Stumpy

W. W. Wilson provided this story to the Ohio Valley Folk Research Project in the early 1960s.
It seems a bizarre creature haunted the Norwich, OH, area in the nineteenth century.

“Coming home from church one Sunday evening with her brothers and the neighbor’s
children, my grandmother felt something tugging at her dress,” Wilson relates. The woman
was used to her brother John teasing her, so she called out, “John, let me be.” To her
surprise, John popped up from the crowd ahead. He was several yards away, so he certainly
had not grabbed any part of her apparel.

Suddenly an animal of some sort shot out from behind her, dashed past the people ahead,
and vanished in the fading light. “Comparing notes they agreed it looked like a dog except it
had a man’s head.” [Woodyard, p. 101] Somehow the creature received the name “Stumpy”.

The strange being next showed up at a local farm. At the time only a hired girl was at home,
doing her chores. She glanced out a window and noticed that the cows were trotting in from
the pasture and heading for the barn. It was a strange thing to see when no one else was
supposed to be there, so the girl stepped outside.

Wilson continues: “Driving the cows was a large dog, a dog with a man’s head! Naturally one
presumes the girl did not linger long to make observations, but she got a good look at it and
she recalled that it looked at her with [a] fixed gaze.”

One night a local doctor, riding his horse-drawn buggy home after a house call, started
dozing off at the reins. Suddenly he woke – possibly from the jolting of something climbing
aboard. Whatever the reason, he realized he was not alone. The human headed dog was
sitting right beside him, staring hard at him. After a long, uncomfortable moment, the canine
chimera jumped out, hitting the ground with an audible “thump”. It then dashed into a field
and disappeared into the night. That was the last known sighting of “Stumpy”.

Woodyard, Chris. Haunted Ohio II (Beavercreek, OH: Kestrel Publications, 1992), quoting
Ohio Folk Publications, New Series, no. 94 (1962).

W. W. Wilson provided this story to the Ohio Valley Folk Research Project in the early 1960s.
It seems a bizarre creature haunted the Norwich, OH, area in the nineteenth century.

“Coming home from church one Sunday evening with her brothers and the neighbor’s
children, my grandmother felt something tugging at her dress,” Wilson relates. The woman
was used to her brother John teasing her, so she called out, “John, let me be.” To her
surprise, John popped up from the crowd ahead. He was several yards away, so he certainly
had not grabbed any part of her apparel.

Suddenly an animal of some sort shot out from behind her, dashed past the people ahead,
and vanished in the fading light. “Comparing notes they agreed it looked like a dog except it
had a man’s head.” [Woodyard, p. 101] Somehow the creature received the name “Stumpy”.
The strange being next showed up at a local farm. At the time only a hired girl was at home,
doing her chores. She glanced out a window and noticed that the cows were trotting in from
the pasture and heading for the barn. It was a strange thing to see when no one else was
supposed to be there, so the girl stepped outside.

Wilson continues: “Driving the cows was a large dog, a dog with a man’s head! Naturally one
presumes the girl did not linger long to make observations, but she got a good look at it and
she recalled that it looked at her with [a] fixed gaze.”

One night a local doctor, riding his horse-drawn buggy home after a house call, started
dozing off at the reins. Suddenly he woke – possibly from the jolting of something climbing
aboard. Whatever the reason, he realized he was not alone. The human headed dog was
sitting right beside him, staring hard at him. After a long, uncomfortable moment, the canine
chimera jumped out, hitting the ground with an audible “thump”. It then dashed into a field
and disappeared into the night. That was the last known sighting of “Stumpy”.

Wilson continues: “Driving the cows was a large dog, a dog with a man’s head! Naturally one
presumes the girl did not linger long to make observations, but she got a good look at it and
she recalled that it looked at her with [a] fixed gaze.”

One night a local doctor, riding his horse-drawn buggy home after a house call, started
dozing off at the reins. Suddenly he woke – possibly from the jolting of something climbing
aboard. Whatever the reason, he realized he was not alone. The human headed dog was
sitting right beside him, staring hard at him. After a long, uncomfortable moment, the canine
chimera jumped out, hitting the ground with an audible “thump”. It then dashed into a field
and disappeared into the night. That was the last known sighting of “Stumpy”.

One night a local doctor, riding his horse-drawn buggy home after a house call, started
dozing off at the reins. Suddenly he woke – possibly from the jolting of something climbing
aboard. Whatever the reason, he realized he was not alone. The human headed dog was
sitting right beside him, staring hard at him. After a long, uncomfortable moment, the canine
chimera jumped out, hitting the ground with an audible “thump”. It then dashed into a field
and disappeared into the night. That was the last known sighting of “Stumpy”.

One night a local doctor, riding his horse-drawn buggy home after a house call, started
dozing off at the reins. Suddenly he woke – possibly from the jolting of something climbing
aboard. Whatever the reason, he realized he was not alone. The human headed dog was
sitting right beside him, staring hard at him. After a long, uncomfortable moment, the canine
chimera jumped out, hitting the ground with an audible “thump”. It then dashed into a field
and disappeared into the night. That was the last known sighting of “Stumpy”.

One night a local doctor, riding his horse-drawn buggy home after a house call, started
dozing off at the reins. Suddenly he woke – possibly from the jolting of something climbing
aboard. Whatever the reason, he realized he was not alone. The human headed dog was
sitting right beside him, staring hard at him. After a long, uncomfortable moment, the canine
chimera jumped out, hitting the ground with an audible “thump”. It then dashed into a field
and disappeared into the night. That was the last known sighting of “Stumpy”.