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The Old Mansion By The Side Of The Road

 

A very long time ago in the Summer of 1966-67, we were visiting with my grandparents, and other family members that came in from Louisiana. My Uncle Eddy, and Aunt Rosemary came with six of their twelve kids for an overnight visit. We were there for a weekend hiatus also.

Of the six of the cousins, only two were about my age. Eddy Jr. Was just a year younger, while the eldest, Rosemary, was my age, twelve. We often would enjoy taking long walks along the beautiful country roads. My grandparents lived in a fairly rural region with lots of farms, and plenty of room between the houses. The nearest neighbor was half a mile away. So, those conditions afforded families relative privacy. It was very nice out there.

We wanted to go to a particular ice-cream parlor called Twin-Kiss, and we wanted to enjoy the walk there. Our parents forked out the money. A quarter each. Can you believe a dime, or a quarter for a decent sized ice-cream cone back then? It's true! Off on our much anticipated journey we went. It was a bit of a hike along a long paved road just outside of Ellwood City, PA., but it was pretty clear of traffic most of the time, and we'd pet the horses, or cows grazing along the sides of the fences as we went.

There was a very old abandoned mansion along the side, and set back a couple hundred yards from the road. It sat right across the street from a Dairy Farm.

We were always told by the local kids that that mansion was haunted. Of course, 'that' made us wonder. Wonder lead to curiosity. Curiosity lead to almost getting shot by a farmer. Allow me to explain.

We were on our way back from the ice-cream parlor, and had devoured our ice-cream cones. We were coming up on the mansion. I'm sure that, in it's heyday, it was a very beautiful building to behold. Rather like a smaller version of Tara from Gone With the Wind, if you can picture that. It was solid white, had four floors, a cellar, and was surrounded on all sides by a veranda-like porch with the main entrance in the middle of the porch. Very charming. However, the porch looked like it was about to collapse if anyone put their weight on it. Not wanting to take chances we managed to find an old laundry tub, turned it upside down, and stood on it to peer inside the house on the first floor.

From the little we could see it must've been very grand in it's time. We noticed some old Victorian furniture with the fancy upholstery, and intricate carvings on the arms, and legs. There was a lot of other furniture that was covered with sheets that were almost blackened from the dust, and grime on them. It was getting near dusk, and the outside light was diminishing slightly. While we were gazing in through the window, we heard a loud noise coming from the floor above. Possibly one, or two floors up. It sounded like someone pushing chairs out of the way, or dragging them along the floor. It alarmed us, and we jumped off of the wash tub, and started running away from the house. For some reason we all stopped, and turned around to see who, or what it was. We wanted to assure ourselves that whomever wasn't pursuing us. Really, that was rather stupid of us. We just should've kept running, but, like I said, curiosity took over.

As we stood there we noticed a bright light moving on the third floor of the mansion. It was moving like someone carrying a lantern, but we didn't see anyone 'carrying' it. Just the light. We were observing through the many broken windows. While we were just standing there, we were all very startled by a farmer coming up behind us with a shot-gun (Just to scare us. I don't believe he would've shot a bunch of kids.). However, he 'did' get our attention, to put it mildly. He yelled at us, and told us that his family 'owned' the mansion/property, and that we were trespassing. We apologized-extremely humbly, I might add-and informed him that there 'was' somebody that was already trespassing, and walking around in the upstairs of the house. We told him that we could see whomever it was carrying a lantern on the upper floor. He got a bit irate, and told us we must've been imagining things because the last member of his family died in there well over fifty-some years ago, and it's been empty ever since. He said there's no electricity on in there either. My two other cousins, and myself protested that 'we' were too old to be imagining things-one eleven year old, and two twelve year olds-right. We proclaimed that we 'all' saw it, and were watching it when he came up behind us. We must've been watching for about five minutes when he arrived.

He lowered his gun, much to 'our' relief. He said, rather sternly, that it was time for clarification. He went ahead of us, and asked us to follow him. He managed to 'walk' up on the front porch. Considering his size we didn't see how he felt sure it wasn't going to crumble under him, but he did. He told us it was alright to come up, and look inside. We, very gingerly, mounted the wooden steps, and peered inside on his urging. What we saw just knocked us off our feet. Yes, there was a huge set of stairs with a fancy banister going up, but the floors were gone. Rotted away. No one could walk up there because there 'weren't any' floors to walk on. Not to mention the stairs were partially rotted away as well.

We all went pale. He asked us if we were satisfied. We nodded our heads, apologized, and he escorted us out. He told us to go home, and not to trespass on his property in the future. He even apologized for alarming us with the gun. The gun was the last thing on our minds as we trekked back home to grandma and grandpa's. We were all discussing it rather excitedly, and 'trying' to make some sense out of what we saw.

However, we were stumped as to what happened. We all agreed not to mention it to our parents. Besides, who would believe a bunch of kids? That was 'our' logic at the time. We, secretly, talked about it for the remainder of the visit. Just 'what' did we witness? As for the owners of the property, and the mansion, they have erected an electric fence around the property behind which their dairy cows graze. On that fence is a big metal sign with a warning 'no trespassing'. To this day, that incident still has some of us scratching our heads. I welcome any, and all comments!

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The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, Linjahaha, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Linjahaha (24 stories) (161 posts)
+2
1 year ago (2023-09-22)
Hi, again, Lost Voyage: That's a verrrrrrrrrrry good question. Why don't they just bulldoze the house once, & for all? Thereby ending the problem of curious kids, & the like trespassing.
I 'did' do a little research thanks to my sister telling me what she discovered recently. I went online, & found out that the house was razed, & a new structure was built in its place. The new building is about the same size as the mansion, but very modern. It is, now, part of the Dairy Farm with offices in it, & trucks parked around it. I'm sure the ghost doesn't mind since it's still owned by family!

Thanks again for your input, & take care! 😁 😁
Linjahaha (24 stories) (161 posts)
+2
1 year ago (2023-09-22)
Hi, Rajine-I agree with you, & Lost Voyage. It was possibly one of the farmer's past family members checking to see what us kids were doing & scaring the crap out of us in the process.
I'm sure whomever was chuckling to themselves after seeing us run away. They were, probably, thinking 'Ha! That should 'teach' you.'.
It surely did teach us. I've always believed in the paranormal, but I retain a scientific frame of mind in doing so because 'some' things 'can' be explained. Like a furnace roaring when it starts up, or some creaks, or groans from an old structure.
However, after going through all the 'logical' possibilities if one cannot come up with a rational explanation, then what is left is, therefore, in the category of the unexplainable. To wit I ponder, & am still fascinated by.
Thank you for reading, & replying! Take care! 😊 😊
The_Lost_Voyage_11 (8 stories) (256 posts)
+2
1 year ago (2023-09-22)
Hello again Linjahaha, good to hear from you!

Yes I believe your little adventure was partially what caused the family/farmer to put the fence up. I also feel as I mentioned that he knew you were telling the truth about what you saw, he was adamant about proving you wrong, to try and dissuade you from telling your story. He knew who and what was in that house and why, perhaps the family skeletons in the closet so to speak.

Most of the stories you read, (not referring to yours, this is just an example) about the 'neighborhood haunted house' come from people exploring the place, then they have an encounter, go back and tell others who then proceed to explore the place to see what they can experience and then on and on it goes until half the population in the area have been there, and the place has quite the reputation, and sometimes it becomes urban legend. Some stories are true, some embellished.

Either way, from the way you describe the place, having a huge population of kids and teens trespassing and exploring a dangerous place, especially if they are lured upstairs when there's no floor, is asking for trouble. Despite the fact that these kids are on private property, the farmer could still be held accountable with lawsuits etc depending on the legislation in the area.

Essentially I believe the fence and his patrols served two purposes, protect the family property and secrets from prying eyes and make sure no one gets hurt that he could be liable for. Of course this begs the question, why not just bulldoze the place and that would resolve both problems. Curiouser and curiouser!
Rajine (14 stories) (899 posts)
+2
1 year ago (2023-09-22)
Old houses carry a lot of history and secrets along with the ghosts of the past that's attached to it, from the way you speak about it, it must have been a grand house back in it's day, clearly one of the spirits must have been really attached to the old mansion.
Linjahaha (24 stories) (161 posts)
+2
1 year ago (2023-09-21)
Hey, Lost Voyage, thanks for your comment. I like hearing from you, & the others. I did not understand it [at] the time, but that would be correct. To whomever was there would remember the house the way it 'was' with the floor intact.
However, when the farmer looked the light disappeared. I have to wonder if, like you said, he 'was' aware of the haunting there. Hence, that is why the place remained empty for 50 plus years afterwards.
All 8 of us 'saw' it. Some of my cousins refuse to even discuss it to this day. My sister is much more open-minded, & we have still talked about it with awe, & fascination. However, like I mentioned, the farmer's family has an electric fence around the property/house with a 'no trespassing' sign on the fence. Maybe 'our' little adventure prompted that! Do ya' think?
Take care,& thanks for reading! 😊 😁
The_Lost_Voyage_11 (8 stories) (256 posts)
+3
1 year ago (2023-09-21)
Hello Linjahaha, what an intriguing experience, thanks for sharing!

My feeling from your story is that whatever remained behind in the house, possibly one of the man's past relatives sensed someone had come to visit when you both attempted to explore the house. It's like someone hearing someone entering their house while they're upstairs working. 'Whoever' it was knew you were there, and was coming to see who it was, hence the light. If it was someone from the previous century to the 20th, carrying a lantern would be appropriate.

Now where it gets interesting, is that a ghost sort of occupies a house on a spiritual plane similar to ours, but the house is how they remember it. It's kind of how they have to manifest in this reality from where they are most of the rest of their time. It's why people see ghosts walk into a wall in a hall and after some careful research they find out a door once existed there. To the ghost, the door still is there in 'their' house. If I haven't lost you yet, it's why the ghost was walking across floors that were no longer there, on that other plane, the non-physical one, the floors were still intact. Since a ghost is no longer a physical being but a spiritual one that hasn't moved on to the regular spiritual plane, they remain behind, stuck between the physical world and a spiritual plane where a carbon copy of sorts exists of their home, or work place or anything else familiar to them. It's why many of them think of a family as 'intruders' in what they still consider their home. Moving between the two planes is why 'it' was there was one minute and not the next when the property owner showed you the truth. I also think that the owner/man with the gun, knew exactly what you kids were talking about, he wasn't oblivious to the goings on in his old family home, he just didn't want the rest of the world to know.

Anyways enough of my rambling, perhaps it will provide some insight, or at least another perspective to your mystery encounter, but it was a good read all the same!

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