Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-11-07
ON A WEDDING NIGHT.

MURDERED ON A WEDDING NIGHT.
The Strange History Of . Kentucky Habi-
tation Which for Years has Been Known
~ q Haunted House.
In Boone county, Kentucky, just be-
low Petersburg, on the bank OF the Ohio,
and almost opposite the rolling mill at
Aurora, Ind. stands deserted, vacant
frame dwelling, around which custer
various stories Of ghosts, spooks, and hob
COLLINS. It is known far and wide as
the haunted house, or, as the dsrkies in
the DeighbcrhOod say, the haunted
house" and all the money in Bo ne
county would not induce darby who
has grown up in that vicinity, or who
has been there long enough to hear
some of the stories concerning it, to en-
ter the house after night, and some of
them will not cross the threshold alone
even in the daytime. They swear by Mo-
ses, Ham, and all the prophets that the
house is "hanted;" that strange noises
have been heard there at night; that q
woman's screams and dying groans have
hoated out from the house upon the
night air; thas something in white has
appeared at the windows, and that mys-
ferrous lights have floated and dance d
about in the old rookery for years past
In their imaginations they have peopled
the old house with mysterious midnight
ghostly beings, fitting about from room
to room, dancingw with noiseless feet over
the ba rem, rotten floors during the dark
and silent hours of night, and vanishing
at the approach of dawn. So many sto-
ries have been told about the house that
steamboat pilots, when their boats are
passing at night, watch it, as though ex-
pecting every minute to see light flash
from some of the windows; sturdy,
weather-beaten, and sum- fisher
men, while passing in their skiffs, look
upon it and talk about it as q 'hanted"
place, and the boys and girls from Au-
rora, while rowing for pleasure upon the
river in the summer moonlight evenings,
cease their singing and are inclined to
pull away from the Kentucky shore
when approaching the place, seeming to
realize that there is something which
repels them from, rather than invites
them in that direction. This uninvit-
ing, Stunned, and mysterious house is q
frame, two stories high, with two rooms
below and two above. It stands above
the reach of floods, some fifty feet back
from the high bluff bank. The fence
which once surrounded it has long since
fallen down, and the yard is full of high,
rank weeds and creeping vines, where
snakes and lizards live unmolested. The
house is old and dilapidated, the win
dows are broken in, the weather board
ing decayed and dropping from the
frame in many places, 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 door all rotten and
rrumbling away upon the ground, and
the sides and ceilings of the rooms, both
above and below, presenting q patch
work of rent and cracked plastering and
barren lath. In the evening hundreds
of swallows fly out of the old brick Chin
ney, circle around, and settle back into
the dark funnel; bats fly in and out of
the broken windows and half.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 desolation,
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 home,
where they can hold their ghostly mid
night carnivals undisturbed, for no one
viii. care to invade such q gloomy abode.
Grim, lonely, cherries, deserted, and
what has given it the name
IF 9Th hou,toI bo,o.O1 This hoe loo-
caused by several strange stories told
with enough of bloody crime to give it
ts reputation and cause people to shun
It, of which the following dark and mys.
'terious tragedy seems to be the one most
generally believed:
The house was built many years ago,
With lumber and materials taken down
he river from Cincinnati, by a young
nan named West, whose family was
murdered among the pioneers of Boone
county, all the members of which were |
we're prominent and respected citizens
# the community at that time, young
Vest being considered a very excellent |
'oung man and not known to have any
lad habits or vices. The house was in
ended to be his future home, and at the
ime of it's construction was regarded as
he finest residence in that neighbor-
lood, nearly all the others being log
abins of rude construction. The young
ady to whom he was engaged to be mar
led and whom he expected to occupy
lis new home with him as his wife was
lamed Reed, and lived upon theopposite
ide of the Ohio, on the hills near Aurora.
1t that time Aurora, was but a small
lace, and much of the surrounding coun-
ry, which is now divided up into beau
iful farms, was covered with the dense
riginal forests. Miss Reed was a very
retty young lady, though she would not
70 considered beautiful, and was pos
essed of more than ordinary intelligence
Dr. those times, highly respected and
opular, and much admired in the COM
1unity, and her many friends, as well az
hose of her future husband, predicted
hat their future life would be very hap
y. In due time the marriage took
lace at the home of the young bride,
nd after the ceremony their friends &C
the young couple to the riv.
r, and West rowed his wife over to the
ewly built and furnished home, reach.
og there just at dark. Their friends
'atched them from the opposite shore
II they entered the house, and that was
ne last time either were seen alive. Late ,
ne following morning relatives called.