Madison times., 1885-09-26
KILLED AT THE BRIDAL
Uncanny Sounds Since Heard
Around the House.
The Strange History of a Kentucky
HabitatIon Which for Years Has
Been Known as Haunted House.

In Boone county, Kentucky, Just be-
low Petersburg on the bank of tb, Ohio,
and almost opposite the rolling mill at
Aurora, Ind, stands deserted, vacant
frame dv elling, around which cluster
various stories ofghosts, spooks and hob
goblins. 1t is known far and wide as the
haunted house, or, as the darkies in the
neighborhoed say, "thc hanted house,
and all the money in Boone county would
not induce darky who has grown up i'll
that vicinity or who has been there long
enough to hear some of the stories con-
cerning them, to enter the house after
night. and some of them will not cross
the threshold alone even in the day
time. They swear by Moses, Ham and
all the prophets that the house is "hant-
ed;" that strange noi:es have been heard
there at night; that woman's screams
and dying groans have fioated out from
the house upon the night air; that some
thing in white has appeared at the win
dows. and mysterious lights have fioated
ard danced about in the old rookery for
wears past. In their imaginations they
have peopled the house with
aYsrERIoUs MIDNIGHT GHosTLY BEINGS,
fitting about from room TO room, dancing
with noiseless feet over the barren, rot
ten floors durirg the dark and silent
hours of night, and vanishing at the ap'
proach of dawn. So many stories have
beer told about the house that steamboat
pilots, when their boats are passing al
night, watch it as though expecting
every minute to see light flash from
scme of the windows; sturdy, weather
beaten and sun-bronzed fishermen
while passing in their skiffs, look upon
it and talk about it as 'hanted" place
and the boys and girls from Aurora
while rowing for pleasure upon the rive
in the summer moonlight evenings
cease their singing and are inclined t.
pull away from the Kentucky shor'
when approaching the place, seeming t.
realize that there is something which
repels them from, rather than invite
them in, that direction. This uninvit
ing, shunned and mysterious house is ;
frame, two stories high, with two room
below and two above. 1t stands abov
the reach of floods, some fifty feet bacl
from the high bluff bank. The fenc
which once surrounded it has long sine
fallen down, and the yard is fell of higl
rank weeds and creeping vines, wher
snakes and lizards live unmolested.
THE HOUSE is OLD AND DILAPIDATED,
the windows are broken in, the weathe:
boarding decayed and dropped from th
frame in many places, the doors ?ithe
gone or hanging loose upon their broke
and rusty hinges, the roof full of hole
letting in both the sunshine and tn
rain, the lower floor all rotten an
crumbling away upon the ground, an
the sides and ceilings of the rooms, bot
above and below, presenting pat ct
work of rent and cracked plastering an
barren lath. In the evening hundred
of swallows fly out of the old brio
chimney, circle around and settle bac
into the dark funnel; bats fly in and OF
of the broken windows and half ope
doors, aud later in the night is heard tb
owls dismal hoot from her perch upo
the roof. The whole premises present
scene of utter ruin, decay and desolatio
and as one looks upon it, if he is at 9
inclined to believe in spooks, he can
help saying that here is their HON
where they can hold their ghost
midnight carnivals sndisturbed, for !
one will care to invade such gloon
abode.