Haunted Holden

Every story, myth or legend has at least a grain of truth to it. Time has a way of increasing a story’s enchantment while eroding its veracity. The story is never really finished and it’s hard to discern the truth from the fiction. This particular story, or myth, owes its inception to the Holden area of Alberta. Come and join me as we visit the Holden area in search of a grain or two of truth.

Where It All Began.

There are two books that suggest a house in the rural Holden area southeast of Edmonton, Alberta, has a paranormal presence. The first book, and likely the originator of the story, is called More Ghost Stories of Alberta by Barbara Smith. Ms Smith tells the story of Greg and Allan who bought a rural house only to discover that the house had some unique qualities that they were unaware of when they bought it. According to Barbara Smith’s book, Greg and Allan were sitting in the house watching TV one evening when they heard a scream that seemed to originate in the basement. They immediately thought that someone was trying to break into the house. This was logical because the basement had a separate outside entrance where somebody could have entered. Strangely their dog, an Irish Setter, slept through the noise, which is not typical behaviour for any dog. Both Greg and Allan stood by the stairs to the basement and listened but they heard no more sounds. Understandably neither one felt the courage to go down there. After this encounter, and in the light of the day, Allan searched the house more closely with emphasis on the basement. Allan found no evidence of a break-in or any other explanation for the scream. Allan eventually discovered an odd inscription on an exposed floor joist in the basement. The inscription read, “Here lies Carl S. 1917.” That set Allan off on a more intense search for some answers such as who was Carl S? They researched the history of their house and talked to the lady who sold the property to them. The following is a direct quote from Barbara Smith’s book.

‘The original farmhouse was located sort of in our backyard,’ Greg recalled discovering. He reasoned that the family had buried their little boy in their yard, near their house. Then in 1940, when those original homesteaders decided to build a new house and chose the spot where they laid Carl to rest twenty-three years before, they no doubt felt compelled to honour the deceased by carving the tribute.

‘We presume that to lessen the impact of what they were doing they devoted the house as a monument [to Carl],’ Greg added.

More Ghost Stories of Alberta, Barbara Smith

So call me a sceptic but what family would build a house on top of their son’s grave? In fact, since the house has a basement, it would be impossible to build the house on top of the grave because the basement would be deeper than the grave. Perhaps they actually decided to move the remains to the cemetery (I’ve been told that is was quite common to move remains once or even twice for a variety of reasons back in the early century). If they moved Carl’s remains to the cemetery, it probably wasn’t to the old Holden Cemetery as I’ve searched through the records of that cemetery and found no “Carl” with a last name starting with an “S”. I did find a child, “Carl Larson, 1913-1918” but it’s pretty hard to mistake an “L” for an “S” so that ought to be the wrong Carl (and the year of death is off by one). Also the inscription in the basement, if indeed there is an inscription, says “Here lies Carl S.” not “Original burial site of Carl S.” If this is the correct house and if Barbara Smith’s book is more or less factual perhaps someone made an intended or unintended error of calling Carl Larson, Carl S. That is two “ifs and one maybe”. I kept digging for more information.

The community history book, “Hemstitches and Hackamores, A History of Holden and District,” has an extensive listing of the families that lived and died in or near Holden in the late 19th and early 20th century. I checked every family with a last name beginning with the letter “S” to see if they had a child named Carl. These books are not 100% complete because some people come and go and others just can’t be found for their family histories. For those families described in that local history book, I found no Carl S. I did find a Carl L. and we’ll explore that more below.

Before we pursue this story further, lets check out the house and then you can decide if it looks like a dwelling of the undead. It certainly has an outside entrance to the basement.

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So on to another book. Abandoned Alberta by Joe Chowaniec, is a wonderful book of photos by Joe Chowaniec, Allison Backburn Billings, Rob Brennen, Chris Doering and Glen Bowe (yes that’s me). In this book you will find a photo of the exterior of this house and another photo of the kitchen table with a reference to the book, “More Ghost Stories of Alberta“. The book doesn’t state what eerie thing Joe Chowaniec discovered at this house but in a private conversation with me he described something at that house that just doesn’t seem right. I can’t reveal it here as that would prejudice the very thing that makes the house somewhat peculiar except to say that it has nothing to do with an inscription in the basement.

Technology to the rescue. Most of the community history books contain diagrams of various sections of land with the original homesteaders’ names plus subsequent owners if known. This is how people used to find out who owns what farm quarter section back in the day before “database” was even a word. The trouble is that I had the GPS coordinates, but not the legal description. Well there’s an app for that so I was able to make the conversion and then looked it up in Hemstitches and Hackamores, A History of Holden and District. The owners at the time the book was published were not the original homesteaders. They bought at least one quarter section from a fellow named Karl Rozma and he stayed with the buyers as a hired hand until 1966. I don’t know if that meant he actually lived in the house as well. Perhaps that’s why it has an outside entrance to the basement? So that’s another “Karl” but this fellow is clearly too old to be the little boy Carl S.

Let’s leave sleeping ghosts lie, and move on with some photos.

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You’re probably wondering if I went down there to check for the inscription that says, “Here lies Carl S. 1917.” The answer is “no I did not”. At the time I was there to photograph the house I hadn’t yet read Barbara Smith’s book, More Ghost Stories of Alberta. I didn’t know that there might be something interesting down there and I didn’t bring my flashlight. Besides, everyone knows that ghosts prefer attics over basements. Someday I do want to return and check the basement for the inscription. No really I do, I wouldn’t lie about that.

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Above left is an old road behind the house with many old buildings such as an original homestead and other barely discernible things guarded by the thick forest. Above right is an old broken windmill on the property.

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Other Interesting Information

I mentioned above that I found a record of a young boy named Carl who died in 1918 however his name was Carl Larson, son of Olaf and Linnea Larson. This family has an interesting history even if they are not the parents of the Carl S. that this blog is essentially about. Olaf (Carl L’s father) was born in 1883 in Minnesota, USA. His family moved to Alberta in 1885. In 1912 the 29 year old Olaf married Linnea Moberg from Sweden (I’m not sure Olaf met Linnea in Sweden or in Canada). The Moberg family was supposed to leave Sweden for Canada in the spring of 1912 but Linnea’s mother became ill so the trip was postponed to September of 1912. In most cases a short delay like that would be an annoyance but nothing more. For the Moberg family it must have been particularly frustrating because they had booked a trip on a brand-new ship. That brand-new ship that they originally booked to Canada in the spring was called the Titanic. That ship of course sank on its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912. For the Mobergs, the initial annoyance of delay must have turned into relief and a happy celebration of being alive!

Some people might say that Linnea was lucky or blessed because she missed that trip to Canada aboard the Titanic. Perhaps, but it didn’t last for them. Olaf and Linnea married and had five children, two of whom died as children. The first child was Carl who was born in 1913, and died in 1918. Their next child was a daughter, Ethel who was born in 1915 and died in 1916. The Mobergs and Larsons certainly had interesting and eventful lives, but despite the many similarities between their Carl and the Carl of this blog, they are not likely the same people. That is unless Greg and Allan or Barbara Smith (who wrote the ghost story book) changed the description of the basement inscription from an “L” to an “S” to protect the privacy of the Larsons. It could have happened. Not that this makes Carl a ghost but perhaps this is the grain of truth to the story. Remember that we’re talking about the Holden area of Alberta. It’s a place where we shouldn’t be surprised to find a grain or two of something.

Another Possibility

I mentioned above how the owners of this piece of land bought it from Karl Rozma and he stayed with the buyers as a hired hand until 1966. I’ll give their names here but just the first letter of their last name to protect the privacy of their descendants. They were Nick and Annie Z. The writer of that submission said,

“In 1946, my parents built a new house. Times had certainly improved. This new home was a large two story house and was enjoyed by all. Our old home was merely a two room house that housed my parents and their five children. Michael, Peter, Estella, Mary and Susan.”

Michael Z

I only quote that part of the landowner’s story because of the house. It is a unique house for that area and clearly appears to be of 1940s vintage. I have no doubt that they built the house that I photographed. You might say that since they didn’t have a child named Carl that’s the end of the story. However they were far from the first owners of the property. It was previously owned by O. Desjarlais, H. Hanson, S. Francis and then the owners who built the house. Their histories are not included in the community history book so probably they each owned the property briefly before selling it. Selling the homestead is something that people might do if, on top of the difficulties of homesteading in general, they had lost a young son. I doubt that subsequent owners even knew that there was a child buried there if indeed there was. Burials on your own property were common back in the early century. For a documented and poignant example of such a burial, check out my blog from 2020 called, “A Solitary Grave.”

So this brings me to the end of this blog and I’ve not solved the mystery of the haunted house or who Carl S. really was. I think it’s safe to say that this is a house that will take its secrets to the grave.

An Update 2021-02-12

Based on the responses in the comments section, and especially some private messages that I received as a result of this blog post, I now must conclude that the house I photographed is the wrong house. Oh it may have a ghost or two. but not the ghosts of Barbara Smith’s book. There is another farm just a short distance southeast of Holden where, I’m told, Greg and Allan had owned a house at one time. One of either Greg or Allan was a school teacher. I don’t see their names on the county map or in the Holden area history book but that doesn’t exclude them from a possible list of people who lived on the property at one time.

The original homesteaders were, if this is indeed the right property, Anton and Tekla Sroka, both of whom came from Poland in 1902 or 1903. At least we have a last name starting with “S” so that’s a good start. They started their new life in Canada with a great deal of tragedy, just like many other pioneers. Their first daughter died of diphtheria and their second daughter died of a ruptured appendix. The local history book doesn’t give the daughters’ names but in the nearest cemetery to the homestead I found Charlene Sroka, born 1965 died 1965 as an infant, which is probably too current for our purposes. I also found Stanislawa Sroka 1918 to 1924 (9 years old) and Stefania Sroka, 1907 to 1925 (18 years old). The family lived in the Polska district south of Holden so it’s fitting that they are buried in St John Baptist Roman Catholic Cemetery, Polska. There’s even one “unknown” Sroka in that cemetery who died in 1925 (in addition to Stefania). Of course if a child was buried on the homestead there would be no record of them at the cemetery. Note that the on-line cemetery information that the above link will take you to is not as complete as a small book published by the Genealogical Society. This family has seen more than its fair share of childhood deaths, and any one of them could have served as inspiration for Barbara Smith’s Ghost story.

We are in the middle of a deep freeze throughout western Canada with record breaking low temperatures so I haven’t driven out to the Holden area to see if this Sroka farm has an old house that would fit the brief description that exists for it. However, given that it was a local resident that pointed out this quarter section of land and given the number of tragic deaths that the family, who homesteaded there, experienced, I think it is indeed the place that inspired Barbara Smith’s story.

I’ve messaged a fellow who my source said is from the family who owns that piece of land now. He responded to say that he doesn’t live there but his brother does and he’ll forward my questions. I followed up with some questions. I asked him if there was ever a Greg and Allan who lived in a house on that land? He said “yes they did live there.” I asked him if the house Greg and Allan lived in is still there? He responded, “yes that house is still there on that property.” I asked him if he is familiar with the Barbara Smith story? He answered in the affirmative and then said he’ll forward my remaining questions to his brother. Check back in the week or two in order to find out if his brother, Troy, responds and allows me to photograph the house.

I believe that we’ve found our grain of truth. As for the rest of the ghost story, that’s a matter between Barbara Smith and her reader’s, people just like you.

References:

• More Ghost Stories of Alberta, Barbara Smith
• Abandoned Alberta, Joe Chowaniec
• Hemstitches and Hackamores, A History of Holden and District
• Holden, Riley and Area Cemeteries, Alberta Genealogical Society, March 1999.