While doing research, I come across many tragic and strange urban legends. Some are wild fictional tales, and others are true stories about horrific events. The legend of Gore Orphanage is a wild tale based on a series of events. The legend goes that Gore Orphanage along the Vermillion River in Northern Ohio burned down, killing several children. Remains of the building can be seen in the woods and the spirits of the children roam the area.
To start with, there was no such place as Gore Orphanage. A road of that name does exist. It was originally named Gore Road. Not for blood and horror, but for the shape of a piece of cloth used in making a woman’s skirt. There was an orphanage on the road and that was probably when the name changed. The name of the orphanage was Light of Hope. It was a farm that was established by Reverend Johann Sprunger and his wife. They built it after their first orphanage in Berne, Indiana burned down but no one was killed or injured in the fire.
The new orphanage in northern Ohio in 1902 housed about one hundred twenty children. A few years later, some of the children ran away and told of the horrific conditions and abuse. They were forced to live in rat infested barracks and fed very little food. Treated like slaves, they were forced to work on the farm, and many of them were whipped by Sprunger. He would also rent out children to other farmers in the area. When they were investigated in 1909, the Sprungers admitted to the abuse, but they were not prosecuted because there were no laws prohibiting it in Ohio at the time. Johann Sprunger died two years after the investigation, and the orphanage was officially shut down.
During that same time period, one of the most horrific events in Ohio and the United States occurred in the town of Collingwood east of Cleveland. In 1908, a fire started in a three story elementary school. One hundred seventy six students were burned or trampled to death when they were trapped in the fire. The children tried to exit down the front stairs but were blocked by the flames. Trying to escape out the rear of the school, the doors opened inward, and many of the students were crushed up against the doors, desperately trying to open them.
At the southern edge of the Orphanage’s farmland was an old abandoned mansion. Named Rosedale, the massive Greek revival house was built in 1841 by Joseph Smith. He moved to the area from Massachusetts and had great success as a farmer. He built the home for his family, and after losing a fortune in railroad investments, he had to sell the house in the 1870s. Spiritualist Nicholas Wilbur purchased the home and moved in with his family. It was said that he would hold seances with his wife and children to speak with the dead. At that time, spiritualism was all the rage, and it was not uncommon for people to try to communicate with spirits. The Wilburs moved out of the house, and by 1901, it was abandoned. Four of their grandchildren died of diphtheria after they moved away, but rumors persisted that they were buried on the property.
While the house sat abandoned in the early 1900s, local teenagers dared each other to enter the home, saying that it was haunted. Vandals set fire to the mansion, and it burned to the ground in 1923. In the trees off Gore Orphanage Road are some stones used in the foundations of the old mansion. The tragic events in the region, an old abandoned mansion, and a road named Gore Orphanage have combined to become the urban legend of the Gore Orphanage. I am not sure who owns the property of the former mansion or if it is open to the public. There was a sign for a park near the blocks from the old mansion so it may be part of a county park but I am not sure.
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