Cover
For my friends Nick and Robin Poulakis, who share their love of the paranormal with me, and my wife, Allanah O’Boyle, for her editing assistance
Introduction
Haunted Ontario 4 is a compilation of Haunted Ontario 2, Marilyn at French River, and new stories.
I first penned Haunted Ontario fifteen years ago. In that time I have completed four books on the subject of spirits, and hosted the popular national television show Creepy Canada. I have interviewed so many people who have seen, felt, or heard a spirit presence. One only has to listen to them and look into their eyes to know just how real their personal experience was to them. After all, how does anyone explain a push from behind by an unseen force, a bed that levitates three feet off the floor, a shadow that skirts by the corner of your eye, a full apparition that is visible for only a moment before it’s gone? How does an object float through the air on its own and then drop to the floor at your feet? (That was my own experience as written up Haunted Ontario.) We can only theorize.
For sixteen years I have conducted historical and haunted walking tours in Parry Sound and Muskoka. During the tours I have seen pictures taken of people, who were neither on the tours nor anywhere near them, standing beside houses or jails or in group shots.
People have reported being touched by something or overcome with a chill, even though it is a warm summer evening. Other people have photographed unusual energy patterns floating in the air, inside or outside buildings and above tree tops. These are their experiences.
I have endeavoured to introduce my readers to places that are open to the public, such as museums, theatres, opera houses, former jails, and inns or hotels. I want you to be able to visit these places and investigate and experience things for yourselves.
You can never prepare to experience the unexplained. The reason is simple: you never know when something is going to happen, and when it does it is always startling and unnerving at first. The rational mind struggles to accept what it cannot explain.
Imagine for a moment that you are a person having lunch in a restaurant. You excuse yourself from the table to visit the washroom. While standing in front of the mirror, you see your image disappear and another face looks back at you! What would you do in that moment? How would you feel? Shocked? Panicked? Disbelieving?
There are many stories about spirits appearing in mirrors. A woman appears in the ladies’ room mirror at the Jester’s Court Restaurant in Port Perry; a spirit appears in the mirror of the ladies’ washroom in the Bala Bay Hotel in Bala; the mirror in the officers’ quarters of Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake sometimes contains the image of a woman. Many paranormal experts believe that mirrors act as portals or openings for spirits to move through. If we study the past we find examples of this belief. Not that long ago our ancestors would cover the mirrors in the house or turn them to the wall for three days when a death occurred in the family. The belief was that the deceased could find a way back through the mirror.
Anne Ridge, in her book Death Customs in Rural Ireland, states,
Prayers were said, candles were kept burning, and holy water was sprinkled around the deathbed, to guard against evil. It was a common custom to cover all polished surfaces or mirrors, or to turn them to the wall.
This has variously been explained as a means of preventing the spirit of the dead person from seeing its own reflection and refusing to leave or as a means of preventing the spirit from taking the reflection or double of another person already caught there.
Another international custom was to open doors and windows to give the spirit free passage. Clocks were sometimes stopped. In some parts of England every bolt and lock in the house was unfastened when someone died.
Anne Ridge also writes,
Candles were lit “to protect the body from evil spirits and other dangers as well as to illuminate the deceased’s journey to the other world.” Blessed candles were used at the time of death and afterward ordinary candles were used according to information gathered in the midlands. It has been recorded that an uneven number were used; three to five was the general rule. The candles were lit immediately the corpse was “left out” and were kept burning for the course of the entire wake.
The butts of the candles had cures associated with them, particularly the first candles to have been lit.
According to Anne, from another source, if a person had a bad chest cold or bronchitis, the butts of the candles should be melted onto brown paper, which should be put on the chest.
In my book Full Moons and Black Cats I state, “If a candle, that was lit as part of a ceremony, went out, it was a sign that evil spirits were nearby.”
Beliefs about the spirit world are sprinkled throughout our folklore, our beliefs, and our superstitions. For centuries we have acknowledged the existence of spirits. Our ancestors went to great measures to protect themselves and their dead. Many people still practise these ancient beliefs.
Haunted Ontario 4 is another venture into the spirit world. I trust the stories will captivate your imagination. Light a candle, turn the page, and enjoy!
Terry Boyle
November 2014
Blinkbonnie Inn
~ Gananoque ~
He loved his home. It was history, his family, his power, and his prestige. He could not let it go — not for anything. Not even death.
Everyone experiences some form of attachment. This yearning for association to a place, a person, or possessions can begin in youth and sometimes live even beyond the grave.
Charles MacDonald suffered from a yearning attachment. In his case it was to Blinkbonnie, his ancestral home. He was, after all, the last MacDonald to bear witness to an incredible journey dating back to 1810 in Gananoque, Ontario.
Gananoque is known as the Canadian gateway to the Thousand Islands. The name is a First Nations word that means both “land which slopes toward the water and disappears under it”, and “place of good health”.
One of the first land claims in the area was by Loyalist Joel Stone, who travelled to England in 1783 to petition for compensation for his losses in the American Revolution. Stone arrived in the area in 1787. There were two falls on the Gananoque River and for that reason he requested a land grant on both sides of the river. (Stone spelled the name of the place Cadanoryhqua and then Ganenoquay. In all, there have been fifty-two variations of the spelling of Gananoque. The present-day spelling first appeared in the 1820s.)
At the same time, Sir John Johnson, leader of a congregation of Loyalists from the Mohawk Valley and a member of the Executive Council, also petitioned for the same land. Johnson was granted one thousand acres on the east side of the Gananoque River and Stone was granted seven hundred acres on the west side. The first store, grist mill, and tavern were opened in 1792 by Stone.
The next stage of growth did not occur until Charles McDonald arrived in 1810 from New York State. He soon became a business partner with Stone and only one year later he married Stone’s only daughter, Mary.
In 1812, Charles built a new frame home for his wife. He named his house Blinkbonnie, a Scottish name meaning “good to the eyes” or “good view.” Charles persuaded his brother John, of New York State, to join him in partnership on January 17, 1818, under the firm name C. & J. McDonald. By 1824 the brothers had acquired the property that had originally been granted to Sir John Johnson, on the east side of the river. Now that had the river to generate power. A survey established the site for the village of Gananoque.
Two years later the McDonalds build the largest flour mill in Canada. At one time it was estimated that one