Ghosts, Haunting, and Legends
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Witness: [Name withheld upon request]
Location: Southern Wisconsin
Date of Encounter: 1973

I grew up in a home that was built around the time of the Civil War in a small rural farming community in Wisconsin.

The house was occupied by at least two other families before my grandfather purchased the property in the early 1900s. My grandparents raised 5 sons and a daughter. The youngest son, my father, was to inherit the home after my grandparents passed away and his older siblings left to other parts of the country.

As a small child I would always hear things that my parents would explain away as being mice that were causing the scratching I would hear in the walls, or it was my imagination upon hearing someone walking up and down the stairs, or doors opening and shutting. There always seemed to be a logical explanation. At least until my father started experiencing things. But this story (not about my father's experiences) is one that affected my two younger brothers and my mother as well as myself.

My two brothers shared one of four bedrooms upstairs with my room being directly across the hall. One night I was awakened by what sounded like dresser drawers being opened and closed very loudly. I got up and opened my door and could see under the door of my brother’s room that the light was on and that was where the commotion was coming from. I immediately went to the door and opened it to see one of my brothers walking back and forth in the room opening and closing dresser doors and mumbling to himself in an extremely agitated state. I glanced over at the other bed that contained my youngest brother and to my amazement he was sound asleep. I approached my brother who was "awake" and asked him what he was doing. He stopped short and stared directly at me and addressed me in an angry manner to leave the house. I didn't belong here and I should leave this very instant. All I could say was, "What did you say?" He then practically yelled at me, "Abe, I told you, you don't belong here — get out!" Okay, I get it, waking nightmare or something because at 16 and every inch a girl, I know I didn't look like an Abe. Whoever that was. 

I left the room and woke our mother who tried to calm my brother down and get him back to sleep. She assumed he was walking in his sleep and nothing was wrong. Once she got him back into bed, he closed his eyes and was sound asleep.

The next morning at breakfast we asked my brother about the "dream" he had last night. He had no recollections of ever being awake and causing such a ruckus. My younger brother confirmed he didn't wake up to all that happened either. I asked my brother who Abe was. He had no answer for me. I asked him if he'd been studying Abe Lincoln in school, thinking that may have subconsciously triggered the dream state he was in. Nope, he wasn't studying Abe Lincoln; he didn't know anybody named Abe, nothing. Well, we just summed it up to being nothing and never brought it up again.

After many years my father passed away and my brothers and I were grown and on our own, my mother remarried. She decided that it was time to sell the family home as it was too big for just her and her new husband. The house was sold to a couple that had no children and they decided to remodel the house back to its original state, as it was when it was built. They registered it with the historical society in the state so construction could begin. A couple of months had passed and one of the owners had called my mother to ask her what he described as having a few odd questions for her. He wanted to know if while she lived in the house if strange things tended to happen. My mother told him that as far as she knew, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. He then began to tell her of the strange night that had happened. During the restoration the couple had a nephew come stay with them for a couple of weeks. During that period they were awakened by the nephew opening and closing a closet door that was at the end of the upstairs hallway. He was very angry and was pacing up and down the hall and slamming the door. When he saw his Uncle he immediately started yelling for Abe to get out of the house! He kept this up for a good while before they could calm him down and get him back to bed. They were very alarmed by this because the nephew had no history of sleepwalking or nightmares. My mother had completely forgotten about the incident (almost 16 years earlier) that happened with my brother. She had called me and told me the strange story and I reminded her that this was what had happened to my brother all those years ago. She also said they were hearing footsteps going up and down the stairs and doors opening and closing. They had lights turning on and off and the TV would come on all hours of the night with the sound up full volume. I wasn't surprised at all upon hearing this, in fact I felt vindicated for no one believing me with all that I tried to tell them about the house.

The most amazing thing about this story is that after the house was finished, an article came out in the local paper describing the history of our family home. One part of this history caught my eye and took my breath away. Apparently when the house was built, all the bricks came from a brickyard south of our town. There was a picture of the men who worked at the brickyard. The Forman of the yard and the one in charge of the brick laying on the house was named Abe! So who knows, maybe an argument or grudge imprinted itself while the house was being built. Abe was obviously not wanted there — if that's the same Abe.

The house has since changed hands a couple of times and a fire almost destroyed the home several years back. No explanation of how the fire started could be found but because of the amazing brickwork of it being built 3 bricks thick, the entire structure was saved. 

The house is occupied once again but I'm not aware of any disturbances or "possessions" taking place.

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