Haunted Houses and Family Ghosts of Kentucky

by William Lynwood Montell

  The woman who lived above us couldn’t take the slamming of our bedroom door and cupboards anymore. She got up and began stomping on the floor, got her kids up to make noise all night, and dropped pots and pans. It got so bad that they plotted to kill us. I assured her that we weren’t the culprits, that it was a ghost. She wouldn’t believe me, so we all wound up in court. Due to her death threats, the judge in Lexington made her move out of the apartment.

  One night, my husband, Nick, woke up sweating. He said he was going to turn on the air conditioner. Nick only got one foot out of bed when we both heard a “click.” The air conditioner came on by itself. On another occasion, having taken on a job at this apartment complex as maintenance worker, Nick went running out the door and down the back steps. He was scared out of his wits. I said, “What in the world is the matter with you?”

  He told me that while he was painting the bedroom above ours, he heard little children laughing. I went to investigate, but heard nor seen nothing…About two months later, the man who moved in above us told his wife, said, “Janet must have her children this weekend. I heard them laughing.”

  His wife replied, “No, Janet had her kids here last weekend.”

  I wondered if these kids might have lived here on this land years ago before the apartments were built. Could they have been killed by the ghost that keeps trying to run us off?

  Nick gave up his maintenance job, and took on a regular one. He came home for lunch one day, and while getting ready to return to work, I said to him, “I think I will take a nap.” Well, as soon as I had laid down, a car passed right by the bedroom window, and I felt a super strong invisible force on me. I couldn’t move nor breathe. Making grunting noises, I kept trying to call on the name of Jesus. Finally, it moved away from me; just got up and left.

  113. “Nocturnal Escape from a Haunted House”

  Simpson County

  We moved into this house out in the country here in Simpson County. The house set back off the road, and it had trees all around it. On down the road was a barn that the farmers who lived on down the road used.

  When we first moved into this house, it had a bloodstain on the wall, so we painted over it. The stain kept on coming back, so we left well enough alone.

  One night, when all of our family members were asleep, we were awakened by a knock on the door. My mother got up and looked out the window to see who it was. It was the landlord. Mom opened the door and said, “Can I help you?”

  The landlord said, “Yes, why is your husband beating you?”

  My mother said, “What are you talking about? My husband, children, and I were all asleep.”

  He said, “I heard someone yelling. Well, if it wasn’t you, I’ll see you later. Goodbye.”

  Then, my mother told my brother and me what had happened. We then took a seat in the living room to watch TV as my mother fixed breakfast.

  After we had eaten, we washed the dishes, then left to go see my grandmother and my aunt Lisa. That night, Lisa spent the night with us. She said she heard something, but we didn’t hear a thing. The next day Aunt Lisa went home.

  The very next night, my mother and father heard the backdoor shut. Mother got up to see who had gotten out of bed to use the bathroom outside. She looked in the room at my brother and me to see which one had gone out the backdoor. From there she went back to my father and told him what had happened.

  My father then went into our bedroom only to see my brother with his hands in the air saying, “Take me; take me,” over and over. My father woke my brother up and asked him where he was going.

  My brother responded, “A man said that he was going to take me home with him.”

  I started screaming under the cover at the top of my lungs, and my father reached over and uncovered my head. He said to my mother, “Get the children and get in the car. If I’m not out in five minutes, go to Moms and get Timmy. Okay?”

  My mother said okay, and she took us kids to the car. We all got inside. Five minutes passed, then she started up the car. Just as she did, my father came running out the door.

  We went to town where my grandmother lived. My grandmother let us in her house, and we told her everything. She then told us that we could stay the night with her. Then Uncle Timmy knocked on the window and scared my mother.

  We all went to bed and went to sleep. The next morning we told the landlord that we were moving out of his house. We didn’t want to hear those noises any more.

  Two or three years later, the old house caught on fire and burned down. We went back with a friend, but I was so scared that I lay on the floorboard of the car.

  114. “Mysterious Happenings in an Old House”

  Carroll County

  Back in 1994, this woman who owns the Cornucopia Shop on Fifth and Main told me about some of the things that have happened there. The building that the shop is in used to be a restaurant. The owners both died, and it has changed hands several times in the past seventy years.

  The current owner said that many times during the night garments are thrown here and there on the floor. Items on the shelves disappear, only to mysteriously reappear weeks later. This lady told me that on one occasion she taped a cabinet shut, but found it open the next day.

  She’s still at this location. Wonder what’s been happening lately?

  115. “The Abandoned Haunted House”

  Hopkins County

  When I was growing up, I lived by a so-called haunted house. It was on South Main Street here in Madisonville. There used to be a family with children that lived in this spooky place. And one of the girls that lived there was insane. It is said that she would always try to kill people, especially members of her own family. Then, her mother died. A year later, her father died. At that point in time, the other family members abandoned the house.

  The house belonged to the insane daughter, but she was in a mental institution. The house was still completely furnished, so people would come by to vandalize the house. But many people said that they always heard and saw ghosts in the house. Actually, people began going there just to see ghosts. One day a couple of teenagers went into the house and saw the ghosts. The next day, the house burned down.

  I heard this story all the time we lived by that house. My sister and her friends went into the house once and said they heard something, but I was always too scared to go inside to check it out.

  116. “The Felt Presence”

  Woodford County

  In 1986, my husband, Nick, got a job as a night watchman on a horse farm on Pisgah Pike in Woodford County. I knew the old black man whose place Nick was taking. I asked Nick, “Why are you wearing a gun to night-watch?”

  He said, “There’s something out there. This is the first night watchman job where I’ve ever had to wear a gun.”

  He was right, there was something out there. We could feel it looking at us, but couldn’t see it. It felt evil and extremely dangerous. On several occasions, I went out at night to visit Nick and take him a snack. The horses would run at great speed in the pastures in total darkness. Some would even run into the fences. Their neighing was loud. It was a wonder they didn’t break their legs or necks….

  The man who owned a farm up the road was a prominent public figure in Woodford County, and he let us move into an old house on one of his farms. My daughter Sheila and I took her bed, a night stand, candle, and kerosene lamp to this old house and planned to spend the night in our new home. A friend of ours asked if we would let his prized beagles stay there. “Why sure, no problem,” we told him. That night, the dogs started barking and then screaming. Someone or something was trying to break into the backdoor with great force. Then, the dogs fell silent. We heard whatever it was walk around to the front of the house. The noise was loud, like something dragging chains or someone wearing fishermen’s wading boots full of water. Every hair on my body stood straight out. I said, “Sheila, blow out the candle.” She said, Mom, I can’t. I can’t even move. You blow it out.

  I
said, “I can’t move either. My legs are as stiff as boards. I can feel something looking in through the downstairs window where the lamp was on the fireplace mantel.”

  Sheila said, “I can, too.”

  I said, “Sheila, please try and blow it out. I can feel him backing up and looking up here at us.”

  “I know, Mom, I can feel it, too,” she said….

  Finally, we heard him walking off towards a nearby radio station. Next morning, we learned why the dogs fell silent. One had broken his chain and ran in front of a car on Highway 60 and was killed. The other dog was strangled to death. His chain didn’t break. His throat was raw and bloody. That dog looked sad, yet had a look of fear on his face.

  What was that thing that even a dog feared for its life? Was this the same evil creature I felt and that the horses had feared for their lives?

  117. “Ghostly Footsteps in a House on Greasy Creek”

  Leslie County

  This happened right up on Greasy, right there at Chappell, and its every bit the truth ‘cause I was right there to see it. We were doing a logging up on Greasy Creek, there above old man Chappell s house. It was right across the creek from the Chappell post office. Me and my buddy were staying at old man Chappell s house while we were working up there. The house was a big, old log house that had two stories. Old man Chappell and his wife were there using their bedroom while me and my buddy slept in a big guest bed downstairs.

  We were about to go to sleep one night when I heard what sounded like a big bushel sack of beans turn over way up there in the attic. Sounded like beans rolling down out of there, coming down the steps, and it got lighter and lighter until it sounded like the last bean come down and hit the last step to the floor. I turned to my buddy and said, “Won t you listen to that. Sounds like Mrs. Chappell’s sack of beans fell over.”

  He roused up and then turned back over. Then while I was studying what I’d heard, I saw a light standing up at the foot of the bed. It looked about the size of one of them old bolster pillows that used to go plumb across the bed, and that light just stood there. I punched my buddy and said, “Won’t you look at this? There’s a beam of light. Look at that thing.”

  But he wouldn’t turn over and look at it. He didn’t want to see it. Well, that light begun to get dim, then dimmer, and then it took to leaning over till it leaned right over in the floor and went out. Then I heard doors opening and shutting, one right after the other all through the house. I heard the latches click, then the door would shut real loud. It was “click,” “shut,” “click,” “shut,” all through that house, and after a while, it died down.

  The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast, and I told the Chappells all about it. Old man Chappell made light of it, but after he left, Mrs. Chappell said, “There’s been many a time that I’ve heard the same thing. A long time ago they had a square dance in this house. People came from all up and down the creek. Well, there was this gang of men coming up the creek to the dance and they met this other feller that they knew coming down the creek. They said to him, ‘Hey, where you going? There’s a big dance up yonder. Why don’t you come and go with us?’

  “The feller said, ‘No, I better not. I’ve had some trouble with a guy up there and I don’t want to cause any trouble at the dance.’

  “Well, they kept after him to go with them and they finally said, ‘Come on, go with us. If there is any trouble, we’ll back you up.’

  “So that feller finally agreed to go. Sure enough, there was trouble. That other guy pulled a gun on that boy and shot him dead. And those friends of that boy chased that other guy all through the house. He’d try to slam the door behind him so they couldn’t get a shot at him. Finally, they caught up with him and shot him dead as he ran around the corner of the house. Both of them shot dead that same night. So every now and then, I still hear them chasing each other through the house.”

  Now, don’t forget, I was right there and seen what happened.

  118. “The House on Black Hill Lane”

  Barren County

  In July 1961, when I married my first husband, we moved into an old two-story double log pen house, owned by his parents. That was near the Roseville community here in Barren County. That summer we slept in the front room of the old house. I always had a strange, uneasy feeling in that room, and never willingly was alone in it.

  One night about eleven o’clock, I awoke with a terrified feeling of hands around my neck, chocking me. My first thought was that my husband was having a nightmare and choking me in my sleep, but he was sleeping peacefully beside me. I am not and never have been prone to nightmares, but I slept very little the rest of the night. I was quite relieved when the weather turned cold and we moved into a warmer bedroom in the back part of the house.

  As I have always been interested in history, I set about learning all I could about the previous owners of the house. My main source of information was an eighty-year-old neighbor, who had lived in the vicinity all his life. He told me that three houses were built in the neighborhood about 1848, 1849, and 1850. All of them had huge stone chimneys, which were built by a mason who traveled around and did stone work. The stone was quarried at the intersection of what is now the Oil Well and B. Bertram Roads. At the time he told me this, two of the houses were still there, the other being the Dale Elmore home which was probably built by Josiah Bush. It has since been destroyed. All that was left of the third house was the enclosed hallway, or original dogtrot, which was left and weather-boarded, to be used, and still is, as a smokehouse.

  The house we lived in set about a quarter mile off the Oil Well Road. A road once ran by it, connecting the Oil Well Road to the Roseville Road, and was known as the Black Hill Lane. At that time, I was able to ride horseback over the length of it, following the old road bed. It was evidently much used, as the banks were cut down as much as eight feet in some places. The house was built by Reuben Harrison, who bought the land in 1839, a part of Thomas S. Jesseup’s 2,200 acre military survey. Reuben Harrison would have been a cousin, several times removed, of both myself and my present husband. He sold it in 1871 to G.W. Young.

  It seems that some time in its history, the house was used as a sort of inn, or tavern, and had overnight guests. A woman and man once stayed there and slept in the front room. The next morning, the woman was found dead in bed, and the bruises on her neck indicated she had been strangled. The man was gone. No one remembers their names. She was probably buried in the old cemetery behind the house.

  Another interesting story was that there was a black woman in the neighborhood who disliked the wife of the man who lived there. She kept coming to the house and causing trouble. Finally, the man told her that if she came back, he would kill her. She came again, and he shot her, laying the barrel of his gun in the fork of a little peach tree in the front yard. She fell on some large rocks in front of where the tobacco barn now stands. Her body was not removed until the next day. I have been told that one could see her bloodstains on the rocks when it rained, but although I looked several times, I never saw them.

  We lived there three years, and I was terrified to be alone at night (and not too comfortable in the daytime) and never again slept in the front room, although since then, Fm certain that many of the tenants did sleep there, and I have not heard of any more strange experiences.

  My ex-father-in-law passed away a few years ago, and the place was sold to a young couple who had every intention of living there. However, they soon built a garage with an apartment over it. The young man knew nothing of my experience but said to my daughter, “When I go into that front room, I feel ghostly presences; the hair rises on my head, and Fm not about to live there.”

  Evidently, he is true to his word, and is not living in the house. In fact, a few weeks ago I was out that way and noticed that nothing is now standing except the big stone chimneys.

  119. “The MacDowell Ghost”

  Simpson County

  When my mother, Cathy Alford, was about twelve,
her family lived in a two-story house on Blackjack Road in Simpson County. It was a big family that included her great-grandmother, Nancy Novack. Before my mother’s family moved into this old house, it was occupied by a Mr. MacDowell and family. Well, he died, and when his family moved out, they left some of his stuff in the attic.

  One day, when my grandmother was cleaning out the attic, she found lots of flowers that were on MacDowell’s mother’s grave, and also some clothes that he had in boxes. She picked this stuff up and started to put them it a box marked “trash.” But as soon as she picked up that old mans coat, she heard someone mumbling. Then she felt that someone was watching her. She took a baby bed mattress and put it on the steps, then slid it all the way down the stairway.

  When she got downstairs, she was so scared that she had to sit down. There was no one home at the time. When my great-grandmother returned home, my grandmother told her about the scary thing that had just happened.

  About three weeks later, my grandmother was in her room. She had always slept with the light off. As usual, her light was off, and she was in bed watching television. Suddenly, she heard someone talking. She couldnt understand what they were saying, but she noticed her television set going off and on. After she turned on the light, the mumbling ceased. She decided that she couldn’t take any more of those weird, ghostlike happenings, so they moved out of that old house a week later.

  The house is still said to be haunted by Mr. MacDowell.

  120. “The Man in Black”

  Hart County

  We moved into a mobile home on June 11, 1991, not long after what I’m about to describe took place. It was summer time; my wash was on the clothesline. I went out and brought everything in and put them on a rocking chair in Pap’s room.

  I was home alone and was standing by the chair facing the door out into the hallway. I was folding clothes, but all of a sudden I dropped a garment. I bent over to pick it up when I saw feet and legs standing in the hallway by the door, next to Pap’s dresser.

  I raised up slowly, never taking my eyes off this man. He had on dark clothes and a hat, and just stood there and watched me. He looked so real. I said to him, “Who are you?”