Post by Graveyardbride on Nov 5, 2021 15:10:29 GMT -5
November’s Ghosts
Only 15 hauntings – five in the United States and 10 in England – can be categorized as November ghosts, but no one can deny the five in the U.S. are much more interesting than the average spook. Following is the list of November hauntings:
United States
Nov. 1: Each November 1st, the apparition of a woman dressed in black from head to toe is said to visit the grave of John Cameron in the Masonic Cemetery at Central City, Colorado. Cameron died November 1, 1887, at the age of 28. For a full account of the “haunting” see “November 1, 1899: The Lady in Black.”
Nov. 6: If the stories are true, the Lobstein House (pictured above) at 905 Elgin Avenue in Forest Park, Illinois, is one of the most haunted locations in the nation. The lovely Queen Anne edifice was built in 1894 by John George Lobstein, a Chicago lumber mill owner and cabinetmaker, for his second wife, Adeline Lewis. (His first wife died in childbirth.) Lobstein died March 11, 1915, at the age of 70, and his coffin was transported from his residence to Waldheim Cemetery (now Forest Home Cemetery) on the afternoon of Monday, March 15. Eighteen years later, on August 21, 1933, Adeline also died in the house at the age of 81, and many believe Mrs. Lobstein’s benign spirit continues to occupy her former home.
But it’s a different, and much more mischievous, ghost accused of causing problems every November 6th. According to legend, a boy called “Charlie” hanged himself in the attic when he was around age 12 and it is his revenant that acts up on an annual basis. (Of interest, on January 10, 1920, Charles W. Lobstein, age 48, George Lobstein’s son by his first wife, hanged himself in the rear of an undertaker’s garage in Oak Park.)
In an interview in the 1990s, 80-something year-old Fred Becker, a retired teacher and descendant of the Lobstein family, said when George and Adeline married, she was looking after at least one younger sibling. “Her brother, Charlie Lewis, was mentally retarded and lived there in that house with them,” Becker told a reporter. “It is supposed to be his ghost in the house.” He also recalled attending a huge funeral service in the mansion on the occasion of Adeline’s death.
So what, if anything, happens every November 6th? Tracy Walsh, a resident of 905 Elgin when her mother, Karen Richards, owned it, personally experienced the annual haunting. “It seemed like the roof was caving in and like massive fighting was going on in the attic,” she related in a 2006 interview. After their first experience with the noisy ghost, she recalled her mother would not allow them to remain in the house on that date.
Janet Redmond, who lived next door to the Lobstein house for many years, added that her bedroom faced the round attic window on the north side of the mansion. “I would see the shadows of something,” she claimed. “It could be during the night, or during the day. Beneath that was a library” where the lights “would go on at 3 or 4 in the morning.”
One November 6, Redmond said, “the whole family came to my house because there was so much ruckus. I remember it being late, almost midnight. Everyone came over with the dog. They didn’t go back until the next morning.” On another occasion, she recalled, they “found there was a huge ... roll [of heavy plastic sheeting] weighing a couple hundred pounds moved from one side of the attic to the other.”
Longtime owner Richard Bertucci denied hearing anything in the attic on November 6, but admitted the two house cats sometimes acted strangely. “They’ll get startled and you wonder why they get startled,” he told a reporter. “They will look up and stare and be real attentive at something.”
Mike Kollias, Bertucci’s partner, readily admitted he found something odd about the attic, which he described as “very noisy. It is very creaky, even when it isn’t a windy night, like there’s a pressure on the floor. That is very frequent.” He also remembered the time a man painting the attic walls got spooked when the radio turned off by itself and wouldn’t play and his spray pump wouldn’t work.
“There are lots of cold spots in the house, but you don’t know what is the cause,” he added.
In addition to the attic noises, Kollias recounted what he described as a “vivid event with something unusual in a bedroom” one December night when he awakened and saw a female apparition with long, brownish hair sitting at the end of the bed in her nightgown. Presumably, this was the spirit of Adeline Lobstein.
Nov. 21-22: According to legend, every year, a misty female figure forms at a grave near the tall White family obelisk (above) in St. Johns Catholic Cemetery in Jackson, Michigan, and floats to the old Crouch-Reynolds graveyard at the intersection of Reynolds and Horton roads. The phantom is that of Eunice Crouch White and the grave she visits is that of her father, Jacob D. Crouch, with whom she reunites once a year. The tragedy that created this particular haunting occurred many years ago in another century .....
Storms raged across central Michigan on the night of November 21-22, 1883, and the deafening thunder, howling winds and slamming loose boards and debris drowned out the gunshots in the farmhouse near Spring Arbor. At some point during the commotion, George Bolles, a black teenage farmhand sleeping in an upstairs area, awakened and heard loud bangs and what sounded like someone crying “Oh! Oh!” He wasn’t sure what was going on and scared both from the cries and the storm, attempted to hide inside an old trunk.
One of the young farmhand’s duties was to start the fires every morning and at daybreak, when he made his way downstairs and found Jacob Crouch, his boss, and everyone else dead, he took off running toward the home of Susan and Daniel Holcomb, his employer’s daughter and son-in-law, some two miles distant.
Julia Reese, age 33, a maid, slept in the servant’s quarters behind the kitchen and when she arose to make breakfast, the first thing she noticed was that Bolles hadn’t started a fire in the wood-burning stove. She fired up the stove herself and was preparing breakfast when she heard someone banging on the door and opened it to admit a neighbor who had met Bolles on his way to the Holcomb house.
When the sheriff arrived, he found Jacob Crouch, 74, lying in his bed in an alcove off the tastefully decorated parlor, his face to the wall and a bullet hole in the left side of his head. In the front bedroom, Henry White, 30, Crouch’s son-in-law, had been shot twice: in the temple near the right eye and below the ear. Henry’s wife, 33-year-old Eunice Crouch White, eight months pregnant, was the only one who appeared to have fought her attacker (or attackers). She had been shot a total of six times and the lesions from bullets through both arms and her left wrist were obvious defensive wounds. It was almost certainly her cries Bolles heard during the night. The other three shots were through her right breast into her lung, and her neck and chin. Moses Polley, a 23-year-old cattle buyer staying the night in the second bedroom, had been shot twice, through the right ear and right chest area.
Some who entered the house the morning of the murders detected a smell of what they believed to be chloroform, suggesting the victims, with the exception of Eunice White, could have been unconscious when they were shot.
The place had been ransacked, either by someone looking for something or staging a scene. Crouch didn’t trust banks and kept his money hidden in the house, but so far as was determined, despite the fact thousands of dollars were concealed in various locations within the home, and Polley had around $1,600 in his possession, none was taken. However, legal documents, including promissory notes and mortgages – and very possibly a Last Will and Testament – were missing. This, of course, led to rumors that Crouch had changed his will and someone afraid of missing out on his portion of the substantial estate had committed murder in order to ensure his inheritance.
After the bodies were removed from the house, the sheriff called in a professional photographer from Ann Arbor to photograph the eyes of Eunice White, believing the image might reveal the reflection of her killer. Later, he said too much time had elapsed between the woman’s death and the taking of the photograph.
There also was a suggestion the family members could have been drugged the night of their deaths and 11 days after Jacob Crouch was laid to rest in the family graveyard, his body was disinterred and his stomach removed to check for drugs.
While there was no doubt what had killed the Crouch family and their visitor, who and why could not be determined, but there was speculation – a lot of speculation. First, it was well-known among family members that of Jacob’s five children, Eunice was his favorite, and there were rumors he intended to leave his entire estate to the Whites. There also were rumors that he was thinking about disinheriting Susan and Daniel Holcomb, as well as Judson “Judd” Crouch, 23, who was actually Jacob’s son, but lived with the Holcombs. Judd’s mother, Ann, died a few days after his birth and some said Jacob blamed the boy for his wife’s death. Of interest, Judd was deformed with a hunchback and clubfoot. The child had been brought up by his older sister, Susan, and until he was around 10-years-old, believed she was his mother.
In addition to Eunice, Susan and Judd, Crouch had two other sons, Byron, who was living in Texas at the time of the murders, and Dayton J. “Joe” Crouch, who died of smallpox in Fort Worth, Texas, the previous January. Moses Polley knew Byron, who was looking after the family’s business interests in Texas.
Jacob Crouch was a rich man with an estate estimated at $2 million and shortly after the murders, Daniel Holcomb filed charges against Bolles and Reese, the two servants, neither of whom had any reason to kill their employers. Nonetheless, both were arrested and remained in jail for approximately a month until they were released for lack of evidence.
Many in the community suspected Daniel Holcomb and Judd Crouch were somehow involved in the murders and when Judd and James Foy, the Holcomb’s farmhand, moved into the house (above) as soon as the corpses were carted off the premises and while the floorboards were still wet with their blood, folks decided Foy was also involved. The general consensus seemed to be that Holcomb wanted his father-in-law’s money and property and acted when he did because the heavily pregnant Eunice was about to produce another heir. Still there was no hard evidence linking any of the three men to the killings and they remained free.
There also were suggestions that Byron Crouch somehow orchestrated the murders from his home in Texas.
But strange things continued to happen to those with connections to the slaughtered family members, beginning with the demise of 44-year-old Susan Holcomb, found dead in her bed on January 2, 1884. A contemporary newspaper, under the heading “A Melancholy Suicide,” reported the incident as follows:
Mrs. Daniel Holcomb, daughter of the murdered millionaire, Jacob D. Crouch, committed suicide Wednesday night. Ever since the horrible tragedy of November 21, she has been very nervous and when suspicion fell upon her family, she at times lost her reason. Her daughter Edith found the bedroom door locked and after knocking in vain, burst it open to find her mother dead in her bed. Mr. Holcomb is prostrated with grief. A paper of poison was found in the dead woman’s hand.
Two days later, James Foy was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Foy had a big mouth and talked too much, particularly when he was drinking, and he had been regaling anyone who would listen about the Crouch murders in local saloons. A .38 revolver was found at the scene and the man’s death was ruled a suicide, but there were those who were certain he had been shot by someone else – namely Holcomb and/or Judd Crouch – because of his loose tongue.
Finally, on March 8, 1884, Holcomb and Judd were charged with the Crouch murders and arrested. Daniel’s trial began on November 8, 1884, and in spite of the testimony of 145 witnesses, it was a strictly circumstantial case and on January 10, 1885, the jury deliberated only an hour before returning a verdict of not guilty.
Following Holcomb’s acquittal, it seemed pointless to try Judd and he was never brought to trial.
In 1886, three bloody shirts were discovered in a tree stump on the Holcomb farm. While certainly suspicious, it was impossible to prove the clothing belonged to Holcomb, Judd and Foy.
Daniel Holcomb remarried and relocated to Baraboo, Wisconsin. Judd Crouch inherited the Crouch homestead, but lost it to the bank. He lived in Indiana for a time, however, by the early 1900s, he was back in Jackson County, where he died in 1946. George Bolles left Michigan for southern Ohio and became a minister. Byron Crouch died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1920. The old Crouch farmhouse burned to the ground in 1947 and arson was suspected.
Nov. 23: In the early 1960s, Haw Branch Plantation, located in Amelia County, Virginia, approximately 35 miles south of Richmond, was purchased by Cary McConnaughey and his wife, Gilbert, a descendant of Colonel Thomas Tabb, who established the plantation in 1745 and built the Georgian-style home three years later.
Although she claimed she did not believe in ghosts at the time of purchase, once the house was properly restored and the family moved in, Mrs. McConnaughey readily admitted there was “something going on.” It started in the summer of 1967 when she was passing through the library one night and encountered what she described as the “luminous figure of a woman in a white dress” floating rather than simply standing. Then on November 23 of that year, the family was frightened out of their wits when in the wee hours of the morning, they were awakened by a bloodcurdling scream that seemed to be emanating from the attic. No one knew who or what caused the noise and when something similar happened the following May 23rd, they knew they were dealing with a residual haunting. There was, however, a difference between the two incidents: the cry in May was more of a screech and the two McConnaughey children claimed to have seen a gigantic bird-like creature with a huge wingspan in the yard. One November 23rd, Mrs. McConnaughey decided to record the spectral scream and remained awake with a recording device running. Finally, though, she gave up, turned off the recorder and at that instance, an ear-piercing cry suddenly reverberated through the old mansion.
In addition to the “lady in white,” which was also seen by Mrs. McConnaughey’s daughter, phantom footsteps are common and people sometimes hear loud thuds coming from the attic area that sound as though someone is moving furniture about. The basement, which has a bricked up area that has no access, is also spooky and people who find themselves down there alone have reported hearing someone humming an old-fashioned tune.
Then there’s the pastel portrait of Florence Wright, a distant Tabb family cousin who died before her likeness was completed. When the painting arrived at Haw Branch, it looked more like a charcoal rendition than a pastel piece. Still it was summarily hung above the library fireplace. Then the portrait began to change. Within a few months, the face of the young woman had taken on a peach flesh-tone color, the girl’s dark hair was turning red, her eyes a dazzling blue and a jade vase next to the green chair in which she was sitting held a single bright pink rose. One day, the picture mysteriously fell from the wall, breaking the frame, and while it was being re-framed, a small plaque was discovered explaining that Florence, age 24, had died of a stroke while playing the piano.
Thanksgiving: The Hotel del Coronado (above) in San Diego has hosted at least 10 presidents, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, numerous actors and actresses – the 1959 comedy Some like it Hot starring Marilyn Monroe was filmed at the hotel – and many other celebrities. But its most famous guest remains a 24-year-old Irish woman by the name of Kate Morgan, who checked into the hostelry well over a hundred years ago and never checked out.
On Thursday, November 24, 1892, which happened to be Thanksgiving Day that year, a woman signed the register as Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard and told the desk clerk she was waiting for her brother. She was assigned Room 302 (now Room 3327) and for the next few days, people often saw her strolling on the beach and about the hotel. Those who observed her closely whispered that she appeared sad and anxious.
Finally, it became apparent the lady’s brother was a no-show and sometime on the night of November 28-29, she donned an elegant black outfit and with a black lace shawl covering her head, stepped out onto the western terrace. As the tempest that was lashing the entire coast roared at her feet, she raised the pistol to her right temple and pulled the trigger. The following morning, her rain-drenched corpse was discovered – cold, wet and stiff – on the steps leading to the beach.
The doctor who examined the body estimated she had been dead several hours and recorded her height and weight at 5'6" and 150 pounds. She had medium-length black hair, brown eyes, high cheekbones, a fair but sallow complexion and good teeth. Her jewelry consisted of a plain gold ring on the third finger of her left hand and a second ring of pure gold with four pearls and a blue stone. Her purse contained in excess of $20 (equivalent to $600 today) and she did not appear to be in need of money.
A telegraph from a Mr. Allen in Hamburg, Iowa, was found among her things and it was soon discovered the two were associates. Allen, it seemed, was a consummate gambler and he and Kate had a habit of scamming rich men out of their money. Kate would flirt with the man and tell him she was willing to engage in sexual activity if he could beat her “brother” at a game of cards.
The authorities were able to locate Kate’s grandfather, a man by the name of J.W. Chandler, and following notification of his granddaughter’s death, he replied: “Your telegram received regarding Kate Morgan, née Farmer. Bury and send me the statement ....”
Following a brief service, the young woman was laid to rest in San Diego’s Mount Hope Cemetery. No family members or friends were in attendance and the horse-drawn hearse made the lonely trek to the graveyard alone.
Kate Morgan’s apparition has been seen by numerous individuals including Alan Mayer May, local attorney and former White House aide to President Richard M. Nixon. May became so obsessed with both the story of Kate Morgan and her ghost that one Thanksgiving, he reserved Room 3312 and swore she made an appearance. His research led him to believe the young woman was murdered and inspired him to write a book, The Legend of Kate Morgan: The Search for the Ghost of the Hotel del Coronado, which was featured in the mini-series Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories shortly before his death in 1991. May also paid for the stone that marks Kate’s grave.
The hotel actually has an official Kate Morgan book, Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado, that recount’s the lady’s 1892 visit and a chronology of events, both pre- and postmortem. The spirit is blamed for basically everything unexplained that happens at the resort, including phantom footsteps, random breezes when no windows are open, flickering lights and TVs that turn on and off of their own accord. The apparition seems to prefer the beach, the hotel’s corridors and, of course, Room 3312, where she spent the final few days of her life.
England
Nov. 1: In Prestbury, Gloucestershire – said to be one of the most haunted villages in England – the “Black Abbot” materializes in St. Mary’s Churchyard (above), glides among the graves and disappears from sight as he passes through the wall on High Street. The ghostly monk was actually photographed in 1990. (This apparition also appears at Easter and Christmas.)
Nov. 1: Great Hyde Hall at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, was built in 1572, but the November ghost, John Josselyn, predates the Hall. Every November 1st, he rides along the driveway toward the house. Additionally, at least two other paranormal entities are said to haunt the location. When Suzi Quatro, the singer, owned the old manor house, she claimed Richard Josselyn haunted the guest room and the apparition of a little girl was seen in other parts of the structure.
Nov. 1: Legend has it that every All Soul’s Eve, the spirits of all in the small village of Middleton, Lancashire, pass through St. Leonard’s Church at midnight. The church also is haunted by a former vicar.
Nov. 3: In the 17th century, Lord Coleraine imprisoned his beautiful wife, Constantia, in a chamber above the entrance of Bruce Castle in Tottenham, London. Despondent and lacking hope, on November 3, 1680, taking her small child in her arms, she jumped from the balustrade killing both herself and her babe. Ever since, it is claimed the lady’s screams can be heard on the anniversary of her death.
Nov. 19: The misty form of a monk said to have been bricked up alive for some transgression appears every November 19th at the Coopers Arms Public House, 10 St. Margaret’s Street, Rochester, Kent. The apparition allegedly manifests every July 17th as well.
Nov. 23: On St. Clement’s night in the tiny village of Pyecombe, Sussex, cries are heard seemingly emanating from the area where the old blacksmith’s forge was located.
Nov. 30: Several hundred years ago, a chapel dedicated to St. Andrew in Romford, Essex, was constructed on a site much too close to the Rom River. When a new sanctuary was built in 1410, the former chapel was abandoned and eventually sank beneath the waters. Afterward, it was rumored that every St. Andrew’s Day, a peal of sunken bells rang from the murky depths of the Rom. The sunken chapel was located just south of Oldchurch Road near its intersection with South Street. Unfortunately, approximately 120 feet of the river in this location now flows beneath a parking lot, so even if the phantom bells still ring, it’s doubtful anyone could hear them.
November: The following hauntings occur during the month of November, but on no specific date:
Visitors and staff at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Brockley Hill, Stanmore, London, occasionally encounter a “Grey Lady,” who is said to glide rather than walk. The apparition is believed to be the spirit of Mary Wardell, who purchased the Stanmore site for a scarlet fever isolation hospital in 1883. She managed the facility, which became an auxiliary military convalescent hospital during World War I. The ghost was sighted as recently as November 30, 2009.
Shortly after opening for business, the apparition of a red-headed man walks through The Blue Lias Inn located in Stockton, Warwickshire. Locals say the gentleman was killed when he was caught in bed with another man’s wife. The ghost also appears during the month of March.
Vinegar Hill in Marham, Norfolk, is said to be haunted by the gliding phantom of a rogue nun called “Sister Barbara.” In life, she allegedly paid men to pretend to rob travelers so that she could “save” them and used any rewards she received for her good works to purchase luxury items. Finally, a group of monks reported her to church authorities and she was walled up alive.
Sources: "November 1, 1899: The Lady in Black," WhatLiesBeyond; Thomas Vogel, Forest Park Review, August 22, 2017; Mary Daniels, The Chicago Tribune, October 29, 2006; Haunted Chicago: Famous Phantoms, Sinister Sites, and Lingering Legends by Tom Ogden; Fritz Swanson, "A Dirge for the Doubly Dead," Creative Nonfiction; The Norristown [Penn.] Register, November 23, 1883; The Champaign Daily Gazette, November 23, 1883; “The Crouch Family Murders,” Strange Company, February 1, 2021; Leanne Smith, MichiganLive, November 20, 2010; Haunted Cemeteries and Strange History, Michigan Southside; Jeff Westover, Ghost Highway Photography; The Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 9, 2016; The Big Book of Virginia Ghost Stories by L.B. Taylor Jr.; Hotel del Coronado; The Legend of Kate Morgan: The Search for the Ghost of the Hotel del Coronado by Alan Mayer May; Exploring San Diego; Heather Monroe, “The Hopeless Death of Kate Morgan,” November 26, 2019; Merrie Monteagudo, The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 26, 2017; Geni; Britain's Haunted Heritage by J. A. Brooks; The Good Ghost Guide by John Brooks; Haunted Britain and Ireland; Gateways to the Second World War; British Ghosts; and The Blue Lias Inn.
