shouting that there was a fire. John lit a candle as someone called, ‘Is that you Will?’
“John responded, ‘Yes’ and opened the door.”
A nervous vigilante saw a figure at the door and opened fire; the shotgun blast blew more than thirty holes in John’s chest. Then a muzzle-loading rifle ball went through his lower abdomen. He was mortally wounded and died a short time later. The vigilantes, having shed enough blood for one night, left for their homes. It wasn’t until 4:00 p.m. the next day that the coroner arrived at James Donnelly’s home. After the ravages of the fire, only two small steps at the front of the cabin remained. It was then discovered that souvenir hunters had already helped themselves to artifacts and body parts. Bridget’s head was gone and so was the right arm. Johannah’s head had also disappeared. It was reported that when Robert Donnelly arrived the next day from St. Thomas, he kissed the burnt exposed liver of Tom and the blackened heart of his father.
A number of years ago a public school principal was researching the Donnelly story. He received a call from a man who claimed to have Bridget’s arm bone and offered to sell it for five hundred dollars!
James Carroll and five other men were charged with murder. They got off scot-free. This is hard to believe today. Even with eye witnesses such as Johnny O’Connor and Will Donnelly, they managed to beat the charge. Did they suffer shame or grief over their deeds? Did they ever come to terms with their crimes or did they take their shame to their graves?
In 1881 Patrick, Will, and Robert Donnelly built another house on the Donnelly property next to where the log cabin had once stood. In fact, part of this new home stood on the former site of the original shanty built by their father. William planted five chestnut trees for the five family members that perished around the site of the log cabin. Two chestnut trees are still there today. In 1939 the property was sold to non-family members.
In 1988 Linda and Robert Salts and their son Charles decided to leave London, Ontario, and move to the country. On Mother’s Day they travelled to the countryside and looked at a homestead in Biddulph Township. The house, drive shed, and barn were situated on 6.19 acres that had originally been part of a 100-acred parcel. As they toured the place they noticed six large fieldstone rocks laid out to form a square, just to the north side of the homestead. They later learned that this was the site of the massacre.
Linda knew that they would live there. The district was not new to her. She had grown up two concession roads to the west. They bought the Donnelly homestead and moved there in August 1988.
A few months later Linda began to suffer from depression. It happened every time she worked in the kitchen. The Salts phoned Father Smith of the Catholic Church. They wanted the father to perform an exorcism. They could both feel an unwanted spirit in the kitchen area. A Donnelly perhaps?
The priest was not keen on doing an exorcism, but he agreed to bless the house and provide the last rites for whatever was in this area. It is significant that the Salts’ religious background was Protestant, but that they felt strongly that the entity or entities in the house were followers of Catholicism.
While Father Smith performed the last rites, Robert was overwhelmed with a sense of sadness and grief. Over the next several weeks Linda experienced a relief from emotional heaviness.
Robert and Linda have experienced numerous incidences of unexplained activity in their home. Robert awakens often in the middle of the night to hear faint footsteps on the stairs. During their first year Linda and Robert were sometimes startled in the night by a crashing sound. Their first thought was ice sliding off the main roof onto their bedroom roof but when it happened during the summer months they knew that ice was not the problem. They found it unusual that there were no reverberations that accompanied the sound.
In April 1994 Robert’s father passed away. Robert was given some china that had been in his family. He and Linda washed and sorted the cups and saucers to place them in a cabinet. Robert explained what happened, “We were interrupted by a telephone call and when we returned to the task of the dishes, we discovered one particular saucer had been placed in the cabinet and the glass door left open.”
In the middle of August 1995, Robert not only heard footsteps, but heard his name called three times. “The voice was a soft but firm masculine tone. The time was 1:29 a.m. on the clock radio; I did not respond nor get up to investigate as I knew there would be no one there.” One Sunday around noon, Robert was having a shower. He glimpsed the shadow of a person on the shower curtain — it came into the bathroom through the open door and then went back out. Robert immediately turned off the water, grabbed a towel and walked to the living room. Once there he asked Linda and his son Charlie if either of them had just come into the bathroom. The answer was no. Robert and his son tried to re-create the shadow on the curtain but to no avail. No matter how they adjusted the bathroom light, they were unable to make the same moving shadow.
The same day, when Linda was just outside the laundry room window and Robert was on the other side of the house, Linda heard a muffled sentence that ended with several clear words. She said it sounded like, “Is anybody home?” or “Don’t you know this is my home?”
Contemporary sign outside Robert and Linda Salt’s house, the Donnelly homestead.
At times Robert has been home alone in the living room and heard something. “I hear someone walk onto the deck, open the door at the far end of the house and step in. When I go to investigate, I find no one there! Linda told me one day that it has happened to her on more than one occasion.”
Their German shepherd refuses to go upstairs to the second floor or down to the basement. A small thing, maybe, but dogs and cats are very sensitive to spirits.
One day Linda discovered that the laundry basket had been moved from under the clothesline to a spot across the laneway — a distance of about six metres (20 feet). The basket was upright and a dozen or so clothespins were still at the bottom of the basket. There was two inches of snow at the time and yet there were no footprints.
The Salts have a tremendous sense of history. They have opened their home and property to the public and even provide tours if they are booked in advance.
The barn as it looks today. Built in 1877, the cement foundation was added by Robert Donnelly in 1906.
Robert is a very good tour guide. He loves his subject matter — the Donnellys. When he toured me around the homestead I listened intently to him. He walked me over the murder site and described what happened that fateful night and he showed me where the bodies were found. His storytelling brought the Donnelly family back to life and for a moment I was there and so were they.
Not surprisingly, visitors encounter spirits on the property. Robert described what happens, “Many times when a group is waiting for their tour, I am told that they have an odd feeling that someone is watching from the barn. The barn was built in 1877. This feeling of being observed can occur anytime and anywhere on the property. It can suddenly come over you and you find yourself looking around, expecting to see a pair of eyes staring in your direction.”
At one time Linda and Robert allowed people to sleep in the barn — people who were hoping to have a ghostly experience. “One man and his wife told me the next day that around 1:30 a.m. they heard footsteps coming toward them in the straw and he felt pressure on his chest.”
In the spring of 1996, two grade 13 students complained of that same feeling of great pressure on their chests. One of the girls said she heard screaming in her head for a few moments while in the barn.
Sometimes people ask, “Who is the man who stuck his head out of the barn door to see who is in the laneway?” Robert’s usual response is, “The man is a ghost of someone who lived here. The tourist then usually asks if I’m kidding and I explain that I’m not.”
One time they heard the sound of a handsaw. Robert explained, “Linda was taking bags of groceries out of the car