Joshua Simpkins - Haunted Marion, Ohio

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Joshua Simpkins

All rights reserved

First published 2011

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.170.4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Simpkins, Josh.

Haunted Marion, Ohio / Josh Simpkins.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p.).

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-235-9

1. Ghosts--Ohio--Marion. 2. Haunted places--Ohio--Marion. I. Title.

BF1472.U6S56 2011

133.109771514--dc23

2011025742

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to extend my thanks to the following people for their help and support. Although I havent mentioned them directly in this book, they were all instrumental in its development. Tom White, Gale Martin and Mary Gross at the Marion County Historical Society; Dawn McCleery, Whitney Mahle, Kathy Stroupe and the rest of the reference and circulation staff at the Marion Public Library; and Tom Graser at the Marion Star, for generously allowing me to reprint some photos.

INTRODUCTION

This book began as a conversation I had a few years ago with my nephew, Seth. He was still in high school at the time and could hardly wait to get out of Marion. He asked me where Id live if I could live anywhere in the world. When I told him Marion, he couldnt believe it. Of all the places in the world, youd live here? Why?! Besides the obvious fact that the majority of my friends and family live in Marion, I said that its the only place where I really feel at ease. I also told him that of all the cities Ive lived inincluding a few abroadI find Marion the most interesting.

Later, I thought about what Id said to Seth. Is Marion really an interesting place? Its not that I think Marion would strike any out-of-towners as particularly mind-blowing if they were simply passing through it. But for someone like myself who grew up here, I feel as though I know Marion in ways that only someone with real roots here can ever know it.

And what I know is that Marion is a town with some good stories. While some of these stories end up in the local news, often the most compelling stories are the ones that travel by word of mouth. These are the ones people tell one another in bars over beers or in churches after servicethe stories people share in the bleachers at ballgames and on the factory floors.

This book, then, is a collection of some of those stories, albeit ones with a decidedly macabre bent. (What can I say? I wanted the stories about Marion to have a common subject, and since I have an interest in the odd, the scary and the supernatural, this was as good a theme as any.) So, during the summer of 2008, I began collecting stories, both through doing research at the library and through simply talking to people around town.

When I had about a half-dozen stories, I bought the domain www.spookymarion.com, put together a website and put the stories online. The site began getting a decent number of hits. Encouraged, I tried to update it on a semiregular basis. In the fall of 2010, a guy named Joe Gartrell from The History Press contacted me to ask if I was interested in writing a book on Marion that would be part of the publishers Haunted America series. I readily agreed.

While Im rambling on in this introduction, Id like to take this opportunity to make a few things clear.

First, in the course of writing this book, a lot of people have questioned me about my own attitude concerning the supernatural. While I believe in keeping an open mind, I have never seen anything even remotely supernaturalno ghosts, no bumps in the night and no disembodied voices. This doesnt mean that I simply dismiss other peoples experiences as nonsenseIve just never had any myself.

Ive also done my best to document the sources of the information Ive used to write this book. This information comes from both archival research and interviews. The decision about whether those sources are credible is something I will leave up to the reader. While I cant really comment on the intentions or credibility of the writers and journalists Ive cited, I will say that everyone I interviewed while writing this book seemed totally sincereI wouldnt have included any stories I felt someone was simply making up.

Lastly, Id like to make it clear that I love Marion, and this book has been a labor of love. Some of these stories are bound to stir up unpleasant memories for some people in town, and for that I apologize. It has never been my intention to hurt anyone with this book. Its true that some of these stories represent Marions darker side, but Id like to think that most of us who live here would agree that the good in Marion far outweighs the bad.

SHOE STRING JACK AND THE OLD CITY HALL

It was former Marion fire chief Phil Reid who eventually set me straight about the location of the old city hall in Marion. I had sat down with him up at the Marion Public Library to talk about haunted fire stations. Specifically, I wanted to ask him about Fire Station No. 1 (the fire station on South Prospect Street) and whether he had any good storiespreferably ghost storiesto share about the place. Since its one of the older buildings in town, and since firefighters tend to have a strong sense of tradition, I figured there might be a few good stories to pass along. While Mr. Reid told me a couple of good ones, unfortunately none of them was a ghost story.

However, he did mention something in passing that I had never realized. You know, there was another fire station before Fire Station No. 1, he said. It was on the northeast corner of Church and Prospect. Actually, the fire station, city hall and the city jail were all in the same building for years. I did some research and discovered that if I wanted any spook stories concerning a firehouse in Marion, this particular building was the one on which I should concentrate.

Constructed in 1857, the old city hall was never one of Marions more distinguished-looking buildings. It was thirty-five feet by eighty feet and resembled, if anything, an overgrown one-room schoolhouse. According to the book History of Marion County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, [T]he lower story [was] used as the Central Station of the Fire Department and as the city prison. The upper part [was] used for the mayors office, municipal court, police headquarters and sleeping quarters for the firemen. It wasnt a particularly beloved building, either. History of Marion County, Ohio goes on to say that [t]he building will next year be half a century old and is a standing disgrace and eyesore to a city which in all other respects outclasses her sister cities.

A postcard showing the old Marion City Hall. The location is now a parking lot.