By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

HIstorian Rick Crawford shows an opening to the underground church that spiritualists built in 1847. (Craig Ruttle photos) | ZOOM |

UTOPIA - On Dec. 12, 1847, 150 members of a spiritualist congregation in this small Clermont County river town drowned in a flash flood at a housewarming party, less than a mile from their church.

Only six people survived. Some say that family still walks a path from the river, where the now-underwater home sat, to the former home of the church's pastor.

That's just one of many ghost stories that Clermont County historian Richard Crawford has been sharing with residents and visitors this Halloween season.

The church, built 25 feet into the ground out of stone so the parishioners could practice sČances and communicate with the dead without being noticed, sits empty on U.S. 52, just a few miles from a home some say is haunted by the survivors of the flood.

Spiritualists who built this underground church in Clermont County had fled religious persecution in Ohio and Wisconsin. | ZOOM |

"The legend is that the Reverend (John) Wattles home is haunted," Mr. Crawford said. "There are rumors of things happening in Utopia, especially on rainy nights. The Wattles' home is visited by six people, a woman in a blue dress wearing a blue hat, a man in a black suit with a hat, a teen-ager and three children. They go in through the front door and walk up the stairs to the second floor and disappear."

Mr. Crawford said several people who've lived in the home since the flash flood, including a 4-year-old girl, reported seeing the same phenomenon. (The home is occupied today, but its owners could not be reached for comment.)

Utopia's haunted house is one of many the county employed historian will bring visitors to see this season.

Last weekend, at the Chilo Lock No. 37 park, Mr. Crawford entertained nearly 200 people with ghost stories around a campfire. It was a program of the Clermont County Park District.

"I don't try to convince anyone to believe in ghosts or the supernatural," he said. "I make absolutely certain, when I tell ghost stories, that there's a history lesson in there so people can learn what an absolutely wonderful history we have in Clermont County."

For the Clermont County Park District, the ghost stories are an entertaining and popular way to bring people out to experience nature and learn a bit of history at the same time, said Chris Clingman, the district's director.

Mr. Crawford will visit schools in the county later this week to share more ghost stories and history, including hauntings at the Promont House and an accounting of the only documented witchcraft trial in the state, held in Clermont County.

Many of his stories can be found in his book Uneasy Spirits: 13 Stories of the Undead in Clermont County, Ohio, available at libraries and some bookstores.

County residents can get more history of the area at a special program at the Chilo park on Nov. 9, when the Grassy Run Historical Arts Committee will demonstrate life in the early 1800s, including survival skills, pioneer toys and storytelling at the Clermont County Park District Heartland Cabin, U.S. 50 at Aber Road, five miles east of Owensville. The event runs from noon to 5 p.m., and Mr. Crawford will be there. For more information, call (513) 734-1119.