St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-24
ABOUT A MANDAN SpOok.
The Ghost Of a Profane and Angry Man
Haunts His Old Home.
QUEER SOUNDS IN THE HOUSE
The Nocturnal Visitant Is Recognized
by Those Who Knew Him
Ia In This Life.

u
Special to the Globe.
DAWSON, March ga couple of
drummers were sitting at the hotel fire
the other day, toasting their shins and
telling stories. One of them said:
by the way, JIM did you ever hear
about that haunted house they have got
in Mandan?"
''No."
"Well, you want to. A haunted house
is so much of a curiosity in these parts
such new country, you know-that
when we get hold of one it is worth not
ing. Dakota should be proud of every
haunted house it has got, because they
are so scarce. Just southwest OF the
original town plat of Mandan there is
what is colloquially called the Boston
syndicate'-so called from the fact that
few years ago party of wealthy Bos-
ton capitalists bought section of land
there, plated it. called it South Side adj
dition, built about twenty houses
thereon, put up 100000 Touring mill,
established brick yard and made
other valuable improvements. One
of the old timers of the town,
named Lansing, took up quarter sec
ton of this land somewhere about 1878,
and quietly waited for the boom to
come. The house that he lived in when
he was holding down his claim is the
only house on that side OF the track
that was built before the Boston fellows
took hold, and put up about $4,000 of
cold dust for the bare land they bought.
That house is still vacant, and is liable
to be for some time to come, though it
it is pretty good house, and there is
quite an active demand for houses in
Mandan.
Lansing was quite character in his
way. He died i'll about the year 1881,
and his death was anything but an easy
affair. l understand that he was
CHOKED TO DEATH
by foreign growth in his larynx. He
was a very prOfane man, and he felt
that the world had not used him right.
He was lazy, and though his family was
through no industry or foresight of his,
but through the growth of the town in
which he was lucky enough to have OBJ
tanned a claim. The boom that he had
been waiting for had hardly come when
he died. He claimed during the last
two or three years of his life that the
people had not used him right, and he
made good many threats at various
times to the effect that he would get
even with them-if not in this world
then in the next. If reports are true he
is now making very vigorous efforts to
get even, though it is question if he is
succeeding to any extent. There is
quite little population on the South
Side addition, and the folks there go
right past the house i'll which Lansing
died to get to and from town. 1t is
claimed by some of. those who pass it
regularly that they have seen strange
lights in the house, and have heard
queer sounds. The skeptical ones who
don't
BELIEVE IN GHOST STORIES
anyhow, say that somebody went in
there to light his pipe, and the lights in
question were from matches that were
struck. AS to the means that have
been heard, the non-believers don't be-
lieve in them at all. The theory of the
pipe Lighting would be good enough,
only that the doors and windows are all
fastened so that it is impossible for and
one to get in without breaking in. and
no one has done this.
"a farmer who lives out in the cOun-
Try and passed by the house few
nights ago, says he saw Pickering
light in the front room, though there
was no lamp; nor did he see any source
from which the light came. 1t would
flicker and 60 out for few moments,
and he waited near the window, but
still kept his seat in the wagon. He
thought that the house was inhabited,
and there was no particular reason for
his stopping to look in at the window,
but the Intermittent character of the
light attracted his attention. By the
light he saw bed and on it man lying.
The patient had very pale face and
appeared to be in the greatest suffering.
His means were plainly diScernible,
though the wind at the time was blow
ing briskly. There was no one there to
attend the sufferer that he could see,
and the man turned over on his bed sew
eral times as
IF IN GREAT AGONY.
1.-THE farmer went Oh his way, aSSum-
ing that in a short time the other MEM
bers of the family would be around. 1t
was because the next day when he came
past that he saw the rooms all empty
that he spoke about the matter to citi-
zen, and heard for the first time that the
HOuSe Ldu uOl UttH OCCupltu lOI SOlue
months. He described the mans ap-
pearance to all old-timer, and the afore-
said Old-timer at once recognized the de-
scription as that of Lansing. 1t is safe
to say that in the future there will be
a good many anxious faces turned
towards this house in the night time.
by the good folks who go past the
house. An experience with real live
ghost would be worth good deal to an
enterprising newspaper, and who ever
heard of a man, woman Or child being
killed by ghost? If there is ever any
thing to come out of it'll hope that some
Mandan will get hold of the subject and
write it up. for science cannot afford to
have any ghost data go to waste--thar is
Dakota ghost data---seeing that it is very