The Haunted Buxton Inn of Ohio

Of all the places in Ohio one might get a chance to encounter the paranormal, the Buxton Inn may not be the most dramatically or overwhelmingly haunted, but it certainly is one of the most interesting – with legends suggesting not only is it haunted, but haunted by a group of ghosts who are quite happy there.  This seems to suggest that ghosts don’t necessarily have to be drawn only by the tragic or to unfortunate circumstances in order to haunt a place.  They may just appear when they’re perfectly happy.

As we look into the whole subject of the paranormal with legends and await a visit by the Ghost of Christmas past, we get a chance to see that just like the aforementioned ghost of Charles Dickens’ fame, there are more than a few haunted places with jovial and happy paranormal entities.

And while it’s been almost two centuries since the Inn was built, things have changed in some ways a great deal and in others hardly at all.  As the foundation was being poured, president James Madison drafted a 90 day embargo on the United Kingdom under political pressure by his base.  By the time the walls were being constructed, the United States had entered the war of 1812.

While it would not be the most well remembered war in US history, it would prove to destroy the idea of Tecumseh’s confederacy a year later.  By the time the last stone was placed in the building, the history of the US would be changed forever.

Orrin Granger, the man responsible for the building of Buxton Inn, did so after moving to the area with his wife and daughters.  And rather than the house and inn it would later become, the building now known as the Buxton Inn was originally an outpost at the side of the road, serving to deliver mail to the nearby locals and repair stagecoaches as they passed through.

But despite its success, Orrin Granger would take ill and pass away in the building.  This is said to be the reason Granger has spent nearly two centuries in the building wandering around curiously and occasionally offering his help to those who visited.  Before he passed away, however, the Inn would reach its full potential and eventually see such guests as Charles Dickens (who would take quite an interest in the paranormal himself) and Abraham Lincoln.

After the death of Granger, a Mr. Sweet took over the establishment and oversaw the grounds.  One morning as his son tried to sleep he found himself restless and unable to keep his eyes shut.  Going downstairs in an effort to procure some food for himself, Sweet’s son Fred found a mysterious stranger sitting in the kitchen polishing off the last piece of the family’s pie.

Thinking this figure must be one of the guests, Fred talked with the man for a long time and heard some of the immense history of the establishment when it had been built.  When he asked the mysterious man how he knew so much about this significant place, the stranger simply smiled and said, “Well I’m Orrin Granger, the original owner of this building.  Now if you’ll excuse me,” and disappeared into thin air.