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East Side Ghost Haunts Medford, Ore., in 1911

 

It’s Halloween and ghost-story time. Here’s one from the Sept. 2, 1911, edition of the Medford (Ore.) Sun newspaper.  It starts like this:

“Ghosts!  The residents of the east side near the bridge have been seeing one. The ghost is the regulation kind being white and having the faculty of doing unexplainable things.”

The story continues, “As the clock in the belfry of the old water tower tolls the hour of 3am, … from the battlements of Bear creek bridge there emerges the ghost. Hesitating a moment, it turns and hurries across the field adjacent to the Pacific and Eastern track, feet scarcely touching mother earth, its whole body a swirling white ball. Contemptuous of man-made fences, houses and freight cars, it continues its headlong dash until it disappears in the dusk, a white speck revolving over and over and going…into the depths of unknown dark.

“Every night in the week except Sunday the queer specter repeats the performance …

“No chickens, watermelons nor money have been missed, however …

“The east side is taking much local pride in the ghost and if it continues its efforts…it may become firmly established.”

Source: "Ghost Troubles East Side." Medford Sun Sept. 1911: 4. Print.

Alice Mullaly is a graduate of Oregon State and Stanford University, and taught mathematics for 42 years in high schools in Nyack, New York; Mill Valley, California; and Hedrick Junior High School in Medford. Alice has been an Southern Oregon Historical Society volunteer for nearly 30 years, the source of many of her “As It Was” stories.