2008 Woodie Awards
Tales of specter resurrected
Nicholas Kelly - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Metro
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MOUNT VERNON - Whitney Trickett still remembers the children. The boy, dark-haired, in his calf-length shorts, bouncing up and down on her bed. The girl with her long blonde hair and the way she would move the shoes in the living room while Trickett watched TV. Both are still vivid in Trickett's mind and the minds of other tenants of 400 First St. W. in Mount Vernon, Iowa.
Them, and the 6-foot tall black shadow that would sometimes watch while they slept.
A 30-minute drive from Iowa City, in the small college town of Mount Vernon sits the Hogle House. Listed as an Iowa Historic Site, the former home and clinic of Drs. Kate and George Hogle has established a legacy among former tenants and townspeople that has more to do with who may still be in the house than who was there before.
In short, at least three generations of Hogle House tenants have claimed the house is haunted.
Mary Morgan of Morgan Funeral and Cremation Choices, the second of two funeral parlors that have been located at the home, said unexplained events were a nightly occurrence.
"Every evening when I would go to bed, an 'entity' I would guess, something, would depress the corner end of the bed as if someone sat on it," she said.
Morgan said she would eventually have to tell her spectral visitor that she intended to go to sleep, at which point whatever was putting weight on the corner of the bed would go away.
Nighttime visitors alone were not the only strange events which occurred during Morgan's stay in the home. TVs and stereos would suddenly come to life at full volume, the thermostat would continually be turned up to 90 degrees even after Morgan installed a lock on it, and her son would tell her about the shadowy man he would see in the home.
The same shadowy man that would eventually become no small source of unease for subsequent tenants.
"He'll open doors and stuff, he moves chairs around, he paces back and forth," said current tenant Danielle Hughes. "And he'll stop and just stare at you."
Them, and the 6-foot tall black shadow that would sometimes watch while they slept.
A 30-minute drive from Iowa City, in the small college town of Mount Vernon sits the Hogle House. Listed as an Iowa Historic Site, the former home and clinic of Drs. Kate and George Hogle has established a legacy among former tenants and townspeople that has more to do with who may still be in the house than who was there before.
In short, at least three generations of Hogle House tenants have claimed the house is haunted.
Mary Morgan of Morgan Funeral and Cremation Choices, the second of two funeral parlors that have been located at the home, said unexplained events were a nightly occurrence.
"Every evening when I would go to bed, an 'entity' I would guess, something, would depress the corner end of the bed as if someone sat on it," she said.
Morgan said she would eventually have to tell her spectral visitor that she intended to go to sleep, at which point whatever was putting weight on the corner of the bed would go away.
Nighttime visitors alone were not the only strange events which occurred during Morgan's stay in the home. TVs and stereos would suddenly come to life at full volume, the thermostat would continually be turned up to 90 degrees even after Morgan installed a lock on it, and her son would tell her about the shadowy man he would see in the home.
The same shadowy man that would eventually become no small source of unease for subsequent tenants.
"He'll open doors and stuff, he moves chairs around, he paces back and forth," said current tenant Danielle Hughes. "And he'll stop and just stare at you."
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