The Haunted Farm House

In 1982, I was doing some carpentry work for a farmer in Elk Point, SD, on a house that had been moved from town to his farm about 6 miles from town. Almost as soon as I started on it, I noticed things occurring that I could not explain. I would be working in a room and go to get some materials and the lights would be off when I returned and lights would be on in rooms where I had not been. I worked there for several days and these things kept going on.

On the fourth day, I was working in the kitchen, putting up paneling and I had a ladder sitting in the middle of the room with a box of panel nails sitting on the paint shelf of the ladder. Suddenly, the ladder started sliding across the floor and it tipped over spilling the nails all over the floor. I could smell Jasmine Perfume real strong, the room had gotten very cold and it was 90 degrees outside. I had not felt the house shaking nor were there any trucks going by. I picked up the ladder and got down on my hands and knees to pick up the nails and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow moving from the bathroom in to the bedroom. Then I heard the stairs squeak and I got up and went to the stairs to the upstairs bedrooms. I could not see any one so I went up the stairs and looked through the bedrooms but I could find no one up there.

I went back down stairs and finished picking up the nails. A few minutes later the farmer came in to see how I was doing. I told him about the strange things that had been going on and he started laughing. He said, "You just met our ghost," and then he told me a story about the house and why it was moved. He said the house was originally in town and the old woman that lived in the house had killed herself by hanging in the basement. He took me to the basement and showed me the beam that she hung herself from and where the neighbors found her. No one had been able to live in the house since she had died, as they could not handle the pranks she would pull on them.

We went back up stairs and he told me that she had never been violent, just that she liked to turn lights on and off and move things around. He told me to talk to her and she would leave me alone. Then he told me that when they moved the house they thought the ghost would stay in town but she did not and now he was stuck with her. As he left, he said that she would not harm me but she would continue moving things around and turning the lights off and on. I continued to work on the house and a few days later, I finished the kitchen. I saw her shadow in the bedroom looking towards me and I said, "I hope you enjoy your new kitchen..." I was there for almost a week after that and I did not have any more problems with the lights or anything else.

When the job was done and I had moved on to other work, I talked to the farmer several times and he told me that the old lady was not bothering the people that were currently living in the house. He had no explanation as to why. Believe me, this scared the heck out of me and I hoped I would never have this type of experience again, but I have, as you can see by the other stories I have written.

To see other stories by me, click on my name.