The Battles House

The Battles House from Erie County Historical Society
The Rush Battles Estate covers 130 acres outside the Erie County town of Girard, and features two homes, the Battles farmhouse, built in 1858, and the Charlotte Elizabeth Battles house, built in 1861. The first was the home of Rush, his mother Elizabeth, and sisters Alcina & Lucina.

The second was the new home of Rush, who in the meantime had gotten married to Charlotte Webster. What bride needs a mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law under the same roof? It's now operated as the Battles Museums of Rural Life by the Erie County Historical Society.

There are reports of footsteps heard on the upper floors, children singing in the first floor dining room, objects being moved to different spots, and an antique oil lamp being thrown to the floor.

The house's cats are attracted to and sometimes upset by unseen spirits. The ghost of a Victorian era lady dressed in widow's black has been seen, accompanied by a noticeable temperature drop. There were reports of a male spirit, and the specters of two young girl were seen on the second floor.

There are also sightings associated with a farmhand injured by a horse. (Yes, he was kicked in the head. Why don't any of these farmers ever get kicked in the butt?) He's been seen in the master bedroom where he was cared for, and a older female spook has also been seen, looking out the loo window.

It's thought that she witnessed the accident from the bathroom. She's also been spotted moving across the bedroom into the closet, perhaps still attending to him.

The last resident of the Charlotte Battle house, Georgiana Reed, can still be seen roaming its' halls, even though she died in the 1980s. So take the tour - you might run across more old dusty things than you bargained for!

The Battle's House is included in Stephanie Wincik's collection More Ghosts Of Erie County.

The Wheezer

Raj's Photoblog

The tale began when a Gannon fraternity held a Halloween costume party in their West Seventh Street house in 1961. One brother noticed a man in a dark cowboy outfit (another version has him dressed like a preacher) and a wide brimmed black hat. Not knowing who the person was, he followed him when he went up the stairs.

The figure wheeled around, looked at the student, and disappeared into thin air. Later, hearing banging noises from upstairs, several of the brothers went up to investigate. It was the cowboy/preacher again. This time he rasped “Get out!” at the men. They told him he was trespassing, and he replied “No, it is you,” and vanished again. His hoarse voice earned him the nickname of the Wheezer.

On Christmas Eve that same year, a sleeping brother was awakened in his second floor bedroom in the house's master suite by the Wheezer. The student leaped from his bed and got some help. When they returned, the spook was gone. The balcony doors were wide open. But underneath it, the fresh snow showed no signs of footprints. Hmmm...

Years later, a lone brother in the house heard footsteps and loud breathing upstairs. He went to check on who could have come in past him, but no one was there. However, a window that had been stuck for years was now wide open.

Then he heard the same sounds from the floor below. Suspicious, he crept silently down the stairs. The breathing came from the master suite. As he got to the room, a voice said “It is you who trespasses.” He threw open the door. The lights were on, but again no one was there.

The Erie fraternity has since moved, but reportedly the ghost hasn't. The Wheezer is still haunting his old home and doesn't intend to share his house with anyone. They're all trespassers to him and always will be.

Mad Anthony Wayne's Bones

General Mad Anthony Wayne's Radnor Grave
Image from American Revolution Organization
The colorful career of Revolutionary and Indian War General “Mad” Anthony Wayne came to end at Fort Presque Isle on December 15, 1796 at the age of 51. He was buried underneath the Erie Blockhouse per his request at the foot of the flagpole.

There his body lay for the next dozen years, until his daughter Margaretta asked her brother Isaac to bring their father's remains home to the family cemetery in Radnor. He jumped into a buggy and headed to Erie. When they opened the coffin, they found Wayne's body had barely decomposed.

They couldn't take the body home in Wayne's sulky, a light, two-wheeled wagon (although another version said the locals protested the move and held out for two burial sites), so Dr. Wallace and four assistants boiled the meat from the bones of the good general in a big black kettle, much like traditional cannibal chefs.

Isaac headed east with his dad's bones, neatly packed in a trunk, for burial at St. David's Cemetery in Chester County. The flesh, clothes, water and instruments used to filet Wayne were reburied at Presque Isle.

It's said that Isaac, on the steep and bumpy ride home along what is now Route 322, lost a few bones along the way. Every New Years Day on his birthday, Mad Anthony Wayne arises from his Erie grave and travels the road to St. David's in search of his missing bones.

What's left of Wayne's Presque Isle grave is now on display at the Presque Isle Blockhouse museum, including his coffin lid, some bits of clothing, and Dr. Wallace's tools. The rest either rotted away (burying the water was probably not a stroke of genius) or was destroyed in a 1853 blaze at the blockhouse and a subsequent leveling of the old parade grounds. The kettle is on exhibition at the Erie County History Center.

So if you're driving along 322 on New Year's Day and see a Revolutionary War figure riding along the road on his charger, pull over and say hi to Mad Anthony while he proceeds on his annual quest to make his skeleton whole after all these years.