Welcome to another post in my deep dive series into the history and hauntings of Lancaster Ohio's Fairfield County Infirmary (FCI)! FCI has been investigated numerous times since being purchased by current owner, Adam Kimmell in 2020 and being turned into a premier paranormal investigation attraction. Countless teams have gathered data and had experiences, adding to the lore that already existed, much of which comes to us from former employees/visitors to the building when it served as county offices.
One resident ghost that gets a lot of attention is an elderly woman named Jane Householder. There have been various apparitions of an elderly woman seen, sometimes with a gray bun, other times with dark, curly hair, but almost always wearing a white dress. She's seen mainly in the second floor area, but has also been reported in the attic. On occasion, people have claimed to have seen this woman enveloped in flames.
Whether or not people are seeing and communicating with the same entity or not, the majority of these experiences are attributed to Jane and her tragic demise at the Fairfield County Infirmary in the 1920's. Depending on who you ask, the details change slightly, but the basic story goes that Jane, an elderly woman living in the county home, died when her dress caught fire. In some versions of the story, Jane is reported as having been rebelling because the staff told her to stay in her room. Angry at being told what to do, she went to light the stove (or a match) and an accelerant of some type on her dress caused it to quickly catch fire. In other versions, she had lit the stove to stay warm. Occasionally, the story is told as happening on the fourth floor (but as you'll see below, it probably didn't).
A newspaper article from the Lancaster Daily Gazette, dated March 22, 1929 clears up some of the details of what happened. Here's the article transcribed in its entirety (source: Ancestry.com Newspaper Archives):
AGED WOMAN DIES OF BURNS AT COUNTY HOME
Literally cooked alive when her clothing caught fire from a gas stove, Miss Jane Householder, 73 year old inmate of the Fairfield County Infirmary since March 11, 1891, was burned so badly about 4 p.m. Thursday that she died at 1 o clock this morning.
The aged woman had recently been ill with a cold and Miss Mae McCall, the institution nurse, was treating her in her room. About 3:30 o clock the nurse cautioned her to remain in room, believing the aged woman should not expose herself to possibilities of contracting a more severe illness.
Accident Unwitnessed
But she did not obey the nurse and came down to the room where the women spend their afternoons chatting. No one was in the room at the time and it is not known just how her clothing caught fire from the stove but ashes, found in the stove later by Supt. Zeph Musser, indicated she had burned something in it.
Her screams attracted the nurse and another employee, Mrs. McClurg. When they got to her the victim of the tragedy had run into an adjoining room and was standing at a hydrant enveloped in a sheet of flame and trying to extinguish the fire.
The two attendants threw rugs around the woman's body, smothering the flames and then dashed water over her. However by that time her clothing had been practically burned off. Her body was almost entirely charred.
Blamed Self
As they carried her to her room, she moaned, "Oh! If I had only done what the nurses told me to." Dr. Clifford B. Snider was summoned to the institution and did about all humanely possible for her, but she had been so hopelessly burned that medical science could do little to save her life, except possibly prolong it.
Records at the county home classified the aged inmate as somewhat feeble-minded.
Sup.t Musser went to Bremen today in an effort to learn the whereabouts of even a distant relative, although it is believed she had no living relatives.
"I cannot blame anyone for the accident," Sup.t Musser said this morning, "for it was just one of those unavoidable tragedies."
Musser explained that other inmates were nearly all on an upper floor at the time of the accident preparing for the supper hour and for this reason and because she had failed to obey the nurse, accounted for her being alone when her clothing was ignited.
Stove Examined
The superintendent said he had examined the stove and turned the gas on full, but failed to find anyplace where the flames come out of the stove when the gas was burning high.
It is believed that the woman thought it was not quite warm enough in the room and attempted to increase the heat by burning something in the stove.
The body was taken to the Johnson-Orr Funeral Home and prepared for burial.
Funeral services will be conducted Saturday afternoon at 1:30 o clock at the county home with Rev. A. Orr officiating. Internment will be made in the institution cemetery by Johnson and Orr.
Jane Catherine Askins Householder was born in Fairfield County on June 2, 1856 to Gustavus Askins and Margaret Hill Askins. Her father was killed in battle during the Civil War, leaving her mother to raise five children alone, with minimal help from grandparents living nearby. Jane (who may have gone by Catherine during her childhood) married a man named Andrew Householder on February 26, 1876, at just 19 years old. While 19 was an acceptable marriage age for a woman during that time...her husband was actually 30 years her senior, and already had several children of his own, including one who was a year older than Jane herself. Andrew passed away in December of 1890, and shortly after, the now-widowed Jane was sent to the Fairfield County Infirmary to be cared for. She was only in her mid-30's. (Info from Ancestry.com census records and Find-a-Grave)
Although the newspaper article states that she was somewhat feeble-minded at the time of her death, chances are, Jane was a perfectly 'normal' woman when she was brought to FCI. She may, however, been considered a little slow. While going back over old census records, Jane apparently was sent to school early on, but she's often listed on census reports as not being able to read or write. Either way, one thing remained the same: She was a WOMAN, whose husband and her father were both deceased, and she had no other relatives willing or able to support her. Not only did she live out the rest of her mortal life at the infirmary, she was buried in the on-site cemetery. No wonder she feels like she must spend the rest of her eternity at this place.
Taking a step back, as I said before, Jane (or a similar apparition) has been reported in the attic, and this, combined with the idea that there is fire damage visible on that floor has led many to believe that this tragic death happened on the fourth floor. While the newspaper article makes it clear it did NOT, there was an earlier fire that did do damage to this area.
On Tuesday, May 19th, 1925 fire broke out in the Fairfield County Infirmary. Frank Engle of a neighboring farm was the first to notice flames coming from the kitchen chimney at the north end of the building around 4 pm. He ran to alert the staff, and attendant, Miss Bertha Fisher, sounded the fire alarm. At the same time, Paul Hummel, the son of the superintendent, was arriving home from high school. He ran in and grabbed a fire hose from the second floor. A car full of young men traveling by saw the commotion and stopped to help.
Assistant Chief Ed Rockey, along with firemen Cave and Craft were first on the scene with a pumper truck. Chemical tanks were brought up to the fourth floor, and were able to effectively stop the spread of the fire, which was lucky because the only water to the infirmary came from the wells out back, fed by the spring which runs under the property. Although filled the day before, they had a tendency to run dry. A second alarm was called in, and more firemen, carrying more hoses and filling up the pumper truck at a local creek arrived to help out. Thanks to low winds and an enormous volunteer effort, all 58 residents escaped with their lives. Despite flames leaping 25 feet in the air through the roof around the cupola, the fire was brought under control about 5:30pm, yet not before extensive damage was done. The attic had been gutted, and the fire broken through the floor to the level below. In total, about $3000 worth of damage was done. Below is a clipping from the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, dated 20 May 1925:
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