My Haunted House

On September 8 2008, my old house burned down. It was a very old house, with the original one room cabin section dating over 125 years old. A couple of additions had been added on over the years but none of the house was newer than 50 years old. The house was part of a historical site in our area, part of the headquarters for one of the first CCC camps but well before that one of the resting grounds for Indian tribes crossing the area. The people I bought the house from had run a speed shop in the huge stand alone four car garage and my sons had spent hours of their childhoods digging rusty pieces of metal and car parts out of the dirt around the garage and exploring the "ditch" behind the house, where a small feeder stream runs into the lake two houses down from my house. The area is rich in history and artifacts and my sons dug up old railroad and barn spikes from the ditch as well as arrowheads and other artifacts. Some they kept as mementos, some we donated to our local small historical museum.

The day my house burned down, I left for work as usual... except I had tried to start the dryer and it wouldn't start. I left a note for my husband to check it when he got home and went on to my afternoon shift job. The factory I worked at was 12 minutes away and was situated right in front of the fire station in the neighboring town. I passed fire trucks coming from that station as I was going to work and though it strange as I hadn't seen anything when I left town... and when I got to work the entrance to my shop was blocked and I had to go around the block. I had no idea they were going to my house until my sister called.

The fire marshall said the dryer caused a short in the old wiring in the house that sparked a fire in the fuse box in the back bedroom. The house went up like the tinderbox it was, being old a dry... it was gone almost before the fire departments arrived.

The first strange thing we noticed was right after the fire. We were devastated- we lost both of our beloved dogs to the fire. The bigger one was brought out and we were able to bury him, the smaller one all we found was her collar and we buried that. My younger son had just, a couple of days prior to the fire, moved out with my baby grandson... they had been staying in that very room! My grandson's wooden toddler bed was right next to the closet where the fire had started- virtually everything else in that room was destroyed... but that toddler bed still stood almost untouched by the fire, and that was where the dogs were located was under that bed. My son had kept the marble urn with his late father's ashes in that room... that urn disintegrated and to this day 12 years later we have never found so much as even a shard of the green marble.

We met with our insurance agent, we met with a contractor/ builder and four and a half months later we had a new house built, furnished and were moving in. It was February, it was amazing that it went so fast and so smoothly, but we were glad to be in a new home. My husband had been laid off and was called back to work just as we moved in and I got laid off at the same time. The third morning in the house, the smoke alarm system went off, scaring the life out of me. The system is set so if one goes off the entire system goes off but whatever room triggered the alarm will indicate... and it was the bedroom in the same location as the one where the fire had started in the old house that had triggered the alarm. I called the fire department and they checked and cleared the house and reset the alarms. This happened twice more and the builder replaced the system. (That bedroom will now still set off alarms - just that room- to this day, at random.) A few days later, we were sitting in the dining room and suddenly began to hear music when there was nothing on. We searched the house and as we went through the living room we found the music coming from the wall between the living room and the main bedroom. My husband went to the basement to see if there was anything down there (though we knew there wasn't) and came back up saying he didn't even hear the music down there. It sounded like an old fashioned calliope playing within the wall and it continued for several hours then stopped. It continues to play off and on to this day.

One morning shortly after my husband left for work I was making my bed and doing chores in the bedroom and I heard the distinct sound of footsteps coming up the short hallway area in the living room. The house has hardwood floors and there is no mistaking the sound of boots on hardwood floors. It scared me because I knew I had locked the door after my husband had left since it was still so early in the morning... I looked out into the living room and there was no one there! Yet I continued to hear the boots walking on the hardwood floors.

After a few years, my husband began becoming increasing abusive. A few incidents of physical abuse but especially verbal and emotional abuse. I had converted "the bedroom" into a work room for my craft business and spent quite a bit of time in there painting, crocheting and assembling the woodworking items I made. I began to feel uncomfortable at times, like there was a presence watching me. The room would grow cold all of a sudden and I would feel the need to leave. One day while I was sitting in the recliner I put in there working on a crochet order, I felt a different presence, one that was comforting and very protective. I caught a whiff of a familiar scent and I realized that my late husband was in the room with me! I actually felt him touch my shoulder and he warned me to be careful, and to tell our sons to be watchful... and then he was gone. My boys were skeptical of course, but I have never doubted that he came back to show that he is here to keep me safe... he does come back every now and then and his presence is comforting and peaceful. I am now divorced from my abusive husband and the other presence I used to feel is not as pervasive though it does still appear from time to time.

I have no doubt that some of the spirits in my "new" house are ancient spirits from the days when the Indians roamed these grounds or from other historical events. People scoff at my stories but the ones that have had things mysteriously disappear only to turn up in another room or who hear that music in the wall fast have become believers... New house, old ground.