Ghost stories from Rochester and
Western NY.
The local history of the Rochester area is steeped in a rich and somewhat bloody history. It dates back to the mid 1600's when the French first set foot ashore in Irondequoit. There were wars for greed, conquest, territory, and independence fought over this area.
Rochesterville was formed in 1817, and eventually it swallowed up a number of nearby settlements and several ports. It grew to be renamed Rochester, a major metropolitan area.
With any book on ghosts it would be remiss not to mention Rochester New York as the nexus of the Spiritualist movement. The three Fox Sisters who lived in Hydesville, a small town east of Rochester, claimed to have communicated with the ghost of a dead peddler through a code using knocks. He had been murdered and buried in the basement of their home years prior to their family buying the house. In the mid 1800's the Foxx Sisters became celebrated mediums, in Rochester, and throughout both the United States and Europe. They would conduct public meetings, where they would contact the spirits. This was the beginning of the Spiritualism movement.
As you read this book you may ask “Is a ghost story truth or fiction?” That's a very good question. All the stories in this book are from either my own experiences, or were told to me by people on one of my investigations or ghost walks. They experienced the “ghost” first hand. In most stories, I changed the names of the living and give only the street name, to respect the privacy of the families.
To check the accuracy of some of the stories I went to the actual location, with a medium that was told nothing of the stories. The medium was asked her impressions from each location. The amazing thing is how close the medium's impressions were to the stories. In addition, I went to local historians in order to verify the names and other bits of the stories.
I am not going to tell you ghosts are real. That is for you to decide for yourself; as for me, my money is on the ghosts. One thing I have found, there are a lot of ghost stories out there. Most are not legend status like “The White Lady of Durand Eastman Park,” those are the ones everyone hears about. These are the small ones, ones that still deserve to be told and remembered. That is, if you like ghost stories…
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