Near this spot the ill-fated train No 5 jumped the track last spring, and the engineer was killed, ever since that time many people have believed that the place is haunted

Reference: A Phantom Train, Uncanny Happenings Reported from Rittman, The Wooster Republican, 8 Nov. 1899

The following story is copyright by Steve Kamrud.

 THE HAUNTED TAVERN IN STEUBENVILLE OHIO by Steve Kamrud

Used by courtesy of Steve Kamrud and The Ghost Research Foundation

     I’m going to tell you all a little story that happened to me back in 1981. I believe that it was truly a paranormal experience. I’m going to leave it up to you The Reader to judge for yourself whether it was a true paranormal experience or not? This was way back before I ever heard of the group, and at that time I didn’t know how or have the equipment to document anything paranormal. As a matter of fact, I was pretty skeptical.

     In 1981 I lived in a little house next to my brother’s house in a little bitty town called Croton, Ohio. Croton is about 50 miles northeast of Columbus. At that time my brother worked for a company that was contracted to the phone company as an engineer. Part of his job as an engineer was to design plans to route telephone cable through different towns and cities. He also had to make measurements between the telephone poles and measure the distances between the electric, cable TV and existing phone cables. Once in a while he would take me with him to measure these footages while he sat in the car and drew up the plans and took pertinent notes. This was way back before they put everything on computers!

     He had been working on a job in Steubenville, Ohio for about a month at this time and had become good friends with the man that owned the tavern there. He took me with him over to Steubenville one weekend.

     We left Croton about 4 a.m. and got to Steubenville at about 8 am that morning. My brother decided to stop at this tavern and have coffee before we went out into the city to do the job. Because he was good friends with the owner, all he had to do was knock on the door of the bar and the owner let us in even though he was not officially open. After about my second cup of coffee and a four hour ride I had to excuse myself and use the restroom. The owner told me where the bathroom and the light switch were because I had never been in the building before. He had shut down the bar like normal the night before and knew very well that the bathroom light was off.

     I headed for the men's room. When I went into the men's room, the light was already on. I thought this was strange as the owner had just gotten through telling me that he had shut off everything--including that light--the night before and that he hadn’t been in there yet that morning.

     I stood there reading the graffiti on the wall and a scrawl right in front of me caught my eye. It said, “Who will be the fool tonight.” I thought, “Okay, people get drunk and make fools out of themselves every night.” I didn’t think much more about it.

     I went back to the bar for another cup of coffee. When I got back to the bar, I mentioned the light being on to the owner. He grinned and said was that it must have been the ghost that haunts this bar. All I could say was, “hah?”

     Then he told us a little story about how his son had decided to prove that the bar was not haunted. His son had long scoffed at the ghost that others had been experiencing.

     The owner’s son got to the bar one night after it had closed at about 11 a.m. with his two dogs. The dogs refused to even go into the bar. That didn’t deter the owner’s son, he decided that he would stay alone all night in the bar. After all, there is no such thing as ghosts--or...

     At about 3 a.m. the bar owner got a telephone call from his son. The younger man was excited and was trying to tell his father that something very eerie had happened to him and that he was leaving the bar and would not go back in there again--ever!

     I thought, “Well, that’s a pretty interesting story.” But I also thought about that writing on the men’s room wall. I had already had two cups of coffee, so I had to go back to the men’s room.

     When I got into the bathroom, my eyes sought out the graffiti once more. The words were ringing in my head for some reason. I can not explain it, but those words had made quite an impression on me.

     I scanned the wall again.

     “Who will be the fool tonight?” I remembered the words, but they were no longer scrawled upon the wall. I looked everywhere thinking that maybe I had misjudged where exactly on the wall I had seen the words. The graffiti just was no longer there!

     I know what you are thinking, but I was drinking coffee only!

     What happened to that graffiti scrawl? I honestly don’t know. I only know that no one had been in the bathroom between my two visits. You will have to be the judge of this story, but don’t judge it or me too harshly. Someday you may have a paranormal experience of your own, and then you’ll hope that those who judge you will do so knowing that you are basically an honest and unflappable person.

The following story was told to me by someone who used to work at this former hospital building in Hamilton County in the 1990s.

I've heard it said that the spaces occupied by our home care agency were the original sites of the emergency room, patient exam rooms, and the morgue (of course!).
            Anyway, now it contains apartments for independent senior living, assisted living, and a skilled nursing unit. A lot of activity seemed to be centered in the medical records room and adjacent offices on the first floor. Staff had multiple experiences of closing window blinds, only to turn as they locked the door at night and finding the blinds back open! One of my friends Mary*, often worked there alone on weekends and evenings and reported smelling cigar smoke or pipe smoke in the hallways or in her office with the door closed. It would come and go quickly or linger in the air. Others smelled perfume in the hallways where no one had walked while wearing any.

One nurse was alone in an office at night. As she made preparations to leave for the night, she closed her office door, only to turn and see it open back up. Another nurse stood in the hallway one evening, preparing to go home, and watched all the office doors open up in unison down the entire length of the hallway. One lady who retired from the old hospital said the last bed she made on the floor as a housekeeper rose up and down on its own as she stood in the room, open-mouthed with shock.
       Down in the basement offices, two staff members had a dramatic experience.   
      Erika* was working at her word processor and Janie* turned to look at her and saw her “as white as a sheet" with her mouth hanging open. Janie asked her what happened and she said she had just seen pair of men’s legs (from the waist down) dressed in black trousers and old-fashioned shoes walk across the doorway of the next room over and pass through the exterior wall.  Erika was flabbergasted, to put it mildly. After that, she turned her desk around so it didn't face the door. Erika said she had a lifetime of "spirit experience" and she didn't need to see any more!
       Not all staff were open to the possibility of supernatural goings on at work. One woman from the first floor, Judy*, had her office transferred to the basement and was set up in an office space next to Janie, Erika, and Mary. She would laugh and pooh-pooh the discussions of spirits when the topic came up in the workplace, which it often did. One day Mary saw her go by from her new office to the restroom. Within a few minutes, Judy came running down the hallway and into her office, shaking and hyperventilating. Mary heard her talking excitedly in their office, and went in to see what was wrong.
       She told Mary, Erika, and Janie that she came out of the bathroom and saw this woman in a long navy blue skirt, navy blue sweater, and white Peter Pan collar walking not 8 feet in front of her. She didn't say anything to the woman, but watched her walk down to the exit door into the stairwell.
       "Then she went through the door," Judy finished.
       "So?" they all exclaimed.
       "You don't understand. She went THROUGH the door!"

Judy then packed up her desk and went home for the day.

This same woman, thought to be one of the hospital nuns, was seen also by a retired security guard. He also saw the black-trousered legs walk though the wall on upper floors. He smelled cigar smoke where there was no cigar smoker. He reported seeing an elderly gentleman in 1800s clothing walking around the upper floors at night from time to time.

No one who worked in the home care offices at night ever stayed very late. Most of us made sure that someone else was in one of the other offices, or they headed out the door. I used to sit in a big open staff room surrounded by cubicles and finish up paperwork before I went home. Too many times (for my comfort level) I felt someone looking at me.  I would stand up and look over the top of the cubicle to see who had come into the room. Many who worked alone after hours reported similar feelings.
       A few staff members took it upon themselves to hold a séance of sorts. One wacky gal, Gina*, brought in a Ouija board and a few of the girls from data entry got together in the office after hours in an effort to contact the spirits who were fiddling with the shades, smoking cigars, and moving objects off of desktops. Mary watched part of the session and asked about it later.
       She was told that the group had asked the Ouija board, "Are there any spirits here?"

The board spelled out "yes."

"How many?" It went to the number 8. Then it moved away and went back to the number 8.

They were not sure if it was "eight" or "eighty-eight."

Then they asked the spirit its name. It spelled out "Marvin"*.

Then they asked Marvin, "Why are you here?"

The board spelled, "I work here."

Mary asked Gina, "You mean he said he 'worked' here?"

"No, he said 'I work here.'"

After that, Gina said, the Ouija board fell silent.
       The next day after the Ouija session, a longtime staff member, Jessica*, who had worked at the original hospital before it closed, learned of the Ouija session. Gina asked her who "Marvin" was. Jessica told Gina that Marvin was the maintenance man who worked there before the hospital closed, but that he had died before the actual renovations were begun. Jessica wasn’t surprised by the Ouija session information; she’s a believer!

I had one final personal experience there last summer, as the offices were being packed up and preparations were being made to move out of the building permanently. My friend, Mary, was working on a Saturday and I took my small dogs over to run through the office hallways one more time. Jessica was working in medical records and she always kept some doggie treats in her desk drawer just for this occasion. My bigger dog, Scootie*, loved to chase the tennis ball down the long hallway to the front door of the office wing. We'd play this game until she got exhausted and stopped for a drink out of a water bowl or to get a treat from Jessica. She always kept her eyes on her tennis ball, never letting it out of her sight, even while lapping water. She'd lie on top of it if that's what it took to keep it close to her.
       I left her in the hallway with her water bowl and her ball, and then went into the office to talk with Jessica. Scootie came into the office, crying and looking around frantically. I went out into the hallway, thinking she was ready to play fetch again. The tennis ball was nowhere to be found. Jessica and I went up and down the hallway and looked in every office area, but no ball. Scootie lay on the carpet, pouting and looking up at me. In a few minutes, standing at Jessica's desk, we both looked to the left and there, in the entrance way, smack in the middle, in plain view, was the tennis ball! It had not been there seconds ago. I went out into the hallway. Scootie was way up on the other end of the wing, still looking for that ball!  Jessica and I gave each other a knowing glance and I said, "Well, there are some things I'm not going to miss about this place!”

CHARITY NEVER FAILETH

          Legends of local witches abound in Ohio: “Mary Jane’s Grave,” “The Witch’s Ball” gravestone, the Lawrence County witches seen hopping about a burning cow carcass in 1828. But Ann Charity was a real person. It was said that she was “half-Christian and half-pagan.” She claimed to be able to call up the dead and to have other mysterious powers. She was burned by Tecumseh’s brother, The Prophet, as a witch. But was she? Who can say from this distance in time? Here is her story:

          After the massacre at Gnadenhutten, the 96 Indian scalps taken by Col. Williamson and his men were placed on display in western Pennsylvania. Williamson organized a new expedition—the Crawford Expedition--to wipe out the tribes on the Sandusky River who were still waging war on the Pennsylvania border. The remaining Christian Indians from Gnadenhutten who had been abandoned at Sandusky were also targeted by this expedition. Christian or not, in the eyes of Col. Williamson and his ilk, the only good Indian was a scalp hanging on a pole.       The Indians in Ohio were also up in arms, ready to avenge the murder of the innocents. They vowed that Williamson would pay.

          As Col. William Crawford’s army camped in the ashes of Schoenbrunn, two Indian warriors were fired on by the sentries. They escaped, but everyone was roused into panic by the alarm. That night, Crawford dreamed that he saw Ann Charity leading an army of skeletons along a trail by the Tuscarawas River. They were headed for Sandusky, keening the Indian song of sorrow and calling on the Great Spirit to avenge their death. 

          In his dream, Crawford marked the path taken by Ann Charity. When he awoke, he and Williamson ordered their men to ride for Sandusky by a different path than Ann had taken in the dream.

How quickly can the dead march? Crawford found the Sandusky village of the Christian Indians deserted. Some say that Ann Charity was actually at the ruins of Schoenbrunn when the Indian scouts came upon Crawford’s army. Some say that she truly guided those scouts by the quickest route to the villages of Sandusky, to warn the Indians to escape. If we believed in witchcraft, we could say that she bi-located, was in two places at once or astral-projected herself to sound the alarm.

          Baffled by the deserted villages, Crawford made the fatal mistake of setting up camp. He was surrounded by hostile Indians and captured. The Indians wanted Colonel Williamson, the butcher of Gnadenhutten, but he escaped, abandoning Crawford to a fiery death and returned to the Tuscarawas valley. As Williamson’s weary and demoralized troops tried to sleep, a terrible thunderstorm broke over the camp. In the flashing lightning the men thought they saw a vision of Ann Charity leading her army of skeletons back to Gnadenhutten, followed by a band of earthly warriors, each carrying a pole with a white man’s scalp.

          Williamson’s men fled without waiting for daylight. The living Ann Charity went to the ruins of Gnadenhutten and called up each murdered spirit by name, presenting each of the dead with the scalp of a white soldier taken at Sandusky. The scalps were thrown onto the blackened bones of the victims.

          Later Ann Charity settled on the White River in Indiana near the site of the future city of Indianapolis. But when warfare broke out anew after the Treaty of Greenville, she opposed Tecumseh, was accused of witchcraft by The Prophet and burned at the stake. No one knows where her bones lie. Perhaps, in unity with her brethren massacred at Gnadenhutten, whose bones were scattered, she would have wanted it that way.

Reference: Indian Lore of the Muskingum Headwaters of Ohio, Paul Kaufman, Millersburg, OH: The Author, 1973  and Ghosts in the Valley! Ghost Lore of Muskingum, Morgan, Coshocton, Guernsey and Tuscarawas Counties, Ohio, Gary Felumlee, Zanesville, OH: The Author, 1998