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“Spooks Drive Man From Home” O R A N G E V I L L E S U N , A U G U S T 7, 1 9 3 0
In 1930, a series of strange physical disturbances led a family to abandon their farm in Mulmur Township. Was a spirit at work? A poltergeist? Was it real? BY KEN WEBER
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or eight years, Alfred and Sophia Dobson had lived comfortably on their Mulmur farm at the corner of the 4th Line and 5 Sideroad. But then some very strange things began happening in their house. It started with the kitchen broom. Normally, between uses the broom stood in the hallway to the parlour. But in the winter of 1930, the broom seemed to relocate – on its own – to various other places. At first it was a phenomenon easy to dismiss, for in a house with several adult occupants, a broom is often moved and forgotten. Not so, though, for a lightning rod with a distinct shape. To see it fixed on the east side of the roof one day and on the west a day later definitely gave pause. Then there was the butter dish. The Dobsons’ 22-yearold son, Oliver, watched the dish flip over on its own and then flip again after he righted it! The dish sat on a table that would often be found inexplicably lying on its side or even upside down.
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ILLUS TR ATION BY JIM S TEWART
The unexplainable accelerates By early May the broom had grown bolder. Another Dobson son, 35-yearold Ross, swore he saw it dance about on the parlour floor with a coat draped on its handle – and then go up the stairs. The coat, along with shoes, boots, caps and other clothing that customarily hung inside the rear door of the farmhouse, would often be found in the yard, although the door was shut, on one occasion actually nailed shut to frustrate the mysterious force. The family dog, once privileged to lie on the parlour floor, would no longer enter the room. Meanwhile, heavier objects were now flying around (a bolt smashed through the kitchen window) and the broom became even more aggressive, whacking the Dobsons’ little granddaughter on her back.
Time to get out The Dobsons fled in June. According to Alfred Dobson, the tipping point came when the strange power moved to the barn. “It would take the halter off a
horse and tie it around the front feet so it couldn’t move,” he told the Shelburne Free Press and Economist. “A set of team harness would go missing; we’d find it in the mow. And then the thing would loose the cattle and horses, open the doors and we would find the stock outside. Soon I couldn’t stand it. I didn’t put in any crop and I have now been forced to leave the place.”
Word gets around Neighbours found themselves involv ed in the mystifying events on the Dobson farm when traffic jams formed along the 4th Line and up and down 5 Sideroad. After the Toronto Star and the Evening Telegram reported on the “spook farm,” as they called it, and the story was picked up by wire services, Mulmur Township became a go-to spot on Sunday afternoons. Most visitors were simply curious. Some were spirit seekers keen to find the source of the physical disturbances. An unfortunate number were souvenir hunters, and in short order the abandoned farmhouse lost
almost anything that could be picked up or pried off.
Investigators get involved Inevitably, the media buzz meant that expert opinion was called for, but the conclusions of the “professionals” were mixed. After visiting the property, Frederick York, editor and publisher of The Spiritual Voice in Toronto, asserted there was “no tangible evidence that spirits had anything to do with the manifestations.” However, spiritualist investigator Ivan W. Hutchins, described by the Orangeville Sun as holding “a religious charter from the provincial government,” opined that a spiritual force was definitely at work, likely operating through a member of the Dobson family (thus implying a poltergeist). But in August, when Mr. Hutchins held an “official” seance in the farmhouse – as opposed to an “unofficial” one (see sidebar) – no manifestations occurred to indicate the presence of a spirit.
