The Polk County Poor Farm in Amery, Wisconsin, operated from 1874 into the 1950s, providing a home for people who had nowhere else to go. Today, the former poor farm is remembered for a much darker chapter in its history. According to local legend, a young boy living at the farm once caught thieves stealing cattle. The thieves reportedly stabbed the boy to death to silence him, and his spirit is said to have remained on the property ever since. After the poor farm closed, the property was sold into private ownership, and professional wrestler George “Scrap Iron” Gadaski is said to have owned the place at one point. Gadaski, a longtime American Wrestling Association wrestler who lived in Amery, died in 1982.
The most chilling report came years later, when workers renovating the old poor farm house reportedly saw a young boy standing at one of the windows watching them. There was no child living in the house and no children were present at the time, leading to speculation that the figure may have been the murdered boy from the old legend. The property’s history gets even stranger at the nearby Amery Prairie View Cemetery, also known as the Poor Farm Cemetery. The cemetery contains numerous unmarked graves, and some have reportedly been accidentally disturbed or exhumed over the years by farming activity in the adjoining field.
Reported Paranormal Activity
Legend says a young boy was stabbed to death
The apparition of a child has been seen watching from a window
