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| Haunted house at Leach Hollow (pencil drawing after a picture in the Des Moines Register. April 25, 1909) |
There was something wrong with the old house in Leach Hollow.
At least, that’s what people around Mapleton, Iowa, were saying. And after a few families tried living there, even the skeptics started wondering.
The
house sat about three miles south of Mapleton in a narrow valley known as Leach
Hollow. It was an old farmhouse surrounded by rough hills, scrub oak, and thick
brush. At night, tucked down in that hollow with nothing but darkness around
it, the place must have felt a long way from anybody.
And
the house had a history.
Years
earlier, William Leach lived there with his family. He became sick with
tuberculosis and died. His widow remarried, but tragedy followed her new
husband, George Smith, too.
Smith
was repairing an old cave or cellar near the house when the roof collapsed,
crushing him beneath dirt and timbers.
Then the widow’s brother came to stay. He had cancer and died not long afterward. Her father, who had lost parts of both feet and walked with an unusual thumping step, also died while living there.
That
last detail would play into stories of the haunting.
Eventually,
Lincoln Burch married the widow and lived on the farm for several years. But
the Burch family began hearing strange noises. Not once or twice, either. They
put up with it for about six months before finally selling their belongings and
moving to Nebraska.
That’s
when newlyweds Clyde Nepper and his wife moved in.
Bad
idea.
Before
long, the Neppers started hearing noises in the dining room and on the stairs.
Sometimes it sounded like someone was walking through the house when nobody was
there.
And
not just walking.
The
footsteps sounded like someone stomping around in wooden shoes—or walking on a
wooden leg.
Stump...
stump... stump.
Remember
the old man who had lost parts of both feet?
Yeah.
That.
The
noises became so bad that one night that the Neppers hitched up their team and
got out of there.
But
Clyde wasn’t quite ready to surrender the farm to a ghost.
He
returned with Earl Helder to spend the night and figure out what was happening.
They went to bed fully dressed. Helder kept a gun close enough to grab if
anything showed up.
Then
the footsteps started.
Helder
woke up hearing that same strange stump... stump... stump coming
from another room. Something was moving through the darkened house.
He
wanted to reach for his gun.
But
he couldn’t move.
His
entire body seemed frozen. He couldn’t move a finger—couldn’t even yell. All he
could do was lie there and listen.
While
investigating noises downstairs one night, Nepper felt water splash on him.
Then, suddenly, he found himself surrounded by a strange haze of light.
And
then there was the trap.
Nepper
and his brother-in-law returned to the house and rigged one up, hoping to catch
whoever—or whatever—was making the noises. Then they went upstairs and waited.
The
house didn’t stay quiet for long.
The
sounds started again. Then a tremendous crash shook the house.
The
men waited until morning to go downstairs and see what they’d caught.
Nothing.
Except
their trap, smashed into kindling wood.
Nobody
ever seems to have figured out exactly what was happening in that farmhouse.
Maybe there was a perfectly ordinary explanation for the footsteps, noises, and
strange lights.
Maybe.
But
if someone offered you a free night in the old house in Leach Hollow, listening
to that slow stump... stump... stump coming up the stairs?
You
might want to sleep somewhere else.
Before you go...
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