The Haunted History of the Ohio State Reformatory

By Sherri Brake

Paranormal expert Sherri Blake takes readers on a terrifying tour of Ohio’s infamous prison, where The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.
 
Built on the site of a Civil War camp ravaged by disease, the Ohio State Reformatory first opened in 1896 to reform young offenders but eventually grew to house the most dangerous criminals. By the time the Mansfield institution closed, the prison was hosting a thousand more prisoners than it was designed to hold in “brutalizing and inhumane conditions.” Within the dark corridors made famous as the backdrop for The Shawshank Redemption, ghostly presences linger, from the dungeons of solitary confinement to the West Wing showers, where a bent pipe marks the place where a prisoner hanged himself. Venture behind the walls of this notorious prison with ghost tour guide Sherri Brake to discover the history and spirits that forever haunt these halls . . . if you dare.
 
Includes photos!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 31, 2010
• ISBN: 9781614231899

Sherri Brake

Sherri Brake has been studying the paranormal and its accompanying history for twenty-six years. For the past five years she has led hundreds of tours as the owner of the award-winning Haunted Heartland Tours (www.HauntedHistory.net). She is very active in the local history community as a civil war re-enactor and as a Board Trustee for the Chippewa Rogues Hollow Historical Society in neighboring Wayne County, Ohio. Recently she has been featured on PBS' Stark County Alive (2004) and Lost in Ohio. She also lead a group in the Mansfield Reformatory for the Travel Channel's Americas Top 10 Scariest Places and has been a guest on various talk radio programs as an authority on ghosts and local legends.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

It was a rainy afternoon back in 1999 when I first laid eyes on it. I peered through the chain-link fence like a sugar-deprived kid in a candy store. There it stood, massive and monstrous, as if plucked from the very hills of Transylvania. I felt as if I had stepped onto the movie set of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as I glanced at the building. Giant stone walls, foreboding doors and massive turrets returned my stare. I had heard stories of this fortress, and now I was finally seeing it, albeit from a distance. I did not go inside the building, as it was closed that day, but I knew that one day I would be back and would venture inside its winding hallways. The building I fell in love with that day was the historic Ohio State Reformatory (OSR).

One year later I returned, and did so with camera in hand, partaking of a normal daytime tour of the building. The tour guide on that day gave tidbits of history, gruesome stories of past prisoners and Hollywood movie trivia of films shot on site. It was an informative tour, and being the history lover that I am, I ate up every detail and factoid that I could. Little did I know that in a couple of years, I would be back and would be leading hundreds of ghost hunters on investigations throughout this castle-like building.

What draws people to visit the Ohio State Reformatory? It’s a compilation of various things, but it basically boils down to three: the grand architecture, the history and the ghost stories. I asked various tour guides what originally drew them to the reformatory to volunteer. One volunteer guide told me that the building picked her…she did not pick the building. That pretty much sums it up!

Old buildings tend to have a certain charisma to them, an essence or soul that newer construction lacks for the most part. You can see it on the visitors’ faces as they come through the entrance. Eyes are drawn upward to the high ceilings as their hands reach out to touch the varnished woodwork and carved staircase spindles. It certainly makes an impact on everyone who comes to visit, whether on a daytime history tour or a nighttime ghost hunt.

The Ohio State Reformatory is the largest castle-like structure in Ohio. It is one of the five largest in the United States. It occupies more than 250,000 square feet with its towering stone walls and sprawling footprint. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest free-standing cell block, which is the East Cell Block, and stands an impressive six stories in all. These are all just facts on a page, of course. The size and imposing design and grandeur do not register until you visit it for yourself.

As I work on this project, The Haunted History of the Ohio State Reformatory, I realize that no book could ever give a complete history and also tell of all the alleged activity and hauntings. This is my meager attempt to gather some of the darker, lesser-known history of the Mansfield, Ohio area and the story of its largest and most popular building: the Ohio State Reformatory. I hope you enjoy it.

MANSFIELD, OHIO, BLOOD ON THE FRONTIER"

Formation and Early History

The Ohio frontier time frame spanned from approximately 1720 to the year 1830. Before Ohio became a state, it was known as the Northwest Territory, an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio. White immigrants from other areas such as Pennsylvania, the New England states, Virginia and Kentucky inundated the fertile land we now call the Buckeye State. Although Ohio was an isolated area at first, the Ohio River linked the frontiersmen to civilization and trade, and the canal way systems that cut through Ohio aided in that endeavor as well. The influx of newly arrived settlers caused other changes as well. The federal government developed an Indian policy that basically caused incredible violence in the area before achieving the removal of the Native Americans from the state.

When General James Hedges began the original survey in 1806 in what is now Richland County, Ohio, there were no permanent settlers in the area. Later, in 1807, the first cabin in the area was constructed by Jacob Newman and was erected on section 36, which was about sixty rods (a rod is a measurement of sixteen and a half feet) from the first mill. The mill would later be named Beams Mill. The cabin occupants included Jacob Newman, a housekeeper and four nieces and nephews. The closest neighbors were twenty-five miles in distance in Wooster, Ohio. Originally, Samuel Martin was said to be the first settler in the area of Mansfield, as he built his cabin there in 1809. Old Sam got himself into some trouble selling whiskey, or firewater, to local Indians and was asked to leave the area. Out moved Samuel Martin, and in came Captain James Cunningham, who became the first settler according to many more history sources. Mansfield was laid out on June 11, 1808, by Jacob Newman, James Hedges and Joseph H. Larwill.

An 1862 sketch showing the square in Mansfield, Ohio. This appeared in New York Illustrated News. From the collection of Edward Tiffin.

In 1812, an incident took place in Mansfield that was typical of other such tragedies and misunderstandings on the frontier. There was a friendly village of Delaware Indians located twelve miles southeast from Mansfield in the area called Greentown. As a measure of safety, several hundred Indians were collected by the government and taken to Mansfield. The newly arrived group was placed under guard, and while at Mansfield, an Indian boy and girl approached Reverend James Smith to be married in a Christian ceremony. While the guard was absent at the ceremony, an old Indian man and his twelve-year-old daughter escaped. The father was shot through the chest and fell, mortally wounded. He had been thought to be hostile, and after receiving the gunshot he was further wounded by an Indian spy named McCullough. McCullough was from Coshocton, Ohio, and seemed to enjoy the killing of the savages, or Indians, more than was necessary. He drew his tomahawk and struck the elderly fallen Indian once. The unfortunate fellow was still breathing, so McCullough cursed and placed a foot on the man’s neck while striking the second, more fatal, blow to his skull. Sergeant Gilkeson saw the entire episode transpire and ordered McCullough to bury the Indian. He did so but only deep enough so that his ribs were still exposed. Locals said that the ribs could still be seen one to two years after the hasty burial. The fallen Indian’s daughter escaped after seeing her father fall to his demise.

Another frightful event in Mansfield history is that of a location called Spook Hollow. Two Native Americans from Greentown came into Mansfield after their village had been destroyed. These young men were known as Seneca John and Quilipetoxe. These two youths visited the William Tavern in Mansfield, and while there, they became intoxicated and quarreled with some local whites. The two Indian youths left, and five whites followed in pursuit, vowing revenge. Nearly one mile east of town, the two unfortunate Indians were caught and shot to death. The whites buried the two boys at the foot of a large maple tree on the edge of a swampy area east of town. This was not a typical sacred burial, as the boys were basically shoved down into the muddy bog-like dirt and left to the darkness. No words of regret or prayer were spoken over them. This place became known as Spook Hollow. Many townspeople would not drive their wagons or even walk past the area after sunset, as it was said that the Indian boys wandered the area seeking retribution for their unsanctified burials and uncalled-for deaths.

Not all immigrants and settlers feared the Native Americans in the area. One such notable resident who befriended the Indians was John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. John was a very eccentric personality who made his home in the area now known as Mansfield, Ohio. Chapman arrived in the Ohio countryside in about 1800, coming from Pennsylvania. He had acquired some apple seeds from the local mills there and set about planting the seeds at every chance traveling to and from the area. He was quite the businessman and started apple tree nurseries, often entrusting them to managers who would tend them in his absence. At the time of his death, Johnny Appleseed owned more than 1,200 acres of land in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Johnny was of a curious sort, and some locals, both settlers and Indian, did not know how to take him. He was a missionary for the Swedenborgian Church and never married. He had told friends that he believed there would be two female spirits in the afterlife who would take care of him if he would stay single while on the earthly plane!

While Johnny Appleseed was busy planting apple trees, Richland County, Ohio, was organized in March 1813. It was given its name for the character of its fertile soil. The richness of the soil would soon be stained with the blood from massacres, murders and lynchings in years to come. Many of the early settlers of Richland County arrived from Pennsylvania and were of German and Scots-Irish origin. The first white man believed to have traversed the area now known as Richland County was James Smith. James had been captured by the Indians in Pennsylvania in 1755 and was adopted into their tribe, living with them quietly for three years before escaping. James had successfully run the gauntlet and endured an initiating ceremony, having all the hair plucked from his head except for a small scalp lock. He later escaped and came to Richland County, where he made his home. The first white woman in this region was believed to have been Mary Heckewelder, a daughter of the Moravian missionary John Gottleib Heckewelder. John and his wife, Sarah, were the first white couple in Ohio to be married, in 1780 in Salem.

The city now known as Mansfield was founded in 1808 and located on a fork of the Mohican River. This was a region surrounded by fertile land filled with plentiful game that was desired by the Native Americans and the pioneers alike. Mansfield was named for Jared Mansfield, the U.S. surveyor general, who directed its planning. Predating the city of Mansfield, the village of Mansfield was incorporated in 1828, and in 1857 Mansfield was chartered as a city. Mansfield grew slowly, as in 1817 it had only twenty houses and one store. In regard to elevation, Mansfield is one of the highest cities in the state and lies in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau.

As with any fledgling frontier area in early America, Mansfield was troubled by violence, death and bloodshed. The Ohio Lands were the battleground where the Native Americans tried to stop the advancement of civilization on its westward journey. Raids, massacres, disease, starvation and loneliness plagued many settlers in this new wilderness. This caused many souls to travel back east seeking civilization and the protection its population offered. Disease in the frontier ran rampant due to unsanitary living conditions, while epidemics ravaged the population, predating the discovery of antibiotics. Women and children were not spared. Ladies of childbearing age died often due to labor and delivery complications. Children perished at early ages due to common childhood diseases or during outbreaks of cholera and dysentery. Death knows no boundaries, and the rich were affected as much as the poor. No family was left untouched by death.

Death by disease was common