A Small Collection of Stories
Whichever version one chooses to believe, there is little doubt that the ghost became the subject of more tales than nearly any other specter in this country. It played no favorites and assumed various disguises to frighten unwary victims. The following stories recount some of the Ridgeway ghost's more infamous appearances.
The long-vanished Messerchmidt Hotel in Ridgeway was the scene of several hauntings by the ghost.
The hotel's founder, George Messerschmidt, was a member of the country board in 1855. The railroad was to be built from Warren, Illinois, to Mineral Point, and board members had decided to raise the necessary capital by issuing county bonds.
Soon after Messerschmidt decided to sign the bons, strange creakings and groanings began to be heard in the hotel. Messerschmidt coudn't sleep. Night after night the sound grew in intensity. A voice was even heard echoing through the night, "Don't sign the bonds. Don't sign the bonds."
Perhaps a disgruntled taxpayer had discovered a political use for the Ridgeway ghost! Or perhaps the spirit realized the railroad would take away the traffic along its favorite haunt, the Ridge Road.
Throughout the hotel's history, customers would hear moans coming from the walls and the sound of dragging chains.
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An early Irish settler named Kennedy accumulated quite a sum of money and used part of it to build a large home on some land he owned near the old Porter Grove cheese factory.
One evening he visited the nearly completed house. Kennedy unlocked the front door and strolled through the many rooms. Upon entering the dining room however, he saw the misty form of a human being seated at the table. The old man fled, never to return. He built a smaller house nearby and lived there for the rest of his days, convinced the Ridgeway ghost had taken up residence in his mansion.
Other stories are told about Kennedy. Like many eccentrics, he had a penchant for burying his wealth in the ground. Kennedy deposited his in the earth near the railroad tracks and would check on its safety each day. One night after visiting his cache, he was walking home when he saw a light mysteriously dancing up and down, sometimes dim, at other times quite bright. A train? Or flagman? Perhaps. But Kennedy didn't wait to find out. He fled across the fields.
Kennedy's death was also attributed to the nightly visitations of his earthen bank. As the years passed, his hearing deteriorated. One night a train stuck and killed Kennedy as he sat on the tracks. What became of the money? No one knows for sure.
Years later a local character named Rocky Jim Ryan moved into the old Kennedy house. Rocky Jim claimed that at night he could hear the old man's boots tromping through the rooms. Rocky Jim finally moved out the morning after "something" pulled the covers off his bed.
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The Reilly house now stands near a Catholic church in Ridgeway. But, when it was built nearly a century ago, the house was located several miles west of Ridgeway near the railroad tracks. A ghostly history is connected with the house.
An old gentleman named Peavey once lived in the house when it was on its original foundation. After Peavey moved away, the place burned down. Another house was built on the foundation, but the new owners left within a few days. A large black dog would appear, tired and panting, under their dining room table every night after dark. The animal would disappear as suddenly as it had come.
The house was eventually moved to its current location in Ridgeway. The dog never reappeared. Some people think it was the original foundation, or the area in which the house was first located, that caused the canine apparition.
But recent tenants of the Reilly place reported some unusual sounds. When their daughter was young, she would become frightened at a noise like that of the children playing with marbles. It came from the attic. The "marbles" would roll across the floor for minutes on end. Nothing was ever found that would explain the incident.
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There are two versions of Even "Strangler" Lewis's mysterious death.
Lewis was a well-known wrestler of immense size with a fearlessness that matched his physical strength. When he wasn't winning bets in the wrestling rings, he supported his family by farming and helping neighbors butcher stock. It was after a day of butchering on a neighboring farm that Lewis took a fateful walk.
Lewis had been warned not to travel home after dark because of several recent episodes involving the Ridgeway ghost. Lewis sneered at the reports, citing his strength, agility, and the butcher knives he carried as protection enough against any would-be phantom.
One version of what happened next says Lewis was walking across a field when a white horse with a driverless carriage charged at him. Lewis jumped out of the way and as he did so the horse and carriage rose and dissappeared into the sky. He ran all the way home.
The second tale also has Lewis crossing a large pasture. He suddenly felt something warm breathing on his hand. Lewis turned and stared directly into the red eyes of an immense black dog. He tried to chase it away but the beast kept following at a distance. A few yards farther along Lewis again felt the panting beast at his heels. This time he aimed a kick directly at the dog, but his foot flew through empty space where the dog had been only seconds before. It was gone.
Running now, Lewis thought safety was within his grasp. Darkness was now complete as he crashed through the brush. His cabin only a hundred yards away, Lewis again felt the pressure of the black beast at his back. This time Lewis extracted one of his butcher knives and slashed at the dog, hitting nothing but air. He continued to fight off the dog until he was within sight of his house when the canine disappeared.
When Lewis reached home he was dripping with sweat, shaking and exhausted. His family sent for the doctor. Upon examining the still-traumatized Lewis, the physician stated that the man's heart had moved nearly two inches from its original location.
Lewis died on May 8, 1874, two days after his run-in with the phantom dog.
All sorts of strange animals have been sighted as part of the Ridgeway ghost stories. Pigs, sheep, horses, dogs, and "critters" are part of the ghost lore in this corner of Wisconsin.
One night many decades ago, Mr. and Mrs. Buckingham were returning home from a day of shopping. As their buckboard approached Markey's Saloon, two miles west of Ridgeway, Mrs. Buckingham noticed what she thought was an animal on the road. Her husband squinted into the gloom and said it looked like a new breed of dog. Whatever it was, the couple claimed the entire area around animal was illuinated with sparks flying from its back. The horses nearly bolted at the sight. The apparition slowly vanished. The Buckinghams never discovered the creature's origin.
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Boo Tesch and his dog were returning home about 12:30 a.m. following an evening at a friend's house. As they passed a low bank of earth Tesch heard a sound. Looking at the top of the ridge, Tesch saw a huge, snarling dog crouched as if ready to spring at any moment.
Tesch's dog took one look at the creature and scampered down the road, tail between its legs, whimpering all the way. Tesch was left alone. He looked for something to use as a weapon and found a stone, which he hurled at the grotesque animal. The rock missed its target and the dog was now circling the hapless Tesch. And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the dog vanished.
For fifty years after the incident, until his death, Tesch could not rationally explain what he saw or forget that night.
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Sailor Dave Jones often courted his future wife at her home in what is now part of Governor Dodge State Park, north of Dodgeville.
Jones was returning home one evening when he heard sheep bleating on the trail behind him. He stopped his horse and a herd of sheep passed on either side of the startled rider. Behind the sheep rode two silent men. They did not look at Jones or say a word. The sheep and their stoic herders faded into the distance.
Soon after the incident, a group of men examined the trail but could find no sign of sheep or the riders.
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George Russell, a farmer near Ridgeway, had arranged with another man to purchase a pig. Russell agreed to meet the man in Ridgeway where he would pay cash for the pig. The two met, the pig was transferred into Russell's crate on the back of his wagon, and the seller left. Russell preformed a few errands in the village and finally hitched up his team for the drive home.
At his farm, Russell backed the wagon up to the chute and opened the crate, but, instead of the pig, a large dog emerged. To this day no one knows how the exchange took place, whether it was the work of the Ridgeway ghost, or whether a practical joker had some fun at Russell's expense.
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Interestingly, one of the phantoms often sighted near Ridgeway was a pig or a drove of pigs.
One particular teamster reported that he encountered several pigs on the Military Ridge Road. As he approached, they dissolved into a cloud of dust.
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Wagon drivers would often stop at one (or several) of the saloons for "courage," knowing they were within the stamping grounds of the Ridgeway ghost.
John Riley was one of those who stopped regularly at a saloon near Ridgeway. His team of oxen would stand outside with a load of pig lead destined for Galena.
One night after finishing his brew he stepped outside the door and beheld a strange spectacle. His oxen had been rehitched to the rear of the wagon. And walking down the road was the Ridgeway ghost with a whip in one hand and a lantern in the other.
John Rily spent the night in the tavern.
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There is a "haunted grove" west of Ridgeway on Highway 18. During the era when it was known as the Ridge Road a phantom would often appear to startled passers-by.
One story recounts the tale of a man on foot who encountered a team of huge black stallions pulling a black carriage. The apparition charged directly at the immobilized walker and, incredibly, passed directly over the man, leaving him lying prone in the dirt, dazed and frightened.
Other travelers going through the "haunted grove" would report that a strange white apparition flew out at them from the forest disappearing into the brush. Some heard an eerie, wailing scream from the bowels of the grove. No one ever ventured in to investigate.
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One old gentleman didn't believe in the Ridgeway ghost. The fellow took a short cut through the Ridgeway cemetery one evening. A bright light suddenly shone upward from a tombstone and ghastly screams pierced the night air.
From that day forward the elderly man was reportedly afflicted with a nervous disorder.
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A young girl was returning home from a visit to a neighboring farm when she saw a light coming from a barn her family used as a horse stable. Thinking it was her father back checking on the animals, she approached the barn but the light suddenly vanished.
Inside, she could find no one. And yet she claimed to have felt a presence. Perhaps the Ridgeway ghost looking for a new horse?
Note:The information used for this and many of the other Ridgeway pages is borrowed from Haunted Wisconsin, by Beth Scott & Michael Norman.