In this collection of over 125 Ohio ghost stories you'll meet a haunted garden-party dress, the actress who vanished from her dressing room and who still takes curtain calls, and the headless motorcyclist of the Great Black Swamp. Read about Thomas Edison’s machine to talk to the dead, phantom soldiers, Ceely Rose, who poisoned her entire family, and author James Thurber’s real-life “Night the Ghost Got In.” These are nonfiction ghost stories based on interviews and personal experiences, with a few folktales thrown in. There are tales as old as Native American ghostlore--or as new as the one about a haunted airplane. There are stories about haunted presidents and haunted cemeteries. There are tales of the dead and famous and of the faceless dead. Visit that altered state of consciousness: Haunted Ohio.
Stories from the following Ohio counties: Ashland, Auglaize, Butler, Champaign, Clark, Clermont, Columbiana, Coshocton, Crawford, Cuyahoga, Defiance, Erie, Fairfield, Franklin, Greene, Guernsey, Hamilton, Hardin, Knox, Lawrence, Licking, Mahoning, Marion, Medina, Meigs, Miami, Montgomery, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Portage, Richland, Sandusky, Summit, Tuscarawas, Vinton, Wood, Wyandot.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prelude: All Flesh is Grass
1. The Haunted Garden-Party Dress: Clothes to die for
2. Dearly Departed: Ghostly lovers
3. It Is Very Beautiful Over There: Mr. Edison calls up the dead
4. The Ghostly Grandpa: Children and the supernatural
5. Old Soldiers Never Die: Custer’s last march, John Brown’s soul
6. The Phantoms of the Opera: Theatrical ghosts
7. Grave Matters; Final resting? Places
8. A Ghost Around the House: Household hauntings
9. Resting in Pieces: Dis-embodied spirits
10. Our Haunted Presidents: From The Harrison Horror to Harding’s Doom
11. Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them, O Lord: Haunted houses and servants of God
12. The Old School Spirit: The ghosts of higher education
13. The Happy Haunting Grounds: The haunted skull and other Native American hauntings
14. Ghost Writers: Ohio’s haunted authors
15. The Headless Motorcyclist: And other haunted conveyances
Appendix 1: Bring Out Your Dead: Ohio’s haunted tours
Appendix 2: Haunted Places: Sites open to the public.
