The Weirdest and Wildest Collection of Unique Gifts Anywhere!
The more you shop the more people we can help!
W-File: gh_evansville.html
Type:
Ghost
Location:
Evansville, Wisconsinhaunted house
Source: The book Wisconsin Lore by Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden,
pages 40-42 (published 1962)
THE EVANSVILLE HOUSE
Ethel Van Patten of Evansville tells of
another strange happening. She says that her parents were good,
dependable Yankees who would have admitted anything rather than that
they were superstitious. This is Mrs. Van Patten's story:
In the year 1894, my parents bought and moved into what was known as
the Evansville House. It was an old remodeled structure at that time. I
was a little girl of eight. The place must have been sixty or more
years old then. In the days of stagecoaches it had been a stage stop,
and the old barn, with its hand-hewn log rafters and sills, still acted
as a livery stable.
First maybe I had better describe the layout of the old hotel. The
office was on the west with a door opening onto a long, wide veranda.
In the front, which faced the south, was another huge door which led
into a long hall, from which opened several and various rooms. Like
most old places it had its legends of mystery, tragedy, and romance.
One of them was about a lovely young girl who, while working as a
chambermaid, had been strangled by a lover who already had a wife and
family and who, not being able to have her himself, had decided that
she should never belong to anyone else. After killing her he had dashed
out to catch an outgoing freight, had fallen, and had himself been
killed.
Even as young as I was I can remember enough about the happenings to
make this story very real to me. Through the years, however, I tried
repeatedly to persuade my mother to tell of their experience that
winter, but she was always reticent about it and put me off, saying,
"Oh, that. That was only one of your father's and my nightmares," or
"Why quiz me? Your father knows more about it than I do." But one day
she said to me, "Well, I might as well set you as straight as I can
about it. I don't believe in mysteries and I never will. There was a
solution to our phantom, but we didn't have the courage to stay and
search it out. There was a solution as sure as there is life, but we
never found it."
Among the steady boarders at the Evansville House was an old sea
captain, Pat McGlinn. He wore brogans and danced the hornpipe to the
music of an old wheezy mouthorgan. It was sure fun to learn the steps
from him and then hear his tall stories of the "Terribal disasthers
upon the sae." His brogue was rich and resonant and his vocabulary a
constant disturbing element in my little mother's life, for I was an
apt pupil and so were all of my pals in the neighborhood. I loved Pat,
so one day when I heard him and father having heated words in which Pat
was pounding the desk and swearing by all of the saints good and
otherwise, I listened in.
About that time I guess Pat had father more or less convinced that it
was not he who was clumping all over the place at all hours of the
night, for they parted with a congenial attitude which put me more at
ease, but it made me more conscious of the happenings about the place.
It seems that every morning about three o'clock someone wearing heavy
shoes came clumping down the stairs, which were right beside my folks'
room. I can remember what I, too, thought was Pat come clump, clump,
clumping down the stairs. It would not have impressed me at all but for
the realization that my folks were so disturbed about it, and I did not
want them mad at Pat. Later, after mother made it clear to me, the
whole thing came back. It seems that my father ran a race, as it were,
with the phantom all winter. At first he would take time to slip on his
trousers, then he began opening his door quietly, but no matter how
careful he would be, the footfalls would stop if only halfway down the
stairs.
One snowy night my folks just lay and listened. The footfalls went out
into the office; the outer door, which was locked, opened and closed.
My father dashed out then; the door was still locked and there was not
a single footprint in the newly fallen snow. Then father dashed up to
Pat's room to convince himself that it was not he and found him snoring
peacefully in his bed.
If I hadn't heard the footfalls myself I would have thought that my
folks had dreamed the whole thing, but I heard them just as plainly as
they did.
Throughout the years I have heard and read about happenings to people
who were just as staid and unsuperstitious as my people were, but had
to admit something beyond their comprehension happening to them, and
I've wondered if, in some strange incomprehensible way, Pat's spirit
did leave his body and roam restlessly beyond his control, paying
penance for some crime committed at sea, or if the young lover was
still fleeing from his terrible crime. Be that as it may, we shall
never know.
That spring my father sold the place. We never heard whether with our
leaving the phantom stopped its restless roaming or not. Maybe it
retired back from whence it came, whether it be into the sea or
otherwise.
Source: The National Directory Of Haunted Places by Dennis William Hauck, pages 383-384.
Evansville
East Side Steak House
For many years, this former boarding house was haunted by phantom
footsteps marching up and down the hallways. Some say the ghost was a
man who strangled his young mistress in one of the rooms. He died
trying to escape, when he fell under the wheels of a passing train. The
building was constructed in 1834.
(Evansville is in Rock County, 16 miles northwest of Janesville at
the junction of U.S. Hwy 14 and Hwy 213. East Side Steak House,
Evansville, WI 53536.)
Looking for Paranormal
Investigating Equipment? Find it all at
GetGhostGear.com!
Help show your support for this site and our efforts by visiting
www.GetGhostGear.com,
UFOWisconsin.com and any links
below!
All information contained above and elsewhere on
www.W-Files.com has rights
reserved to GetGhostGear.com Enterprises
and appropriate permissions must be gained before utilizing anything contained
here on www.W-Files.com to aid in
assuring our visitors, report filers and resources used to bring this site to
you have all protections and due rights made available. Interested parties
please contact us through "Copy Right Services @ GetGhostGear.com"
Disclaimer: W-Files.com has not verified the validity of every
report published within the W-Files.com. All reports are added to
the database 'as is' received. The reports posted have many
possible explanations, including but not restricted to known natural
earthly phenomena, hoaxes etc. We leave it up to the individual
viewer to judge the report based upon the content of the report
itself. As investigations occur, that information will be notated
on the individual report.
