Haunted Towns in the Midwest - Miamitown, Ohio

Walking Haunted Miamitown Ohio with the Miamitown Ghost Tours

Once again, the month of October is upon us…. a time for hauntings, Halloween - and all things spooky.  This month, A Grave Interest will travel around the Midwest, taking ghost tours and getting a look at some ‘lively’ places, and, maybe, the spirits who make them so…

I decided early on that it would be smart to get some guides for these haunted jaunts. And who better to seek out than the local experts on all things paranormal in their town.

Matt Hopkins & Garett Merk

On this cloudy night I met with Garett Merk and Matt Hopkins for a private preseason tour. Both men are ghost hunters by trade and more skeptical of sightings and stories than you would expect. Garett is an author of several haunted books and the founder of the Tri-State Paranormal and Oddities Observation Practitioners. Matt is the lead investigator for Cincinnati Area Paranormal Existence Research.

Miamitown Historical Society

The stories told on the 90-minute tour have come from first-hand accounts. History is a passion for this group and it shows. They research the stories and information they are told using newspapers, the local historical society, and by holding their own investigations.

Map of Miamitown, OH

Miamitown is a river town with a rich history. Located on the banks of the Great Miami River, just southwest of Cincinnati, the land was once sacred Shawnee hunting grounds. Then settlers began arriving in the early 1800’s, pushing the Indians westward. Miamitown was incorporated in 1834.

Once the Miamitown Methodist Church

Our tour began at what was once the first church in town, the Miamitown Methodist Church. Founded in 1834, this was the only church in the village for years and it became the heart of the community.

Marker About Event

Tragedy struck on New Year’s Eve morning 1939. On this Sunday fire swept through the church. The children's Sunday school class in the basement did not escape.

Church and Graveyard

Over the years the church has housed an antique store, and is currently home to an art studio. Several specters have been seen wandering the aisles of the antique store, but one seems very poignant. The owner reported it was usually little things like the bell above the entry door ringing, but no one had entered or left. Or items moving around from one place to another. Then one day, while in the basement, she was approached by a little girl dressed in white. When the owner asked if she needed help, the child replied that she was looking for her mother. The owner went upstairs to find the parent but instead discovered that there was no one in the store. When she returned to the basement, the little girl was gone. (But she has been seen from time to time darting among the tombstones late at night.)

Antique Shops on Main

The antique shops in the town are favorite haunts for the spirits of Miamitown. Several others have interesting stories connected to them.

Village Pump Antiques

Tombstone Walk

It’s no surprise that the Village Pump Antiques has had a resident ghost – it is located on what was once cemetery ground. The walkway up to the front porch is paved with old tombstones. In fact, most of the town is located on ground that at one time or another was used to bury their dead.

Stray Cat?

When the building was a private home three sisters lived there. But then one married and moved out and another moved away leaving the third sister, Margaret, content to remain in her family home with her cats.

The Upstairs of Margaret's House

Her home was sold after she died and odd occurrences began happening when the home became a store. A psychic told the owner that there was an older woman upstairs who used to live there. She was very friendly and would appreciate it if people would just say “Hi” to her. Soon everyone greeted Margaret when they entered the store. The psychic checked back about a year later, but Margaret had gone, apparently satisfied that her home was being visited by very friendly people.

Glass Creations

Side View

There is also a haunted glass shop where ghostly children laugh and play. During the Civil War it was home to a family with eight children. Three of them died there – and apparently never left.

Miamitown Elementary School

School Windows

And speaking of children, the local elementary school is said to be haunted by an early settler who has taken up residence in a utility closet. But again, it’s no wonder that spirits roam the hallways. When the town officials were preparing to build the school in the 1950’s they decided that the best location for it was the land that was Cemetery #2.

Matt Standing By Reburials

Miamitown Cemetery

Graves were dug up and the remains and stones moved across the highway to the current cemetery. But as workers began digging deeper they discovered another layer of bodies. These too were moved across the street and reburied near the front of the cemetery. But workers again discovered a third level of graves, probably remains from the cemetery site where the Village Pump Antiques is now located. These were also taken across the road and reburied in the cemetery, where, hopefully they will finally get to rest in peace.

Driving Toward Harrison Street Bridge

But some spirits continue to seek that chance to cross over. The Harrison Street Bridge has a sordid past. This bridge is the fourth structure to cross the Great Miami River here. The first was burned down in 1863 in order to stop Morgan’s Raiders from crossing it. A steel bridge was put up in 1894 and remained for many years, but several fatalities occurred on it. Then in 1989, a temporary bridge was built so that a new one could be constructed across the river.

It was a May day in 1989 when heavy flooding

Flooded Great Miami River

caused the river to swell and the foundation for the temporary bridge began to give way. The bridge was quickly closed, but unfortunately one car did not make it across to the other side before the bridge fell into the raging river. The two women in the car were killed. But those who witnessed the collapse said that there was also a pickup truck crossing behind the car, and it too had fallen into the churning waters.

Close Up of Harrison Street at Bridge

Although officials searched for months, no truck was ever found, nor were any other bodies. What did those on the riverbank see that day, following the car? No one knows for sure but a white appreciation has been seen starting across the bridge just as the car did, hurrying to get across, but it always vanishes before ever reaching the safety of the other side.

Garett and Matt

And there are so many more eerie stories that revolve around this quaint little town. The ghost walking tours lasts about 90 minutes and covers around ½ mile with 13 stops. Tours are suitable for adults and older children. Call (513) 846-0018 or visit their web page at http://www.miamitownghosttours.com, or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/miamitownghosttours

for more information. Tours are available throughout the year.

Horse Drawn Ghost Tours

And, this Saturday, October 5^th will be the annual Miamitown ParaFest http://miamitownparafest.com from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. This free event is family-friendly and includes well-known ghost hunters, paranormal authors, UFO researchers, psychics, and more. Over a dozen paranormal groups will be on hand to tell stories, answer questions and show off their ghost hunting gear. There’s also a Zombie Walk, horse drawn ghost tours, a ghost hunt for the kids, and you can register to win an opportunity to go on a ghost hunt at a Miamitown haunted site with the Tri-State Paranormal and Oddities Observation Practitioners.

And, did I mention, this event is FREE?!

 

Next Wednesday I’ll have more on a haunted lounge that serves spirits with their spirits on Joy’s JOY of Wine @ http://joysjoyofwine.blogspot.com

Michael Henry

And next Friday, a noted ghost author will take us on a spooky trip through another river town, searching for a missing grave yard, and a lost coven. This is a town which has more than its share of ghosts and spirits…

~ Joy

Unknown

* Had to share the very odd photo I took during this tour. This was in the cemetery - Any ideas?

125 Years Later - A Look Back at the Double Event - Elizabeth Stride & Catherine Eddowes

Rainy Street

It had been a dark rain-swept evening in Whitechapel when just before 1:00 a.m. on September 30, 1888 the alarm was raised; another prostitute had been found with her throat cut. After three weeks of an uneasy quiet, Jack the Ripper had struck again. Forty-five year old Elizabeth Stride was considered, by police, to be his third victim.

 

Sweden

Elisabeth Gustafsdotter was born on November 27, 1843 in Torslanda, Sweden, the daughter of Swedish parents. She was shown to be working as a domestic for Lars Frederick Olofsson in 1860, and moved to the Gothenburg district in 1862. By 1865, Elizabeth was registered with the police as a prostitute and had given birth to a stillborn girl. In 1866, she moved to London for work.

 

Elizabeth Stride

Elizabeth was said to be an attractive woman with dark brown hair, grey eyes, and an angular face. And at five-foot-five, she was considered to be a tall woman. On March 7, 1869 she married John Thomas Stride. Stride was a ship’s carpenter, well over a decade older than her. Together, they operated a coffee room in East London for six years.

Women in a workhouse

By March 1877, Elizabeth Stride, nicknamed “Long Liz”, was living at the Poplar Workhouse. She and John made attempts at reconciliation but by the end of 1881 they had permanently separated. She was known to embellish her stories concerning her husband and her former life with him. John died of heart disease in October 1884.

Michael Kidney

Elizabeth received some charitable aid from the Church of Sweden and spent most of her life at a common lodging house in Whitechapel. In 1885 she moved in with a local dockworker, Michael Kidney, on Devonshire Street.

Elizabeth earned some money by cleaning houses and sewing. People who knew her said she had a good temperament but could become unruly when drunk.

Flower & Dean Streets in Pink, Murders in Red

Stride and Kidney continued to live together, on and off. In the spring of 1887, Elizabeth filed an assault charge against him but never showed up for  court. She and Kidney were again on the outs in the autumn of 1888, and she moved out just a few days before her death. She found lodging at a common house at 32 Flower and Dean Streets in Spittalfields, her last address.

Liz Talking with a Man

Elizabeth spent most of the evening of Saturday the 29^th walking the streets and talking with men. She was dressed all in black with a kerchief tied around her neck. Police Constable William Smith last saw her at 12:35 a.m., talking with a man across from the International Working Men’s Educational Club, a Jewish socialist club on Berner Street. PC Smith later reported that the man had been carrying a package wrapped in newspaper about 18 inches long.

Finding Liz Stride

Concerned Crowds

It was just before 1:00 a.m. when Louis Diemschultz, a peddler and the club’s steward, discovered Stride’s body in the darkness of Dutfield’s Yard. Dr. Frederick W. Blackwell was called to the scene and kept order until Dr. George Bagster Phillips arrived. Phillips had also been called to the scene of Annie Chapman’s murder.

Elizabeth Stride's Death Certificate

Phillips reported that Elizabeth was found lying on her side with her face turned toward the wall. According to Phillips, “The legs were drawn up with the feet close to the wall. The body and face were warm and the hand cold. The legs were quite warm… The throat was deeply gashed.”

Elizabeth Stride

Interrupted?

But the body had not been mutilated. Police began to wonder if this was the same murderer who had killed the other Whitechapel prostitutes. Did Diemschultz startle the Ripper and he fled before mutilating the body, or was this a different murderer?

 

Wynne E. Baxter

The inquest into Stride’s death began on Monday, October 1 at the Vestry Hall, conducted by coroner Wynne Edwin Baxter, who had also presided over Annie Chapman's and Polly Nichol’s inquests.

Headlines About the Murder

It was suggested that the murderer grabbed the scarf Stride was wearing around her neck, and pulled her backward with it before cutting her throat. The fact that she was still holding a packet of cachous (breathe mints) showed that she had not had time to defend herself and had not suspected anything was amiss.

Testimonies were conflicting and descriptions of the man she was last seen with differed from witness to witness with each telling. Investigators decided that this was another victim of the Whitechapel murderer because of the many similarities to the other two murderers, which had occurred just a few weeks earlier.

East London Cemetery

Elizabeth Stride was buried on Saturday October 6, 1888 in the East London Cemetery in grave 15509, square 37. The local parish paid for her burial.

Police Station

Michael Kidney reportedly appeared drunk at the Leman Street police station on the day after the murder, claiming police incompetence. Kidney told police that if he had been a policeman on duty that night in the area where Liz was murdered, he would have shot himself (for incompetence.)  Kidney was considered a suspect in Stride’s murder but was later eliminated from the inquiry.

Meanwhile, the same night – 

Catherine Eddowes had spent part of her rainy Saturday night in custody at the Bishopsgate Police Station. She had been picked up around 8:30 p.m. drunk and lying in the middle of Aldgate High Street. Eddowes remained at the station until around 1:00 a.m. when she was sober enough to walk out. She was last seen alive at 1:35 a.m.

Streets of London

Catherine “Kate” Eddowes was born on April 14, 1842 to George Eddowes, a tinplate worker and his wife, Catherine, in Graisley Green, Wolverhampton, England. She was their eleventh child. Kate’s parents moved to London the next year and she grew up in the city.

Flower & Dean Streets

In the early 1860’s, Kate left home and moved in with an ex-soldier, Thomas Conway. They had three children, and worked together selling cheap books and ballads. By 1881, she had left Conway and was living at Cooney’s Lodging House on Flower and Dean Streets with John Kelly.

Catherine Eddowes

Kate was known as a friendly woman, always singing, except when she had been drinking, and then she was known to have a raging temper. At five feet tall, with auburn hair and hazel eyes, she was considered to be a handsome woman.

Her former partner, Thomas Conway, and her children kept their addresses secret from her to discourage her from seeking them out for money or assistance.

Hop-Picking

During the summer of 1888, Kate and John Kelly went hop-picking in Kent. They returned to London when the harvest was over but their money was soon spent. That Saturday morning, the 29^th, Kate and Kelly split the last of their funds. Eddowes decided to go see her daughter, Annie Phillips in Bermondsey, and plead for money. Kate did not know that her daughter had moved, yet again, leaving no forwarding address.

Cooney's Lodging House

Kelly pawned his boots that rainy evening and bought a bed at the lodging house. The lodging keeper reported that he did not leave again that night.

Map of Aldgate

Kate was not reportedly seen again until that evening when she imitated a fire engine to the delight of the crowd gathered on Aldgate High Street. She then passed out in the street and a city police constable took her to the station to sober up.  She was heard singing to herself around 12:15 a.m. and released about 1 a.m.

Eddowes's Body Found

Three men saw Kate leave the Imperial Club at 1:35 a.m. She stopped and talked with a man at the corner of Duke Street and Church Passage. One of the men, Joseph Lawende, describes the man with Eddowes in detail, stating that he was possibly a sailor.

  

Eddowes Face

It was less than 15 minutes later that Catherine Eddowes body was discovered in Miter Square by Police Constable Edward Watkins. Kate had been severely mutilated, and her throat had been cut.

London police surgeon, Dr. Fredrick Gordon Brown was called to the murder scene and arrived around 2 a.m. Brown reported that “The body was on its back, the head turned to left shoulder… The intestines were drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder… Body was quite warm. No death stiffening had taken place. She must have been dead most likely within the half hour.”

Wentworth Model Dwellings

Police also found a couple of clues this time. At about 3 a.m., a piece of the apron Eddowes had been wearing was discovered lying in the doorway to rooms at Wentworth Model Dwellings on Goulston Street in Whitechapel. The apron piece had blood and feces on it and it appeared that something had been wiped with it. 

Police also discovered written on the wall above the apron piece was graffiti that read, “The Juwes are the men that Will not be Blamed for nothing". There was some debate as to the exact wording since Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren had the chalked words quickly washed away, afraid they would incite an anti-Jewish riot.

Morgue Photo of Catherine Eddowes

Eddowes body was taken to the City Mortuary. Brown continued his postmortem there and reported that her face had been mutilated, and a piece of ear and the tip of her nose cut loose. Brown later testified that the cause of death was a hemorrhage from the left common carotid with death occurring immediately.

Suspects

The inquiry into Catherin Eddowes death opened on October 4 by City Coroner Samuel F. Langham. According to Dr. Brown’s report at the inquiry, “…the left kidney carefully taken out and removed… “I believe the perpetrator of the act must have had considerable knowledge of the position of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them… I think the perpetrator of this act had sufficient time ... It would take at least five minutes. ... I believe it was the act of one person.”

On Monday, October 1 police received a post card that referred to “Saucy Jack” and claimed responsibility for Stride and Eddows murders. The postcard read:

“I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip, you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow double event this time number one squealed a bit couldn't finish straight off had not the time to get ears for police. thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.”

Jack the Ripper

But upon later consideration, authorities and many Ripper historians believe that the postcard was actually the work of a local journalist, trying to stir up the police and the public, making for good headlines.

Crowds Line Street

Catherine Eddowes was buried on Monday October 8, 1888. It seemed that all of Whitechapel turned out to walk Kate to the cemetery. Thousands lined the streets as the funeral procession passed. Hundreds more gathered at the burial site along with four of Kate’s sisters, two nieces and John Kelly.

Catherine Eddowes was buried in an elm coffin in an unmarked grave at the City of London Cemetery in Manor Park Cemetery. Her grave number was 49336, square 318. Kate’s burial was paid for by a Mr. G.C. Hawkes, a vestryman from St. Luke’s. In 1996, the City Cemetery placed a plaque in remembrance of her.

~ Joy