Morrow County Home - X-UMED | Dark History, Paranormal & Ohio Folklore

LAST UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

Mount Gilead

Ohio

Morrow County Home

The Morrow County Home housed poor, sick and vulnerable residents for 115 years. The institution is gone, but its barn, cemetery and a very thin ghost tradition remain.

OVERVIEW

The Morrow County Home housed poor, sick and vulnerable residents for 115 years. The institution is gone, but its barn, cemetery and a very thin ghost tradition remain.

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QUICK FACTS

REGION

Central

ERA

1800s, 1900–1929, 1930–1949, 1950–1969, 1970–1989, 1990–2009, Multiple Eras

ENVIRONMENT

Building

STORY / LEGEND

The surviving haunting tradition is unusually vague. The Ohio Exploration Society records that the old Morrow County Home was reportedly haunted, but notes that the details of the haunting are unknown.

No named ghost, recurring apparition or specific supernatural incident is established in that source, so the legend should not be expanded beyond what is actually documented.

ORIGIN / STORY DEVELOPMENT

A real nineteenth- and twentieth-century county welfare institution developed a vague haunting reputation before its 2002 demolition; the surviving public landscape now makes the documented history easier to reconstruct than the paranormal claims.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Morrow Soil and Water Conservation District documents that Morrow County purchased 200 acres in 1870 for $12,000. The County Home opened in 1871 after an existing residence was expanded into a three-story, 48-room institution.

Residents who were able worked on the surrounding farm, tending orchards, gardens, crops and livestock. More than 2,100 people lived at the Home before it closed in 1986.

The main building was demolished in 2002, leaving a barn on the property. The former County Home land is now associated with the Headwaters Outdoor Education Center, where a memorial cemetery remains.

The Morrow County Genealogical Society preserves County Home records covering 1871–1986. Its description notes that the institution cared not only for people experiencing poverty but also people who were sick or otherwise unable to live independently.

REPORTED EXPERIENCES

ALTERNATE VERSIONS

Later descriptions sometimes call the property an asylum. The recovered institutional sources identify it as the Morrow County Home/County Home Farm; “asylum” should not replace the documented institutional name without period records supporting that usage.

MORBID FACTS

For some residents, the County Home really was their final home.

The Morrow County Genealogical Society notes that its surviving records document where many residents went after discharge — or where they were buried. The Society’s cemetery survey identifies a one-acre County Home Cemetery in Gilead Township and reported that no grave markers remained when the site was surveyed in 1995.

WHAT WE CAN VERIFY

CONFIRMED: Morrow County purchased 200 acres for the County Home in 1870, and the institution opened in 1871.

CONFIRMED: More than 2,100 people lived at the County Home before it closed in 1986.

CONFIRMED: Residents who were able worked on the institution’s farm, including its orchards, gardens, crops and livestock.

CONFIRMED: The main County Home building was demolished in 2002; a barn remains on the former property.

CONFIRMED: A County Home Cemetery is documented in Gilead Township. A genealogical survey reported that no grave markers remained there in 1995.

CONFIRMED: Morrow County Home records covering 1871–1986 are preserved by the Morrow County Genealogical Society.

DOCUMENTED FOLKLORE: The former County Home is listed in modern Morrow County ghost lore as reportedly haunted.

UNVERIFIED: The available haunting source gives no specific apparition, named spirit or recurring supernatural incident, so detailed paranormal claims cannot be verified.

IMPORTANT: The documented institutional and cemetery history is substantially stronger than the surviving haunting tradition and should not be embellished to make the paranormal story larger.

SOURCES

Morrow Soil and Water Conservation District — Headwaters Outdoor Education Center / Morrow County Home history
Morrow County Genealogical Society — Morrow County Home Records 1871–1986
Morrow County Genealogical Society — Gilead Township Cemeteries / County Home Cemetery
Ohio Exploration Society — Morrow County Hauntings & Legends

X-UMED EPISODE/VIDEO