Located on The Ohio River, a short ways southwest of Pittsburg (but you still have to travel through West Virginia to get there) lies the Village of Bellaire. While some may not think much about this small dot on the map, it does have its fair share of interesting factoids and curiosities. Within the town limits, you can find places like The Toy Brick Museum (because apparently the people at Lego take their trademarks very seriously). Ther is also the National Imperial Glass Museum, which sounds like it could be fun (although I wonder if one must stop almost next door to the Bellaire Liquor Store to make it really interesting.)
I’m just kidding – I’m sure it’s a lovely place.
Throughout the history of the place, there have been a few notable citizens among its ranks. The vast majority of these include minor sports stats, none of whom I had ever heard of before, but that’s not saying much.
The only resident I had heard of before was actor Ted Levine. He is perhaps most known for his role as Jamie Gum (aka Buffalo Bill) in the Academy Award Winning film The Silence of the Lambs. If you prefer your murder mysteries a little less … um … gruesome, he also appeared as Leland Stottlemeyer in the television show Monk. (Hard to believe that’s the same guy, but … it is.) He’s got quite a few acting credits to his name, so maybe you know him from something else.
If you’ve seen Silence of the Lambs, you probably even saw Bellaire, Ohio without realizing it, as the Bellaire Bridge (now closed and abandoned) was featured in the film. Various locations throughout town have bene used in other films and television shows, too.
Perhaps the most notorious place in town is what they like to refer to as The Bellaire House. They say it’s haunted and that a lot of paranormal, supernatural things tend to happen there.
The house is located at 1699 Belmont St., and if their website is to be believed, you can take a haunted tour, practice your ghost hunting skills, or take a class there on any number of subjects, from topics related to mediumship to paranormal investigating, and you can look into having them help you with all your business consulting needs.
Personally I’m kind of skeptical about places that proclaim to be haunted and then try to profit off of that. I’m not trying to suggest they all make things up, but … it does make me want to look a little closer.
The Legend of The Bellaire House
According to the legend, The Bellaire House was built on top of a specific spot where several influential ley lines (something like underground currents of “natural energy”) come together. Underneath the house’s property lies part of a now-abandoned mine. And, if that isn’t enough, they also like to talk about a “native American burial ground” that partly existed on the property.
Throughout its time, the house was everything from a “station” on the Underground Railroad to a funeral home, and a gathering place for The Spiritualism movement where seances would take place on a regular basis.
It’s no wonder why they say the place is haunted – if this isn’t a full card on the Stereotypical Haunted House Bingo game, I don’t know what is.
Origin Story – Jacob Heatherington (and His Mule, Jack)
Jacob Heatherington was born on March 7, 1814 in Durham, England, where he lived until the age of fifteen, which was when he and his family boarded a ship heading to The New World. Once in America, Jacob and his family traveled throughout Pennsylvania where young Jacob was employed by a few different mines, before finally settling down in an area that at the time was called “Whiskey Run” where he had no problem finding work.
When he was twenty-one years old, Jacob married Eliza Armstrong and began building his first house, room by room. During the day, he would mine a seam on his property, then Eliza would put the day’s find into a wheelbarrow and haul it down to the Ohio River where it was sold and loaded onto barges. After living in Belmont County, Ohio, for a short time, Jacob really began to prosper.
As most newlyweds did at the time, Eliza began producing more and more little Heatheringtons, which added to her responsibilities and it wasn’t long before she had enough work keeping herself busy raining kids that she could no longer help her husband hauling that wheelbarrow to the river. Jacob then went out and bought a mule to help him with the coal wagon. Almost from the start, Jacob and his mule, Jack, were inseparable. Anywhere Jacob went, so did the mule.
In the years that followed, Jacob’s life seemed to prove that hard work and perseverance pays off in the end. He (and his mule) had become a fixture in the newly formed town of Bellaire, and throughout Belmont County as well.
After the Civil War, Jacob (and yes, the mule too) began construction on Hetherington Mansion, a three story house with a total of sixteen rooms, not counting the cellar. A local legend says that Jacob presented all sixteen rooms to Jack the Mule allowing the animal to pick whatever room he wanted – but there’s of course no record of this in the historical record.
By the time Jacob died in 1904, Jacob was said to have owned 787 acres of farming, coal, and mine land, a hotel, 30 houses, a steamboat, 30 barges, and investment interest in several local establishments.
After his death, control of the family properties went to his (second) oldest son, Alex. However, he appeared to not be up to the stress of running the business, which ultimately failed as Alexander was headed to a nearby mental asylum.
In 1945, the mansion was set to be demolished to make way for new construction – a hotel. All that remains of that estate is the cornerstone, currently on display at the Bellaire Library, beside a painting of the house along with the description: The House That Jack Built.
The Coal Mine Fire
Another part of the legend insists that the Bellaire House is haunted (at least in part) due to a coal mine fire. Some legends say that the mine was owned by Jacob Heatherington, while others say it sat partly under his land, or that the house was built on top of the mine.
Mining was not (and I am pretty confident that I can say it never would be) a completely safe occupation. The working conditions were poor at best, and without anything resembling modern safety standards, let’s just say that the average lifespan of a miner was a bit less than the national average at any given time.
All of the legends of The Bellaire House that have been floating around contain a slightly different version of what happened, but there are a few things that do seem to be consistent. First, that the event was huge, with a lot of souls being lost, the number ranging from 43 to 100. Secondly, that the event was an explosion, or at least a massive fire, somewhere within the mine itself. And, finally, the event took place in March, 1893.
The problem here is that there is nothing in the historic record that verifies that any such event took place. Had such a massive event taken place, surely the newspapers of the time would have written about it for days. Yet, there is nothing that indicates anything happened.
Do we have any idea what was going on with the Heatherington Mining Company in the March of 1893? Well, as it turns out, we kind of do.
In December 1892 (a few months before this event was supposed to have taken place) there was a fire on the property. This was not in the mine itself, but inside one of the buildings. Newspapers report that it took a day or two to get the fire “under control” while the mine itself shut down. A couple of weeks later, crews went in to the still smoldering area, but the fresh air they brought with them reignited the fire and it came back to life. It would be a few weeks beyond that before the fire would eventually burn itself out, and after a short cleanup and rebuilding period, the call for Miners to return to Heatherington’s finally went out in February. Had a massive event taken place a month later – surely there would be some record of it happening.
Some researchers have speculated that the deadly mine event might have occurred at a different mine, or even at a different time. There were a couple of minor mine disasters in the region at various points throughout history, however none were connected in any way to either Heatherington, or any of his holdings.
Mary, The Servant Girl and a Demon, I guess
Another aspect of The Legend of the Bellaire House involves a servant girl named Mary. While she was too young to have amassed much history herself (she was but a child) she is said to be descendant from a particular lineage (although what that lineage is, they never really seem to know.)
Wherever this Mary came from, her bloodline is said to have been the perfect conduit to make the demon residing under The Bellaire House stronger, and perhaps even strong enough to have been released out into the world.
Anyway, according to the legend, one night Mary was lured to the top floor of The Bellaire House by this demon and flung herself from one of the uppermost windows on the estate, giving this demon nearly enough strength to release itself out into the world, I guess. Some suggest that other children throughout the house’s history also attempted suicide by flinging themselves from that very same window, while some suggest this happened at various other locations in town.
This legend presents us with two avenues of exploration that (perhaps not surprisingly) bring us to the same place.
First, there are no surviving records of any children falling to their deaths in any building connected to The Bellaire House. Nor, might I add, are there any matching reports from anywhere else in Belmont County, let alone Bellaire itself.
So, I’m inclined to think “there goes that story”.
The other way to look at this is using census records and family history. Neither Jacob Heatherington nor his wife ever had a servant named Mary.
However, of their ten children, one did. Sarah Heatherington. Although, this was after Sarah had gotten married and moved out of the Heatherington house and there is no record of Sarah, nor her servant Mary, ever being in The Bellaire House.
So, once again we’re at a loss.
And, Finally, a Psychic Medium?
The last unmentioned part of this legend centers around the children of Jacob’s son Alexander (and his wife Elizabeth). They are believed to have had eight children. The eldest, a girl named Lyde, was born in 1861. Their youngest child, a boy named Edwin, in 1886. Both were living in their grandfather’s house throughout most of their lives.
The legend says that after Lyde’s death (they never quite say what year this occurred) young Edwin became fascinated with The Spiritualism Movement, psychic mediums, and studying the occult in order to be able to communicate with the sister he loved so much.
His family must have tolerated his occult practices and studies, at least up to a certain point. After one too many (unsuccessful) seances in the house, the Heatherington family forced him from the house and disowned him, supposedly thinking the man was suffering from some form of mental or spiritual breakdown.
Supposedly Edwin vowed to haunt the house saying that he was sure that his lovely Lyle would someday come back and they could be reunited again.
Once again, the very nature of this kind of story makes it hard to validate. In this case, however, both Edwin and Lyle were real people, if countless genealogical records are to be believed. So, I guess we can scratch fake people off our list.
One of the first things I noticed, however, was that there was a 24 year age gap between Lyle (the eldest) and Edwin (the youngest) and I have to wonder how close the two siblings actually were. While they both lived in the same house, by the time Edwin was born, Lyde was already pretty much an adult, living her life. It is still possible, however. So it’s hard to discount this story on that fact alone.
Another glance at the historical record does provide one potentially damming clue. Upon his death in 1962, Edwin was still listed in the census records as living in the same house he grew up in.
Had he been removed from the family, as the legend says he was, then he most certainly wouldn’t still be included in census records.
So, What’s The Story Here?
While researching the Heatherington family and The Bellaire House, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to keep myself from becoming skeptical. The story, in my eyes, just has too many holes, too many questions beyond what a mystery like this should have, without connecting evidence and red herrings to make a coherent story.
It also, and I hate to say this, seems to have just about every 1980s Horror Movie cliché and trope thrown in, somewhere. To me, it almost seemed like the legend tried to throw everything it had against the wall just to see what was going to stick.
But, let’s back up a second here and review a few minor facts that should not be overlooked.
According to the legend The Bellaire House was (or at least appears to have been) the “mansion” built by Jacob Heatherington for his wife and children and we can be very certain it is not. Pictures of that vast estate still exist and comparing the two buildings makes it clear they are not the same place, and they never were.
Historical records do indicate that Jacob Heatherington owned at least ten houses, and the property now called The Bellaire House was one of them. However, census records do indicate that Jacob never called that particular house Home.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell exactly where (and how) legends came to be. But, this legend might just happen to be an exception.
According to the house’s website, the current owner (I am not using her name on purpose, but you can find it easy enough on your own) was going through a hard time and decided that moving to a new place seemed like the answer to all her troubles. She purchased The Belaire House and moved in, hopeful for a brighter future.
That was when, she claims, she learned the house was haunted and began researching the house’s history. Although, how we got from there to her running “ghost hunting” evenings at the house and offering classes on spiritual mediumship remains a mystery (although one with a very easy and obvious solution).
I cannot say this with one hundred percent certainty (I’m close but not quite there yet) but it seems most of the “legends” came either directly from her, her website, or from people closely connected to her.
I have also not found any reports of this legend that predate her purchasing of the house.
Paranormal Investigations
According to the house’s website, the site has been featured on “ghost hunting” and “paranormal investigation” shows that aired on The Trvl Channel, Destination America, A&E, Lifetime, and the Bio channel, although it doesn’t currently state what shows the house was featured in (and at this point, I don’t really care enough to find out.)
There are a number of websites and online (YouTube) videos where this type of psychic research is shown. All in all, the evidence for a potential haunting is way less than underwhelming.
For example, one YouTube video shows footage from an upstairs room as the members of whatever “ghost team” try to contact the young girl Mary who was lulled to her death by the supposed demon. During their time, the only thing that happened was a small draft of wind that blew against the back of someone’s neck. Was that the ghost of the girl trying to make her presence known? Or, since it was clearly a windy day, was it possible it was just a gust of wind coming through the barely opened window? I’m not going to bother to guess.
Other groups went into the house and were able to document … well, nothing. Or, at least, nothing out of the ordinary that couldn’t be easily explained.
Yet, others have gone in and felt cold spots, taken photos with possible orbs or whatever they seem to think might indicate or prove the existence of ghosts, demons, or other supernatural phenomena. Sure, maybe that odd noise was a ghost. But, personally, it kind of reminds me of the weird noises Aunt Irma hears coming from somewhere immediately behind her the morning after Taco Tuesdays.
