This is the last Heritage Paper for the season and concludes with on of the area’s most ‘famous’ personalities – the Waterdown Ghost.
The summer of 1934 was dry and hot, crops were failing and the Depression was at its height. However, the weather and the drought were not the topic of conversation in Waterdown; gossip was almost entirely about an unknown figure seen frequently around town.
Art Hood and his family, driving home after church one Sunday night in early August, saw a man dressed in white standing on the side of the road. After seeing this strange man twice, Mr. Hood contacted the local police, who could find no trace of the strange looking man. This was the first of many reports of a mysterious white figure in town – Waterdown seemed to have attracted a “real live ghost”.
Suddenly, the ghost was sighted everywhere, both in town and in the outlying concessions. Women and children were kept indoors after dark, while braver souls scoured the district trying to trap the ‘walking wraith’.
The ghost was described as very tall – certain accounts assert he as over seven feet – and had extremely large feet. The footprints he left were five inches longer than the largest shoe size readily available. He seemed to be particularly active along the fourth concession at night. Couples parked along the road for some privacy were his favourite prey. More than one young man complained of a stiff neck and ringing ears after being clawed by a shrieking girl. As one newspaper article reports, “necking was abandoned as an outdoor sport by the swains of Waterdown”.
Copycat ‘ghosts’ began to appear around town. One night, a woman decided to play a prank on her husband and donned a white sheet. Hiding in the bushes outside her house, she jumped out and said “Boo!” as he walked by. Her husband, jittery after many reports of the ghost, knocked her over the head with the milk bottle he was carrying. The bucket of water he was also carrying came in handy for revival purposes.
Newspapers published as far away as Toronto lapped up news about the newly discovered Waterdown ghost. The village was soon attracting visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the apparition. Articles record that roads became “as full of cars as an egg is of meat”, while boisterous parties of “foreigners from Hamilton” beat through the bushes and tore up and down the roads.
Most of the time the ghost failed to prance for the out of town visitors. One reported for the Evening Telegram however did see the phantom and describes his experience: “a shadowy form was running across the field. Now we had always been told that ghosts drift over the ground. This one ran. There was no doubt about it, for once it stumbled. Also, it climbed a fence and fences are popularly supposed to prove no obstacle to ghosts; they simply melt through them.”
The village gradually became frustrated with the constant pranks of the ‘Waterdown Wraith’. Many loaded their shotguns in anticipation of a run-in with the spectre, since common belief was that the ghost was simply a prankster. Names of suspects were soon gathered – being a fast sprinter was the main criteria for inclusion. Russell Thompson, a medical school student in Toronto and member of the school’s track team, and the Briggar boys, well known high school athletes, were at the top of the list. They all lived on the fourth concession, where the ghost was thought to emanate from.
One night, the fire department, while out ghost hunting, saw a white clad figure at a distance. Following the apparition up the railway track, they finally saw it turn into the Thompson driveway. The next day, Motorcycle Officer Darby of the Provincial Police appeared on the Thompson doorstep and proceeded to search the house. When Mr. Thompson was told the search was for evidence of the ghost he reportedly said, “If some people didn’t drink so much beer, they wouldn’t be seeing ghosts”.
As September came, the ghost which had haunted Waterdown suddenly disappeared. The identity of the ghost was never solved, though many people believed it returned to medical school in Toronto. An article in the Hamilton Spectator said the ghost was a ‘wanderer searching for someone in the area’; however all Mrs. Briggar had to say about the whole incident was that her good white tablecloth had gone missing and never returned.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2001, 2023.
We produced a short video about the Waterdown Wraith in October of 2019. It’s since been uploaded to our YouTube channel – check it out here or on YouTube!
