| The Medora Haunted House |
Aesop's mother doted on him because he was the youngest. When he was 17, he wanted to enlist in Captain Gordan Tanner's company of Volunteers assembling at Medora in the spring of 1861. But his mother forbade him to go and even ordered Captain Tanner not to take him. Aesop joined anyway on July 11, 1861, and became a drummer boy with Captain Tanner's Company B, 22nd Regiment, Indiana Volunteers. He was sent to Jefferson City, Missouri, and later transferred to Boonville, Missouri, where he died.
In April 1862, Dr. Wilson had his son' s body returned to Medora. Not satisfied that it was the body of her son, Mrs. Wilson had the casket opened and gazed once more on her son’s remains. The condition of the body made it nearly impossible for her to identify it as her Aesop, so she would not consent to the burial of the body. At her request, an undertaker placed the body in charcoal and sealed the casket. It was placed in the upstairs hallway, in front of the window. For twelve years the casket remained there. Each afternoon Mrs. Wilson would go upstairs, make herself comfortable in a little wicker chair, and sew and talk to her dead son.
All this time, Dr. Wilson insisted that the body should be buried. Finally, in 1873, he hired a Mr. and Mrs. Kegwin, spiritualists from Louisville, Kentucky, to come to their house and hold a séance. After a long pause, a voice was heard saying, "This is Aesop, Mother."
After other conversation, in which Mrs. Wilson was firmly convinced the voice was that of her son, she asked, "Would you like to have your remains buried?"
"Yes, Mother," answered the voice.
"Where?" she asked.
"In the cedars just north of the house," the voice replied. The body was buried the next day.
The "haunted house" is now crumbling and decaying, but it is a place where ghosts and spirits are said to gather. When a lone rider passes the house at night, he might see the white, wraith-like figures at the windows and hear the moaning before hurrying on his way....
The End
