Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= USGenNet Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Ludington Record VOL. XV. OLD SERIES, NO. 40 Thursday, June 8, 1882 A Battle Creek Ghost Story A letter from Battle Creek contains this hair-raising spook story: Many years ago North avenue in this city was occupied as a cemetery, but as the city grew larger it was removed to another place outside of the city. When the location of the graveyard was changed all of the graves were opened and the remains taken up and again interred in their new resting place. We say all the graves, yet they were really probably not all found, for the reason that some paupers had been buried there, and as no stone or mound had been erected above their graves the elements had so obliterated all traces of them that many of them could not be found. Hence it was that years after, when the old graveyard was used as building sites, in digging the cellar to these resi- dences the workmen frequently came across the bones of some of the original occupants of the soil. No attention was paid to these ashes, and they were thrown out to decay. Recently, however, there have occurred some most mysterious transactions and noises in the houses located in this former home of the dead. Strange sounds and strikings would be heard in broad daylight as well as at night under cover of darkness. These noises would sound as though in the same room as the occupant, yet nothing could be seen, and the closest inspection revealed nothing. Sometime these noises would sound like the fluttering of a bird about the room, yet nothing could be seen, again, at other times, there would occur sounds as of a per- son digging a grave - the sound of the spade in the gravel could be heard, the creaking of the coffin as it was lowered, the sobbing of friends around the open grave, the dull, heavy thud of sod falling in, then all would be quiet, save perhaps an unearthly groan. Again the bedsteads of some of the sleepers would be roughly shaken and continued rap- pings would be heard upon the head-board, sometimes soft, sometimes loud, and often rapid and then again slower. A light would be brought, but the mys- terious proceedings would still continue. At first the residents were much annoyed and frightened by them, several families selling out at a great loss in order to rid themselves of the annoyance; yet those who remained have become so used to them now that they pay no attention to them. These antics do not occur at regular inter- vals, however, as sometimes months elapse between these manifestations. The resi- dents are unable to account for them. Some persons have spent months trying to discover, if possible, the true source from which these sounds come, but all to no purpose. Spiritualists say that they are the spirits of the persons whose bones were disturbed and left to decay above ground, coming back to remonstrate against such unchristianlike treatment, but, as none of the persons in whose houses these manifestations have occurred are Spiritual- ists, this theory is not readily accepted by them, and each day the mystery still deepens. The noises are heard most fre- quently at the residence of F. W. Clapp, a lawyer of this city, but are not entirely confined to his house, and have been heard in several other houses in that vicinity. Night before last one of the parties who lives on the street was annoyed by knock- ings nearly all night, the rappings coming thick and fast. At times the noise would seem to be directly over the bed in the ceiling of the room, then in the walls on the sides, and from these places often changing to the head of the bedstead, and then back again. A lamp was lighted and a search instituted, but all to no pur- pose, as meanwhile the racket went on as before. Several who have heard these manisfestations are now asking: "Is it ghosts?" ===========================================================================