Halloween Countdown 2018, Day 8

[eldritchhobbit]

As you may know, I moved to a new town and state earlier this year. Today I’d like to give you a virtual spooky tour of my new home: Richmond, Kentucky!

(Photos by Yours Truly.)

Richmond Cemetery

This cemetery is wonderfully atmospheric. It includes the graves of soldiers from the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Little Bighorn, and the Civil War (both sides), as well as a U.S. ambassador, a Hall of Fame baseball player, and, in the words of the official site, “frontiersmen and farmers who struggled to settle Kentucky and shape the land. A Shoshone Chief, a pair of Gypsy brothers, and many young mothers buried with their infants."

From the cemetery’s official website:

The Richmond Cemetery was chartered over one hundred and fifty years ago on January 25th, 1848, but eight years would pass before anyone would be buried there. Additional time was required to procure land and enact a needed tax. The city’s dead continued to be buried on a knoll on the north side of East Main Street. By 1852 this graveyard was unable to accommodate more bodies. It was unkempt, unprotected and according to the Weekly Messenger; new graves could not be dug “without disinterring the moldering remains of some person who had for years been sleeping in the tomb. The graves of slumbering hundreds are exposed to be trampled upon by horses, cattle, hogs, etc.” In response to this plea, the cemetery incorporators acted. Between 1852 and 1856 the corporation bought 18 acres of land from Joel Walker, previously owned by Colonel Humphrey Jones. In later years additional land was purchased above the first graves.

Irvinton House

From the Richmond Register’s article “The Haunted History of Richmond”:

The beautiful house of Irvinton sits very near the EKU campus and overlooks the playground of the Irvine-McDowell Park. One would never know by looking at it of the tragedy that befell the family that once called it home. Originally built in 1820, the home was bought by David Irvine and given to his daughter Elizabeth as a wedding present. Elizabeth and her husband William Irvine would attempt to raise a family in their new home, but happiness was not to be. Every single one of their five children fell sick and died. Susan and Addie contracted Scarlet Fever, dying a day apart and were placed in the same casket. A son named Willie died at the age of four from what many believe was Cholera. Another daughter Kate died at eight from Yellow Fever. And Bessie, their longest living child, died at 19 from Typhoid Fever while visiting New York. The home also saw the deaths of Mrs. Irvine’s brother and husband. With no one to leave her belongings to, Mrs. Irvine left her home to the State Medical Society. The house became a trachoma hospital until 1951. Later, it became the home of the Richmond Tourism office and a museum, which it is today.

Though spirits of Irvinton are not particularly active, many have believed that they have smelled the scent of roses waft through the halls. And some have claimed to have felt an uncontrollable sadness while in the house that could possibly
be left over emotions from the family that once lived there.

Madison Middle School

Most of the accounts of unsettling events at Madison Middle School seem to be set on the third floor. The Unusual Kentucky site attributes this to two murders there, one of a teacher in the 1940s and one of a student in the 1950s. Pages 2 and 3 of the Richmond, Kentucky section of Ghosts of America include stories from the school’s third floor. Northern Kentucky Afterlife Investigations includes Madison in its list of haunted schools. And then there’s the Madison Middle School ghost photo.

Four Mile Road

The urban legend with the most traction here by far is that of Four Mile Road.

From the Richmond Register’s article “The Haunted History of Richmond”:

Many Madison county residents know of the Four Mile Road legend, though the truth behind the story is not known…. there are two variations of this story. One is that Little Egypt was a hitchhiker that was hit and killed by a car, the other is that she was picked up by some local boys who raped and killed her. But it is said that those wishing to see her ghost can go to the green bridge, crack their window, call her name three times. She will come into the car as a puff of air and will ride along to see if the driver is her killer. Some say that if the window is not left open so that she can leave the vehicle when she realizes that her murderer is not in the car, she will wreck the car to get out.

There are also other versions/accounts of the tale. Read more about Four Mile Road…

From Things That Go Bump in the
Night,

From Writing for Revenge, and

From Soul Scribbles.

And check out this “electronic voice phenomenon” recording from Four Mile Road from Keith “Kmass” Gray.

Comments

[febobe]

What a splendid post! Thank you for choosing to highlight an eastern Kentucky locale. :) I'm so glad we're back in the same state, at least!

All the times I've been to Richmond, and I never knew all of these. :) Thank you so much! <3

[eldritchhobbit]

Yay! I'm so happy you enjoyed this. It was a lot of fun to put together. I'm delighted that some of this was new to you, too! <3 Thanks for your kind words!!!

[acciochocolate]

I would have never known all this if it weren't for yr post! The house looks beautiful, but the story is so sad. Modern medicine from WWII on would have seemed a miracle or magic to our ancestors.

[eldritchhobbit]

Thanks so much! It is a very sad story about that family, isn't it? My students often ask, since I'm a historian, what time in history I'd most like to live in, and I always say today (!!!) -- because, as you say, thank goodness for modern medicine.

[acciochocolate]

Very tragic. One can understand why the idea of hauntings arises in response to the emotions generated by such events.

Having spent time in the SCA and minored in English history, the other thing that has occurred to me that if we could time-travel back to the Middle Ages, it would be our modern mindset that would betray us; even if our garb and speech were perfect, we have different cultural expectations, and would give ourselves away rather quickly. I'm reminded of a 3rd season TOS eppie where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are in a library on a planet whose star is going nova. Kirk ends up in a Renaissance era in the planet's past by accident, and is declared a witch, not by his uniform but by his actions. Episode: "All Our Yesterdays". (Couldn't remember the title.)

[eldritchhobbit]

Excellent point! (Great Trek episode, by the way!) We would give ourselves away even if we looked and sounded the part. Even today, people have a difficult time getting into the mindset/worldview of another contemporary place/culture, and our world is smaller and more interconnected than it's ever been thanks to technology. The past is a much more alien place!

[acciochocolate]

Exactly so!

Too bad TOS didn't end the 3rd season on a high note like AOY; the last eppie was rather sexist, even if the concept was intriguing.