446 Masonic Street: I have already talked about this house some, here is some more info. I hired a man to clean up the grounds and we were moving some lumber out of the garage. Brown, the hired man, was picking up some old bricks when he started falling. I caught him by the arm and pulled him up. It seems we had found an old cistern. We peered inside and, it was very black and it stank of wet things, so I told him to fill it up with bricks and dirt, which he did. I never went under the house, but I have a plumber friend who is a pretty good weasel and he went under to check my plumbing for me. I followed him above and really freaked out when he got stuck under the kitchen. He later told me it felt like the house had clamped shut on him and when he finally got out, it had opened up like a mouth with a cigar in it. He also said the foundation was the strangest he had ever seen, it being a maze of crawlways! Other external renovations included removal of a rotten staircase to the second floor and removal of the side porch roof and columns in order to build anew. So I guess my outside work might have stirred the spirits up a bit!

At that point in my life I was very skeptical concerning ghosts. We had just moved from an old farmhouse, way out in the country and never had any haint problems there. I also grew up in a two-story colonial home, just a few blocks from this house and never had any problems, so I kept humming that old song:" bought this house now you know IUm boss...ain't no haint gonna run me off!".

I spoke of poltergeists in my first post. I guess them throwing a coke can at my wife started it all. They seemed to not like her, hiding her jewelry and other woman things and locking her in closets and bathrooms. One evening, I was sitting on the side of the bed, talking on the phone when all of the faucets in the bathroom came on at full blast. I was alone in the house too. One night, very late, I was sitting in the balcony room, writing and suddenly a chill ran down my spine. I could feel someone looking at me and I kind of looked to the door out of the corner of my eye, only to see movement. I got up and walked into the bedroom across the hall where a female cousin was staying, (she had grown up in the house too) and looked to see if she was awake. She woke up when I walked in and when I asked her if she had been standing in my doorway, she said no, jumped up and ran into my bedroom and got into bed with my wife. That night I got to sit up and guard the women! An acquaintance of mine heard about my house and brought a spiritualist friend over to see what she thought. I was out of town the night they came, so my renter showed them around. When they entered the dinning room, the girl started crying, saying they were clawing at her legs and she had to get the hell out of there. My renter, Steve, said they left in a big hurry. That same weekend, Steve had a very heavy experience in the house. He was sitting upstairs in my bedroom, on the telephone, with the doorway on his left. He said this beautiful woman with long dark hair leaned sideways in the doorway and bent down to look at him face to face. He was about to say hello to her when he realized he could see thru her to the door behind her and at that moment, she faded away. It really shook Steve up because he definitely did not believe in ghosts. He also neglected to tell me about it until just recently. One evening we were visiting and he told me all about it, saying at the time he thought it would cause me to worry and as I was going through a divorce, he didnUt think I needed the extra burden. Well, and I always thought he figured I was loony as hell when I talked about the hauntings!

I have two final episodes to relate about the house. After my marriage was over, I decided to move back to the country, to a different more modern farmhouse my family owned. I had already moved my stuff and had decided to spend a Saturday, cleaning up and getting the house ready to put on the market. I was upstairs and I had the door to the non-existent staircase open for ventilation. Downstairs, I had locked all the doors, not wanting to be bothered. I was in the back bedroom upstairs. In the northeast corner of the room were two doors. One was regular size and led to an attic space, down over the 1 story kitchen. The other door was odd sized and led to a staircase that went up into the big attic. I had never been up there, there was always something foreboding about going up there. There was also a closet door going under the staircase. I was in this room sweeping and all of a sudden I hear this noise. It sounded like a basketball being bounced down some stairs, the big attic stairs. Yikes!! I thought that if that door opened when that sound got to the bottom I would surely have a heart attack and die, I turned, threw my broom down, Gawd, I was so scared and ran. I almost ran out the second floor door, the one with no staircase, but I caught the banister of the inside staircase and swung around and down it I went, scared to look up. The front door wouldn't budge so I ran into the parlor and out the side door into the driveway. My next door neighbors, a kindly old couple saw me and took me into their house, telling me I was white as a sheet and talking to me, calming me down. Finally, I called a friend and got him to come over. When my friend arrived I explained the situation to him and fearless fellow he is, he runs in the house and I meekly follow behind. When we go in the back bedroom upstairs, now this is the truth, the strange attic door was standing wide open and the broom I had flung down was propped against the door. I never went into that house alone again. This has been a long post so I'll save my final word about the house till next time. Thank you.

John Yarbro