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The Paranormal Ridge: Part 3 – Signs of a Haunting
By Carol Flynn
As was mentioned in the first post of this series, the reports of ghostly activity go back for thousands of years.
Pliny the Younger, a lawyer, author and magistrate in ancient Rome, described the haunting of a house in Athens by a noisy ghost in the year 50 A.D. The ghost scared everyone away and the house was falling to ruins. Then a man brave man came upon the house, and not afraid, he stayed overnight. He realized the ghost was trying to communicate. He followed the apparition to a spot where it disappeared. Digging up the spot, the man found bones. He gave them a proper burial, and the ghost stopped appearing.
Here in Chicago, there have been haunted houses for over a century. In 1901, the newspapers carried the story of a woman named Mrs. E. A. Stuart who wrote to the Police Chief of Chicago, the famous Francis O’Neill who is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery here on the Ridge, to inquire about renting a haunted house she had heard about in the Woodlawn area. She wanted one where the ghosts “must be on hand every night, clank through the corridors in their chains, open and shut doors mysteriously, and shriek murder till sleep is out of the question.” Her intention was to disprove the existence of ghosts.
O’Neill knew the house that interested Mrs. Stuart. It was at 4801 S. Lake Avenue, and had been occupied for many years by John Lane, and it was believed his ghost still lingered there. A well-known lecturer, Mrs. Mary H. Ford, and her family lived in the house after Lane, and complained about nightly visitations from Lane’s spirit.
The Ford family’s first experience with the ghost was when the bathroom door became locked from within. They thought there might be a burglar in there and sent for the police. One of the Ford children suggested it might be Lane, and Mrs. Ford replied that if it were, he might be kind enough to open the door. The door unlocked, and pushing it open, Mrs. Ford saw that there was no one inside the room.
Another time, Mrs. Ford forgot to close the furnace door before going to bed. She did not want to go down to the cellar to do this and she wished that Mr. Lane would close that door. She heard the furnace door close.
The family experienced many other phenomena – loud knocking and pounding that went on all night and orange flames floating through the air. Mrs. Ford’s son, 10 years old, claimed he saw an old man sitting in a corner. His descriptions of the man fit those of Lane. The family became so used to the manifestations they came to think of Lane as one of the family.
Mrs. Stuart decided not to rent the house. O’Neill received letters from other people who were interested in living in the house. That house is no longer standing today.
This was just one example of the many haunted houses that the newspapers carried stories about in the earlier days of Chicago.
The signs of a haunting have remained consistent for thousands of years, from Ancient Greece to early 20th-century Chicago.
These signs are:
1. Feeling of being watched or that someone is near you, when there is no other physical person there.
2. Feeling that someone or something has touched you. Cobwebs, a tug on your sleeve, a tap on the shoulder, feeling like you just bumped into someone, etc.
3. Feeling a cold spot or a temperature drop, or a feeling of dread or discomfort in one certain spot.
4. Lights coming on and off or flickering. Appliances, also.
5. Sounds that when you go to investigate them don’t appear to have a cause. Footsteps, doors knobs being turned or the sound of doors opening or closing, things being dropped, whispers, crashes and bangs.
6. Smells. Cigarette smoke, a certain perfume. The smell of flowers, particularly roses, is associated with a presence, usually a more saintly one.
7. Seeing unexplained shadows, or something moving out of the corner of your eye, or sometimes a mist. Then there are orbs, circles of light that may not be visible to the naked eye but sometimes show up in pictures. Of course, some people say orbs are just reflections off of something in the atmosphere or something wrong with the lens of your camera. There is a picture of orbs around a house in Beverly and the person who took this never had this happen in photos taken at other times.
8. Strange behavior from your pets. Dogs barking at things, cats staring at things, that you don’t see. This is a common one – it seems animals are much more receptive to spirits. A photowas posted on the Internet by someone whose dog was staring and barking at one particular spot on the wall.
9. Children are much more open to spirits and often have experiences that adults do not have. Imaginary playmates might be an example of interacting with spirits.
10. Objects moving on their own. Cabinet doors, windows, doors opening and closing. Things falling, breaking. Something found in a place where you know you did not leave it.
11. Seeing an actual apparition of a person, or even an event played out.
In the next post, reasons the Ridge has paranormal occurrences will be explored, then Castle ghosts are coming up after that.