By Bob Weaver

"It was not a ghost of which to be afraid," said Charles Knotts, recalling an apparition that appeared in a one-hundred-year-old house, originally owned by his father Howard Knotts.

Fifteen years have gone by since Knotts and his teenage grandson clearly saw the figure during the early morning hours of an elderly man in a dress shirt, standing before an open-flame gas stove.

To add to the haunting, the house is a short distance from the large Prudence Chapel Cemetery at Minnora (Rt. 16), and happened in a house where a Calhoun man bludgeoned his wife to death several years ago.

Knotts recalls the ghostly encounter which happened in 1994, while he and his 15-year-old grandson were staying in the house, now converted to a hunting camp.

Knotts (shown left) and his grandson had been spending the night, preparing to go squirrel hunting, sleeping in bedrooms across from each other, divided by a central living room.

"There was a small gas stove which gave off some light in the living room. About 3 a.m. I was suddenly awakened and rolled over to look into the living room, and there stood a man, tall and thin with a long sleeve dress shirt and trousers, with his back to the fire," recalls Knotts.

"I first thought it was Douglas, my grandson," he said, inquiring "Douglas, is that you?"

"I quickly realized it was not, and within a few seconds, the figure disappeared."

"I went to Douglas' room, who was also looking into the living room, and ask him what he saw."

Charles Knotts, now deceased, standing in front of glowing fire where he
and grandson spotted elderly man, who faded within seconds

"He described in exact detail the description of the man I had seen."

"We haven't seen anything unusual in the house since," said Knotts, who said neither he nor his grandson felt threatened by the apparition.

Knotts recalled the tragic death of a woman killed by her husband several years ago, a couple that had rented the house.

Calhoun authorities came to this house years ago,
to discover the body woman bludgeoned to death

"The man began beating on his wife as they walked to the house from Rt. 16, but actually bludgeoned her to death in the living room," Knotts said. He was sent to Weston State Hospital.

Dozens of families have lived in the house over the years.

"I have tried to make sense of all this, and there is no way I can logically explain it, nor can my grandson," said Knotts.

"But I do know, what we saw," he concluded.

FOOTNOTE: The teller of the tale, Charles Knotts died in 2010.