Post by Spooky on Aug 27, 2007 17:11:22 GMT -5
On February 4, 1880, in the township of Biddulph, Ontario, Canada, five lives were snuffed out in a heartbeat. James and Johannah, their sons, John and Tom, and a niece, Bridget, all met their deaths violently in what would come to be known as, "The Biddulph Horror". As they lay in the throes of dying, a little boy, huddled beneath a bed, watched in terror as the massacre took place. He survived to tell the tale of what happened that tragic, grisly night in Canadian history when death came knocking. It was said that as she died Johannah uttered a curse that none of the men involved would die in their own beds.Not one of them did. Neither did any of them serve time for the grisly crime. What happened after was a series of ghost sightings.
No Horsing Around The Roman Line
Rumour has it that the Roman Line is haunted, and that horses won't venture down it on the night of February 3 & 4th, the anniversary of the Donnelly massacre. If they do, death will follow. And, that's apparently what happened to three horses who did . . . they died soon after their nocturnal excursion down the cursed road.
Another rumour suggests that some horses refuse to pass the old Donnelly property . . . period . . . at any time of the year. It's said that their riders have had to walk the skittish beasts past the homestead before continuing down the Roman Line.
And then, there's weird tales of headless horses seen galloping throughout Biddulph Township, and of course, the more popular legend of horses going berserk and running around mad as if suddenly possessed. Robert and Noreen Norton, who bought the Donnelly Homestead in 1974, and moved in with their three children, witnessed this strange phenomenon first hand.
"She Would Just Go Nuts"
The Nortons were boarding a friend's mare, something they did regularly, and one day, they found the animal running around in circles. Nostrils flared, the mare's eyes were filled with terror as if something was chasing her, yet nothing pursued her. This happened on a number of occasions, and each incident was the same . . . the horse was being chased by nothing, or at least, nothing the Nortons could see.
"We only had her a month, and we had to get her out of here," Robert Norton recalled, during a Free Press interview. "She would go nuts at night."
"Something" Strange Going On
When asked if he thought the Homestead was haunted, Norton was reluctant to reply at first, but then he admitted to his belief that "there is definitely some extra-curricular activity" happening on the property. He was hesitant to use words like 'ghost' or 'spirit' to describe the presence that had made itself known in his house, but he did refer to it as "something" . . . something that terrorizes horses, slams kitchen cupboard doors, and mysteriously takes things.
Norton, who prided himself as a rational man, and not one to jump to quick conclusions, could offer no logical explanation regarding some of the strange things that happened in his home. One such incident was the mystery of the green plaid shirt. The new hunting shirt was hanging in a closet, and one day, it vanished only to reappear a year and a half later in the same closet. What's even stranger . . . the shirt was "washed, pressed and folded neatly".
The Haunted Donnelly Barn
Robert and Linda Salts, the current owners of the Donnelly Homestead, have also witnessed strange, unexplained incidents in and around their home. They moved to the homestead in 1988, and hardly had their bags unpacked when they discovered that they weren't alone!
Robert Salts, who is sensitive to the paranormal, felt the presence of spirits almost the first day they arrived at the homestead. As the family unpacked their vehicle, and removed some of their possessions to the barn, Salts recalls having "an eerie sensation of being watched". Oddly enough, since that first encounter with the unknown spirits that reside in the barn, (built in 1877), visitors taking the tour have expressed feeling the same sensation.
"This feeling of being observed can occur anytime and anywhere on the property," Salts said in the book, 'Haunted Ontario' by: Terry Boyle. "It can suddenly come over you and you find yourself looking around expecting to see a pair of eyes staring in your direction."
But feeling like they're being watched is not the only sensation tourists have experienced. Some have reported physical contact with the spirit world . . . being touched on the shoulder by something, only to turn around and find no one standing there.
Things That Go Bump In The Barn
There was a time when Salts permitted people to spend a night in the Donnelly barn; brave souls who wished to observe the ghostly manifestations up close. One courageous couple who slept in the barn must have appeared like ghosts themselves the next day, for they reported to Salts their horrifying ordeal of hearing footsteps as someone approached them in the straw. Even more terrifying, the man said that he had "felt pressure on his chest".
In another incident, two students while touring the barn, also felt pressure applied to their chests, and one of the teenagers even heard screams within the barn. But, the screams were inside her head; something that they call: clairaudience. . . the power to hear sounds said to exist beyond the reach of ordinary experience such as the voices of the dead.
The Haunted Donnelly House
The house that the Salts family live in is not the original Donnelly home. That structure burned down the night of the Donnelly massacre -- February 4, 1880. The next year, 1881, the remaining members of the family, William, Patrick and Robert Donnelly, got together and constructed the middle part of the house that can be seen on the Donnelly Photo Gallery page. It is in this original section of the home that many eerie and unexplained incidents have taken place, although the rest of the house has had its fair share of ghostly occurrences.
Phantom Footsteps and Voices in the Night
Most of us would tremble in our slippers if we heard phantom footsteps in our houses, but not Robert Salts. He's used to them. Many times, he has been awakened in the night by the sounds of footsteps on the stairs, but knowing that no one's there, he just turns over and goes back to sleep. This has happened on a number of occasions, and one time, the owner of those footsteps even called his name . . . three times! Salts described the voice as "soft but with a firm, masculine tone". As in all other cases, he didn't bother searching for the source of the voice as that would have only proven futile.
Another spooky incident took place while Salts was taking a shower one afternoon. He saw a shadow of someone on the shower curtain who had entered the bathroom and then exited. Thinking it was either his wife, or son, Charles, he asked them about it, but neither of them had gone into the bathroom. Later, he and Charles tried to recreate what Salts had seen, but they couldn't, and to this day, the Salts family have no idea who the mysterious shadow belonged to.
Donnelly Ghosts Make An Appearance
During the Salts' first year of living on the Homestead, the Donnellys made an appearance, or at least, experts believe the apparitions are those of the Donnelly family. Charles Salts spotted the ghostly figures one Saturday morning while playing in his room. In fright, he ran to the kitchen to tell his parents what he had seen. Four people had appeared in his room . . . "a man and a woman dressed in plain black clothes, and two children wearing white outfits".
A&E Psychic Also See Ghost
Charles is not the only one who has seen the ghosts. When A&E was filming the special that showcased the Donnelly Homestead, they apparently brought in a psychic who roamed the house in search of any preternatural activities. What she found was a female presence whom she believed to be that of Jennie Donnelly, James and Johannah's only daughter.
Other psychics have visited the homestead with other film crews, and they, too, have detected entities that appear to be very similar to the apparitions that Charles Salts saw in his room. The psychics described the two spirits as "stern looking" individuals. One was a tall, bewhiskered man dressed in handmade clothing, and the other was a woman who wore her hair up in a bun. She was clothed in a simple dress and Victorian high laced shoes. It is speculated that they are the spirits of James and Johannah Donnelly who still wander the homestead.
A Haunting Conclusion
Perhaps the Donnellys are caught in limbo, unable to make their final journey home. Or, maybe it is simply their decision to remain behind and keep a watchful eye on their beloved homestead, and those who pay it a visit. Whatever the reason, the Donnellys continue to haunt us -- the eye witnesses who have actually encountered them in one form or another, be it through sound, touch, or sight, and those who have only encountered the Donnellys through books and long faded photographs -- we are all haunted by the Donnellys and their tragic tale that will live on forever.
For more:
www.donnellys.com/
No Horsing Around The Roman Line
Rumour has it that the Roman Line is haunted, and that horses won't venture down it on the night of February 3 & 4th, the anniversary of the Donnelly massacre. If they do, death will follow. And, that's apparently what happened to three horses who did . . . they died soon after their nocturnal excursion down the cursed road.
Another rumour suggests that some horses refuse to pass the old Donnelly property . . . period . . . at any time of the year. It's said that their riders have had to walk the skittish beasts past the homestead before continuing down the Roman Line.
And then, there's weird tales of headless horses seen galloping throughout Biddulph Township, and of course, the more popular legend of horses going berserk and running around mad as if suddenly possessed. Robert and Noreen Norton, who bought the Donnelly Homestead in 1974, and moved in with their three children, witnessed this strange phenomenon first hand.
"She Would Just Go Nuts"
The Nortons were boarding a friend's mare, something they did regularly, and one day, they found the animal running around in circles. Nostrils flared, the mare's eyes were filled with terror as if something was chasing her, yet nothing pursued her. This happened on a number of occasions, and each incident was the same . . . the horse was being chased by nothing, or at least, nothing the Nortons could see.
"We only had her a month, and we had to get her out of here," Robert Norton recalled, during a Free Press interview. "She would go nuts at night."
"Something" Strange Going On
When asked if he thought the Homestead was haunted, Norton was reluctant to reply at first, but then he admitted to his belief that "there is definitely some extra-curricular activity" happening on the property. He was hesitant to use words like 'ghost' or 'spirit' to describe the presence that had made itself known in his house, but he did refer to it as "something" . . . something that terrorizes horses, slams kitchen cupboard doors, and mysteriously takes things.
Norton, who prided himself as a rational man, and not one to jump to quick conclusions, could offer no logical explanation regarding some of the strange things that happened in his home. One such incident was the mystery of the green plaid shirt. The new hunting shirt was hanging in a closet, and one day, it vanished only to reappear a year and a half later in the same closet. What's even stranger . . . the shirt was "washed, pressed and folded neatly".
The Haunted Donnelly Barn
Robert and Linda Salts, the current owners of the Donnelly Homestead, have also witnessed strange, unexplained incidents in and around their home. They moved to the homestead in 1988, and hardly had their bags unpacked when they discovered that they weren't alone!
Robert Salts, who is sensitive to the paranormal, felt the presence of spirits almost the first day they arrived at the homestead. As the family unpacked their vehicle, and removed some of their possessions to the barn, Salts recalls having "an eerie sensation of being watched". Oddly enough, since that first encounter with the unknown spirits that reside in the barn, (built in 1877), visitors taking the tour have expressed feeling the same sensation.
"This feeling of being observed can occur anytime and anywhere on the property," Salts said in the book, 'Haunted Ontario' by: Terry Boyle. "It can suddenly come over you and you find yourself looking around expecting to see a pair of eyes staring in your direction."
But feeling like they're being watched is not the only sensation tourists have experienced. Some have reported physical contact with the spirit world . . . being touched on the shoulder by something, only to turn around and find no one standing there.
Things That Go Bump In The Barn
There was a time when Salts permitted people to spend a night in the Donnelly barn; brave souls who wished to observe the ghostly manifestations up close. One courageous couple who slept in the barn must have appeared like ghosts themselves the next day, for they reported to Salts their horrifying ordeal of hearing footsteps as someone approached them in the straw. Even more terrifying, the man said that he had "felt pressure on his chest".
In another incident, two students while touring the barn, also felt pressure applied to their chests, and one of the teenagers even heard screams within the barn. But, the screams were inside her head; something that they call: clairaudience. . . the power to hear sounds said to exist beyond the reach of ordinary experience such as the voices of the dead.
The Haunted Donnelly House
The house that the Salts family live in is not the original Donnelly home. That structure burned down the night of the Donnelly massacre -- February 4, 1880. The next year, 1881, the remaining members of the family, William, Patrick and Robert Donnelly, got together and constructed the middle part of the house that can be seen on the Donnelly Photo Gallery page. It is in this original section of the home that many eerie and unexplained incidents have taken place, although the rest of the house has had its fair share of ghostly occurrences.
Phantom Footsteps and Voices in the Night
Most of us would tremble in our slippers if we heard phantom footsteps in our houses, but not Robert Salts. He's used to them. Many times, he has been awakened in the night by the sounds of footsteps on the stairs, but knowing that no one's there, he just turns over and goes back to sleep. This has happened on a number of occasions, and one time, the owner of those footsteps even called his name . . . three times! Salts described the voice as "soft but with a firm, masculine tone". As in all other cases, he didn't bother searching for the source of the voice as that would have only proven futile.
Another spooky incident took place while Salts was taking a shower one afternoon. He saw a shadow of someone on the shower curtain who had entered the bathroom and then exited. Thinking it was either his wife, or son, Charles, he asked them about it, but neither of them had gone into the bathroom. Later, he and Charles tried to recreate what Salts had seen, but they couldn't, and to this day, the Salts family have no idea who the mysterious shadow belonged to.
Donnelly Ghosts Make An Appearance
During the Salts' first year of living on the Homestead, the Donnellys made an appearance, or at least, experts believe the apparitions are those of the Donnelly family. Charles Salts spotted the ghostly figures one Saturday morning while playing in his room. In fright, he ran to the kitchen to tell his parents what he had seen. Four people had appeared in his room . . . "a man and a woman dressed in plain black clothes, and two children wearing white outfits".
A&E Psychic Also See Ghost
Charles is not the only one who has seen the ghosts. When A&E was filming the special that showcased the Donnelly Homestead, they apparently brought in a psychic who roamed the house in search of any preternatural activities. What she found was a female presence whom she believed to be that of Jennie Donnelly, James and Johannah's only daughter.
Other psychics have visited the homestead with other film crews, and they, too, have detected entities that appear to be very similar to the apparitions that Charles Salts saw in his room. The psychics described the two spirits as "stern looking" individuals. One was a tall, bewhiskered man dressed in handmade clothing, and the other was a woman who wore her hair up in a bun. She was clothed in a simple dress and Victorian high laced shoes. It is speculated that they are the spirits of James and Johannah Donnelly who still wander the homestead.
A Haunting Conclusion
Perhaps the Donnellys are caught in limbo, unable to make their final journey home. Or, maybe it is simply their decision to remain behind and keep a watchful eye on their beloved homestead, and those who pay it a visit. Whatever the reason, the Donnellys continue to haunt us -- the eye witnesses who have actually encountered them in one form or another, be it through sound, touch, or sight, and those who have only encountered the Donnellys through books and long faded photographs -- we are all haunted by the Donnellys and their tragic tale that will live on forever.
For more:
www.donnellys.com/
