When Aunt Linda seen him coming, she asked, “Honey, did you get scared?”
Henry said, “Yes, Aunt Linda, I just couldn’t sleep up there for that little baby.”
She said, “Henry, I plumb forgot about that room being like that, or I wouldn’t have sent you up there.”
After they talked, he went to some other room and slept there that night.
One other time, he said that he slept in that house, in the room next to this hainted room, with some other men. He said they heard something that seemed to him to be something dragging a trunk across the floor. One of the men hollered in there and told the haint to quit that dragging whatever it was dragging. He talked real ugly to the haint, telling it that it was impossible for a man to sleep in that room.
75. “A Haunted House in Breathitt County”
Breathitt County
On Lick Branch in Breathitt County there lived a preacher by the name of Bob Herald, who lived in a house that was said to be haunted. At this house there were many strange things happening. People all around had heard of this and would come from miles around to try to see these strange things.
Greenberry and Charlie Turner went one night. It was said that the swing was supposed to start swinging and the chair was supposed to start rocking and the door was to come open of its own accord. Greenberry Turner sat in the rocking chair, and it didn’t rock, and Charlie sat in the swing, but it didn’t swing.
The next night two or more of the same family went to see what they could find out. They had to ride horseback to this man’s house. Along in the night, the doors flew open, the chair began to rock, and the swing began to swing. These two men that had gone there got scared and ran off and left their mules hitched to the fence, all night long. They went back the next morning and got them.
The very next day, Bob Herald moved away, and the house burned that night. Old people of this community said that one of his boys shot at the sun ball and cursed the Lord, then the devil gave him power to do these strange acts.
This is a true account, told by Greenberry Turner, who visited this house.
76. “Ghostly Noises in a Haunted House”
Lewis County
About ten years ago there was a big, old house near Maysville that was supposed to be haunted. The people who were living there had to stay there for a year. An old man lived there with them. This old man was crippled, so he leaned against the house when he walked, and you could hear him walking. He would go upstairs and get up all but one step, and then fall back down. He walked up the steps one time and got up all of them but the last one. When he got to this one, he fell and died. From then on, those people could hear him lean against the house and walk up the steps.
The woman kept her forks and knives on the table. One night, they heard them fall and scatter all across the floor. Their child said, “Mommy, there is a rat on the table.”
The mother thought it was a rat, so she went back to bed. Next morning, she thought, “Well, I’ll go down and clean up the mess.”
Believe it or not, when she got down there the forks and knives were in the vase on the table. There wasn’t a one of them on the floor.
77. “A Haunted House on Lacy Creek”
Morgan County
This story occurred over one hundred years ago. It was told to me by my cousin, and has been handed down from my great-grandmother. This all happened here in Morgan County around the mouth of Lacy Creek.
A friend in the neighborhood had died. Three of his men friends came to sit up with the corpse. They sat and talked until around midnight, telling ghost tales. There was a haunted house close by. No one lived in it on the account of it being haunted. So these three men decided that they would go over to this house and investigate to see if it really was haunted.
When they arrived, they barred the door and seated themselves on the floor to wait. And it was no more than five minutes when the door flew open and in came a casket. It rolled over against the wall, and the lid flew open.
It was not very light, only the light of the moon coming through the window. The men jumped to their feet, and in rolled another casket and placed itself beside the other large casket, then raised its lid. The men became excited and began to leave. They found the door was still barred as it was when they came in. While trying to get out, in came a little casket and placed itself beside the other two caskets. The men tore the door down and left in a big hurry. They never returned to see what was in the three caskets.
78. “The Falling Windows of a Haunted House”
Marion County
In Marion County, there stands an old house which is supposedly haunted. The house is in the middle of a briar patch with not another house in sight. The story about the ghosts of this place supposedly took place about fifty years ago.
It seems that a group of young people had accepted a dare to stay in the house overnight. Everything went perfect until sometime around midnight when a headless figure appeared riding a beautiful white horse. A large sword in its right hand flashed, and one of the horses fell over. No one could muster the courage to venture forth to see what had happened, so they tried to convince themselves that they had imagined it. All was well until they went out at daylight. The horse was on the ground with its head completely separated from its body.
This old house is supposed to still be haunted. It is impossible to keep windows in one piece. Every time new windows are placed in the house, they somehow get knocked out. The owner, being dumbfounded, hired a man to stay in the house at night. The first night, nothing happened. The second night, the man was asleep on the floor when he felt something pulling at his cover. His lamp was on, but he couldn’t see a thing. The pulling was getting harder, so he started pulling the blanket back. Then, suddenly, the blanket ripped into two pieces. Immediately, there was a crash and every window in the house fell out.
People still talk about that old house, wondering what this was all about.
79. “Ghostly Musical Instruments and Other Noises”
Martin County
Once upon a time a family of renters were coming along and saw this empty house, and wanted to rent it. The owner of the house told them that it was haunted and no one would live there more than one night. The father told the owner that he and his family wasn’t afraid of anything, and that they still wanted to live in the house. The owner told them to go ahead and live there and he wouldn’t charge them anything for it.
The father and his girls moved part of their furniture into the house. And while the father went back to his other home to get another load of furniture, he got a boy to stay with his girls to keep them from getting scared.
The girls and the boy went to bed after dark and hadn’t laid down but a few minutes when they heard a noise in the loft. It sounded like a big barrel full of cans rolling back and forth, and finally it came down the stairs and scared them. Then the boy jumped in bed with the girls, and then they heard this awful moaning, groaning sound coming from the loft. Then they heard it come down the stairs with its heavy feet dragging. It came down and lay before the fire the rest of the night. While it was resting, it groaned the whole night through.
The next morning, when the father returned with another load of furniture for the house, the girls told him that there wasn’t any use of unloading it because they weren’t going to stay in that house. They told him about the barrel rolling back and forth and down the stairs and about the groaning haint that stayed there all night.
The father began to make fun at them, but all at once he began to hear banjos, fiddles, and guitars making music around his head, and he got so scared that he and his whole family ran away, never to return to that haunted house again.
80. “The Ghost of burning Fork”
Johnson County
“The Ghost of Burning Fork” is a story that was told to me by C.H. Stambough. Mr. Stambough’s brother was to show a peddler through the community of Burning Fork. The first place they were to stop was a house which s
at on a high cliff. This cliff had a crack in it and gas from deep in the earth came out, and it was always burning. This is why the name of Burning Fork became known.
John, who was Mr. Stambough’s brother, had told the peddler about the neighbors and how this girl that lived at the first house could have the knocking spirit to do what she commanded. The peddler wanted to see this and so spent the complete morning at this house with John.
When they arrived, John said that he showed him the burning gas, and the peddler wanted to go back. The peddler said that the devil was already there, as he could feel it in his bones.
They had dinner with this family, and the girl begin having the dishes float in the air. John said, “I grabbed my glass and set it down, but the peddler was so shocked that he couldn’t even eat.”
This was only the beginning of their ghost. As the peddler and I went from house to house that day, I told him that we would have to stay for the night at one of the houses. Well, we happened to stay at the house where the girl lived that was endowed with the spirit. If anyone ever possessed the supernatural power, it was she. She was so ugly that no boy in the community would come to that house.
That night I was put in the room with her brother, and the peddler was given the room in blue, the guest room. He had to go down a long hall and out on the porch before he reached the room. He had said that if she was what I had told him about her, he wanted to see just what she could do.
After everyone was in bed, a noise was heard in the peddler ‘s room. I went to see what it was, and he was so afraid that he could not move. He said that while he was getting ready for bed, the ghost walked into his room and would not leave. He told me that he was getting out of there while he was still in one piece.
81. “Strange Events at a Haunted House”
Bell County
About thirty-six years ago, I lived on Breast Works Hill. A lot of soldiers got killed in the Civil War on that hill, and they was buried there under where houses are now.
Well, Ben was laying in bed sick with leak of the heart, and he had just give himself up to die. He was so weak, and when I was in the kitchen he’d just peck on the wall right light for me to come there and wait on him.
Jim Henry, who was Bens brother, come over to set up with him. Now, Jim Henry would just set and doze, but the minute you called his name he would be ready to do anything to help you out. “Now, Francis,” says Jim Henry, “I’m aiming to kill your haint tonight.”
Well, I told him that I’d shore be glad if he would. So about midnight, he was setting there a-dozing, and a big noise that went like somebody hitting the side of the house with a board woke him up. Boy, he jumped up out of that chair like he was shot, and the young’uns come running out of that room where they was sleeping.
Then it sounded like somebody dragging chairs over the floor. Jim Henry said, “Well, I never believed in hants before, but I know this is the truth.”
And that middle door wouldn’t stay shut, I don’t care how many times that you locked it.
My mother come to see me one day and she said, “Give me that key; I aim to lock that door.”
I said, “Mother, I’ll catch you a bird if you will.”
I give her the key and she locked the door and put the key in her apron pocket, and that door just flew open. Mother said, “As old as I am, I’ve never seen the likes of that before.”
But that sure is the truth, honey.
82. “Was It a Ghost?”
McLean County
Some years ago when Livermore was smaller than it is now, a family consisting of husband, wife, and baby lived in what is now Harold Hughart’s house. The man was employed at a job that sometimes took him away from home at night. The family lived happily and without incident for several weeks. Then, the husband’s work caused him to be away from home for two or three days. While he was gone, his wife heard bells ringing. Sounded like they were in the room farthest away from her bedroom.
When her husband returned, she told him what she had heard. Nothing more of the bells was heard for some days, but strange footsteps were heard walking up and down the stairway. These things were heard for some time, and lights were sometimes seen in or near the house. The young wife and mother grew to be very uneasy when it was necessary for her husband to be away from home.
People began to discuss the haunted house and to advise the family to move out. Some people were afraid; others thought that they were hearing only natural sounds that could be explained.
One night while the husband was away, his wife heard a sound coming from her baby’s bed. Jumping up from her own bed, the mother rushed to the baby’s bed. When she got there, she saw this ghostly figure bending down over the baby.
She cried out and rushed to the baby. When she got hold of herself, the mother searched the house but found nothing. She took the baby and spent the rest of the night across the street with her own mother. When the husband returned, they decided to move out of that house.
Of course, that haunted house was a nine-day wonder to the people there in Livermore. There was one person, however, who took no stock in the haunting. He said, “One man is causing all that ghost stuff. He wants to buy that house for a little of nothing.”
People continued to talk, but when the man who was suspected of causing the lights and sounds died, the haunting stopped.
83. “The Old Civil War House”
Trigg County
Shortly after the turn of the century, peculiar occurrences began to be noticed in this old house in Trigg County. It had been built before the Civil War and was the main house on a good farm. But the place could not be rented because of strange noises that always terrified the residents.
After retiring for the night, the occupants of the house would be awakened by peculiar noises from the living room. In this large room there was a big fireplace which required logs of considerable size. There would come a sound from this large room after they had retired for the night, like a log of wood rolling from the fireplace out into the room. When they rushed to the room, nothing could be found.
This continued constantly during the winter. No one could stay in that house. They were too scared. The last tenants were a man and his wife. Both died of nervous diseases, one of them in the insane asylum.
The mystery was never solved, and after these people died the house was torn down.
84. “Ghosts, Ghosts, and More Ghosts!”
McLean County
Somewhere around 1780, a new family moved to the Beech Grove neighborhood, not far from what is now Calhoun. There were five members of this family, a husband, wife, two infant children, and his brother, who was mentally retarded and subject to wild fits.
This feeble-minded brother was kept chained loosely in the attic to keep him from running away. He did not have enough intelligence to free himself, but was able to watch the children to see that they did not wander off while their mother and father worked in a nearby field.
One afternoon, the mother came home from the field early in order to have her husbands meal ready for him when he came in. Upon arriving at the house, she found that her mindless brother-in-law, in a mad fit, had beaten the children to death with his chains. Going completely berserk, she attacked him with an ax and killed him. Then, grieving over her children and what she had done and being afraid of her husband, she hung herself in a huge oak tree in the front yard.
Upon returning home and finding his entire family slaughtered, her husband cast himself into a water well and drowned.
Their frontier house stood unoccupied for many years. During this time, the old oak tree became a favorite hanging place for horse thieves.
Before long, people were afraid to come near the place, as it seemed that something bad happened every time they did. A hunter was killed by a panther, and a child fell into quicksand nearby and was suffocated.
Back during prohibition times, six moonshiners decided that it would be a safe place to hide a still, because no one ever came
near. They put the moonshine still in the barn behind the house. One night as they celebrated a big sale, they made fun of the ghosts who had been hiding there. As they joked, a fire mysteriously started at both ends of the barn and trapped them inside. One of the men, although badly burned, escaped the fire and lived long enough to tell what had happened.
Nowadays, their ghosts, the ghosts of the family, the hunter, and the ghosts of the horse thieves who were hanged here, still haunt the old house.
Not many years ago, an elderly lady moved into the yet sturdy old house and spent the night. The next day, her daughter came to visit her, and found the old lady out of her head talking about ghosts. She is in the insane asylum now.
A little later, a family of five moved into the house, but at midnight they moved their furniture out of the old house and walked eight miles to spend the night with their former neighbor. They have not been back to the old house since that night.
Today, the old house still stands alone in a huge forest. At night, the pioneer wife can be seen walking through the house carrying a candle that gives off a green light. As she walks, she calls out for her children, the mad brother-in-law still rattles his chains in the attic, and the children are crying.
This is believed by the people of this region and is told as the gospel truth.
85. “The House with a Lantern”
Lyon County
There was a log house located between the two rivers in Lyon County, a house that was torn down during the building of the Kentucky Dam. Although this old house had been deserted for years, at midnight one could see a lantern.
It is said that an old man who lived there had nine daughters, whom he supervised with a great deal of care. He required them to be in home by nine o’clock every night. Each night at midnight, he would go and check the girls’ rooms, carrying his lantern in his hand. This went on for years and years.
The girls never married, and the old man outlived each of them. When he died, he was found by some neighbors with his lantern at his side.
Haunted Houses and Family Ghosts of Kentucky Page 14