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Category Archives: Indiana

The Haunted Infirmary

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South of Winchester along US-27 is a large brick building. Above the front door carved in stone are the words RANDOLPH CO. INFIRMARY. It was built in 1899 and served the citizens of Randolph County for over a century. The property started as the county poor farm in 1851, taking care of the mentally and physically disabled, elderly and orphans. The large 5000 square foot building that stands today cared for many people over the decades.

It has also seen its share of tragedy. It is believed that over two hundred people have died in the facility, many from tuberculosis and some to suicide and possibly murder. It is said that one man died after being pushed out a second story window. The infirmary contained up to 350 acres for farming and livestock, and it also has a cemetery with unmarked graves for the people who died under its care. In the 1990s, it was used as a nursing home; it closed in 2008. The current owner, Dann Allen, purchased the historic old asylum in 2016 to save it from demolition. It is currently being used as a paranormal attraction for visitors to explore paranormal activity.

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The House of Happy Little Trees

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Bob Ross is known for painting “happy little trees” in his landscape paintings of mountains on his television series The Joy Of Painting, which aired on PBS. What most people don’t know is that many of his paintings were created in an historic mansion in Indiana. His first season was recorded in 1983 at a PBS station in Virginia. Afterwards, he traveled the country giving classes in various cities. One of those cities was Muncie, Indiana. The local PBS station WIPB was so mesmerized by his skill and calm demeanor that they offered him the chance to record his TV show in their studio. It was not your typical studio. It was the former home of Lucius L. Ball, who came to Muncie with his brothers to produce mason jars.

The home eventually became the studio of PBS affiliate WIPB. Bob Ross lived in Florida but came up to Muncie to record his TV show. Black cloth backdrops were hung in a room on the first floor. He set up his easel and painted while a cameraman recorded it. When he cleaned his brush by dipping it in turpentine and then dried it by “beating the devil out of it” on his easel’s leg, it splattered everywhere in the small room. That is why he joked and laughed many times while cleaning his brush.

He recorded fifteen seasons in the mansion until they moved to a new state of the art studio on the campus of Ball University. Bob Ross died in 1995 from Lymphoma, but his TV show continues on in syndication and on the internet. The mansion is still used as offices for WIPB, but they have recently opened it up to visitors to see Ross’s original studio.

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The Log Cabin Chapel

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Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is located a few miles northwest of Terre Haute. It is the oldest college in Indiana. In 1839, the first bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes in Indiana requested help from his home country of France. He asked for a congregation to assist in teaching the early pioneers of Indiana. Mother Theodore Guerin was asked to take on the challenge. Reluctant at first, she agreed to lead five other Sisters of Providence to Indiana.

After two months of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean and traveling into the heart of America, they made it to the forests of Indiana. The six sisters founded an academy in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods for the education of young women. In 1846, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College was granted the first charter for the higher education of women in the state of Indiana. It was the first women’s college to offer journalism courses and a degree in secondary education for women.

The beautiful campus is home to several historic and religious structures and buildings. Nestled among the trees and green lawns is a log cabin. It is a replica of a cabin the sisters used as a chapel when they first completed their long journey to Indiana. Logs to construct the replica were donated from a cabin in southern Indiana owned by David and Faye Masterson of Owensville. Construction of the log chapel was done by inmates of the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute.

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The Haunted Infirmary

Posted on by Posted in Buildings, Haunted, Indiana Leave a comment

South of Winchester, Indiana along US-27 is a large brick building. Above the front door carved in stone are the words RANDOLPH CO. INFIRMARY. It was built in 1899 and served the citizens of Randolph County for over a century. The property started as the county poor farm in 1851, taking care of the mentally and physically disabled, elderly and orphans. The large 5000 square foot building that stands today cared for many people over the decades.

It has also seen its share of tragedy. It is believed that over two hundred people have died in the facility, many from tuberculosis and some to suicide and possibly murder. It is said that one man died after being pushed out a second story window. The infirmary contained up to 350 acres for farming and livestock, and it also has a cemetery with unmarked graves for the people who died under its care.

In the 1990s, it was used as a nursing home; it closed in 2008. The current owner, Dan Allen, purchased the historic old asylum in 2016 to save it from demolition. It is currently being used as a paranormal attraction for visitors to explore paranormal activity.

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A Tombstone for a Town

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Elkinsville Road winds its way deep into the Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana. Near the end of the road you will find an old barn and a stone marker for “The Town That Was”. It stands like a tombstone for the town of Elkinsville. The town was founded in 1860 by William Elkin. The rural farming village survived in the beautiful remote wilderness for about a century. It never grew into a large city, but it did have several houses along with a church, school, blacksmith and a post office. As the population of Bloomington grew, it was necessary to have a large source of drinking water.

In the 1960s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided to dam the Salt Creek and create Lake Monroe water reservoir. They determined that the town of Elkinsville would be in the floodplain and be underwater. In 1964, the government, using eminent domain, acquired the private property belonging to the citizens and businesses of Elkinsville. Most of the houses and buildings were moved or demolished before the reservoir was created.

When Lake Monroe was created and the water stopped rising, the land where the town of Elkinsville remained above water. The elevation of the town had been miscalculated, and it was not necessary to disband the town, but by then it was too late, and the town had already been removed from the Indiana forest. In 2003, the former residents raised enough funds to erect a stone to remember the town. On it is a poem: “That day we moved, we’ll never forget, as goodbyes were said and the sun set. Never again in these hills we’ll roam, but in our hearts this is always home.”

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Ball Mansion

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The Ball Mansion sits on a hill in the Ninth Street Hill Neighborhood Historic District in Lafayette, Indiana. The two-story brick mansion was built in 1868 by Cyrus Ball.  He was a local businessman and layer that was elected one of the three associate Judges for the district in 1840. He was also the collector of tolls for the Wabash and Erie Canal. Ball died in 1893 but this magnificent house still stands with the three story tower looking over the city where he lived and worked. The house is a private residence but it is impressive to see from the road.

If you love exploring the Hoosier State or reading about its interesting places, I hope you will take a look at my Lost In Indiana book available on Amazon HERE

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Whispers Estate

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North of downtown Mitchell, Indiana on a block of modest homes is a rather unassuming two-story house. It has a wrought iron fence and a pair of stone angel statues in front of it. Looking at it from the outside, you would assume it was just another ordinary Midwestern home. Inside, the owner claims strange paranormal events happen, making it one of the most haunted locations in the Hoosier State. Known as the Whispers Estate, it was built in 1894. Dr. John Gibbons purchased the home in 1899 and used the lower floor as his office, where he saw patients. Dr. Gibbons and his wife had adopted several orphaned children and were well respected in the community. Their ten-year-old daughter Rachel was severely burned by a fire she started in the parlor. Two days later, she died in her upstairs bedroom.

The Gibbon’s ten-month-old daughter Elizabeth died in the home from a mysterious illness. Dr. Gibbon’s wife Jessie died of pneumonia in the same bedroom that Elizabeth passed away in. The house, having seen its share of tragedy over the decades, is said to be cursed by some of its former residents. Some people have claimed to see the spirit of a little girl roaming the house, possibly that of Rachel. They also have heard the sounds of heavy breathing and coughing in the master bedroom where Jessie died from pneumonia. They say the door knob on the closet door jiggles on its own and the door mysteriously opens. The home is known as Whispers Estate because guests have heard strange voices whispering in their ears.

 

If you love reading about strange an unique places in Indiana, I hope you will take a look at my Lost In Indiana book available on Amazon HERE

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The Unidentified Victims Belle Gunness

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Belle Gunness lived on a farm near La Porte, Indiana. In 1908 her farmhouse burned down and her children’s bodies were discovered burned in the fire along with a female’s body that was missing its head. It was believed to be the remains of Belle Gunness. After further investigations of the property the remains of eleven other people were found buried on the property but the bodies were decomposed to the point that they were not able to be identified.

Belle was born Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth in Norway and came to the United States when she was a teenager and changed her name to Belle. She married Mads Sørensen and they owned a candy store in Chicago. The store burned down and shortly after thier house was destroyed by fire as well. The received and insurance payout for both properties. Two of  Gunness’ children died from inflammation of the large intestine, which can result from poisoning. But she did receive life insurance payouts. Mads came home from work one day with a terrible headache. Belle gave him some medicine for the pain and when she checked in on him later he had died. Interestingly it was when two life insurance policies on her husband overlapped and she collected on both of them.

Belle moved to a farm in La Porte that she had purchased with her husband’s life insurance. In 1902 she married Peter Gunness and eight months later he was dead. She said a meat grinder had fallen on him when he was trying to reach something on a high shelf. And once again she collected on another insurance policy.  She took out advertisements in newspapers looking for a man to live on the farm with her and her children. Several men had answered her advertisements but according to her they ran off for one reason or another. That is when suspicion started to set in and then the farm house had suddenly burned down. Some believe she faked her death and moved out west but I guess we will never know for sure.

Belle Guinness is believed to have murdered about forty people and is considered one of the first female serial killers in the United States. A grave marker stands on a hill in Pine Lake Cemetery in La Porte, not in honor of a serial killer but in the memory of the victims she murdered.

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The Resting Place of Johnny Appleseed

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Growing up in the Midwest, I remember the tall tales of colorful people such as Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Johnny Appleseed. I am not sure if all of them are based on real people, but Johnny Appleseed was the nickname of a real person. Born in Massachusetts in 1774, John Chapman moved to western Pennsylvania when he was a teenager. A few years later, his father and his siblings moved to the Ohio Territory, where Chapman worked on his father’s farm. He started an apprenticeship at a nearby apple orchard that began his journey of growing apple trees.

Chapman traveled around the region, helping people plant and grow apple trees. They were not the apples that most people are familiar with today. They were smaller bitter sour apples used in the making of hard cider. Because of the lack of fresh water, hard cider was safer to drink and was less likely to contain bacteria and diseases. The fact that a person could get drunk from it also helped in its popularity. Having apples to make cider was more of a necessity to survive the harsh conditions of the unsettled Midwest. John Chapman was well liked for his kindness and generosity, giving out seeds and helping people plant them. He acquired the nickname of Johnny Appleseed as he traveled around from homestead to homestead. Chapman traveled throughout the Midwest during his lifetime.

In 1834, he came to the Fort Wayne area and purchased land along the Maumee River for a nursery. While he was visiting a friend in Fort Wayne, he became ill and died in 1845. The exact date of his death is not certain, and a stone that is believed to mark his grave is located in a small park near the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. Up on a small hill with two apple trees and a wrought iron fence is a memorial where people leave apples in his memory. The Johnny Appleseed Festival is held at the park every year on the third weekend in September.

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The Schenck Mansion

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The small town of Vevay sits along the Ohio River between Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The beautiful little river town has a historic downtown surrounded by average midwestern homes. The one home that stands out is an enormous second empire style brick mansion that stands on a hillside overlooking the community of Vevay. The home known as the Schenck Mansion was built in 1874 by Benjamin Franklin Schenck, the son of the “Hay King” Ulysses Schenck.

In the early 1800s, many Europeans came to the Ohio River Valley in the hopes of starting a new life in the United States. Many Swiss families came to the area around Vevay, and the county was given the name Switzerland County. In 1817, Ulysses Schenck emigrated from Switzerland to Vevay and set up a mercantile business selling goods to local farmers. Realizing there was money to be made in transporting hay downriver, he purchased a steamboat to ship the feed grown by local farmers. As business grew along with his wealth, he became known as the Hay King. With the money gained from his father’s business, Benjamin Schenk built his grand home on the hillside overlooking the town. Tragically, he died two years after construction began in 1874 and was never able to live in the completed home. His widow and children lived in the home a few years before moving away. The house on the hill sat empty for decades until the family donated the home to the Indiana Baptist Convention in 1923.

The mansion was given back to the family in 1928 and then sold to the Wiseman family in 1945. The home had changed owners several times over the decades, and the upper floors had been divided up into apartments. In the late 90s, Jerry and Lisa Fisher purchased the home and renovated it into a bed and breakfast. The new owners fixed up the old mansion, bringing it back to the grandeur it once had when it was originally built. In 2020, the home was sold to tattoo artist Kat Von D, who starred on the TV show LA Ink. She is using it as a private residence. There are rumors of the home being haunted. One of the stories claims that the land that the mansion was built on originally had a home on it that burned down. The owners of the home were trapped inside and burned up with the house, and their spirits still roam the property. The fact that Benjamin Schenck died before the home was completed also lends one to believe his spirit still haunts the home he constructed. I am not sure any of it is true, but it is a beautiful historic house along the Ohio River.

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