This coming Sunday, October 12th, I will be returning to Greenfield on the Historic Indiana National Road for a reprise of my Greenfield Ghost Tours. Since our last tour nearly a decade ago, many guests on the Irvington Ghost Walks have asked when we were going to host another Greenfield tour. As many of my readers know, my wife Rhonda has been battling melanoma for two years now, so this year seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit those old stories and raise money for a special cause at the same time. Proceeds from these Greenfield tours will go to skin cancer/melanoma awareness. Tickets are $20 (cash only) and will be available at 6:30 p.m. that evening in front of the Riley Home, 250 W. Main St. in Greenfield.
The tours will meet in front of the James Whitcomb Riley home (250 West Main Street) at 7 p.m. for a walking tour to explore the ghost stories and folklore of this historic community. From gangsters to poets to Presidents, we will examine their connection to Greenfield and what makes their spooky stories resonate to this day. As a bonus, we will be joined by my longtime friend Brigette Cook Jones, Executive Director of the Hancock County Tourism and Visitor Center, for a special presentation on the porch of the Riley home. As many of you know, I am a collector of historical objects, some of which I incorporate into the tours. On this Sunday, I will present a precious JW Riley relic object to Brigette that I’m sure tour guests will be interested in.
Now, for a little background on haunted Greenfield, here is an abridged version of an article I wrote back in 2009 that will give you an idea of what we will talk about this Sunday. Although often overshadowed in the panoply of central Indiana haunted communities by its more famous neighbor to the east, Irvington, Greenfield has many great ghost stories of its own. The 180-year-old community located 20 minutes east of Indianapolis has seen its fair share of notoriety, tragedy, and sorrow, all of which have left their mark on this community smack-dab in the middle of Hancock County.
Hoosiers connect Greenfield with its most famous son, poet James Whitcomb Riley. Indeed, it can easily be claimed that Riley put Greenfield on the map. His boyhood home, which rests squarely on the old National Road, is a treasured Indiana landmark with an understated haunted reputation of its own. I myself have witnessed strange goings on in the famous “rafter room” of Riley’s youth several years ago and will talk about my experiences in the famous house during the tour this Sunday.
The poet’s spirit has also been witnessed on the courthouse square playfully dancing with the ghosts of 2 small children who were murdered on the courthouse lawn many decades ago. The ghost of the “Yellow man” has been seen gazing plaintively from the bell tower of the courthouse by generations of Greenfield youth populating the town square on hot summer nights. The echo of a shotgun blast still resonates from the National Road on the north side of the courthouse as a ghostly reminder of a tragedy that took place there eight decades ago.
One of Greenfield’s long-forgotten funeral homes, located behind the courthouse, has ghost stories aplenty just waiting to be shared. There are several ghosts and hauntings associated with Greenfield’s old “Gooding’s Tavern,” located directly across the street from the Masonic Lodge on the South side of the National Road. One of these is the restless spirit of a young rebel “Copperhead,” who was murdered in the center of what is now State Road 9 by a Union patriot after voicing his support for General Lee and the Confederate cause.
Perhaps Greenfield’s most notorious ghostly phenomenon is connected to the time America’s “Public Enemy # 1,” Al Brady, was incarcerated in the old jail awaiting trial for the murder of an Indiana State Trooper in 1936. Longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover himself called the Brady gang “The most vicious and dangerous gang in history.” Al Brady was known to boast that by the time he was done, he’d “make John Dillinger look like a piker.”
The spectral appearance of the “Lincoln Ghost Train” retraces its route through the heart of Greenfield every April, solidifying its spot as the most famous ghost story in American history. However, it’s the unsettling appearance of the ghost of a 24-year-old black man, unjustly lynched for a crime he did not commit, that continues to send chills up the spines of witnesses retracing the victim’s death march along the darkened “Pennsy Trail” in Greenfield.
All of these tales, and more, assure that only the bravest of souls dare venture into “Haunted Greenfield” after dark. Come and join us this Sunday…if you dare.
Al Hunter is the author of “Haunted Indianapolis” and “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide.” and the co-author of the “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Osborn H. Oldroyd: Keeper of the Lincoln Flame”, “Thursdays with Doc. Recollections on Springfield & Lincoln” and “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
