Ghosts Close to Home

Mr. Tim, the Head of Youth Services at Beavercreek Community Library, recently moved into a Moraine farmhouse that was built in 1839. The day he signed the papers to buy it last summer, the sellers told him it was haunted. Until lately, nothing but a few mysteriously self-closing doors happened. Then twice in the last month he’s heard footsteps upstairs when he was alone in the house, and once the porch swing was moving on a windless day with no one (visible) sitting in it. That has him wondering, in this season of spooks, if Beavercreek has any hauntings.

Local ghost expert Chris Woodyard has the answer in his Haunted Ohio series. Several volumes feature Beavercreek phantoms, like “The Half-There Haunting” that took place in a local real estate office. One of the agents was working late when he heard a knock or a thump. Thinking a coworker had come in the back door, he hollered a greeting. Just as he did, he looked up to see a figure dressed in “a calf-length black dress and high-button 1890s shoes.” But the person was only half there! From the thighs up, there was only blank space. When he went to look for the person—or phantom—there was no body there. You can read the full story in Haunted Ohio I: Ghostly Tales From the Buckeye State.

You’ll also find Beavercreek boos in Haunted Ohio II: More Ghostly Tales From the Buckeye State and Haunted Ohio IV: Restless Spirits.

We asked Beavercreek staff for their favorite ghost stories, real or between the covers of a book:

Former Head of Reference Eden A. once visited a friend in Cincinnati who lived in an old house, and she felt like someone was watching her in the guest bedroom. When she went down to dinner, she learned the house was haunted by a Civil War soldier who was sometimes seen in uniform descending the stairs… And small things like combs and hairbands often seemed to move to drawers or the soap dish by themselves.

Youth Services Librarian Julie G. remembers her favorite ghost story was the tale of the girl who always wore a green ribbon around her neck. The girl wouldn’t say why she always wore it. She wouldn’t tell her boyfriend, even after they married. Then one dark night when she was very ill, she called her husband to her side to tell him why she never took the ribbon off… You can read the rest in In A Dark, Dark Room by Alvin Schwartz.