The Screaming House is built upon the land which was owned by Captain T. Crowe. Captain Crowe was the first Captain of the first Missouri Militia in the Civil War. He lived on the property with his wife Minerva until shortly after her untimely death. The actual Screaming House was built in 1932 and was placed upon the actual spot which once held the slave quarters. In all historical documents, you will not find one incident where the Captain admittedly was a slave owner. The slaves were always listed as belonging to his wife Minerva who came to Union, Missouri with her family from Kentucky. There is talk of Minerva having improper relations with at least one of her male slaves which may have led to her death and the deaths all of the young male slaves on the property. One of the sources of this atrocity was an actual member and heir of the Captain himself. Captain Crowe sold his land in Union, Missouri to A.J. Saey who later became the first Governor of Oklahoma. Captain Crowe moved to Beaufort, Missouri where he spent the rest of his years. Below you will see the grave sites of the Captain and his beautiful wife.
Standing on the hillside overlooking the Union City Park is a huge Nursing Home. In its day this building was used as a Civil War Hospital and was also used after the war as the County Poor House. It is a well known fact among Union residents that if you don’t know where one of your ancestors is buried they are most likely buried in one of the mass graves in the city park. One of these mass graves is not far from the Screaming House.
In 1974, a replaying of a modern Lizzy Borden case took place almost directly across from the Screaming House on the next street over. A woman took an ax and killed her husband. Once she had completed her dirty deed, she took a gun and committed suicide. You might be thinking that a woman using a gun to commit suicide is uncommon, but not in Union, Missouri. Several woman have ended their lives at the end of a gun. Another house across from the Screaming House a man committed suicide in front of his young nephew with a gun. So all in all there is plenty of reason for the Screaming House to be haunted. It seems the land on and surrounding the house is just bad. If you speak to some of the residents of the town who will talk about the haunting. They will tell you that you get an awful feeling from the home and some claim to even get physically ill when they are near it. Others will tell you that not only the house is haunted but the entire neighborhood as well.
The Screaming House 