY HAVE FELT IT. When the black nun is present, the room temperature drops and you are chilled to the bone with dread and fear. To my knowledge, nothing has happened with this creature. But plenty has happened on this floor, and it started in the early 1980's.
Year ago Our lady of Mercy hospital was ran by the Catholic Church. The hospital had the priest and nuns there as part of its administration. One night the nurses on the floor (I believe it was the step down unit) had a couple of slow nights, and one nurse brought in a Ouija board. The nurses were playing with it. I should add that there was always something wrong with rooms 5, 8 and 237 (I'm guessing on the last one) one nurse asked what was wrong with room 8. Bed sheet would crumple up and things would be misplaced and then placed back again. The board replied l-o-o-k i-n t-h-e m-i-r-r-o-r. The nurses were scared and understandably didn't want to go, but one nurse, a petite brave little redhead, said she would go. She marched up to the room and went to look in the mirror. Every one in the conference room waited for her to come back down. A bloodcurdling scream was heard across the hall. She immediately ran downstairs, quit her job and left. Last I heard, she had moved out west. The nurses were baffled but break was up, so they went back to work. Mother superior, on making her rounds, heard about the Ouija board in the intensive care unit break room, and marched up to get rid of the board. She asked with a furious voice, "Where's that board!". The nurse who brought it in said it was in the break room, where they had left it. Mother superior went into the room to destroy it, but it was nowhere to be found. She searched high and low, but it never surfaced. She went to the nurses station and asked vehemently where it was, but the nurses said it was in the room. The board had hid itself to keep it from being destroyed, or so the legend goes. Since then, odd things have been happening on the floor, particularly the rooms 5 and 8. Bed sheets crumple after being made, equipment and monitors go haywire. One night, and my mother can attest to this, the other hospital in the area was full and was sending a patient over, and standard procedure was to go to the room, turn down the sheets and turn on the monitors. When the monitor was turned on (it was back in the '80's, when it still used paper to print out on) it started to act like it was printing out a heartbeat, then it began to make upside down crosses. It did this several times before the patient was wheeled into the room. The minute the patient came in the room, the monitor quit and went back to a straight line reading.
Some would say that a portal to hell was opened up that day. Oh yeah, and the nurse? Years later after mom started working there and when the catholic church gave up control of the hospital, my mom asked a priest who had been there for a while if there was any truth to the story of the nurse who ventured to room 8. The priest confirmed this and when asked by mom what she saw, his answer was "a demon'. And he left it at that.
I have no first hand knowledge as to the location or authenticity of these tales. I simply have presented them as they were sent to me to provide some information on hauntings in the southern portion of Ohio in which my site is lacking. If anyone has information as to the exact location or to add to the above account, please feel free to contact me at
This post, including photos and commentary, originally appeared on James A. Sheets' site.
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