The Librarian Who Never Left

Hutchinson Public Library

There was absolutely no doubt that Ida Day (later, Ida Day Holzapfel) was a hard worker. When she was hired by the Hutchinson Public Library in Hutchinson, Kansas, she spent the next ten years dedicated to making some MAJOR changes. Among her accomplishments, she developed a new cataloging/classification system, introduced Sunday hours for the library, and was instrumental in making sure that everyone had access to books, especially World War 1 soldiers and shut-ins. 

But, life goes on and in 1926 Ida left the library to attend the University of Kansas. She also got married and became Ida Day Holzapfel. However, the Hutchinson Public Library would eventually call her back. She started back in 1946 and helped oversee the library move out of the old Carnegie building and into it's current location on Main Street. During this second tenure, she developed quite a reputation as being a very prim and proper librarian, having daily tea with staff at 3pm. She also developed the reputation of being so highly dedicated to the library that she could be difficult to work with at times.  She definitely had her own ideas about how things at HER library should be ran, and would do what she needed to do to make sure things went the way she wanted. 

Again, life would move on and Ida would step away from the Hutchinson Public Library.  In 1953, she took a job as a reference librarian in Tulare County, California. A newspaper notice about her resignation included the following: "She plans to retain ownership of her home, and will eventually return to Hutchinson."

Ida Day Holzapfel

Unfortunately, the new job in Tulare County was never meant to be.  Ida was involved in a car accident on her way to her first day on the job and passed away from her injuries.  That quick line in the newspaper before she left, however, would be eerily prophetic.

It seems that Ida Day Holzapfel made good on her promise to return to Hutchinson, and to the Hutchinson Public Library system to which she dedicated so much of her life. 

Paranormal activity at the Hutchinson Public Library was so common, that the local paper covered the story in 1975, and its been featured many times since in other articles, news stories, and websites on haunted locations.  Even the official website for the Hutchinson Public Library has a page dedicated to Ida and the hauntings!

Ida prefers to haunt the area around the basement. Staff and visitors have reported hearing disembodied footsteps in that area, as well as items that will occasionally go missing or seemingly move to different positions when no one is looking. In once incident, librarians Angeline Welch and Rose Hale were working in the basement. Hale had to run upstairs a moment, but when she returned, she heard Welch speaking to someone, and then heard footsteps walking away. When asked who she was talking to, Welch claimed that she hadn't been talking to anyone---no one else was even down in the basement.

The next day, Hale had an even weirder experience when she saw a lady standing by the stairs, who then vanished into thin air. She didn't recognize the woman, but when she described her to a colleague, it was apparent that Hale had seen Ida Day Holzapfel. 

*Theresa's Note: When I was researching the information for this blog, I perused the Hutchinson Public Library's website and noticed that they were CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. I wonder what Mrs. Holzapfel would have to say about that!*

HAUNTED AMERICA

Kansas' Brown Mansion

The Brown Mansion in Coffeyville was designed by Edward Wilder and Thomas Wight for W.P. Brown and his wife, Nancy.  The house was completed in 1904 and was specially designed to accommodate Nancy's petite, 4'11'' frame.  The opulent mansion was the result of W.P.'s good business fortune.  Moving to the area in 1890 to work in the lumber industry, W.P. Brown shortly got into the natural gas business after finding one of the area's largest natural gas wells.

However, the Browns would never really experience the same good fortune in child rearing as they did in business.  They had a total of five children, but only one lived to adulthood.  Two sons died at birth.  Son William died at the age of 4 from pneumonia and son Donald died while living at the home at the age of 11 from complications due to diabetes.  Only daughter Violet survived to adulthood, but even her family life would never be promising, either.

Violet married her first husband at the age of 19, but divorced shortly after their only child died at birth.  She did remarry, but that marriage ended in divorce too.  That's when Violet decided to go to college, and become a librarian, a vocation she held until she moved back to Coffeyville in the 1930s to take care of her ailing parents.  When Violet wasn't actively taking care of them, she could be found dancing alone in the third floor ballroom.

After W.P. and Nancy both passed away, Violet inherited the house.  She lived there until 1970 when she sold it to the Coffeyville Historical Society for use as a museum.  She also left to them most of the original furnishings, taking only what she needed to the nursing home where she spent her remaining days.  Violet died in 1973, but her spirit remains as one of five ghosts that are said to haunt the Brown Mansion.

Although the current museum director has never seen any evidence of a haunting, many other visitors over the years have reported seeing, hearing, and even smelling the five ghosts.

Violet
Violet is often seen in the third floor ballroom, dancing just as she did in life.

Donald
Violet's younger brother Donald was the only sibling to live at the mansion and due to his health problems associated with diabetes, he was homeschooled on the third floor.  When he died in 1911, Nancy sealed his room up, just as he left it and it wasn't opened until after her death in 1937.  Donald is seen playing on the third floor and appears to be happy and carefree, sometimes whistling a favorite tune.

Nancy
Donald's death hit Nancy very hard.  Her ghost is rarely seen, but is often heard outside his bedroom crying.

W.P. 
W.P. is both seen and smelled.  He loved to smoke a pipe, and is seen doing so in the first floor dining room and in the library.  Sometimes the smell of tobacco accompanies the apparition, and sometimes it is observed on its own in these same areas.

Charlie
Charlie was a servant who was like a member of the family.  He is seen sitting in his basement bedroom and also standing by the front door, as if awaiting visitors.

Photo from the Brown Mansion Homepage