Haunted History of Wellington County
Spooky Ghost Stories from South Western Ontario, Canada
Wellington County, Ontario boasts a rich collection of ghost stories from its fascinating past. Following our Spooky Story Spotlight in the Fall issue of The New Canadian Stories Magazine, we bring you some eerie tales from this corner of South Western Ontario that will chill you!
The rain pelted the little Hyundai Excel in the darkness of the midnight hour. Nurse “Carol’s” shift at Groves Hospital in Fergus, Ontario had ended, and she was anxious to be on her way. As she backed up and drove off from her parking spot, she suddenly spotted someone standing in the middle of the lot. Gripping the steering wheel, she slammed the brakes and screamed, sure she had hit the mysterious figure.
The car’s headlights revealed an elderly man, wearing dark, Victorian-era clothes, and carrying an old fashioned medical bag, standing in front of her car. He silently stared at Carol for a few moments, and then vanished. Carol sat peering through the windshield in shock. She got out of the car and looked around for the man, but he was nowhere to be found. How is it that I didn’t hit him? And where did he go? Shaken, her mind raced, trying to piece together what had happened.
Some say, the ghost of Dr. Abraham Groves, the beloved founder of Groves Hospital, roams the grounds where the first hospital was built in Fergus in 1902. Nurse Carol’s story is just one of many tales shared by Fergus residents of their ghostly encounters with Dr. Groves. Some have said that they’ve seen an elderly man in old fashioned clothes with a medical bag walking on Gowrie Street. Resident historian and writer Pat Mestern says, “Dr. Groves lived in a red brick house on the south corner of Gowrie and Queen Streets. He used to make one final visit to the patients in the hospital which was just across the road, every evening. People used to say that they’d seen Dr. Groves in the hospital after he’d died but no one believed them.”
Perhaps it’s not too much of stretch to think that Dr. Groves would want to see what the town of Fergus is up to, 90 years after his death. Dr. Groves was the first surgeon to perform an appendectomy in North America, at the Fergus hospital in the mid 1880’s. He also practiced cleanliness early on which benefited his patients and students — he was a pioneer in sterilizing instruments and using gloves. Pat says he is usually seen in the area of the lower parking lot, close to the back of the first new hospital building. Is the ghost of Dr. Groves still roaming the area around the Fergus hospital?
Elora Gorge is a beautiful location, a place where many movies and TV shows have been filmed over the years. However, it has also been the scene of many accidental deaths and suicides. Is the Gorge also haunted? On February 4th, 2007 a paranormal investigator and her friend were exploring the snowy Elora Gorge for photo opportunities, when they encountered a mysterious man. They descended the stony, snow-covered stairs leading to the gorge’s edge. As they climbed down, a man in his 40’s dressed in hiking gear hurriedly passed them. When they got to the bottom, the mysterious hiker had vanished. They looked for him, but there were no footprints in the snow and no sign of him anywhere. Is there a phantom hiker at the Gorge?
And of course, the mysterious Wellington County Museum is said to be haunted. Formerly known as the Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge, or “Poor House”, from 1877 to 1947, the museum served as an institution for housing people who couldn’t care for themselves. The men’s dormitory is said to be particularly haunted. In 2022 a paranormal investigator team famous on TikTok (@HauntinglyKrista) took a tour of the underground tunnel system at the museum where they picked up some strange vibes. Would you dare explore the haunted areas of the museum?
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