Christine Whelan FEO, October 27, 2022, VOL. 4 ISSUE 5
As the Halloween edition of the Fort Erie Observer drew nearer, I began to dig in, to see if I could find something interesting about our area that I’ve not covered yet in the last three years.
On this search, I discovered that Ridgeway was the place to be during October’s end of the past. Stories including Halloween pranks carried out and ghost sightings going as far back as the 1920s began to surface.
Rick Doan, born and raised in Ridgeway, began sharing posts on his Facebook Group, Ridgeway, Ontario History, at the end of a few Octobers, recalling memories and telling stories of Halloween past in Ridgeway.
The earliest I found from Rick was a short connection to the 1930s. He shared, “I remember as a youngster my father always telling the tale of, not tipping over outhouses, but moving one just a few feet back, making businessman Jerry Sherk fall into the s’**t pit’!”
This storytelling of the outhouses theme goes back further than the 30s in Ridgeway. According to M. Devitt, who posted on Doan’s Group, “Many years ago, my father, John Devitt told me a story from his days at Ridgeway High School. Dad was born in 1914, so this goes back in time. I think this would have happened about 1928.”
The story was told, “One Halloween night, he and a number of his mates, some who were sons of prominent townsfolk, played a prank on the high school and several members of Ridgeway. He said there was a man in town who had a horse and flatbed wagon. The boys ‘borrowed’ this man’s horse and cart without his knowledge. The group then proceeded to go into people’s backyards and moved their outhouses onto this cart. He laughed when he remembered that one of the guys fell into the pit of an outhouse.
“They took the outhouses to Ridgeway High and placed each one onto the stairs outside the school. The next day, when school assembled, the principal was furious! He asked everyone, who was responsible, but no one said a word. The school hired the same man whose horse and cart were ‘borrowed’ the night before to return the outhouses.”
According to Doan, in the 50s and 60s, Ridgeway had “gangs” running around Halloween that caused so much damage it used to turn up as a news article in the Buffalo News!
“Almost every year on Halloween, Mann’s barn would catch fire, but the fireman would put it out before it burned down. This barn was on the east side of Prospect Point Road at the end of Cutler Street.
In those days, Ridgeway had its own police station, on Cutler Street. The building is still there, on the south side of the street. According to Rick, the Bertie Township Police in Ridgeway would run after them. The kids would scatter and not be caught.
Rick shared, “My eldest brother remembers a group of about 50 kids that would meet up in front of the Oddfellows Hall, where the parking lot next to Brodies Drugstore is now. He said they took on the ‘mob mentality’. They would run amok through the streets of Ridgeway, tearing down fences, breaking and soaping windows, and throwing eggs and tomatoes at passing cars.”
He continued, “My grandmother always had a nice rock garden in front of her house but on Halloween night, the rocks would be all taken out and piled up in the middle of the road. A hay wagon full of hay was set on fire in front of Austin Fretz’s car lot, now the laundromat.
Rick admitted to his own participation. “My Dad always had a large tomato field and what was left on the vine was ours to throw at cars or homes. ,
“Cousin Boyd and I always had a great time.” Doan recalled, “We took a very large flower pot from an old lady’s front porch, put it in the middle of the road, put an M80 under it, and hid behind a tree. What we didn’t expect when it blew was, it shattered into flying shrapnel, hitting every house in the neighbourhood. She ran out screaming, ‘I know who you are!’ but we took off running through darkened backyards.”
And, “We would go to Rubel’s store during the day and buy a half dozen eggs. Back then they would cut the carton in half for you and we would sit at the corner of Prospect and Dominion pelting cars with them. Several times the cars would stop and the driver would chase us, but we were never caught.”
Many, including myself, remember soaping the windows along the downtown Ridgeway storefronts, “But the business owners got smart and started putting some type of coating on the windows. And the window soaping stopped.
“Probably the worst prank we pulled,” Rick confessed, “was when we made a life-like dummy and put it on Dominion Road. Then we took a gallon of Dad’s old, red house paint and threw it all over the dummy and the road. Well, cars would screech to a halt, hoping not to run over the ‘body’, much to our delight. Many would be swearing as they were so scared.
Nicholas Gordon – “Halloween wraps fear in innocence, as though it were a slightly sour sweet. Let terror, then, be turned into a treat.”
Ghost Stories
The lifetime Ridgeway resident also posted a couple of ghost stories a while back, around Halloween time, on his Facebook Group. They were appropriate for his Group because they were for both ghost stories and, set in Ridgeway.
Ridge and Nigh: The Little Boy In Knickers
Doan posted in October 2014 that before our local funeral home was built, a very old 1800s home sat there, on the corner of Ridge and Nigh, for over 100 years.
“Back in the old days when people died, they were laid out in their own homes. However, some elected not to. This old family home could then be rented to have embalming and showing in the large living room.”
The story began, “It must have been in the 20s when the owner’s daughter came down the stairs and opened the door to the living room and saw a body being ‘prepared’ for a showing. This affected her throughout her whole life. Later, this woman’s daughters, who would come to visit their uncle in this home, played with a little boy in knickers.”
However, a little boy did not live there.
“The little boy in knickers story was told to me by one of these now grown-up girls of my age,” Rick explained. “The strange thing is, another family moved there and without knowing the story of the first, also told me about a little boy in knickers that they played with when they were kids. Needless to say, this ran a chill down my back.”
A Ridgeway Teacher
Another story, posted in October of 2015 by Rick Doan, began with, “Sharon Dell and I have been working on a ghost story that happened right here in little old Ridgeway.” The names of the involved and their locations were not revealed to respect the privacy of those involved. Both Doan and Dell are known in the community as historians and work together on local projects.
“The story starts in August of this year (2015) in an old home in Ridgeway built in 1892. The 13-year-old female, let us call her Sarah, was home alone during the day washing dishes. She heard something behind her and saw a woman in a long white dress and long dark hair walk across the kitchen from left to right. Sarah jumped back, bruising herself, and let out a scream. The figure then turned and looked at her with the expression to inquire, What? and then vaporized.”
Doan continued, “Sarah was so terrified she fled the house until her father came home. A few days later, they were telling some neighbours and one said it was ‘probably old lady Disher who once lived there’.”
This home was originally owned by Margaret Disher and her sister. “This is where Sharon and I started to investigate.”
Sharon provided a photocopy of ‘Maggie’ in a long, white dress, found at the museum. Sarah recognized her instantly as the woman she had seen. When Sharon’s relative, a member of the Disher family, showed a blurry pic of Maggie when she was young with long, flowing hair, Sarah also said that was her.
“I took Sarah and her mother up to Ridge Mausoleum to see Margaret’s crypt. Inscribed on it was: Margaret A. Disher, March 1, 1869 – Feb. 2, 1951. At Rest.
“At Rest. Really?”
He wrapped up, “Margaret’s sister, Clara, died ten years before Margaret did and she lived in the house alone. Sharon found out she was a school teacher at both Ridgeway’s old school, which is still standing in downtown Ridgeway and Ridgeway Public School.”
L.M. Montgomery – “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
Parties
A newspaper clipping, found on Doan’s Facebook Group, provides some vivid and telling details of parties that were once held at the high school.
“Babies, witches, painters and costumed young blades of every size and description appeared at the annual Ridgeway High School. The room, dimly lit, featured two ‘spooks’ sitting across the table from one another drinking the famed ‘spirit’ water.
The auditorium was decorated in long black and orange streamers with bats and witches flying on broomsticks. Students, dressed in hilarious and entertaining costumes, danced to waltzes, polkas, fox trots, jitterbugs and elimination dances.
For those who didn’t dance, there was, of course, Bingo.
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Word Got Out
With all the local storytelling and legend loving, it’s no surprise that Ridgeway received the news in November 2015 that Niagara’s Most Haunted was shooting an episode in the downtown area, covering several locations.
Did any of these stories resonate with you? Did any of them ring a specific bell?
Whether you believe the stories or not, whether reading about the pranks makes you giggle or slowly shake your head, Halloween can be a time we all can find our own brand of fun, stepping outside our normal daily living and getting creative with decorations and costumes, maybe catch a little thrill. And as the people in these stories did several decades ago, make Halloween memories that those ahead of us will remember and share.
Nick Gordon – “On Halloween, witches come true; wild ghosts escape from dreams. Each monster dances in the park.”
Dexter Kozen – “Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, voices whisper in the trees, ‘Tonight is Halloween!'”
Photo provided by Rick Doan (Ridgeway, Ontario History)
