Our last stop through the haunted articles will be a tour of haunted spots throughout Ohio. The spots being featured will send chills throughout the entire buckeye state and possibly give the gem city a run for its money in fright-factor.
Ohio State University in Columbus has the second largest student body population in the United States, even beating out University of Texas in 1997. Since being founded in 1870, OSU has had its fair share of hauntings on its large campus. One is the haunting of Pomerene Hall, by Dr. Clark, a professor who killed himself in the early 1900s after becoming depressed about a failed mining operation. His wife, only known as Mrs. Clark, swore to never leave him, died in the 1920s and haunted an area on campus known as Mirror Lake, supposedly in a pink dress. Not much is known about the ghostly activities of Mrs. Clark, but Mr. Clark is known for doing the typical non-harmful ghost shenanigans. In a case of irony, Pomerene Hall, the building Mr. Clark haunts, now houses The Mirror Lake Café.
In Bellbrook, Ohio lies Little Sugar Creek, which earned quite the reputation that it was nicknamed by its locals as “Ohio’s Sleepy Hollow.” Like OSU, a pair of ghost haunt the creek, though neither case is connected in any way. The first ghost is of James Buckley, a wealthy Englishman who built a sawmill on the creek. He was found murdered in his cabin, with all of his money missing along with his head, which was found a short distance away from his body. His murder remains unsolved to this day, even though the date of the murder was never specified.
People have claimed the cabin that he occupied, which still stands to this day, is haunted by Buckley himself. Some claim to have seen him holding his own head, asking for help.
The second apparition’s story isn’t as gruesome, but is just as tragic. In the 1880s, a young servant girl to then-mayor of Bellbrook, found herself pregnant with his baby and was cast out of his house. Refusing to name the baby’s father, even after its birth, it was said that the servant girl had begun to lose her mind because of the baby’s resemblance to its father. After being refused to see the baby’s father one last time, the woman wrapped the baby tight and jumped into the creek. Her body was found a couple of days later, but the baby’s body was never found. It is said that on foggy June nights, the woman’s ghost can be seen walking along the creek, holding a bundle in her arms.
The last stop through this haunted ride is the town of Waynesville, deemed “the most haunted county in all of Ohio.” Waynesville is host to a slew of paranormal activity that includes possible cries of former slaves in Victorian home cellars, the ghost of John B. Stetson, a famous hat manufacturer, occasionally seen in the house of his sister, and the ghost of the daughter of Quaker John Satterthwaite, laughing and giggling inside the residence. There were even stories in the 1880s of a giant reptilian creature, known as the Crosswick Monster almost eating a small boy.
Paranormal experts have visited Waynesville, confirming the levels of supernatural activity in the town, and today the townsfolk seem to have embraced the town’s paranormal history, as haunted tours of the town are given through the Museum of Friends home.