The Gore Orphanage Legend: How the Journal Added Fuel to the Fire

Like many Baby Boomers growing up in Lorain County in the 1960s and 70s, I had heard the story about Gore Orphanage – how it had mysteriously burned down long ago, killing all the children, and how their ghosts now haunted the ruins of the building out on its namesake road south of Vermilion.

Where did I first hear about the legend? I'm not sure. It was one of those things that most kids seemed to have some awareness of, either through an older sibling or friend.

But there's one source that I believe greatly contributed to the popularity of the spooky story in the 1960s, saving it from obscurity and (for good or bad) planting the seeds of the full-blown phenomena it would become decades later.

And that source was the Lorain Journal.

It was in the late 1960s that locally there was an increased interest in the Gore Orphanage legend. Perhaps the reminiscing of elderly township residents (who were old enough to remember that there had been an actual orphanage, and that the nearby "haunted" Joseph Swift house had really burned down), had stirred the imagination of listeners. They wanted to know more about this orphanage and turned to the Journal for help.

Thus they wrote to the Journal's "Hot Line" feature, which answered a variety of questions. Here's a Gore Orphanage question that ran in the paper on June 3, 1967.

Here's another one, from July 16, 1968.

The Journal must have realized that interest in Gore Orphanage was pretty high – so it had Staff Writer Jeff Hammill write a full blown article (below) on it. The excellent piece ran in the Journal on August 8, 1968. Hammill even interviews a man who was alive when the real orphanage was in operation.

The Legend of Gore Orphanage

By JEFF HAMMILL

Staff Writer

HENRIETTA – Was there ever a place called Gore Orphanage? Where was it? Was it really destroyed by fire with many children being burned to death?

These are some of the questions being asked by people in Lorain County. For some reason which nobody has been able to explain, there has been an upsurge in interest over this bit of local history.

George Metcalf, Director of the Lorain County Historical Society Museum, said he has been receiving many requests for information about the orphanage.

DESPITE the fact that the entire history of the place is in this century, little is known about it and what is known is confused depending on the source of information. No records of the orphanage were kept.

The orphanage was begun in 1902 by Reverend John Sprunger, a German Lutheran minister and his associates who had come here from Bern, Ind. They had had an orphanage there but it burned down.

In Lorain County it was called the Orphanage of Light and Hope. The site consisted of about 500 acres.

According to Harold Swanson, North Ridge Road, Vermilion, who lived there from 1904-08, the land was made up of four farms formerly owned by Nicklaus Wilbur, Leveret Denman, Joseph Howard and John Hughes.

SWANSON remembers Sprunger as a kind-hearted man who had every good intention of making the place a success.

“However, he was away a lot and couldn’t devote enough time to the children. He hired overseers to manage the orphanage.

“Some of these men and women were kind and good like Rev. Sprunger, but there were some who were terrible. One of these men was named John Strauss.

“HE WAS very brutal. He whipped the children for very little things they would do wrong,” Swanson remembers.

He said that finally after almost killing a boy, Sprunger realized what was happening and released him.

Swanson said that, despite Sprunger’s goodness, he would rather spend four years in the state penitentiary than in that orphanage.

The homes, there was a boys’ home and a girls’ home, were two houses that had been standing on the previous farms. They were about a half-mile apart.

There are varying reports on the location of the orphanage. Metcalf located the place on a map about halfway between the present SR 113 and Portman Road on Gore Orphanage Road.

However, Swanson said that the boys’ home was located on the spot where a home now stands at the corner of Portman Road and Gore Orphanage Road. He said the girls’ home was down Portman Road to the east.

THE ORPHANAGE survived a number of years until Sprunger died in 1914. Then two years later, the mortgage was foreclosed by a Vermilion bank.

The children were moved to various homes in Cleveland.

The story that the girls’ home burned down is true, but once again stories about it differ.

Metcalf reports that the house burnt sometime in the ‘20s after it had been vacated. But, Swanson said that it burnt down around 1912 while it was still occupied. In either case, both men agree that no deaths were caused by the fire.

The boys’ home was torn down after the orphanage was vacated and a house was built on that spot. Some of the timbers from the old house were used in the new one.

The common belief that the area is haunted by the spirits of dead children stems from a separate story, that of the Swift Hollow House.

Joseph Swift, a former Connecticut soldier during the War of 1812, came to ’New Connecticut,’ a parcel of land set aside in Ohio for war veterans.

He was given 150 acres by the federal government on the Vermilion River and added to it. His farm prospered and by 1840 he was wealthy enough to build a house.

He engaged Oziah Long, an Elyria judge, to build a “Greek Revival” style house. The home when completed had columns, French windows, fourteen rooms and six fireplaces.

In 1865, Rosedale, as it was called, was sold. The Nicklaus Wilbur family bought the house and lived there a number of years.

BEING spiritualists, these people often claimed to have been able to raise the spirits of some children who had been buried along the river. This led to the belief that the home was haunted.

Eventually, the home was vacated and finally in 1923, it burned to the ground.

Because the Swift House was located at the bottom of the hill that the orphanage that the orphanage was later to be built on, the stories of the two places mixed, resulting in the rumors of ghosts and children screaming.

One final rumor that needs to be cleared up is how the word ‘gore’ became included with the orphanage. 

According to Metcalf, the “gore” was a strip of land between the originally surveyed Lorain County line and the lines of Erie and Huron Counties.

The discrepancy arose because of a fault in the early surveying of the Western Reserve.

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Although Hammill’s article was very thorough and should have put the Gore Orphanage legend to rest, interest in the story may have been kindled even more. Here's another “Hot Line” clipping from October 28, 1970. 

I like this "Hot Line" entry because it's a great capsule history of the orphanage and the Swift house, and offers the best and simplest explanation of the creation of the Gore Orphanage legend. It notes, "It is the belief of those who know the stories of the two places, that through the years the facts have become mixed." 

(That makes much more sense than the much-repeated theory that the Gore Orphanage legend owes its inspiration to the tragic Collinwood school fire of 1908, and that somehow the school fire story in which 172 children died was 'relocated' to Vermilion. What teenagers in the 1960s could remember a fire that took place in 1908, more than fifty miles away, and perhaps twenty years before their parents were even born?)

Anyway, despite the Journal's attempt to clarify the legend of Gore Orphanage, the story took on a life of its own, with the result that we are still taking about it decades later. 

And with its continued exposure in books, on websites and even as the subject of a movie a few years ago, Gore Orphanage will very likely continue to capture the imagination of young and old.

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As part of the preparation for this post, I paid my annual visit to the ruins of the Joseph Swift mansion on Gore Orphanage Road this past gloomy Sunday afternoon. I was the only one there, except for (appropriately enough) a black cat that was lurking about the site.

Sadly, the graffiti-covered remaining gate post has seen better days.

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While doing this blog for ten years, I’ve written about Gore Orphanage several times. I did a multi-part series on it here. I also wrote about how the 1923 Swift House fire was covered by the Elyria Chronicle here, and by a Mansfield newspaper here. I featured an article about a visit to the Swift House ruins in 1948 here, and paid a visit to the site with my camera here in 2011.

Ritter Library’s Spooky Pedigree

I’ve mentioned several times on this blog that I moved to Vermilion in 2018. I really like it out here.

One of the amenities of living here is the Ritter Public Library. It’s a beautiful, well-stocked library – and it’s open on Sunday too.

One thing that I never knew about the library until recently is that the architects who designed it modeled it after the Joseph Swift home of “Gore Orphanage” legend.

Read all about it in this article that appeared in the Sandusky Register on January 17, 1958.

There is an excellent, well-written history of the library (delving into much more detail) that can be found on its website here.

1923 Swift House Fire as Reported by the Mansfield News

Driving out on Gore Orphanage Road over the weekend reminded me that I had this old article. It is about the fire that destroyed the Joseph Swift House on the evening of December 6, 1923 – and ultimately gave birth to the legend of Gore Orphanage.

The article (at left) appeared in the Mansfield News on Friday, December 14, 1923. Unfortunately, it contains much misinformation – so much that I was a little hesitant to post it. (It's similar to one that appeared in the Chronicle, which I posted here.)

The Mansfield News article implies that Mill Hollow and Swift's Hollow are the same place. It identifies Joseph Swift as a Virginia planter – a Southerner – instead of a New Englander. It also includes a few fanciful ghost stories that have little to do with the actual history of the house.

But the article does have some kernels of truth, so it's evident that the author of the piece probably did visit the house, or at least was familiar with it.

Here is the article (below) as it appeared in the Mansfield News.

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OLD COLONIAL HOME IN MILL HOLLOW DESTROYED BY FIRE

Many Mansfield people will remember the old colonial house – said to be haunted – which stood in Mill Hollow, or Swift's Hollow in the Vermilion river valley, several miles south of Vermilion. The place was visited yearly by cottagers from Ruggles Beach and Mitiwanga, as well as by other people from the country round. The house was destroyed by fire recently, according to news from Lorain.

The mansion was said to have been erected about 1818 by a Virginia planter, and was built in typical colonial style. The timbers were hewn out of heavy wood, largely walnut with much of elaborate carving which ornamented the beautiful doorway and full length windows, was carried there on ox carts all the way from Connecticut. Four imposing pillars, which gave the place a southern atmosphere, graced the porch extending across the front of the house.

There were about twelve rooms in the place, all on one floor. Most of them contained large fireplaces. The ceilings were very high, and the halls spacious and dark. Large cupboards and numerous closets contributed to the spooky atmosphere of the house. Names of visitors from all over the country, including autographs of some of the Mansfield young people had been written over the walls.

The colonial house was the only one left standing in the valley, a very lonesome but beautiful place. High hills, once river banks, overhang the hollow. A stately entrance to the estate has its traces left in the old stone posts that stand at the edge of the yard now overgrown with brambles.

At this place many years ago, the young folks of the whole country round used to gather to enjoy the hospitality of the Swift family. The commodious residence was well fitted for entertaining of all kinds, and help was so plentiful, if one may judge from the large servant quarters built, southern style, at the rear of the mansion.

There are several stories as to the ghost that "haunted" the house, and had kept people from living there for many years. One tale runs that the southerner who built the house and brought his family there lost three of his children soon after arriving, when they contacted a contagious disease from handling goods of a peddler's pack. The family were said to have left the place immediately afterward, and never to have been heard of afterward.

Another story is that the Swift family, of prominence in that part of the country, occupied the farm a great while ago, Mr. Swift owning many acres of rich river bottom land. His son, only a short time before his wedding day, went to his new home in that same valley to clean the well, and was overcome by "black damp" and died. The whole hollow was said to have been haunted from that time on.

The mansion in ruins was a famous spot for tourists as well as people living nearby. Several artists have used it in studies. College hikers from Oberlin were fond of the place. All will regret to hear of its destruction, as it was indeed an unusual spot of northern Ohio.

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Tomorrow, I'll post a newspaper article about a 1948 visit to the Swift house ruins.

C-T Coverage of the 1923 Swift Mansion Fire

While out in Brownhelm Township this past weekend, I made my annual trek down Gore Orphanage Road to the ruins of the Joseph Swift mansion.

Why? It just seems like the thing to do around Halloween. Plus, the story of the Swift mansion's fiery demise – and how it eventually led to the creation of the Gore Orphanage Legend – is still interesting to me. (Click here to read my 2009 series of posts about it.)

Anyway, in that blog series I reproduced some of The Lorain Times-Herald's coverage of the Swift Mansion fire. Since then, I've located the story as covered by The Chronicle-Telegram as well. 

Surprisingly, the C-T's coverage only warranted a small article at the bottom of the front page (unlike the Times-Herald's screaming headline and extensive front page coverage). Even more curious is the fact that the C-T story is sensationalized and full of misinformation.

Here's the Chronicle's story (below) as it ran on December 8, 1923.

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Flames Destroy Haunted House Near Vermilion

Vermilion, O., Dec 8 – Only two spectral stone chimneys now stand on the site of the old haunted house which has been a mystery at Mill Hollow for many years. The colonial mansion burned to the ground in a midnight blaze.

Neighbors, who heard mysterious noises around the place on stormy nights, swear that spirits were screaming in the trees during the height of the blaze.

How the fire started is a mystery.

The only facts available are that the house was built in 1840 by Joseph Swift, who came to Ohio from Massachusetts. All of the logs used in the structure were brought from Maine. Other materials came from New York.

After his wife and family died, Swift lived at the house alone. One afternoon he rode away from the place on horseback. The saddle was found later near a creek not far from the house. Neither he nor his horse was ever seen again.

Several persons tried to live in the house but hurriedly left, saying it was haunted.

The haunted house was the mecca for thousands of tourists. Names of visitors from all quarters of the globe adorned the dilapidated walls of the house.

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The article is so wrong that I wonder if it was written in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Swift's wife and family did not die, leaving him all alone in the house, and Swift did not mysteriously disappear along with his horse. The Swifts merely sold the house, when they experienced financial difficulties, and moved away. The house was located in Swift's Hollow, not Mill Hollow. And it's ridiculous to think that it would be necessary to drag logs all the way from Maine, when the property was covered with trees and it took Swift years to clear it before he could build.

Anyway, when it's closer to the 90th anniversary of the 1923 fire in December, I will post the terrific rebuttal to the above article that was written by a Kipton historian and appeared in the Chronicle a few months later.

End of Winter Swift Mansion Shots

Since it was kind of sunny this past Saturday, and I've been itching to go out and take some pictures, I headed out to Brownhelm Township over the weekend to drive down Gore Orphanage Road and tromp around the Swift Mansion ruins a bit (even though it's not Halloween). Surprisingly, there were parked cars all over the place from the 'haunted' bridge all the way to the ruins.

I've been trying to get a then-and-now shot of the Swift Mansion location for a while, showing the remaining gate post (or whatever it is) in both shots. (I'm assuming that it hasn't been moved.) I admittedly don't know enough about the position of the house on the property to know if it can even be done.

This end-of-winter/early spring period is perfect, because there aren't any leaves or brush to hide the post. So this is the shot I came up with, assuming that the post is the same as in the vintage photo.

If you click on the photo, you can see the gate post clearly; it has a greenish cast to it.

I also saw something that I've never noticed before: part of the ruins fairly close to the road. It was a square chunk, perhaps the base of something.

You can see the gate post in the background.

If any of you out there are familiar with these ruins and can shed some light on this for me, be sure to leave a comment.

Gore Orphanage Part 7

In 1992, the Lorain County Metro Parks purchased 1500 acres of the Vermilion River valley – including the site of the 'haunted' Swift mansion. Thus the mansion site, along with the rest of Swift's Hollow, is now part of the park system. It's a good thing, not only because of its rich history, but because the area is quite beautiful and it deserves to be preserved.

I paid several visits to the area during my research for my Black Swamp Trader and Firelands Gazette article (as well as this blog series) and took tons of pictures, a few of which are shown here. In order, the photos show Gore Orphanage Road, the Gore Orphanage Road bridge over the Vermilion River, the fields of Swift's Hollow, some Swift mansion foundation ruins and the one original stone gate post that remains at the Swift mansion site.

Although it is hard to confirm from the vintage photo (see close-up at right), the damaged gate post at the site looks very similar to the gate post in the photo.

Although the Lorain County Metro Parks is quite frustrated with teenagers who visit the Swift mansion site hoping to see ghosts, the park system is not above having some fun with the whole thing. This year the Lorain County Metro Parks sponsored several presentations and tours to the Swift Mansion site in an effort to entertain and educate the public, who is naturally fascinated with the whole 'Gore Orphanage' legend. I was lucky enough to catch one of these presentations and tours, and it was quite enjoyable. Mr. Grant Thompson, a Park Manager of the Lorain County Metro Parks, did all the research for these presentations and is a well-known expert on the topic.

The Legend of Gore Orphanage will probably never be laid to rest entirely. It remains an interesting bit of Lorain County lore.

Gore Orphanage Part 6

The Swift mansion sat vacant and abandoned a few years after the Light and Hope Orphanage closed. It was an accident waiting to happen. And it sure did – thus contributing to the creation of one of the most famous legends of Northeast Ohio.

The headline of the December 7, 1923 Lorain Times Herald said it all: "HAUNTED" HOUSE DESTROYED BY FIRE. A subhead read: MYSTERY BLAZE LEVELS FAMOUS SWIFT MANSION

Apparently the Swift mansion had already developed a spooky reputation by the early 1920's. According to the newspaper account, "the old historic home, a landmark for nearly a century, is known to practically everyone for miles around. Unoccupied for many years, it has stood alone in the picturesque little valley four miles south of Vermilion and was familiarly called the "haunted house of Swift's Hollow."

The article also noted that "thousands of people have visited the "haunted" house since it was vacated years ago, and the walls of the interior were badly marked with the names and addresses of visitors not only from this locality but from distant parts of the country."

The newspaper account also explained that "the place had fallen prey to destructive persons who broke the windows, marred the woodwork and otherwise damaged it. It was a haven for tramps who sometimes spent the night within the shelter of its walls."

It was a sad end for Joseph Swift's beloved Rosedale.

It took decades for the story of the mysterious fire that leveled the Swift mansion to evolve into the legend of Gore Orphanage. But how did the 'Gore Orphanage' name get attached to the story anyway? The answer: the Gore Orphanage street signs.

You see, in this case the word 'gore' doesn't refer to bloodshed and violence. It has another, more obscure meaning: a triangular shape of land. When the road was originally laid out, it followed the boundary lines of Lorain and Erie Counties. When a surveyor's error was discovered, the wedge-shaped 'gore' was added to the map to correct it. Apparently the road was originally referred to as Gore Road; later, when the Light and Hope Orphanage became the dominant landmark on the road, the word 'orphanage' was added.

So there you have it: the story behind the Gore Orphanage legend. But wait– what does the site of the Swift mansion look like today? Well - stop in here tomorrow!

Gore Orphanage Part 5

Okay, so you're probably wondering: what does all this about the Swift mansion have to do with Gore Orphanage? Well the answer is, there never was a Gore Orphanage! But there was an orphanage. Read on for the explanation that starts to tie all this together.

Around 1903, the Reverend and Mrs. J. A. Sprunger of Berne, Indiana purchased the nearby Hughes farm, which was at the top of the hill overlooking Swift's Hollow. It was there that they established the Light and Hope Orphanage.

According to the 1906 book Lorain County, Ohio Picturesque and Industrial Features by Mrs. O. H. Monroe, the orphanage was not only for orphans. "Orphans, half-orphans, and destitute children are admitted to the home regardless of their religious creed and nationality, between the ages of two and twelve years. The home supports them till they are eighteen and twenty years of age, and besides farming those who wish can learn a trade suitable to their ability and choice." (The above photos of the boys' and girls' dorms are also from this 1906 book.)

As many as 120 children lived and worked at the orphanage. The boys lived on the Hughes farm, which also served as the orphanage headquarters, and the girls' dorm was on the Howard farm further down Portman Road. (Check out the map in 'Gore Orphanage Part 2' to see the location of the Hughes and Howard farms.)

The Sprungers eventually expanded the orphanage to 500 acres by purchasing several other farms - including the Wilbur farm. So the Swift mansion became part of the orphanage complex and was used to house some of the employees - but not any of the orphans.

Unfortunately the orphanage, which relied on donations, was never a financial success. After Rev. Sprunger died in 1912, the Light and Hope Orphanage struggled for a few more years before closing in July 1916. (See newspaper clipping at right.) Vacant and neglected, it soon became dilapitated.

Next: the fiery conclusion to our story

Gore Orphanage Part 4

After Joseph Swift was forced to sell his mansion in the mid-1860's, the home fell into other hands. At least one other family owned it before it was purchased by the Nicholas Wilbur family.

Here is where it gets a little spooky. According to local historians, the Wilbur family were Spiritualists and as such believed that the dead could be contacted via séances. A brochure produced by the Lorain County Historical Society noted that "many wild and weird stories were told about the place during and after their occupancy. Along the river's edge were some neglected children's graves and their spirits were said to appear frequently at the séances held in the house."

In January 1893, tragedy struck the Wilbur family. During a diptheria epidemic, the Wilburs sadly lost four of their grandchildren in one week. Their graves are in the Maple Grove Cemetery on Mason Road. There are two monuments to the children, one with an arch inscribed "Our Darlings." (See photo.)

Despite the fact that the grandchildren did not die in the Swift mansion, their deaths apparently became associated with it anyway.

Wilbur himself died in 1901 and the Swift mansion became vacant again.

Next: the Orphanage

Gore Orphanage Part 3

When Joseph Swift decided to build a new house, he didn't want just a bigger log cabin. He wanted a spectacular house. And that's what he got. (See undated photo above.)

He hired a New York architect to design it. It took ten workmen two years to build the white Greek Revival mansion. It had fourteen rooms, seven fireplaces, a basement kitchen, French windows and decorative pillars shipped from New York.

Swift called his new home Rosedale. It soon became a well-known landmark in the area and was located on what is now Gore Orphanage Road.

Unfortunately, Swift suffered financial problems and was forced to sell his beloved Rosedale in the mid-1860's.

Next: Spooky Happenings at the Swift Mansion

Gore Orphanage Part 2

Although the Legend of Gore Orphanage isn't true, there is a lot of interesting history there that led to the creation of the legend. And some of it is a little spooky after all.

The story really begins with the arrival in the area of a man named Joseph Swift. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, and was rewarded with 150 acres of land for his service in the War. All he had to do is come out to Ohio from New England and claim it.

So that's what he did. According to an interview with one of his descendants, he actually walked the whole way. He settled in the valley east of the Vermilion River and built a log cabin. The valley became known as Swift's Hollow.

Swift worked on clearing his land and eventually farmed it, becoming quite prosperous. The map above (which I pasted together from two 1800's township maps from the Lorain Public Library) shows how big his farm was. (If you ever drive down to the area today you can appreciate how huge an area it is for one man to farm.)

Due to his success, Swift was able to acquire several hundred acres of land. And with this success, he decided to build a more elegant house for his wife and family.

Next: The (In)famous Swift House

Gore Orphanage Part 1

Well, since it's October, I promised to blog about Gore Orphanage... so here goes!

Many of us remember hearing about the Legend of Gore Orphanage while we were growing up. I know I did.

As the legend goes, all of the orphans died when the orphanage burned down long ago. Various stories explain how and why the orphanage burned. In one version, an orphan accidentally dropped a lantern. In another, the evil owners of the orphanage did it for the insurance money. In the version I heard, Indians were the culprits. (I guess we watched a lot of John Wayne movies while growing up, so it was natural to blame the Indians.)

But in all the versions of the tale, no matter how the fire got started, the common theme is that all of the orphans died – and their spirits still haunt the ruins of the place to this day.

And through the past decades, hundreds (if not thousands) of kids have driven out to Gore Orphanage Road to check out where all of this supposedly happened. (My friends and I did, and now I know that we were nowhere near the right spot!)

Unfortunately, the story simply is not true. But there is a lot of local history that contributed to the creation of the legend that is a bit spooky... so tune in here next week for the rest of the story!