MARK LUETKE
LOOKING SIDEWAY

Ravine Cemetery is a lovely bit of green space in the center of Sylvania. It also may be haunted. Authors, paranormal investigators, and local historians claim that a local woman can be seen at dawn three times a year in a flowing white robe…searching for the graves of her three deceased husbands on the anniversaries of their deaths.
Is it fact or fable? As our community readies to celebrate Halloween soon, it seems like a good time to check into these “spooktacular” tales that surface prior to our most supernatural holiday.
The “Ghost Bride of Ravine Cemetery” legend is a half century old, first surfacing in a Toledo Blade story published on Halloween Day in 1970. It claims that the young bride married while in her teens, lost her husband quickly to disease, then married twice more with the same tragic outcome each time. When she herself passed, the family couldn’t agree which husband’s gravesite should accept her remains, so they buried her on a plot of her own. Ever since, as day breaks on her wedding anniversary of each of her soulmates, she wanders the grounds searching for their resting places.
The Ravine story is just one of many legends about haunted buildings, murders, and mysterious sightings that surround our local Sylvania history. It is up to each of us to decide which ones (if any) are true.
Samantha Ayres focused on haunted phenomenon long before she joined the staff at Heritage Sylvania, the non-profit that includes the Sylvania Historical Village, Sylvania Historical Society, and the Lathrop House. Now, she’s the organization’s executive director. But she also continues to organize the “Downtown Sylvania Haunted Brew Tour” which she established in 2021.
(Samantha grew up learning about Sylvania’s ‘Haunted History’ from her mother, Gayleen Gindy—perhaps the greatest expert on our community’s past. Gayleen has published an eight-volume history of Sylvania, books about the Underground Railroad and a separate Sylvania murder in 1935, plus a number of other titles. She also writes a column for the Advantage.)
This month Samantha is running nine 90-minute tours of “haunted” local buildings on Thursday and Sunday nights in October until Halloween. One of the 13 homes and businesses on the tour is 5629 Main Street–now “Olive’s on the Main” restaurant and formerly known as Grumpy’s and Jenna’s. “The current name comes from Olive Davis, a young woman who in 1857 was brutally murdered near that building by her husband,” she explains.
“Today we’d call the husband abusive, and after an unhappy few days Olive decided to leave him. Her plan was to return to the apartment they rented to get her belongings, then leave town immediately. But he discovered the plan, a fight resulted, and he finally hit her over the head with a smoothing iron and killed her.”
How he disposed of the body is too gruesome to print in a family newspaper, but you can get the scoop on the tour. As a teaser, just know that “her remains were scattered all over town.” And her ghost still visits the scene of the crime on Main Street.
Another expert on the supernatural you should meet is Harold St. John, who claims the title of veteran “Paranormal Investigator.” He speaks on the topic regularly and has taught a class about the paranormal for eight years at Owens College. Harold draws a line between tours of haunted historic buildings (which he calls a “ghost hunt”) and his real-time intervention with people who feel their home may be inhabited by the unworldly.
“The big difference between a ghost hunter and a paranormal investigator is that a ghost hunt takes people into a place that’s supposed to be haunted and gives them a look. I work with people who are experiencing unexplainable events happening in their home right now—and no one believes them. They see or hear things that make them afraid to be at home, or the children are so frightened they won’t sleep in their own beds.”
Harold works with a group of eight investigators whose skills range from psychic medium to a videographer. He and his partner Butch Leon don’t take every case, but Harold told me, “These people who come to us are terrified; they think they must be crazy because of what they see, hear or feel. Part of the investigation is to take them seriously. Our goal is to define what they are seeing, give them a sense of peace, and help them get their house back.”
Wendy Nathan, a former hospice therapist and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, has practiced for 35 years in Toledo, and she does not challenge or question the concept of paranormal activity.
“I think it comes out of fear of impermanence. We’re going to die someday and it’s hard for us to grasp that what we call our essence is not going to continue on,” she says. “How many people believe in God and an afterlife…is that paranormal? There are cultural influences, as well: many cultures include stories, folklore or traditions that involve spirits and ghosts.”
“I’ve counseled parents who have lost children. They believe that the child is still around out there, and they look for signs of that. They find meaning in those signs. It gives them psychological comfort. So, when someone embraces the paranormal, who are we to say that they are totally wrong?”
(Tickets for the Downtown Sylvania Haunted Brew Tour are $40 each and include the 90-minute tour plus two beverages from Upside Brewing. Make reservations on Facebook.)