Imagine you’re driving in the small town of Scotch Grove, Iowa. There is farmland as far as the eye can see, no buildings, no people. Suddenly you see a large building slowly coming towards you, it gives off a sad and lonely feeling but oddly seems inviting, like it wants you there, like it needs you there. This place is one of the most haunted places in Iowa, the Edinburgh Manor.
In the 1840’s- 50’s the first plan for the town of Edinburgh (later switched to Scotch Grove) was to build a county courthouse which would serve as the county seat; but the town soon realized that farming was not doing good, every crop they planted tended to fail. They decided it was best to scrap the county courthouse and build a James County Poor Farm in its place instead. This facility allowed the poor, disabled, and incurably insane residents to stay in the house in exchange for their labor. The James County Poor Farm claimed they would take care of everyone in their establishment but they would soon turn back on their word.
In the James Country Poor Farm building, there were many deaths that had occurred due to neglect. When a resident passed away they decided to bury their bodies in a field and leave them undocumented. There is no true number of how many people died, the only reason people know deaths occurred during this time was that there was a small graveyard on the side of the building that listed multiple names from the year 1850…