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4 Houses at Fort Leavenworth –
HauntedHouses.com
Fort Leavenworth is the oldest continuously
active military post, west of the Mississippi.
LOCATION:
Fort Leavenworth was built in the
Northeast corner of Kansas, now on Highway 73. The two homes in these
ghost stories reported below, which are used for housing personnel, are
located on the grounds of Fort Leavenworth.
MANIFESTATIONS:
Because Fort Leavenworth has had its
full share of traumatic occurrences, which have happened during its long
history, it's not surprising that there are at least 9 ghosts who haunt
the buildings there. Many more have passed through, as ghosts and spirits
are attracted to this fort.
1ST HOUSE
House At 18 Summer Place - In the
1970s , an apparition described as being a middle-aged woman in a woolen
skirt, lived in the house's attic, and loved to look through the attic
window, to study the people down below in the yard and in the street.
She would smile at them. She also liked to help the family living there
with the household chores and childcare.
A) One night, the family was surprised
to see this matronly apparition washing their dinner dishes in the kitchen
sink.
B) After her kitchen duty debut, she
made herself visible to the family members many times.
C) Also, when going up or down the
stairs, sometimes family members would feel her presence brush against
their arms, leaving a cold spot on the place of contact.
D) While this apparition housekeeper
/nanny loved the little children in this family, she had animosity toward
the children's babysitters and grandmothers, whom she considered her competition.
Sometimes a visiting grandma would be firmly pushed out of the upstairs
nursery by unseen hands, or the babysitter would find the children's beds
neatly remade, after she had already turned down the covers for bedtime.
E) One of the children told the parents
that this nice lady would read stories to him until he went to sleep.
The parents found a mysterious book in the child's room that they had
never seen before, and didn't belong to them.
While most of the families who lived
in this house found their maternal apparition housekeeper amusing, and
didn't mind living with her, one family, in 1975, was scared of her, and
didn't want this ghostly helper. They asked the chaplain to perform an
exorcism. While it successfully got this helpful matron to leave the house,
she simply floated into the house next door, at 20 Summer Place.
F) However, she never appeared to
the family living here, but they did hear her soft footsteps in the attic
overhead, and the rattling and turning of doorknobs. Cats and dogs would
be chased off the second floor of this house by an unseen presence.
second HOUSE
The House at 605 McClellan, located
in the McClellan Officer's quarters. This house was a large home with
three stories. When a new family moved in, early in 1975, a restless spirit
made itself known.
A) One night, the back door suddenly
opened and then slammed shut, and heavy footsteps were heard, racing up
the stairs. No visible human had been responsible.
B) While enjoying the warm fire in
the fireplace, the family was gripped with fearful fascination, when an
apparition of a mustached man with a goatee became visible in the middle
of the flame. When the fire died out, the face of this ghostly man appeared
on the back of the fireplace.
C) For awhile, the family experienced
loud crashes, stomping footsteps up and down the stairs, icy cold spots
and blasts in various parts of the house.
D) After a time period of peace and
quiet, noises came back. Thumping, banging, and scratching noises seem
to come from the unoccupied third floor. The family put a gate up to keep
their pets and the family from going up to the third floor. This unhappy
apparition was satisfied with this arrangement, and the house was once
again at peace.
E) When a new family moved in the
house, in the 1980s, new occurrences began again. One morning, the father
found someone else in the bathroom; a tall, thin man with dark hair, who
was shaving with an old-fashioned razor and his shaving cream.
F) Early one morning, the daughter
awoke to find this same apparition in an army uniform, starring at her.
He went through her closet, which at one time used to be a hallway which
led to her parents bedroom.
3RD HOUSE
The Rookery - 14 Summer
Place
The Rookery is the oldest house on
base, and is 162 years old. Residents throughout the years have experienced
sleep disruptions from noisy apparitions of an overly caring old woman,
a bushy-haired old man and an angry young girl.
4TH HOUSE
The Sheridan Home - 611
Scott Avenue
An angry, vengeful apparition of Mrs.
Sheridan, the wife of General Philip Sheridan makes a pest of herself
among the living. Her husband left her while she was in the process of
dying to go to Chicago on business.
5TH HOUSE
(Built on the site of
the former site of St. Ignatius Chapel) - 632 Thomas Avenue
Father Fred was burned to death in
the fire that burned down the chapel. When a new house was built on the
same spot, his apparition has appeared in the house's fireplace, in the
kitchen and other places throughout the house.
OTHER GHOSTS
Other ghosts seen at Fort Leavenworth,
like to hold tea parties in the parlor of the chief of staff's quarters,
play the harmonica, and like to ride horses through the old infantry barracks.
  
Catherine, dressed in a calico dress
and black shawl, still looks for her lost children, who disappeared when
they were sent out to find firewood in the year 1880. She is still seen
walking among the tombstones of the National Cemetery and the greenery
of the present-day golf course, sometimes carrying a lantern. Her voice
is sometimes heard as well.
Still Haunted?
Definitely yes.
It seems that the ghosts mentioned
above have all stuck around. All the houses along Summer Place still get
the help of the matronly lady in black who tries to do the dishes and
take care of the children. The man at the McClellan House makes an occasional
appearance. Mrs. Sheridan still is annoyed, and Pastor Fred and the others
as well are still haunting various parts of the base.
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