Mudhouse Mansion Haunted?
Mudhouse Mansion has a dark reputation not only among locals but also among paranormal enthusiasts nationwide. It is without a doubt, one of the most haunted places in Ohio! There are many local tales and legends as to the origin of the haunting in Mudhouse Mansion. One legend says that a government official lived there after the Civil War and kept slaves. It is told that he locked the slaves in one of the outbuildings every night and generally treated them poorly.
One night a slave dug his way out, entered the house and slaughtered the official and his entire family. It is the spirits of these people which haunt the house. However, according to some it is another more recent family that got murdered in the house.
According to local legend, there was a man who actually bought the house in 1892 and he moved in with his wife and their three children. Neighbors never saw them after they entered the house and they thought it very weird that the family would spend all their time indoors. One neighbor went out to the house to investigate and all he could see was the figure of a woman dressed in white, standing on the second floor window. The figure was just standing there and staring at her.
The following day the neighbor checked again and saw the figure again, standing on the same position. She checked for 10 days and would see the same figure. On the tenth day she called the police and when they came to investigate they were met by a terrible sight. All the 5 family members were hanging lifeless dressed in white night gowns. The figure which the neighbor had seen was the mother and she was not standing at the window. She had actually been hanging there for several days/weeks.
Mudhouse Mansion is said to be the home of the original “Bloody Mary”. If you say her name three or five times while in front of the mirror, she will appear. Children in town have even called Mudhouse the House of Mary. According to traditional folklore, all her children were killed either by her or her husband.
A woman named Colleen once explored Mudhouse in 2001 and she recalls hearing a whole group of people moving around the third floor of the house. They went upstairs to talk to the people they assumed were causing all the noise but they found the entire floor and the rest of the house completely deserted. There was no one else there but them. The mansion’s neighbors reported hearing shrieks and groans coming from the empty mansion when it lay abandoned.
History
Mudhouse Mansion was built sometime between 1840 and 1850. Christian and Eleanor Rugh purchased the property, where Mudhouse Mansion now stands, from Henry Byler and Abraham Kagy. The property was then sold to Henry and Martha Hartman in 1919. When Henry died, the property was inherited by his daughter Lulu. Her descendants still own the land today and locals have also labeled the mansion as “Hartman Place”.
No one has lived in the home since 1930 although transients and a group of hippies in the 1960’s did call it their home for a short period of time. The grand structure has been damaged by vandalism and fire.
**PleaseNote: Today there are guards watching over the property and whoever is caught trespassing will be prosecuted. Some trespassers have even claimed that they have been shot at after stepping on the property without permission.