Gettysburg Battlefield

These were three days of the bloodiest fighting of the American Civil War and have left a forever memory in the people and a country. However, since the last shot was fired and the last men fell, there have been reports from the fields of the fallen. Sometimes you can hear the howling and screaming of the soldiers when you walk past at night by Willoughby Run, a small stream that cuts through the middle of the town. Every house that was there at the time of battle, and is still there today, is said to be haunted. According to "The Ghosts of Gettysburg"author, Mark Nesbitt, Gettysburg is, acre for acre, the most haunted place in America. Experts attribute that to the fact that thousands of young men, 15 - 17 - 19, have been tragically and traumatically ripped from life through the ravages we've come to know as The American Civil War.
Very many ghosts of civil war soldiers have been seen here including entire battles being observed by witnesses.
The fields of Gettysburg were littered with the bodies of the dead, slowly decaying in the heat of the Pennsylvania summer. The people of the town were also left with thousands of the wounded to attend to and homes and businesses were quickly turned into field hospitals. "Wounded men were brought into our houses and laid side-by-side in our halls and rooms," one local woman recalled. "Carpets were so saturated with blood as to be unfit for further use. Wall were bloodstained, as well as books that were used as pillows".
The secong day of the battle is known as "The Devil's Den". Most everyone, in their letters home described the rocks as a "desolate and ghostly place" and "ominous". Many others thought the rocky outcropping marked an entrance to a cavern, although no cave exists. However, if you were to take a look yourself, you would see why they thought this. The rock are piled so high that the crevices seem to plunge down into total darkness. A legend of how this place got it's name says that there was a snake that would elude hunters, making it impossible to kill him. The snake was allegedly named "the devil" and the area of rocks was called his "den". No matter how this place got it's name it is said that it's been haunted even before the war. Below is a picture of the den today.

The Devils Den is a large patch of rocks where many Confederate sharpshooters took refuge in order to exact their death toll upon Union officers atop the hills of Little and Big Round Tops. The Little Round Top is an unimpressive hill overlooking the Devils Den and the wheatfield. One small group of men found themselves atop the Round Top, admiring the view as the sun began to set. A rustling of the leaves behind them alerted them to the presence of a stranger. From the brush emerged a rather haggard looking old man, dressed as a Union private. The man was filthy and smelled of sulfur, a key ingredient of the black powder used in 1863. He walked up to the men and as he handed them a few musket rounds, he said “Rough one today, eh boys?” He turned and walked away. As the re-enactors looked upon the musket rounds, they looked up to see the man had vanished. When they brought the rounds into town, they were authenticated as original rounds 130 years old! Many visitors have reported the smell of gunpowder, and have heard gunshots and screams from the Little Round Top over the years.
A ghost of General William Barksdale's dog has even been seen. The dog died while trying to give a message to another general. One of the bloodiest battle scenes during the war was the Wheatfield. On occasion you can still hear the war being fought. Sound of fire crackling, and a tin cup can be heard. A ghost horse can also be heard running towards you. Creepy!
I really love the story of the Gettysburg Battle and I hope you will to. It's filled with all kinds of ghosts and the feeling you get is so cool!

San Antonio Railroad Ghost Children

A picture of San Juan Mission in San Antonio, Texas

Not far from the San Juan Mission is an intersection that is crossed by railroad tracks. This is supposedly the site of a fetal accident where a train collided with a school bus full of children that got stuck on the tracks in the 1930s of 1940s.
According to this legend, it was a rainy day when the train moved swiftly along the tracks and the engineer spied a school bus stalled on the tracks. He pulled the breaks and blew the whistle but kept on moving fast towards the bus, unable to stop in time. A bus driver and ten children died that day and still haunt the place, protecting others from a similar fate.
If you park your car over the tracks and shift into neutral, the ghosts of the children will push it uphill away from any oncoming train. If you also put flour or baby powder on your bumper, you will supposedly see the children's fingerprints.
People don't know for certain if this story is true but many believe that cars do get pushed and their are mysterious fingerprints that appear. Others say they hear the children's laughter and voices near the tracks.
   However, there are no records of any such accident having ever occurred in the newspaper archives. Such a horrible accident that big would have to be recorded somewhere. Wouldn't it?

Dead Man's Curve

Dead Man's Curve is a dangerous intersection in Clermont County. The road was part of the turnpike built in 1831, and it has a long list of victims. In September of 1969, the State of Ohio rebuilt the road into a four-lane road. On October 19, 1969, five teens died there when their 1969 Impala was hit at more than 100 miles per hour by a 1969 Roadrunner. There was only one survivor and his name was Rick. Ever since then, the road has been haunted by a ghost known as "the faceless hitchhiker". Rick has seen him five times. This figure is described as a solid, dark outline of a man.
Here is some information from Haunted Ohio II:  Rick's friend Todd: "Rick and I were heading home from Bethel to Amelia. I noticed a man's shape on the side of the road. It turned like it was hitchhiking, with an arm sticking up. The thing wore light-colored pants, a blue shirt, longer hair--and there was just a blank, flat surface where the face should have been. We looked back. There was nobody there. I've also seen the black shadow figure, walking its slow, labored, dragging walk by the side of the road."
       Rick hired a psychic who went there and checked it out for a few hours. Later, she called Rick and told him to come pick her up. " Someone very evil is there", she said. "He died suddenly and he is still there." A friend of Rick's was driving past there when the shadow jumped right in front of her car. She felt her wheels bump over it. When she stopped, she saw it climbing onto her car with one foot on her trunk and its hands in the luggage rack. Even now she gets the shakes when she talks about it. A driverless Impala and a mysterious green Roadrunner are seen in the area as well.

Aberdeen Baptist Church

This church is located in Aberdeen, Ohio . The address is as follows: 733 US Route 52 East
P O Box 529 Aberdeen, Ohio 45101.

The story on this is when you're driving or walking past the church at night, you'll get an uneasy feeling. There are three apparitions that are seen there; two girls and a boy standing outside the church. When you look at them, they seem to vanish. Also, large black birds have been seen flying out of the church windows and then vanish. If you listen closely, you can hear screams coming from inside the church at night.
These ghosts must really love this church!

The Ohio State Reformatory

The Reformatory is located just outside of Mansfield, Ohio. This dark, gothic place has been used for four movies (Harry and Walter go to New York, Tango and Cash, Air Force One, The Shawshank Redemption) and music videos (such as "Awake" by Godsmack)
The history dates back to 1861 when the field where it would be built was used as a training camp for Civil War soldiers. It was named Camp Mordecai Bartley. In 1885, Mansfield was selected the official site for the new Intermediate. Levi T. Scofield was head architect and began building. His design was made to be Cathedral style, in hope that the inmates might be inspired to become better people. It ended up looking beautiful. It was like Dracula's castle in northern Ohio. In 1888-1890, work was delayed. Then on September 15, 1896, the building was opened as the Ohio State Reformatory. The very first 150 prisoners were brought from Columbus by train and were put to work on the sewer system and the 25- foot wall that surrounded the 15-acres. It wasn't until 1910 that the building was finally finished.
Over the years OSR accumulated its horror stories as with any prison. Two officers lost their lives at OSR. One was in 1926 who was shot to death by an inmate who was trying to spring his buddy and the other in 1932 beaten to death by a three-foot iron rod  in the solitary confinement.
    In July of 1948, two inmates were released from the reformatory for showing "good behavior". However, after they were released they showed signs of bad behavior when they went on a killing spree. These two were Robert Daniels and John West and were known as the "Mad Dog Killers". First, they murdered Columbus tavern owner Earl Ambrose, then stole a car and drove to Mansfield. Here, they kidnapped OSR farm superintendent John Niebel, his wife, and his twenty-year-old daughter. They murdered all three in a cornfield off Fleming Falls Road. The very next day, they killed a farmer from Tiffin who's bride managed to escape, and then shot a truck driver. Just two days later, they got what was coming to them. The two men were stopped at a roadblock at Van Wert. Daniels was captured, but West died in a shootout with the police. Daniels bragged about the fact that he might get the electric chair. The following January, he got his wish at the State Pen in Columbus.
      More creepy things happened in the Reformatory.  In 1955, an inmate hung himself in his cell. One inmate burned himself to death with turpentine and paint thinner stolen from the prison furniture shop. Two convicts were left in a cramped single-occupancy solitary confinement cell overnight and in the morning only one walked out. The other was stuffed under the bunk.
In conclusion, several ghosts haunt the building. The are too many to record. Tours are given between 1 and 4 PM on Sundays until October 31. Call (419) 522-2644 for details.
    Personally, I have never been to the prison but I'd really like to go. Also, I'd like to hear your stories and/or experiences if you've ever been there.

Sarah's House

Sarah is said to have been a witch who worshiped the devil and did black magic all over Greer, Ohio. She lived in a house with her jealous husband. When he found out that she was with another man, he cut off her head and placed it in a jar. The rest of her body was buried in a little grave alongside the road. A little while after he did this, her husband hung himself in the living room; most likely regretful of what he did. His body can be seen still hanging in the living room on moonlit nights.
It's Sarah's ghost though, who is more alive and active. She can be seen walking the roadside in search of her head, while the cabin where she did all her black magic has a death curse on it. The cabin is located behind her house and locked with a padlock featuring a four-eyed devil. The eyes on the devil glow at night and if your lucky to get into the locked cabin, you'll be cursed to an early grave.

Curtis Mansion (my first blog post)

The Curtis Mansion is located in Mount Vernon, Ohio and was formally home to Henry B. Curtis ( 1799-1885). Henry was a lawyer who helped pick the site for Kenyon College and owned the Curtis House Hotel and was an abolitionist who helped slaves along the Underground Railroad by keeping them in his house and in his family's underground crypt at nearby Mound View Cemetery. The mansion itself is said to have secret underground passageways that connect to the family's crypt. The ghost of a child is said to peering out the windows on occasion.