3 (more) haunted places in Dayton

A former school in Madison Twp. will be featured on the TLC show “Ghost Brothers.”

The school, Poasttown Elementary School, is believed to be very close to two train accidents. One of the accidents is the result of two trains colliding head-on and killing 30 people in 1910. The ground where the school is built was set up as a triage center. The belief is theat spirits of those who died from the accident still remain on the land.

The episode is scheduled air at 10 p.m., April 21.

Here are three other places where people say they have seen or heard ghosts:

Woodland Cemetery

Legend states that in the 1860s a young boy, Johnny Morehouse, was playing along the Miami & Erie Canal when he fell into the water and drowned. His loyal dog jumped in and tried to save him, but it was too late.

The boy was buried in Woodland Cemetery, and several days after the burial, his dog appeared and stayed next to the grave morning, noon and night. It is said that visitors of the cemetery can sometimes hear a young boy’s laugh and the barking of a dog.

Ridge Avenue Bridge

The bridge, also known as Bessie Little Bridge, was the site of the murder of Bessie Little in 1896. Little, 23, was shot by the father of her unborn child. Albert Frantz told the police that Little killed herself in his presence and he, acting on impulse, threw her body and gun into the water below.

After 16 days and more than 100 witnesses at the trial, Frantz was found guilty and sentenced to the electric chair. The bridge was rebuilt in 1927 and then replaced in 2014 after it was deemed structurally unsafe.

Old Courthouse

Credit: Lisa Powell

Credit: Lisa Powell

Built in 1850, the Old Courthouse stands at the corner of Third and Main in downtown Dayton. It is said the courthouse lawn was the site of public hanging and the gallows are in storage in the building. People say they have heard footsteps and moaning in and around the old judge’s chamber.

» Throwback Thursday: When Dayton's Old Courthouse was first set aglow


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