Does Fred Jeffers still walk the halls?
Editor’s Note: The veracity of these tales has not been tested.
Located on Highway M-26 west of Houghton is the former mining town of Painesdale. Painesdale’s streets are laid out in a unique pattern, and the company also built a fine public library and an impressive Methodist Church. Painesdale is one of three communities that were located near copper mines operated by the Copper Range Company. Painesdale, Trimountain, and Baltic were basically residence communities, and the business district was located in the village of South Range, however, the high school for these communities was located in Painesdale, and though formally the Adams Township High School, it was renamed in memory of Fred Jeffers, long-time Superintendent of Schools who arrived at Painesdale in 1899. Fred and his wife, Cora, who was the principal, ran the Adams Township Schools for over 75 years between the two of them, thereby becoming an institution in themselves. Portraits of the couple hang in the lower hall of the school building.
Jeffers High School in 1934, after significant expansion. Photo from adamstownshipschools.org.
The Jeffers High School was a very modern school building for the time it was built. Constructed of Jacobsville Sandstone, the building is three stories above the ground level, but on the side of the hill above the Champion Mine there is a large gymnasium, and even a swimming pool. Copper Range spared no expense in providing for the education of the children of their employees. The Copper Range Railroad had a special coach and provided transportation for pupils in the outlying areas such as Redridge.
Fred Jeffers was revered throughout the Copper Country as the grand old man of education. He had become the superintendent when he was a very young man, and also coached the school’s basketball team. His low, booming voice was familiar to every pupil as he addressed the student body in the assembly hall located on the third floor, and he would often lead everyone in singing.
Fred and Cora Jeffers. Photo from adamstownshipschools.org.
Though Fred Jeffers has gone to his heavenly reward many years ago, it is believed by many that his ghost still walks the halls of the school where he was the headmaster for so long. The following incidents were related by school staff who have worked in the Jeffers High School building for several years, and they volunteered the information below to this reporter in the late 1980’s.
Jim, the night custodian, was working on the top floor of the building one night when he heard the sound of heavy footsteps in the lower hall. This was late in the evening and Jim knew that the doors of the building were locked, having seen to this himself. He went down the stairs to investigate and found no one. However, as he stood there in the main hall, he could hear heavy footsteps on the wooden floor of the assembly room on the floor above, where he had just been. He rushed up the stairs to find an empty room, but he could hear the sound of feet moving down the terrazzo stairs at the far end of the assembly hall. For nearly an hour, Jim chased the phantom footsteps about the school, never finding anyone but hearing clearly the footfall of someone walking about the building. To this day, Jim still hears the footsteps at night, but now he chooses to ignore them. He feels that it is Mr. Jeffers, just checking on his work, and over time he has come to regard the presence of whom he considers to be Mr. Jeffers as a sign that all is well.
Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash
Jack was the assistant head custodian. He told of an incident when he had come in very early on a winter morning while it was still quite dark, to check on the boiler, which at the time was wood-fired. He was making his way to the upper level of the building and had to pass through the dark gymnasium and as he got to the other side, he could hear the sound of a basketball being dribbled. Students were not allowed in the building this early in the morning, so Jack went to the wall switch and turned on one bank of lights. There was no one there. A lone basketball was out on the gym floor, as if overlooked when things were put away the previous day. Jack turned off the lights, and immediately he heard a ball bouncing on the floor. He quickly turned on the light and, of course, no one was to be seen, but the basketball that had been out in the middle of the floor was now in a different place! Jack waited by the light switch and shut off the lights. Again, the sound of a basketball being dribbled, but getting closer. He waited a few moments and then switched on the light. No one was there, but the basketball lay motionless at his feet! Jack switched off the lights and left quickly!
Up in the cafeteria kitchen, Florence, the head cook, had been coming in early for years to get started on the baking. Being a cook of the old school, during the years she worked at the Jeffers High School, the students enjoyed homemade bread and rolls. Florence had been coming in early for years, often being the first staff member in the building. One morning, while it was still dark outside, she had come in to prepare the dough to give it time to rise before she and her helpers began preparing the rest of the hot lunch for the day. The entrance to the kitchen was a sort of ante-room where she hung her coat. Between the coatroom and the kitchen was a glass paneled door. The glass was that somewhat opaque privacy glass with a diamond pattern that allowed light to pass through. One can see shapes through the glass, but no distinguishing features. The light switch for the kitchen is located in the coatroom. Florence turned on the lights and was surprised to see through the glass that someone was moving about in her kitchen. She opened the door and no one was there. Puzzled, she closed the door and stepped back. Again, she could make out the form of someone moving about, near the ovens. She opened the door again and peeked in. She saw no one. So she closed the door quietly and waited. There was no movement now. She moved closer to the door and tried to peer through the rippled glass. Suddenly, The form of a face appeared on the glass in front of her. Whoever (or whatever) it was, was on the other side of the door with its face up against the glass also! Quickly, she jerked the door open and was confronted with……nothing! Until the day she retired, several years ago, Florence would not go into the building alone in the early morning hours unless there was a one of the custodians present.
Photo by Tom Pottiger on Unsplash
The final straw came for Duke, the head custodian, when the Fire Marshall inspected the old Jeffers High School. He suggested that the old textbooks, and other paper items stored in the attic above the study hall be cleaned out as these flammable items posed a fire hazard. The Superintendent directed Duke to remove those items and toss them in the Houghton County Landfill when he made the weekly garbage run with the school’s pickup.
Duke dutifully carried several boxes of old textbooks down the stairs and threw them in the back of the pickup. He went back up to the attic and gathered a number of old ledgers consisting of financial records and school board minutes dating back for nearly 80 years. He was about to bring them down to add to the disposable pile when he was called away on a different errand. Later, when he returned to finish the job, he was surprised that someone had stacked the old school records back where they had been, under a vent window. Puzzled, he asked the Superintendent if he had changed his mind and put these things back in their former place? The Superintendent denied any knowledge of the matter and told Duke to toss them out.
The following week, Duke hauled everything to the dump and tossed everything in the hopper. This should have been the end of the matter, but a month later, Duke was summoned to the Superintendent’s office and asked when he was going to get around to disposing of those old records in the attic? Duke explained that he had done as directed and tossed the old books and records away, and that he had personally carried everything down from the attic and hauled them a way.
The Fire Marshall had done another inspection and wanted those old papers and record books removed from the attic. Duke rightfully asked the Superintendent to come and see, and they went together to the door at the base of the stairs leading to the attic. Duke inserted the key and unlocked the door. Together they went up the stairs.
There, under the window vent, piled neatly, were the school board minutes the financial records and the ledgers, many of them written in Fred Jeffers’ own hand.
Someone or something had retrieved them from the landfill and replaced them to the very spot where they had been stored for many years. Duke refused to touch them again, and they are said to be there yet.
