Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-09-03
MURDERED WELDING NIGHT
The Strange History of N Kentucky
HabitatiOn which for Year Has
Been Known as "a Haunted Gus

7 clerSOufp, Gu the Oalk ot the ONO,
and almost opposite the rolling mill at
Aurora, Ind. stands a deserted, va
cant frame dwelling, around which
cluster various stories of ghosts,
spooks, and hobgoblins. 1t is known
far and wide as the haunted house, or,
as the darkies in the neighborhood
say, ''the hauted house, and all the
money in Boone county woGld not in
duce a darkey who has grown up in
that vicinity, or who has been there
long enough TO hear some of the stories
concerlng 1t, 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
"hanted;' that strange noises have
been heard there at night; that a
woman's creams and dying groans
have hoated out from the hoase upon
the night air; that something in white
has appeared at the windows, and
M sterious lights have Aoated and
danced about in the old rookery for
years past In their imaginations they
have pcoplcd the old home with mys
terious midnight ghostly beings, fit.
tingaboutfrom room to room, dancing
with noiseleSs feet over the barren,
rotten floors during the dark and ST,
lent hours of night, and vanishing at
the approach of dawn. So many
stories have been told about the house
that steamboat pilots, when their
boats are passing at Aight, watch it as
though expecting every minute TO see
q light flash from some OF the wiH-
dows; sturdy, weather beaten, and
sun brohzsd fishermen, while passing
in their skiffs, look upon it and talk
about it as a "hantedn place, and the
boys aud girls from Aurora, while
rowing for pleasure upon the river ia
the summer moonlight evenings,
cease their singing and are inclined to
pull away from the kentucky shore
when approaching TIE place, seeming
to real ~ that there is something
which repels them from, rather than
invites them in, that direction.
This uninvIting, Stunned, and mys-
ferrous house is a frame, two stories
high, with two rooms below and two
above. II stands above the reach of
floods, some fifty feet back from the
high bluff bank. The fence which
once surrounded it has long since fall
len down, and the yard is full ofhigh,
rank weeds and creeping vines, where
snakes and lizaIds live unmolested.
The house is old and dilapidated, the
windows are broken III, ahe weather
boarding decayed and dropping from
the frame In many pieces, the doors
either gone or hanging loose upon
their broken and rusty hinges, the
roof full of holes, letting in both the
sunshine and the rain, the lower floor
all rotten and crumbling away upon
The ground, and the sides and ceilings
of the rooms, both above add below,
presenting a patchwork of rent and
cracked plastering and barren lath.
In the evening hundreds of swallows
fly out of the old brick chimney, circle
around, ana settle back into the dark
funnel; bats fly in and out OF the
broken windows end hale open doors,
and later in the night is heard the
owls dismal boot from her perch upon
the roof. The whole premises present
a scene of utter ruin, decay, and desc
laticn, and as one looks upon it, If he
is at all inclined to believe in spooks,
he can't help saying that here is their
honae, where they can hold their
ghostly midnight carnivals undisturb-
ed, for no one will care TO invade such
a gloomy abode.
Grim, lonely, cherries, deserted,
and forbiddlng, what has given it the
name of "the haunted house2' This
has been caused by several strange
stories told concerning it, each of
which is tinged with enough of bloody
crime to give it its reputation and
cause people TO shun it. of which the
following dark and mysterious
tragedy seems to be the one most gen
orally believed;
The house was built many years
ago, with lumber and materials taken
down the river from Cincinnati, by
a young man named West, whose
family were murdered among the
pioneers of Boone county, all the
members of which were prominent
and respected citizens of the commun
ity at that time, young West beng
considered a very excellent young
man and not known TO have any bad
habits or vices. The house was in
tended TO be mis- future home, and at
the time was regarded as the finest
residence in that neighborhood, near
ly all the others being iog cabins of
rude construction. The young lady
to whom he was engaged to be mar
ried and whom be expected to occupy
his new home with him as his wife
was named Reed, and lived upon the
opposite side of the Ohio, on the hills
near Aurora. At that time Aurora
was but a small place, and much Of
the surrounding country, which is
now divided up into beautiful farms,
was covered with the dense original
forest. Miss Reed was a very pretty
young lady, though she would not
be considered beautiful, and was
possessed of more than ordinary in
diligence for those times, highly e
spected and popular, and much ad-
mIred IN the community, AID her
many friends, as we'll as those Of her