From David J. Pitkin's 2005 book,
Haunted Saratoga County
East
Line’s Ghost House
It is always fascinating
to find notations about ghosts in the newspapers of
yesteryear. Folks had to deal with them back then to.
By the 1890s, the little hamlet of East
Line was undergoing major
changes. Some of its older buildings had been torn down and
others had burned. What had begun as a thriving farm
community in 1786 was rapidly disappearing.
In 1895, a major fire occurred in East
Line,
and the Ballston Journal of October 26th of that year
recounted the details of the destruction of two buildings,
a house, and a store. The article told of very strong winds
approaching forty-five miles an hour, and the
conflagration, once begun, had engulfed the structures
before the volunteer fire company could muster. John
Oliver’s wife and daughter, living in a nearby house,
were forced to flee, fearing their own home would be
consumed.
The newspaperman continued the story by noting with
satisfaction that “The Haunted House” across
the road (probably not the Oliver’s) had not caught
fire, writing, “His ghost-ship was not
disturbed.” The article gave no speculation as to the
ghostly identity. What the spirited manifestations must
have been in the past, also, were not recorded. Suffice to
say that youngsters of the small village knew of the
presence and avoided the house, especially on dark nights.
Years later, the old ”Haunted
House of East Line” was demolished, and
nothing today indicates its precise location. New stores
and a gas station are resurrecting the community of East
Line, but few there know of its former ghostly denizens.
Even today, the few scientists who are disposed to
investigate such matters cannot say for sure what causes a
ghostly manifestation to take place. Spiritual
investigators, however, strongly suggest that it is
unfinished soul business that keeps the entity
earthbound.