Haunted Houses and Family Ghosts of Kentucky

by William Lynwood Montell

  Well, I saw her walking. I didn’t realize at first what it was because it looked like a reflection in the glass. But when I turned, I watched her walk from one end of the camper trailer to the other end of this sixteen-foot camper trailer. I watched her for five or six seconds, and she made the whole journey across the carport there in front of me.

  In that room that I was standing in is where she spent the last six months of her life. But things had been felt and heard there before our family moved into this house. From all indication, these sounds and other things are the result of the people who used to live here while it was a convalescent home.

  148. “The Ghost of a Doctor Who Hanged Himself”

  Bath County

  There’s a haunted house in Salt Lick here in Bath County in which someone supposedly hung themself about fifty or sixty years ago. And this house wasn’t lived in for a long time, at least not all the time when I was growing up. I believe that it was a doctor that used to live there who hung himself on the stairway. Someone moved into the house about five years ago and remodeled it. So the house is still standing. It doesn’t fit the typical image of a haunted house, but it is big—a big brick house that’s close to a hundred years old.

  I haven’t heard anything about ghosts there in recent times, but back when I was in high school ghostly things reportedly did take place. When I was in high school I ran around with some pretty mischievous kids, but they wouldn’t go near that house. They were afraid to go there. They had grown up there, but I hadn’t. I grew up someplace else, but none of them would go near that house.

  149. “The Haunted Ambulance Service House”

  Rowan County

  What used to be the ambulance service house here in Morehead is haunted. This lady died there in this house. After she died, they moved the ambulance service into her house. Then they moved the ambulance service to their present location. When they were moving out of the lady’s house, one of the guys said, “We’re forgetting something. Open the back door to the ambulance and let the ghost in.” I think they were just goofing off, but they opened the back door to the ambulance and told her to come on and go with them.

  So they invited her, and they swear that she came with them down to their new place and that she is still there. She moves chairs; she moves everything. I forget what they call her, but you can go down to talk with the ones who work there, the medical technicians and paramedics, and they will swear that she is there at their new place. They said that she was there at the old place and that she always haunted them, so they just invited her to come with them to the new place. And things that were happening at the first location are now happening at the new place.

  150. “The Old McCrady House Ghost”

  Edmonson County

  This is a story of things that took place in the old McCrady house, which was located on a farm on the banks of the Green River at the end of Mt. Zion Road here in Edmonson County. Just who owned the property during the Civil War we don’t know. We do know that this ghost story has to do with the bloodstains of a Civil War soldier, who had been killed on the steps of the old house. His bloodstains would never wash up regardless of how many times the people who lived there tried to remove them. Family after family moved in there, but they never stayed long after seeing the old bloodstains and experiencing some weird, eerie things. Not only did the stains remain, the door would come unlocked even after they had double-bolted it and chained the locks. Early one morning not very long after midnight, Grandpa McCrady, who had spent the night with Aunt Joyce [pseudonym], was awakened by the door locks as they came unlocked with nobody there to touch them. That was back in the 1930s or 1940s. Aunt Joyce heard the noises, too, and she raised up and looked. What do you think she saw? She doesn’t want to talk about it, but she swears that as she stood there with the bed sheets wrapped around her, she saw the image of this person who was dripping with blood as he reached out and touched her with both bloody hands. Grandpa said that they moved out of that old house at 3:00 A.M.! Aunt Joyce still has those white sheets with the blood spots on them. The blood will not wash out.

  That same aunt and her husband decided to try it again, and one night they had a couple of nephews to stay with them. When the ghostly soldier with the bloody hands showed up, they all took off. Too scared to stay. That also happened around three o’clock in the morning.

  Before they all moved away for good, other things had happened at different times. On several occasions, something that sounded like a man on a crutch or walking stick walked from the fireplace in one room, then across the dogtrot breezeway to the fireplace in the other front room. That noise was heard every morning around ten o’clock. The family member who heard it would walk to a door to listen, but would see nothing.

  On other occasions, a groaning noise could be heard coming from within the walls of the house near the fireplace, but the walls were actually of log construction, thus nothing could be hiding within. Another gruesome event took place about ten o’clock one night, when something seemingly jumped out of the upstairs loft and landed on the kitchen table. Dishes rattled just like they were all being knocked to the floor. The next morning when the family got enough courage to check it out, nothing had been disturbed. The dishes were still on the table.

  Any time during the day, if and when family members left the old house, they always closed the door and buttoned it with a wooden button. That’s what they called the latches back then. One day when Ruth Lindsey and her sister went down to the branch below the house to wash clothes, Ruth closed the door and placed a trunk against it. When they came back to the house, the door was standing wide open. Now figure that out!

  One night, while Ruth’s husband was at work, she heard noises at midnight. She took a flashlight and even walked out to the barn, then back to the house, but saw absolutely nothing. The noises continued, so Ruth finally gave up the search and went to her sister s to spend the night.

  Ruth also told of the time when she was cooking supper and heard sounds just like someone throwing pieces of stovewood against the doors. Each door shook when they were hit. She went to the doors to see if she could see what was causing the noise, but saw no one there. Believe it or not, however, the broom that she had left on the dogtrot floor in the breeze-way was standing upright of its own accord.

  The old McCrady house is gone now, but memories of the ghostly manifestations that occurred there will not die away soon.

  151. “Angels on Earth Today?”

  Edmonson County

  A few years ago, I was in the air conditioning and appliance sales and service business. On numerous occasions I would receive service calls from individuals who wanted service done on an appliance for their mothers and fathers. One morning just before Christmas, I got a call from a Mrs. Bailey, who wanted me to check her mother and father’s refrigerator in a little community south of Chalybeate Springs. She gave me driving instructions and asked me to repair the refrigerator, or call her back if it needed to be replaced.

  As she was providing me with instructions how to get there, I was drawing a mental map in my head. I thought to myself, “That house has been vacant for years and years.”

  I decided to give it a try, and upon arriving at the house, I found that it was “very occupied” by an elderly woman and man. As I opened the screen door, I carefully checked the hinges because my mental picture was of the door hanging by one hinge, and at a very odd angle.

  Everything seemed okay, and as I opened the door I saw that the man was lying in a small bed there in the living room. Unable to sit up, he looked very sick. As the lady led me to the kitchen, I had a distinct feeling and a smell of death.

  The refrigerator was old and in terrible shape, not even running when I got there. I remember the thought came to me, as I labored to get the compressor going, that I could not charge these people, no matter what I have to do to get it going.

  At some point during the hour that I was there, a girl about sixteen or seventeen came into
the kitchen. I glanced at her and noticed that she seemed to be mentally retarded. I did not speak to her, but continued to work. Again this voice came to me, “You cant charge these people.” This was very distinct in my mind. I got the unit running after an hour and a half. I gathered up my tools and started to leave. As I was explaining what I had done, the lady was getting her small purse. I told her that she didnt owe me anything. The man spoke up for the first time and insisted that I let them pay because I had been there so long. I finally said to them, “Just accept this as my Christmas present to you and I’ll be happy.”

  They reluctantly agreed, so I left. I was still not able to convince myself that this was the same house I had passed so many times and thought that it hadn’t been lived in for such a long time.

  After returning home, I decided to call Mrs. Bailey and let her know that I had the refrigerator going. However, when I dialed the number, I get a message that this number was no longer in service. I called the phone company and was informed that the number had not been used for many months; also they had no record of a customer by that name. I couldnt stand it any longer, so I got in my truck and drove back to the house. When it came in sight, I was not really surprised to see a screen door hanging by one hinge, and some old junk laying there in the front yard. Its for sure, that old house was deserted and had been for many years. It was utterly dilapidated. The only thing I could think of was that the people I worked for in that old house were either products of my imagination or angels who had some mission to perform here on earth.

  152. “The Swinging Ghost”

  Marshall County

  We owned a house on Highway 80 here in Marshall County near Aurora. There was a basement playroom which had swinging doors (barroom type doors). Every night when the family was all asleep, the doors would start swinging and wake us up. I would get up and start down the basement steps, and they would just stop. This went on night after night after night, until we tried not to pay any attention to it.

  One night, a son woke up and saw a woman in a long dress and with long blond hair standing at the foot of his bed. He ran to my room, but when we hurried back to his room there was nobody there.

  The ghostlike figure materialized on several other occasions, but this son was the only person who ever saw her. At that point, we realized that something out of the ordinary was definitely going on, something which could only be explained as supernatural. I took the swinging doors down and life in the house returned to normal.

  153. “Inmates May Still Haunt Old County Jail”

  Nelson County

  When guests check into the Jailer’s Inn they are looking for an unusual overnight stay. The former Nelson County Jail from 1819 to 1987, now a bed and breakfast, provides guests with a look at the past. On more than one occasion those inside the inn have had the opportunity to look beyond the past and into the supernatural realm.

  According to Paul McCoy, part owner of the bed and breakfast with his parents, Challen and Fran McCoy, it is not uncommon to hear people talking when he is alone in the building.

  The McCoys purchased the jail in 1988 at a public auction. “It was in bad shape then,” McCoy said. The McCoys began renovation on the building and opened it as a bed and breakfast in 1989.

  Since then, guests and employees have heard amiable spirits walk up and down the stairs and occasionally stroke a few keys on the piano.

  “There used to be another jail in front of this building in 1797,” McCoy said. “That is why this building is back off the road.”

  The oldest addition of the current building was built in 1819. It was used as the jail until the back part of the building was built in 1874. When the newest addition was created, the front part of the building became the jailer’s residence.

  McCoy’s office is located in the old part of the building. “I keep the office door locked when I leave at night,” he said.

  One morning McCoy unlocked the office door and found paper from his adding machine rolled off and in the center of the floor. “There is no way the paper could have come off without someone pressing the button on the machine,” McCoy said.

  Since the door had been locked, McCoy thinks there may be a supernatural explanation to what happened.

  McCoy is not the only person to have felt the spirits inside the building. “One day a tour guide was in the Dungeon Room and saw someone in the mirror behind her,” he said. “When she turned around, no one was there, but when she looked again she could still see them in the mirror.”

  The Dungeon Room has often been the location of ghostly occurrences. It gets its name because it is where some of the jails worst criminals were shackled to the floor. One of the original shackles is on display in the gift shop.

  “I had a tour guide cleaning that room a week or so ago,” he said. “She heard a woman screaming.”

  When the tour guide investigated, she found she was alone in the building.

  The sound may have come from one of the many inmates that died at the jail.

  “There used to be a hanging tree in the courtyard before there were gallows,” McCoy said. “I have heard stories that a man hung out there haunts the Dungeon Room. Stories say he has a high-pitched scream. That could be what she heard.”

  A guest reported an encounter with a man he believes had been hung at the jail. According to McCoy, the guest said he talked to a man dressed in period clothing for about fifteen minutes in the courtyard. The guest has been back twice since then, but the apparition has not been seen again.

  Ghostly occurrences at the jail have been historically documented. A 1909 newspaper clipping that hangs on the wall states, “The Haunted Jail—Spirits Said to Hover about the Nelson County Bastille.”

  The story of Martin Hill is documented in the article. Hill shot his wife at a neighbor’s house in 1885. Hill, who had been characterized as “unsavory and wicked,” was sentenced to hang at the Nelson County Jail.

  Hill was never executed because before his hanging date he became terribly ill. According to the article, “Citizens who attended him in his last illness avow that his sufferings were the most terrible ever witnessed, and that during his moments of delirium his ravings and blasphemies were awful to hear.”

  Inmates at the jail reported hearing Hills agonizing woes after his death.

  A red globe light in the Colonial Room comes on by itself. McCoy says there may be a short in the light, but that doesn’t explain why the light repeatedly comes on between 3:00 and 4:00 A.M.

  A guest woke up in the middle of the night. He needed to go to the bathroom,” McCoy said. “He was laying there thinking about how dark it was and the light turned on by itself.

  Other guests have reported a baby crying throughout the night only to find the next morning there were no babies in the inn.

  The inn has also hosted psychics. Nationally renowned psychic George Anderson was in Bards town a couple of years ago and spent the night at the jail.

  According to McCoy, Anderson said there were definitely spirits in the building, but they seemed to be peaceful ones.

  “There’s a lot of instances of things moving in the rooms,” McCoy said. “I try to rationalize things that happen here, but some things don’t have an explanation.”

  154. “The Old Talbott Tavern”

  Nelson County

  Patti Acord has a new title to add to her business card—certified ghost hunter.

  Acord, former manager of the Old Talbott Tavern, has a lifelong fascination with the paranormal. “All my life things have just happened to me,” Acord said. “When I was a kid I would see things, like kids standing around my bed asking me questions.”

  “I would get in trouble with my mom because I would keep everyone in the house awake talking to those kids. My mom used to tell me they were dreams and sometimes dreams seemed real.”

  As she grew older, Acord said she kept her experiences to herself. “I stopped talking about it because I didn’t want people to think I was weird,” she
said.

  Her fascination began to peak while she was working at the tavern. “One night I was working and someone told me a man wanted to see the manager,” Acord said. “At first I thought he wanted to make a complaint, but instead he had a question for me.”

  The man asked Acord if the tavern was haunted. Acord said she was taken back by his question, but the man went on to describe a strange occurrence that had taken place in his room.

  The guest went on to tell Acord he was awakened in the middle of the night to find balls of light floating over him. While they floated above him, the man could not move. When they disappeared, he was able to get out of the bed. “To my surprise the man wanted to stay in the room another night,” Acord said.

  Acord watched in horror the morning the Talbott Tavern burned, and in an effort to document the devastation, she took pictures of the scene. When the pictures were developed she was shocked to see balls of light floating around the tavern site. “The lights are orbs [life forces],” Acord said.

  … Protocol is important when studying paranormal activity, Acord said, especially when it pertains to taking photographs. “I always ask the spirits if I can take their pictures,” she said. “I let them know that I am not there to make fun of them.

  Acord also makes sure false images aren’t created in her photos by dust, light or other circumstances….

  Acord s most prized paranormal experience occurred one evening when she and some friends spent the night in the tavern after the fire.

  “We decided to do an experiment,” she said. “We set up equipment like video cameras and tape recorders. When I played back a tape from that night I thought I heard a woman’s voice. I took the tape to the radio station where they have equipment to slow it down. When they slowed it down you could distinctly hear what the voice was saying. The recording began, ‘Welcome to the Talbott.’”