The Haunting of Granite Hill

Just past Clark’s Run, a short way up Lancaster Pike, sits a home that is definitely not lacking in mysterious events. Granite Hill, a home in Danville, Kentucky, has had its share of owners as well as tragedy.

Parts of the Granite Hill house were constructed at different times. During one of the many reconstructions, misfortune found a place at the home. Gabriel Slaughter, who was nephew and namesake to the old Governor, was in charge of the loading of logs designed to furnish lumber for construction. One log rolled off the wagon, killing him instantly. Stories claim that his body lay on the floor of the present dining room all night long, and it was thereafter stained with his blood. This floor was covered over later, but it remains in the house. His widow finished the new addition shortly before the Civil War. Several people have said that if you walk through the dining room late at night when the moon is particularly bright, you can hear his widow’s mournful cries fill the room. Some have reportedly seen bright red spots of unexplainable origin on the floor on the anniversary of his death.

During this same time, a son of the house distinctly saw his sister walk across the yard one night. Strangely enough, the sister had just passed away and was buried in the nearby family graveyard. He watched as she wondered around the yard. Suddenly, she looked up and called to him. She asked where her child was. The brother answered that all was well and that the child slept. His sister smiled and disappeared. She had died in childbirth and the baby had died shortly after. The two were resting side by side in the cemetery.

A final story occurred during the Prewitt ownership of Granite Hill. David Prewitt was a local sheriff. During his service, he had to preside at a hanging. After the hanging, Prewitt returned home and stored the scaffold wood in the barn. His farm hands would never go into the barn before sun-up or after sundown because it was said the unfortunate victim of the hanging was “stuck” in the barn. The angry spirit would attack anyone or anything that entered. Tale-tell marks along the barn wall and the mysterious decapitation of a dog in the barn serve witness to the wrath of this being. When the Yeager family took ownership of Granite Hill, the lumber was removed, as was the spirit.

Lauren Smith

East Jessamine High School