Family ghosts haunt downtown Blue Springs

Smoke curled in front of the camera lens as Ken Billups Jr. snapped shots of the Blue Springs Chamber of Commerce’s October business card exchange at the Dillingham-Lewis House Museum. But Billups didn’t see the smoke. Picture after picture showed Chamber of Commerce members chatting throughout the building – a building in which no one is allowed to smoke. The white, billowing plume was in just one frame.

Donna Drake, archives and research chairman with the Blue Springs Historical Society, said it was the resident ghost.

“When I took (Billups’ picture) to two of the elderly women (who volunteer) there, they said, ‘See. I told you there was a ghost here,’” Drake said. “He took tons of pictures in that area of the room. There wasn’t anything on them but that one. I’m a very firm believer in ghosts.”

General store owner Morgan V. Dillingham built the house in 1906 and lived there until his death in 1925. The two-story building made of native limestone has had multiple owners. The only person known to have died in the house, Arthur Frank Cummins, lived there from October 7, 1949, until March 31, 1966. Although others died while living in the house, details on whether they died inside the house are sketchy.

Blue Springs has always been a popular spot for travelers. For centuries, American Indians utilized the springs for which the town would later be named.

Travelers West often stopped at the springs on their way to the nearby Queen City of the Trails, Independence. But many people decided to stay – some even after death.

Drake’s grandson met one of them in the Dillingham house.

“My 9-year-old grandson came over one day,” Drake said. “He loves this house.”

At one point the boy went to the bathroom upstairs. A few minutes later Drake heard her grandson scream and looked up to see him running down the steps.

“His eyes were big and he said, ‘I saw the ghost,’” Drake said.

“He said, ‘I looked in the mirror and there was a man in there.”

Drake’s grandson saw a man with a beard standing behind him, staring at him.

“I’ve been in there many, many times and have never felt anything,” Drake said. However she has seen some things she can’t easily explain. “A bunch of us were carrying Christmas stuff from the basement and we turned off the lights. But when we came up a lamp was on that none of us had ever turned on.”

Then there’s the hat and doors.

“I’ve had things I know I’ve left them laying in a certain position,” she said.

“Like a top hat upstairs. I’ve had the top hat laying on the top of the couch and when I come in it was in the middle of the house. We have some closet doors. If you go up there and if you shut them and come back up, they’re open.”

It’s not just hats and doors something unseen has touched. Mary Potter, president of the Blue Springs Historical Society, said people have been touched as well.

“At the last board meeting, (a board member) said, ‘Mary, I thought it was you tapping me on the shoulder, but I looked over and nobody was doing it,’” she said.

Although Karol Witthar, who works at the Dillingham house, has never experienced anything ghostly there, she always says, “Hello, ladies, I’m coming up,” before ascending the stairs. It’s better, she figures, to be safe.

“Not that I’ve seen anything,” she said. “It wasn’t until that picture; I didn’t think about it.”

However, the ghost of the Dillingham-Lewis House Museum might be a bit too gregarious to stay in one place. Numerous ghost sightings have been reported in the neighborhood, all connected to houses associated with the Dillinghams and Brownfields. David Dillingham, Morgan V. Dillingham’s son, built the house next door to the Dillingham-Lewis House Museum.

David’s daughter Margaret lived there with her husband Wade Brownfield.

“Four ghosts have been seen in the Brownfield house next door,” Drake said. “I keep telling them the four ghosts – when they started (restoring) that house – they came over here.”

And a ghost has been seen at another nearby house, where friends of the Dillinghams once lived. A recent occupant saw something sitting in her house.

“She screamed. There was somebody in a chair,” Drake said. “She said on the chair were these big, grubby hands. She said, ‘there was something in this house.’ ”

The figure sitting in the chair wore khaki work pants and shirt. Then she described the hands to Drake.

“That sounds like Wade Brownfield to me,” she said. “He just drops in where he wants to. He kind of dropped in on everyone in Blue Springs when he was alive.”

Although Drake hasn’t seen the ghost of Wade Brownfield or anything strange at the Dillingham-Lewis House Museum, she would like to.

“I hope there is a ghost there,” Drake said. “I would just love to have some experience with one. When I go in I always say ‘good morning’ and when I leave I say ‘I hope you have a good evening.’ If there’s a ghost there, there’s a friendly ghost.”