Do you believe there is such a thing as a haunted house?
I have heard many tales about such places. But as for me, I have never experienced ghosts or haunted places.
My daddy used to tell us about a house he lived in that he swore was haunted and others told the same tales about it.
He said at night something would come in the room and pull the covers off the bed. You could feel someone’s breath on you but you could not see them. Sometimes they rattled the bed. You could also hear their footsteps in the hallway and in the room.
Now, I might have heard them once, but you had better believe I would not have been around to hear them a second time.
Near this same house, a horse reportedly could be heard running down the road dragging chains. It was said the horse was trying to find its rider who had been knocked off and killed when the animal ran under a tree that had been blown over in a storm. It was dark and the rider did not see the tree.
There is also a tale told about a haunted house in Hinesville on the corner of North Main and Washington Street.
E.C. Caswell built the two-story house in 1903 when he and his wife, Ellen Long Caswell, sold their farm on Canoochee Bluff — today the Fort Stewart reservation — and moved to Hinesville. They had no children.
Ernest Groover purchased the home in 1951, and he and his wife, Susie Taylor Groover, lived there until the last of the two died in 1976.
I have been in this house many times when it was used as a doctor’s office but I did not know it was supposed to be haunted.
In the stillness of a cold winter night, one may hear eerie voices speaking in whispers. As you climb the dark stairs to the second floor, you may feel the warm air change to icy cold.
Cats and dogs reportedly refuse to enter a certain room on the second floor.
An occupant of the room once said the curtains on the windows tried to wrap themselves around his neck. He fled the house terrified.
Several people have died in the house. But that one room on the second floor seems to be the home of a ghostly spirit.
According to the story, a traveling salesman met a married woman in Hinesville in 1914 and they fell in love. Her husband suspected something and intercepted a letter from the salesman. The woman’s husband told her he had to travel to another state on business. She immediately arranged a tryst with the salesman, and her husband intercepted that letter also.
On a cold and rainy October night, the salesman stepped off the Flemington, Hinesville and Western Railroad train at its depot on Main Street in Hinesville. The husband, hidden in bushes opposite the depot, fired three shots at the salesman and then galloped off on his horse and was never seen again in Hinesville.
The badly wounded salesman was taken to the room on the second floor of the house. An hour later, without ever regaining consciousness, he died. His lover moved away from Hinesville and no one knew where she went.
Several years ago, a visitor sat in the living room of the house while his host went to the kitchen. When the host returned, the visitor said, “ I thought you were alone in the house.” The host said he was.
“But I keep hearing whispers in the next room,” the visitor said.
They both went to the room and found it empty.
Another occupant of the house said he is “sensitive” and felt the presence of a ghostly spirit the very first time he entered the house. But he said he thinks it is a friendly poltergeist that would hurt no one.
If you walk about Hinesville on the eve of All Saints Day on Oct. 31, and pass this two-story house, look up to a window on the second floor and you might see a pale face staring out at you. Others have seen it!
They believe it is the salesman waiting sadly for his ladylove.
I have heard many tales about such places. But as for me, I have never experienced ghosts or haunted places.
My daddy used to tell us about a house he lived in that he swore was haunted and others told the same tales about it.
He said at night something would come in the room and pull the covers off the bed. You could feel someone’s breath on you but you could not see them. Sometimes they rattled the bed. You could also hear their footsteps in the hallway and in the room.
Now, I might have heard them once, but you had better believe I would not have been around to hear them a second time.
Near this same house, a horse reportedly could be heard running down the road dragging chains. It was said the horse was trying to find its rider who had been knocked off and killed when the animal ran under a tree that had been blown over in a storm. It was dark and the rider did not see the tree.
There is also a tale told about a haunted house in Hinesville on the corner of North Main and Washington Street.
E.C. Caswell built the two-story house in 1903 when he and his wife, Ellen Long Caswell, sold their farm on Canoochee Bluff — today the Fort Stewart reservation — and moved to Hinesville. They had no children.
Ernest Groover purchased the home in 1951, and he and his wife, Susie Taylor Groover, lived there until the last of the two died in 1976.
I have been in this house many times when it was used as a doctor’s office but I did not know it was supposed to be haunted.
In the stillness of a cold winter night, one may hear eerie voices speaking in whispers. As you climb the dark stairs to the second floor, you may feel the warm air change to icy cold.
Cats and dogs reportedly refuse to enter a certain room on the second floor.
An occupant of the room once said the curtains on the windows tried to wrap themselves around his neck. He fled the house terrified.
Several people have died in the house. But that one room on the second floor seems to be the home of a ghostly spirit.
According to the story, a traveling salesman met a married woman in Hinesville in 1914 and they fell in love. Her husband suspected something and intercepted a letter from the salesman. The woman’s husband told her he had to travel to another state on business. She immediately arranged a tryst with the salesman, and her husband intercepted that letter also.
On a cold and rainy October night, the salesman stepped off the Flemington, Hinesville and Western Railroad train at its depot on Main Street in Hinesville. The husband, hidden in bushes opposite the depot, fired three shots at the salesman and then galloped off on his horse and was never seen again in Hinesville.
The badly wounded salesman was taken to the room on the second floor of the house. An hour later, without ever regaining consciousness, he died. His lover moved away from Hinesville and no one knew where she went.
Several years ago, a visitor sat in the living room of the house while his host went to the kitchen. When the host returned, the visitor said, “ I thought you were alone in the house.” The host said he was.
“But I keep hearing whispers in the next room,” the visitor said.
They both went to the room and found it empty.
Another occupant of the house said he is “sensitive” and felt the presence of a ghostly spirit the very first time he entered the house. But he said he thinks it is a friendly poltergeist that would hurt no one.
If you walk about Hinesville on the eve of All Saints Day on Oct. 31, and pass this two-story house, look up to a window on the second floor and you might see a pale face staring out at you. Others have seen it!
They believe it is the salesman waiting sadly for his ladylove.