29. “A Woman’s Ghost at Various Life Stages”
Daviess County
There’s an Owensboro man who purchased an antique love seat and two chairs many years ago. He also acquired a ghost—a beautiful female—with the furniture.
The ghost, who has been seen by at least ten members of the man’s family and friends, bears a striking resemblance to the carvings on the arms of the sofa and chair. The carvings are of the head and bust of a woman at different ages in life. One even appears to be a death mask.
The origin of the eighteenth-century-type furniture is not known, but the family feels that there is a love story associated with the carvings. Generally, the story goes like this: A beautiful courtship was broken years ago by the untimely death of the girl. Grief stricken, the suitor sought a remembrance of his former love. He took his problem to a woodworker-sculptor and had a suite of furniture made which portrayed his beloved as a very young girl, as she grew older, as a mature woman, and then as she was when she died.
In her ghostly form, she is described as a willowy young woman in a full-length dress, with long, black hair flowing over her shoulders and down her back.
To some, she appears to be simply wandering about the house, standing by the draperies, or looking out the upstairs window.
Two visitors were recently surprised to see her bending over their bed.
To others, she has not been visible, but has been heard walking through the house, rocking in the rocking chair, or felt as a presence when she sits on the edge of the bed.
One night about an hour and a half after the family had retired, the record player began to play by itself. The particular song that was played had an eerie but definite relationship to the family argument that had taken place earlier.
In an effort to establish the connection between the ghost and the furniture, there have been attempts to communicate with the spirit world, but they never seem to have any luck. However, each person contacted would have a different story but would always reinforce the story that the carving on the furniture was the culmination of a tragic love affair.
30. “Sisters See the Ghost of Suicide Victim”
Taylor County
In Taylor County, a man built a house especially for his wife. The first week they moved in, she fell down the stairway, broke her neck and died.
Later another man and his wife moved in, because the rent was so cheap. A year after they moved in, the man also came home one week and found his wife hanging from a rafter, her neck broken. The man moved away.
The next tenants were a widower and his two daughters. The townsfolk warned them of the notorious happenings at the house, but the man did not have much money, so he decided to overlook the warnings and move in.
The first afternoon he gathered his daughters together to tell them that under no condition whatever were they to open their door to their upstairs bedroom until he had personally examined it.
The darkness came, and they locked themselves in the upstairs room. Later on they heard a small noise at the bottom of the stairs. The girls huddled together on the twin bed. The noise increased and seemed to move up toward them, one step at a time. One girl, screaming in terror, ran to the door, threw it open and ran out. The second girl ran to the door, called her name and when she did not get an answer, closed and relocked the door.
Later that night when the father returned and walked up to the girls’ room, one sister, with hair turned white and bloodshot eyes, was eating the flesh off the back of the neck of her dead sister.
31. “The Face”
Lyon County
Sandra Lockhart, her husband, and their two children lived in a house known as the old McCormick house that was located by the Cumberland River here in Lyon County. Sandra spent many days there alone during the day with her small children. Once, during daylight hours on a bright sunshiny day, Sandra heard some footsteps out on the sidewalks, which were made of concrete and which circled all the way around the house. She assumed it must be her neighbor, thus called out to him, “Come on in, Junior.”
She received no reply, but when she again heard the walking footsteps she went outside and walked all the way around the house several times, but no one was ever seen. She realized that she had witnessed a ghost visitation there in the old McCormick house. On a particular night in 1963 company had arrived and were bedded down in Sandra and her husband’s bed. Sandra, her husband, and their new baby were sleeping on the couch bed. The older baby was sleeping beside Sandra in a bassinet. When the baby started fussing, as all babies do, Sandra got up to fix the baby his bottle.
After returning to bed and adjusting the baby, Sandra glanced out her living room window and saw a transparent red glowing ball. She kept staring at it, trying to figure out what in the world it could possibly be. No sooner had she finished her thoughts when the red ball came in through the window, but the window did not break.
Sandra propped the baby’s bottle up and the red ball started coming closer to her. She tried to get up, but the red ball had her pinned down and she couldn’t move! She tried to scream out, but to no avail. She kept screaming and finally her brother-in-law came in and asked her, “What is wrong?”
But just before he had come in, the red ball had made an appearance of a face. The red ball face just looked at Sandra, then was gone. It disappeared!
Sandra packed some things that she and the kids needed and, after a night of no more rest, Sandra and her children left the old McCormick house, never to return. Her husband packed the furniture, clothing, and all their other belongings and moved them out. Today the old house no longer stands. It was torn down and a mobile home was moved onto the property where the McCormick house once stood—the place where Sandra spent many days and long, dreadful, scary nights.
32. “The Tapping Ghost”
Breckinridge County
Breckinridge County was first settled in 1789 with a fort at its present county seat in Hardinsburg. Soon after the establishment of the fort, the Indian problem vanished and made way for the settlement of the entire county. Much of the county was settled by subsistence farmers, but several of those coming from the East were, while not well educated, fairly well off for the time and the area. One such family coming from an eastern section of Virginia were the Millers.
The Millers settled an area in northern Breckinridge County on top of what was once an Indian campground. Using the sweat of the brow and as little money as possible, this family built a quite nice home and became more and more prosperous. They acquired a few slaves and raised a sizable acreage of tobacco. On one section of the area, Millers slaves built their own shacks, the ruins of which are still there.
Miller was a fair man, but after the Civil War he could not handle the whole farm since his slaves were freed. He broke his land into tracts, selling all but about 110 acres. Even this proved to be too much for the man and his wife, so he sold the final area of the homestead and moved on.
The new owner had made quite a bit of money in raising sheep and already had built his home on an adjoining farm, so he did not move into the old house. It was simply boarded up and all but forgotten by all but those ex-slaves who still lived in the area. Rumors were started by these superstitious ex-slaves. They said that the house had become haunted by either the irate Indians who had been displaced for over a hundred years or more, but more likely by their Negro fathers who yearned for their freedom but were born and died slaves.
The boards began to loosen as weather began to take its toll on the old house.
Several nights, coon hunters went to the old house but left quickly as strange noises were heard from the second story of the split-log structure. It was an eerie sound, which reminded the hunters of slaves who had worked at a nearby rock quarry. A thumping, scratching sound was heard, but no one dared to investigate.
One night in late November, a group of hunters had wandered into a valley more than twenty miles from where they had started. The night started out cold and rainy
, but the rain stopped and the men decided to trod on in search of their favorite hunting game. Then almost as suddenly as the rain stopped, it began again, but this time it was a mixture of freezing rain and snow. By this time the hunters had lost their way, and they were becoming very chilled to the bone.
As they popped over a hill, they spied the abandoned, dark house, and they ran for shelter. Once in the house, they took off their wet clothes and used some of the boards which had fallen off to build a fire in the old rock fireplace. As the blaze grew, the warmer the men began to feel. About this time, a knocking and scratching noise began. It seemed to come from everywhere. Several of the superstitious men had heard of the stories of this haunted house. They began to grab their wet clothes. Some of the younger men didn’t believe the stories, and they wanted to investigate.
After deciding the noise was coming from the room directly above them, three men lit their coal-oil lanterns and started toward the steps. With each step they took, they let their imagination run wild. They began hearing chains in their minds depicting the slave days. With the next step, they heard Negro spirituals being sung in that low, mourning monotone. Two of the men decided to go back and get their wet clothes and get as far away as possible.
One of the men decided to keep going to find out what was going on. As he neared the top step of the rounded staircase, one could almost hear his heart beat over the clambering sound. As his head peeked over the floor level, the room tension was unbearable. The other men called up to him, but no one answered.
Finally, the whole group rushed up the steps to save the man. When they reached the top, the man smiled and said, “Come on up, it’s warmer up here.” Sure enough it was, as the heat had risen. As the room had begun to get warmer, the sheep that were in the upstairs began to move around.
The mystery was solved. The sounds coming from the old house was only the sounds of the sheep.
33. “The Missing House”
Livingston County
One day while nine-year-old Kay Todd was playing alone outside her Livingston County home, she decided to be a little adventurous. Just beyond her family’s property was a lightly wooded area which she had never been allowed to explore. So on this particular day she decided to take a chance and grant herself permission.
After walking through the wooded area for about a mile, she came up on an abandoned two-story house. She was fascinated by the old house, but did not go in; just stared at it. She went back to the house for the next four days, but did not decide to actually go inside until the fifth day.
When she finally went in, she observed that the house was in relatively good shape, although it was a little dusty. There was no furniture. Just an empty house. After looking around on the inside for a little bit, she left.
Two days later, Kay decided to go back to the old house again. However, when she reached the site where she had previously seen it, the house was not there. There was no evidence that a house had ever stood there; no sign that it had burned or had been torn down. Kay retraced her steps to make sure that she had come the right way, but the house was not be found.
34. “Hell’s Half Acre”
Hopkins County
This area of pine and cedar, thickly grown together and hanging over the country dirt road and only wide enough for one vehicle to travel on, called Hells Half Acre, is located about twenty miles southwest of Madisonville, about twenty miles south of Providence, and five miles from Highway 109 west of Beulah.
This narrow road goes around a graveyard, which is about one hundred yards from the only building located within three miles, a log-dwelling house that also served as a pack-peddler hotel. I have heard my uncle and his older neighbors tell tales about this place, from ghost graveyard stories to murder tales. It was a common thing sixty years ago for people to ride horseback through this area and hear a horse following them, then look around to see a horse carrying a man with no head. Something like eighty years ago, two men were hanged near this old graveyard. For several years it was told that you could hear these two men screaming when you passed by there late at night.
The best story I remember was about the traveler. He had stopped at a hotel about half way between Providence and Dawson Springs. This hotel was a place of lodging for peddlers of all kind, and they were plentiful in Hopkins County between 1875 and 1900.
The story says that this particular peddler had a large sum of money in his suitcase when he stopped at this house for a night s lodging. Some of the neighbors were there chatting, drinking, and telling old tales until bedtime. After they all went to bed, the peddler was never seen again. No one thought much about it for several months, and the caretaker of the hotel moved away. The neighbors had begun to notice that he had a lot of spending money within recent times.
The next people who moved into this old hotel heard screams and saw peculiar things at night, such as lights and fire rolling across the road. Well, it wasn’t long until they moved out of that old place.
For a long time, nobody lived there, at least not very long, and the building was torn down. When they did this, bloodstains were found under the floor, causing all kinds of tales to be told. One was that this peddler had been killed and buried under the house. His ghost was seen or heard many times.
They said that if you were to go through by that place on a horse at night, you would be afraid that all of these hidden graves would open up and the spirits would rise up and trail you. People said they were afraid that a peddler’s ghost would be waiting for them just around the next curve in the road.
35. “The Haunted Distillery”
Daviess County
A tale that has amused the John Medley family for years is the one about the spirit that haunted the Daviess County Distillery. It was first recorded in a 1906 issue of the Inquirer.
This alleged ghost at this old distillery has given everybody a fright who resides in that area. Back in the spring, 1905, Dan Wood, an employee in the bonded warehouse, fell down the elevator shaft and was killed. Soon thereafter, strange noises began to be heard in the warehouse at night. The night watchman would always investigate, but could never find any cause. The noise often sounded like the knocking of the hoops off a barrel, while at other times it sounded like knocks in the head of a barrel. And at other times there was a bumping and pumping noise on the ceilings.
The ghost is not particular as to the hour that he starts his funny noises. It matters not whether the warehouse is stored full of whiskey, or it is empty; the noises occur just the same.
The night watchman, Will Burdette, and some of his friends organized a posse to go near the warehouse and wait until the noises began. They were to surround the warehouse and to capture the ghost. About nine o’clock the noises commenced. The posse demanded that whatever it was punching the roof to make itself known, come outside and surrender.
The ghost gave the roof a few more punches while they listened to the sounds, then the noise ceased. They never could figure out what it was that was making the noise.
Burdette later decided he had had enough of that ghost-chasing and resigned his job. He said as far as he was concerned “the ghost can do the night watching at the distillery unmolested.”
…. It wasn’t until several weeks later that the mystery was finally resolved. From the December 3,1907, issue of the Messenger came this story:
“On Monday afternoon about 5:30 o’clock, Curtis Gibbs shot and killed the cause of the excitement at the Daviess County Distillery. He killed a large wildcat in the warehouse. … The cat was a monster and it is supposed that its efforts to get out were the cause of the alarming noises…”
36. “An Elderly Woman s Ghost”
Hopkins County
On a typical gloomy afternoon, my friend Josh and his mom and dad were made believers in ghosts. Back about 1990 Josh had decided that he wanted to go with his mom and dad to see his grandmother. His grandmother lived alone, as her husband had died several years ago. Her very old, two-story house h
ad now acquired a grayish tint. It seemed that permanent dust had collected on its tattered wooden sidings. The windows were cracked and layered with spider webs, one layer upon another. There was a front porch that added to the creepiness of the old house. All in all, the house looked as if it had been the scene for one of the old horror movies.
The inside of the house looked good. Josh’s grandmother had done a little remodeling, but only where it was necessary. The kitchen and den had been totally redone, but by no means were they modern.
It is natural for any old house to have had someone, or even quite a number of people, to die in it. Of course, there had been quite a number of deaths that had occurred in this one. So this house had created a perfect setting for ghosts, and for ghost stories that tell of eerie creatures. However, all these tales had been viewed as sheer nonsense by Josh and his parents.
They pulled into a parking space right in front of josh’s grandmother’s house. When they got out, they noticed that her car was not in the driveway, as it usually was. They all decided to wait inside a while for her to return home. They went up to the porch and tried to open the door, but it was locked. Josh’s dad reached for the skeleton key under the timeworn mat and opened the door. All three of them began taking off their coats once they stepped inside, unaware of the figure staring down at them from the top of the stairway.
All at once, they all looked up and saw this transparent lady who was wearing a huge, billowing dress, like the ones in the Old South. The ghostly lady appeared to be elderly. She walked down three steps, which gave them a better view of her. Then, she disappeared into thin air.
Haunted Houses and Family Ghosts of Kentucky Page 8