Rebecca Patrick-Howard - Haunted Madison County

Rebecca Patrick-Howard

With Suzie Ratliff & Peter Howard

Haunted Madison County

Copyright 2015 by Rebecca Patrick-Howard

www.rebeccaphoward.net

Published by Mistletoe Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

First Edition: November 2015

Printed in the United States of America

For Kristy, Suzie, Bobby Sue, JR, Chris, Brian, David, Bonnie, and the rest of us who used to know the county roads like the backs of our hands...

Introduction

A RE GHOST STORIES important ? Do they mean anything? Are they necessary?

The fact is, folklore has always been an integral part of not only Appalachian culture but as far back as recorded history can remember. Who were the Greeks and Romans without their mythology? What would we know of the Celts without their stories? Long before television, telephones, and the Internet, oral history was how we spread the news: stories were passed on, and the culture and identity of a place were shaped.

Of course, by todays standards, some of the older stories sound outlandish and improbable, but they werent always meant to be taken at face value. Often, stories and urban legends, and especially fairy tales, carried morals with themmorals that served as important life lessons, warnings, and instructions for that time. They reflected an area's culture, time period, and even current events. Morality tales were frequently told to warn young people from going astray. Look at the story of the young couple parked on Lovers Lane, who get attacked by a man with a hook (or an escaped mental facility patient or a man with an ax...the story changes a lot). That particular story was popularized in the 1950s when teenagers were beginning to date (as opposed to socializing in group settings) and, more importantly, it was when the family car became a more prominent structure in dating. So what was the moral of that story? Dont go parking alone with your girlfriend or else you might get killed.

Then there were family tales, stories either re-told or even just created to share the history of ones lineage (be them true or not).

And, of course, the scary stories were often simply used for entertainment purposes. That has never been out of style and will hopefully (for some of us anyway) never will be).

It might sound funny today, but creepy stories as we know them now were used as entertainment during Christmas gatherings rather than for the Halloween scares we see in slasher films today. We hear a lot about the old-fashioned Christmas and how the season used to be a time for gathering the family and creating ones form of entertainment. However, that sometimes included trying to outdo one another with horror stories about ogres and demons and witches and other chilling tales that are now more recognized with Halloween. (Okay, in some of our families we might still do that at Christmas...)

I grew up in Madison County. I have a strong sense of familiarity with a lot of places Ive written about in this book.

For many, many years I lived on Eastern Kentucky Universitys campus in one of the dorms (Telford) where my mother was area coordinator. My mother also worked in the library at Berea College, and we lived in university housing just three doors down from Boone Tavern.

During my teenage years, I lived near Curtis Pike and used to ride my bike (sometimes in the middle of the night with a flashlight for headlights to Lake Wilgreen). And, for a short time, I lived in Richmond Manor Apartments while my mother was a college student. In fact, many of the friends I still have more than thirty years later are those I met during my residency at Richmond Manormany of us living there and playing together while our parents sought higher education or better jobs. It was a wonderful time in my life.

So I have lived all over Madison County, although I now make my home in Irvine (though my mom lives in Waco).

As teenagers without any money, my friends and I used to pull our money for gas (back when we could fill up for less than $15), turn the radio up, and drive around exploring as wed try to find the specters that haunted the various mysterious places around the county. We visited Salem Cemetery, Little Egypt, Westover Terrace, the Pigg House, Easterns dorms...

Not long ago, I was in a local business, and the cashier asked me about this book and inquired about its release date. We began talking about some of the ghost stories, and I mentioned the Cane Patch Murder and asked if shed heard of it, or heard of the ghost of the headless woman associated with the story. She hadnt. I told her that many people had told me a variation of that tale, but that the stories had come from an older generation.

Thats why Im glad youre doing this, she replied. So that the future generations remember these when the rest of us are gone.

Incidentally, thats why I began collecting these stories in the first placefor my kids to enjoy them one day.

I gathered the following stories through research, online and off. Some of them are from my own personal experiences. Several people submitted stories to me on my website. If they wanted credit, I kept their real names. Many wanted to be anonymous. I noted that where applicable. Some asked that I edit and proofread their stories. Others didnt mind if I left them as-is. These are denoted as well.

Some readers might read through the book and wonder why I didnt mention Haunted Location A or Haunted Location B. The fact is, I could probably write a whole other book about additional locations here in the county. I am still getting stories sent to me and to my editor. I wanted to use authentic experiences from real people here in the county, and not make anything up. So I worked with what I had at the time.

Of course, now I have more. Thats how I ended up with two volumes of Haunted Estill County .

A good friend of mine, fellow local author Keven McQueen, wrote the following on his website:

The bloated, headless corpse of a woman; a disembodied head resting atop a mound; a bloody corn knife; a ghost car. All of these elements combined to give Madison Countians bad dreams in 1936. (http://www.kevenmcqueenstories.com/published_works)