Janice Tremeear - Haunted Ozarks

Route 66 Paranormal Alliance members. From left to right: Dustin Rowlett, Andrew Muller, Alicia Holder (seated, co-founder), Janice Tremeear (co-founder/author, standing), Dean Pestana, Kenneth Brewer (seated), Charlene Wells and Jeanna Barker. Photo by Chris Bryant of Bryant Business Graphics, Buffalo, Missouri.

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Janice Tremeear

All rights reserved

First published 2011

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.173.5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tremeear, Janice.

Haunted Ozarks / Janice Tremeear.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p.).

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-152-9

1. Haunted places--Ozark Mountains. 2. Ghosts--Ozark Mountains. I. Title.

BF1472.U6T758 2011

133.1097671--dc22

2011005033

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.

A stone with a hole in it placed in the stable prevents horses from being ridden by witches at night. Braiding a horses tail with ribbons prevents witches from riding it at night.

All mirrors in a room where a person has died should be covered, as the next person to look in the mirror will also die. A picture falling off the wall, a bird flying into the house and ringing in the ears all are signs of impending death.

To rid your house of ghosts, when you go to bed at night, set out the shoes youll wear in the morning at the foot of the bed. Place one with the toes pointing one way and the other with the toes pointing the opposite way. This confuses the ghosts so badly that they will leave after a few nights.

Placing a tomato on your windowsill will scare away evil spirits. A tomato placed over the hearth will bring prosperity into the house. Tomato juice on your hair will make it grow faster. Tomatoes are considered an aphrodisiac and are called Love Apples. (I often heard this term as a kid.) German folklore believed tomatoes were kin to the nightshade, used by witches to produce werewolves, and the German name for the fruit means wolf peach. Linnaeus is the man who scientifically named the tomato Lycopersicon esculentum, meaning edible wolf peach.

Ozark superstitions

Asparagus helps promote elimination through urine. It is considered a liver tonic and contains amino acids.

If you have an abscessed tooth or a boil, apply a piece of onion to that area to draw out infection and encourage circulation for faster healing.

Eating fresh apples daily can help with gout and rheumatism.

Put a piece of fresh bread on a wound to stop bleeding

Apply vinegar to wasp stings to reduce swelling.

To cure warts, take a dead cat to a graveyard at midnight. When you hear a noise, throw the cat toward the soundthat will take the warts away. Or rub warts with a raw potato and bury the potato in clay.

To cure a cold, inhale the smoke of burning feathers.

To cure a stomachache, burn out an owls nest on a mountain and then eat fruit out of it.

Folklore remedies

CONTENTS

DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is dedicated to my uncle Richard Brantley and his chalkboard of words only an English teacher would know aimed in a verbal joust at a rowdy kid who is now writing books but is still without his command of the language.

To Project Vagabond, my big sisters in the belly dance community, who are always supportive.

To the gals of the group Im part of, Gypsy Sol. I missed several classes while writing this book, and they have been so patient with me and concerned when I come to class looking tired from too many late nights at the keyboard. Thanks girls. I love you all. You are family and always offer encouragement when I need it.

To my kids: Jennifer, Charlene and Nathaniel. Charlene is part of my team, Route 66 Paranormal Alliance, and is a solid member. Shes also helped with research for both my previous book, Missouris Haunted Route 66: Ghosts Along the Mother Road, and this one. Nate experienced his first paranormal investigation with mom, and I think hes a natural; hes got a flair for the work.

To my grandchildren: Geoffrey, Madison, Tonia and Erica. Madison and Tonia have a tale they told me that I didnt have a spot for in the main text. They live just outside Warrenton, Missouri, on the northern edge of the Ozarks. Down the road from them is a small family plot, lost in obscurity. While I was visiting them in October 2010, the girls told me they had been to the graveyard and saw a dog walking among the tombstones. It disappeared in front of them, they said, and then reappeared before their eyes.

To Dean, my soul mate. What more can I say? He has to live with me while Im off on lectures, out on investigations he cant make or up late at night writing.

To Ali, Ken, Andrew and Jeanna, we wouldnt be a team without you.

A lot of people helped with this book. Photos came from Dave Harkins, Dean Pestana, Alicia Holder and Mark Dean. Stories came from Michael Greeley, Dave Harkins, Jeanna Barker, Brandi Osley, Kenneth Brewer, Tiffany Jussel, Darla Kelly, Jamey Leonard, Diane M. Henke and Jason Henke. Thanks to Steve Cottrell, for use of the information contained in his book Haunted Ozark Battlefields. Thank you to Nathaniel Wells, for letting Mom drag you along on one of her investigations and spending a chilly night before Halloween out roaming a foggy battlefield.

Thank you to the Route 66 Paranormal Alliance membersAlicia Holder, Kenneth Brewer, Jeanna Barker, Dean Pestana, Andrew Muller and Charlene Wellsfor all the dedication theyve shown in researching, gathering information to add to this book, taking photos and weathering the long nights of investigations to track down the stories of a haunting.

A big thank-you goes to my daughter, Jennifer, and my son-in-law, George (Bud) Burgmeyer, for allowing the paranormal team to bunk at their house in October 2010 as a base of operations while we attended the big-screen premiere of the Booth Brothers The Haunted Boy. We were on overdrive investigating Zombie Road in the St. Louis area, doing book signings and investigating Enochs Bridge, the Washington Brewery and cemeteries on what we came to call Paranormal Hell Week.

INTRODUCTION

Its not that the mountains are so high, its just that the valleys are so deep.

Old folklore saying

Called the Ozarks Uplift or Ozarks Dome by geologists, the area covers about fifty or sixty thousand square miles of southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas and southwestern Illinois. The region is comparable to the size of Florida and is bordered by the Mississippi River on the eastern side, the Missouri River to the north, the Arkansas River to the south and the Great Plains, with the Osage and Neosho Rivers, to the west. In Missouri, the Ozarks blend into the Mingo Swamps at the Bootheel in the southeast.