Readers Stories The Haunted Funeral Home In 2000 we purchased some property in downtown Kokomo, Indiana. One of the buildings was a funeral home called Jacob's Funeral Home. We spent the next year or so remodelling the 2nd level designed so it can be rented out as a downtown apartment. The second level will be remodelled for office space used by law offices and insurance companies. The total square feet is about 14,000. In 2003 we started remodelling the 4,000 square foot basement. After a few months of knocking down walls and moving old doors and windows left down there we came into problems with piles and piles of old rotted boxes in one of the old store rooms in the basement that had been blocked off by the debris. Since then we have been going through the boxes and all the items inside them, cleaning up anything we can salvage. A lot of the boxes contain stacks upon stacks of old funeral home records and documents that are rotted; you can hardly read them. Several of the first boxes we have gone through contain items such as artwork, old photos, picture frames, jewellery, melted candles, urns, candle holders, lighting equipment, bottles, and even an old wash basin which was used during the embalming process. Some of these boxes are marked "personal belongings" which is very creepy and disturbing none the less. We kept putting them aside for a long time pulling out the larger things. We finally opened a few of them up and dug through them. We believe the items inside the boxes are actual belongings that were not properly placed on the corpses and in their coffins. Some of the boxes we've gone through have things like glasses, bibles, papers, jewellery, flowers, one even contained a small statue, another a creepy little rotted stuffed animal. Sad, but very creepy, especially since a lot of them have photos inside and some are children. The follow is the story according to personal accounts, other accounts, and local legend. I'd have to say the strangest thing about this building is not the fact it was a funeral home since 1901 but the local Kokomo legend that surrounds it which claims it as being extremely haunted. Personally it can sometimes be a real mess with all the people that drive by and park out front during the Halloween holiday but it's not too bad. Though I must admit I've had to call the police on some kids that actually tried climbing the roof! According to local legend the funeral home has a history of racial tension and abuse, being the only black funeral home in Kokomo and the only one owned by a black funeral director didn't help things during those times I assume. The courthouse is just down the block and they used to hang criminals or "the accused" in the court house lawn and take them straight to this funeral home. Something I've always wondered is why are there slave doors in the back of the building if it was black owned? The history is so mixed and strange about this building, it's impossible to find anything useful in our historical documents at the recorders office and the library. But, it's very haunted and has a violent history according to Kokomo legend and folklore. Our newspaper called Kokomo Tribune did an article in 2002 that speaks about this haunted funeral home. The reporter that covered this article was the Indiana award winning Feature Editor, Tom Carey More than likely once we get rid of all the original funeral home items, the personal belongings we found and finish remodelling the building we'll rid ourselves of the hauntings and the haunted stigma the building has here in town. Over time we have plans to remodel it enough so people probably won't see it as a funeral home anymore from the outside. I must admit I've seen black shadowy figures on several occasions since I bought this building but I don't really believe in ghosts or spirits coming back from the dead. I feel there has to be a perfectly logical reason for them. Many people that have worked here or rented have told me about hearing sounds and seeing black shadows during all hours. One of the things that has turned me to wonder about all this even more is the children saying things about a "black fog" in different rooms during the night. It's apparent that something is causing all this. Whispers in the hallways, lights going out and coming back on, leaving rooms with the lights off and seeing them turn on. Even water turns on and off. Finally when the people remodelling came to me and said something about a high pitch drilling noise from the basement one afternoon I told my wife and myself I'd humour everyone and speak with a local psychic. I did so the same afternoon of the drilling. The psychic was a nice little lady but I was frustrated that all she kept saying and insisting to me was that I shouldn't remodel and stir up the spirits in the building and I'm causing nothing but problems some people in the community would choose to forget. It was a creepy thing to say and it really wasn't what I wanted to hear from her. She was of no help and refused to come over and answer questions about black shadowy figures in this building. She kept on and on about stopping what I was doing to the building. Just before the phone call ended the last thing she said was "You sir are playing with fire", whatever that means, but it stuck with me. For a while things seemed to calm down. Not much work was getting done and no strange activity. I called a local Christian preacher who prayed for me and claimed I was involved in a demonic process and should come to church Sunday morning before it's to late. He did finally come over to the building and did some holy water sprinkles or whatever it's called around the place but when he left everything started freaking out. Lights would turn off and on and we started getting light headed sometimes when we walked through areas of the building. So now ever since that day we try not to stay in a room alone when we are here. We still really don't have any clear answers on the building, the items inside, or it's terrible history but after we finish remodelling we hopefully will clean and rid ourselves of the spirits of Jacob's Funeral Home.
Kim Photographs relating to this story can be found in our 'Ghostwatchers ' section photo gallery.
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