Briggs Lawrence County Public Library

This is a Level 3 haunting 💀💀💀 manipulation of objects.

Briggs Lawrence County Public Library
Location type	Haunted library
Location	Ironton, Ohio, USA

Briggs Lawrence County Public Library, in Ironton, Ohio houses genealogy records for surrounding areas. It is reportedly haunted by the ghost of Joseph Lowry.

Background

The origional library was built at the turn of the nineteenth century. It was extended after the 1950s. Interestingly, they built the new parts of the library over a site of unlived-in nearby houses, which included Joseph Lowry‘s home.

Joseph Lowry

In 1933, Joseph Lowry was Ironton's head and most respected physician, as a a result he was also one of the towns most powerful landowners. Especialy since, up until the 1920's, Ironton was one of the biggest exporters of Iron in the world. As a result, Lowry was very powerful and respected.

Lowry was known to be quite bickersome. He often sued people, which made him infamous with the town’s legal system. After he quit his job as the city's medical examiner, he sued the Ironton board of health for five hundred dollars, on the basis that he believed he had not been paid enough during his employment to the board. The claim was dismissed.

In 1933, Lowry's wife died and he was grief stricken. He ordered the local undertaker to make a custom made coffin for her. The Undertaker done this and when Lowry received the coffin he was unhappy with it. Saying that (Among other things) that the bill was too high, Lowry did not use the coffin but instead sued the undertaker for the price of the coffin. Lowry won this case.

Two years later in 1935, Lowry mysteriously disappeared, about a week after his disappearance he was found dead in his home. He was found in his bed, he had the heating for his house turned on full blast even though it was the middle of summer. It was decided that Lowry had suffered from a stroke.

Lowry's body was sent to the very same Undertaker whom he sued two years later. The Undertaker was still very unhappy about how Lowry had treated him two years earlier, and so he decided to put Lowry in the coffin that had been custom prepared for his wife (To prove a point). Because Lowry was bigger then his wife he would not fit into the coffin, and so the Undertaker simply cut off Lowry's legs and removed most of his internal organs. Lowry was buried in this state.

Later on however, there was an Inquiry into Joseph Lowry's death. There was suspicion that he had been murdered, the police ordered that Lowry be exhumed. After they had dug up Lowry's body however they found out what the Undertaker had done. The police asked the undertaker what had happened and the Undertaker took the police to the place where he had buried Lowry's organs and legs. The Police wanted to test Lowry's organs for poison but could not because they were too badly decomposed, the undertaker was arrested because of this.

Hauntings

Because Briggs Lawrence County Public Library built over the site of Lowry's home after the 1950s, it is believed that Lowry's ghost now haunts that Library. Some have sometimes seen or heard him during the nightime. During the Day, the Ghost has been known to tap people, or hide objects. Some have said that Lowry is looking for his missing organs.

Resources

• https://mrsdaffodildigresses.wordpress.com/tag/dr-joseph-lowry/