Baffling occurrences at the Jamieson home.
Furniture thrown about and broken
Lights extinguished and frequent noises are heard.
The cause is yet unknown
Members of family sorely distressed – curious people add to the annoyance.
In order to correct wild tales that have been flying about the city concerning the strange disturbances at the Jamieson home on Boone street, it has been thought best to go to the home and obtain information directly from members of the household and to look at the destruction which has been wrought in the house. With this object in view a Freeman-Tribute reporter visited the house yesterday afternoon. There is no doubt as to the destruction brought about by some inexplainable means, who or what is the agent for the demolition of furniture, window panes, dishes, etc., is a matter which is best answered by silence.
The unknown forces which have brought these things about began their work last Friday night at 9 o’clock. At that time Mrs Jamieson felt the covers being pulled from her bed; a moment later the door knob was rattled and other noises made which were heard by all the other members of the household, who are a daughter, granddaughter and small children. Mr Black, the son-in-law, was absent from the house at that time. Mrs Black became very much frightened and ran from her room, getting into bed with her grandmother. At that moment a rocking chair in the room began to rock violently, although no one was near it, and a picture upon an easel in the corner of the room was shaken about violently. Mrs Jamieson had turned on the light and then arose and started to dress when the dresser cover was jerked violently off with everything on it, to the floor.
The dresser cover in the next room a moment later was jerked from the dresser and some old weights which had belonged to a set of scales were thrown about the floor. The occupants of the household, after a few moments, started down the front stairway when the electric lamp in the hall was broken to pieces. The family proceeded into the dining room and a shower of empty paper boxes and papers which were on a small table in the corner of the hall were thrown at them. They managed to reach the phone and call for Mr Black to come home. He came and upon several members of the family attempting to go with him upstairs, the lights in the house went out.
They proceeded into the room where the baby lay in its crib and the baby bed was shaken violently, the pillows and covers jerked from the bed and the baby taken out of its bed an lain upon the floor. The shaking of the bed could plainly be heard all over the house. Wm. Arnold, who lives in the neighbourhood, was summoned to come with lights and he did so, taking his light up to the electric meter which he found unattached. He has been there at different times, remaining on Sunday night until 2 o’clock a.m. Mr Arnold is as much non-plussed as any who have been in the home as to the agency by which these things have been accomplished.
There have been tales of members of the home being hurled about, but this is untrue, the only instance in which any living thing was touched being the removal of the baby from its crib.
The family slept down stairs in one room on Saturday night and nothing was seen or heard until next morning at 10 o’clock when a large cupboard full of dishes in the dining room was thrown violently to the floor, every dish being broken and the piece of furniture being demolished. Relatives of the family were in the kitchen at the time. Since that all manner of things have happened. Yesterday the bookcase in the sitting room was thrown to the floor, breaking the glass and almost demolishing it. The case was set up by Mr Arnold who started home after performing the act only to be called back before he was hardly out of the yard, the bookcase having gone over again. Three times was the case set in its place only to be removed.
These are facts vouched for by every member of the family. That the Jamieson family are going through a harrowing experience can readily be believed and that they are deserving of the sympathies of the community should be easily discerned. A crowd of the curious have been making matters more than trying for the family, their curiosity in some cases taking them right into the home and up the stairs without permission. It is earnestly requested nobody visit the home just now. Neighbours, friends and relatives are aiding in every possible manner by their presence, and others are not desired.
The Jamieson family have been at times for the past nineteen years harassed and annoyed by similar conditions, although at no time has furniture been broken or affairs been so trying. Trouble of a minor nature was experienced fourteen months ago, but nothing has happened since that time. The affair is shrouded in mystery and no one who is intimately connected with the family has the slightest idea as to the cause.
This house is a large nine or ten room home, one of the finest homes in that neighbourhood. It was built about twelve years ago by H.W. McDonald, who was employed in the First National Bank for many years, a son of Wm. McDonald, an old resident and express agent for a third of a century in this city. The floors of the home are of polished oak, removable rugs being used in all the rooms. The house is well made and splendidly lighted with electricity and the fact that the home is of so modern construction lends more mystery to the affair. These strange visitations do not occur alone at night but in broad daylight, most of the work of destruction being carried on in the full light of day.
Last evening there were dozens of curious people hanging about the place, peeking into the windows, going upon the porch and even into the house. Finally Policeman Bingham was sent for and went up to the house and dispersed the crowd.
The Freeman-Tribune takes no stock in the theory that a spiritual or superhuman power is in the least responsible for the inexplicable things that have been taking place at the Jamieson home. Such occurrences never happen without a natural cause. There are reasons and if thorough investigation is made and a careful watch maintained the mystery will either be unraveled or the annoying happenings will stop. Some human being is responsible and there is some reason for his or her conduct. Spooks, you know, always appear at night and invariably put in an appearance in some old deserted house or in the abode of some uncanny or mysterious person. Even then the spook is run to earth, if carefully watched, and it always turnes out to be a man or a woman or some sentient being, never anything else. What has been taking place at the Jamieson home will not be a mystery when the cause is developed. If the same things have happened years ago, when the family lived on the farm, it is evident that someboy is responsible. Whoever it is must be conceded to be an expert in that line and the motives which prompt such carryings-on are clothed in mystery.
Webster City Freeman, November 17th, 1914.
Webster City, Iowa, Dec. 5
All Webster city, Iowa, is absorbed in a haunted house mystery. The house is No. 710 Boone street and is occupied by Mr and Mrs Jesse Black, their two children and Mrs Black’s mother, Mrs S.A. Jamieson, and the latter’s daughter, Eva. Committees of reputable citizens are said to have investigated the house and to unite in acknowledging that they have no explanation for the things they have seen there.
As the stories go, dishes break themselves with a loud crash; a hair brush which Mrs Black tries to keep upstairs refuses to stay there and comes tumbling down the steps; a mysterious power, right before the eyes of a committee, brought an electric light globe from a bathroom, down a hall, through a bedroom and into the living room, where it dashed itself to pieces on the floor.
A wrench in the cellar apparently threw itself out of the window and a poker in the kitchen did the same thing. A kerosene lamp is said to have danced off the table and upon the floor. A trundle bed up stairs danced about the floor.
It is said, too, that bookcases set against the wall have thrown themselves down and broken with a loud crash. Bureau drawers will pull themselves out and slam themselves back in again, tumbling things about and making much noise, in fact, Mrs Black says that the noises and the slamming of drawers have been going on for years. It is only in the last few days that the “ghost” has taken on a destructive nature, and now there is hardly a whole dish or a whole piece of furniture in the house.
Scores of curious persons go to the house daily, and a delegation sits up in the house every night and witnesses the weird doings of the “ghost.”
Ottawa Free Press, 5th December 1914.