Haunted Ohio

As the story goes, Esther Hale's wedding day was supposed to ahve been August 12, 1837. Supposed to have been. The house was decorated, the cake was made, the bride was beautifully dressed - and the groom never showed up. The guests waited around for over two hours for a wedding that never occurred and no trace of the groom was found in his cabin or anywhere around. Esther was inconsolable and did not allow anything to be shcanged in the house. She remained in her gown, the cake remained with only the bugs enjoying it, the flowers wilted and rotted. No one could convince her to stop her self destructive mourning over lost love. Four months later it was noticed that the door to her house was banging in the wind - when the sherrif and the dotor were summoned to check on her thye found Esther's corpse by the window in her parlour...wearing her veil. They were horrified at their find - as it appeared she had been dead several weeks. Esther was buried as she was found, in her wedding clothes. But resting in peace was not to happen for dear Esther - every August 12 she waits on the bridge looking for her bridegroom. If you are touched by her you will become young and lovely -- and then die. Drive quickly through this area - do not linger, Esther will lunge for your car and try to take you with her!

The Mansfield Reformatory (also called the Ohio State Reformatory) was built in 1886 and was supposed to be a humane prison to help rehabilitate first time offenders. It was lauded as a "positive step in prison reform". The structure itself was in a sense, quite beautiful. It was very imposing, modeled on castles and Gothic churches. But, as you might expect, conditions in the reformatory deteriorated rapidly. The lingering legacy of Mansfield is of torture, abuse,neglect, and even murder. Civil rights activists were very vocal regarding the "brutalizing and inhumane conditions." The prison was shut down in 1990.

Now, within the decaying walls of this abandoned prison, the restless spirits of its prisoners and workers are said to still remain confined. But, prisoners were not the only victims. Inmates brutally murdered a prison farmer and his family in 1948. And, the warden's wife died under mysterious circumstances in 1950. She had allegedly died after a gun accidentally fired while she was searching for items in her closet. The warden later suffered a heart attack at the prison, and died soon thereafter.

If you are brave enough, the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society offers ghosts tours at this former jewel of prisons. You can even take an overnight tour if you're brave enough!

President James Garfield died tragically in office, from what many today believe was a perfectly survivable gunshot wound. Indeed, the shot did not kill him immediately - indeed it was eighty days after being shot that Garfield finally succumbed to the infection that ravaged him after the doctors had so unceremoniously dug around in him to retrieve the bullet, thus spreading a rampant infection through him. President Garfield's ghost is seen most often at his memorial in Mentor, Ohio. But, this is one ghost that does not feel the need to tie himself to one place - he has also been reportedly seen in Hiram, Ohio where he both attended college and later worked as an English teacher, then the college president and in Cleveland at Lakeview Cemetery where his beloved Lucretia is buried.

William Henry Harrison was the oldest man to occupy the White House until Ronald Reagan was elected and he took that record. A record that Harrison still holds though is that of the shortest term in office - thirty days was all he served. He died of pneumonia that it is said he caught giving his quite lengthy inaugural address in the freezing rain. During the campaign that led to his giving the fateful speech, he had fashioned himself more of an "ordinary" man than his opponent, Martin van Buren by drinking hard cider from stoneware while Van Buren drank tea from china cups. It is a jug of cider that Harrison sips from near his tomb, and occasionally his spirit appears to be wracked with coughing from that last fatal bout of pneumonia.

Ida Saxton McKinley was plagued with with trauma throughout her life. The poor thing tragically lost both of her daughters when they were quite young. The stress of those tragedies coupled with the demands of life in Washington DC as the first lady resulted in lovely Ida developing seizures and quite fragile health. Her doting husband always took care of her and encouraged others to not take note or make a fuss over her frailties so as to not make her more self conscious. Ida passed away in 1908, six years after her devoted husband and it is said that she can be seen sitting by the graves of her husband and children - holding a bouquet and trembling.

Put-In-Bay is home to the International Peace Memorial, a 352 foot tall monument to celebrate lasting peace between Brittain, Canada, and the United States following the War of 1812. Originating as a memorial to the soldiers that perished in a naval battle on Lake Erie, with the U.S. led by Oliver Hazard Parry. The grounds of the memorial are said to be haunted to this day by the ghosts of Three Americans and three British who perished in the battle. They were buried the day after the battle, but there graves were later moved. The reason for their haunting (and continuous bickering!) is said to be twofold: their original resting places were tampered wit (even if with good intentions), and they were enemies in life, and remain enemies in death.

Along the Ohio & Erie Canal, just north of of Portsmouth, a canal boat can be seen moving along, drawn by mules. As the boat slowly progresses, you can hear blood curdling screams - the screams of its victims Best seen at dawn or dusk, the boat bears witness to what is now believed to have been a serial killer who plied his trade up and down the canal for years. His last known victim was Sally Hunter, who was kidnapped, then killed aboard the Betty Lou by the captain Bart Anderson. Once the nefarious captain had murder poor Sally, he dismembered her and fed her to the hogs he was hauling on the Betty Lou. He then threw her bones into the river. Luckily, he missed some bones, which were spotted and after the police were involved, Bart confessed. Actually, he boasted of more than a dozen victims across the state of Ohio. The Betty Lou and her cargo of horror and screams are all that is left now.

In the river town of Ripley (across the Ohio from Kentucky, a slave state) the Reverend John Rankin had a home at the edge of a bluff. He was an active participant in the underground Railroad, helping runaway slaves seek freedom and safety in Canada. He faced severe punishment for aiding the runaways if caught, so like all te others participating, he was very cautious and very secretive. When he felt it was reasonably safe for runaways to approach his house, he would place a bright light in his attic window to tell them to proceed up the steep set of wooden and stone stairs that led up the hill from the valley floor. These stairs were known as Jacob's Ladder. It is there, on the "Ladder", on a moonless night that would be safe for them that you can see the spirits struggling up the stairs, still seeking the sanctuary of the kind Reverend's house.