When Seward County Commission Chair Misty Ahmic was showing newly installed Commissioner Jonathan Curtis how to review the county’s monthly claims on the third floor of the Seward County Courthouse, they were interrupted by an odd noise.
“It sounded like a bookshelf full of books or papers and someone’s arm pushing papers on the floor,” Curtis said. But it sounded like it was coming from inside the wall or ceiling.
County Building and Grounds Superintendent Eric Hofer was called to the former judge’s office to check things out. He looked in the ceiling, where they could see an amazing old column covered by newer ceiling tiles, and checked out other areas above the third floor, but found no sign of anything that would make the noise.
After that, hearing about the strange noises in the courthouse seemed to become a part of Curtis’ orientation and is occasionally mentioned in commissioners’ meetings.
“I am definitely not a believer in ghosts,” Curtis said. “But I do love to be scared and I do love the fanciful nature of it all.”
Ahmic, Seward County Clerk Brandy Johnson and a few others have shared stories of “Orlando,” a possible ghost recently getting blamed for odd noises and happenings in the courthouse. Johnson said she and at least one other person have sensed someone walking by an office door when no one else was there.
But no one is afraid.
Other noises heard
Ahmic said she was working alone on the third floor once when she heard a squeal or screech. Thinking someone else was in the building, she went down to the landing between second and third floor and called out, but there was no one around.
She stayed on the phone call she was on when the noise occurred, gathered up her things and left, choosing the stairs over the elevator.
“There was nobody there,” she said. “It was bizarre. I cannot say I have ever had anything like that happen before. I can tell you it is not fake.”
There are other reports, among them a time when the county board heard water suddenly gushing from a faucet in the old judge’s chambers behind their meeting room, doors opening or closing, things not being where you left them.
Ahmic was sitting in the commissioners’ meeting when the faucet turned on, as was now retired Seward County Clerk Sherry Schweitzer.
Schweitzer, however, thinks someone may have used the faucet earlier and just did not shut it off tightly, allowing it to come back on. She noted that several offices in the courthouse have sinks that were likely installed a hundred years ago.
“I do not believe in ghosts,” Schweitzer said about the instances, but she recognizes that others are hearing these odd noises.
Stories relatively new
Neither Schweitzer nor retired Seward County Treasurer Bob Dahms recalled people referring to a spirit named Orlando in the courthouse. Longtime County Assessor Marilyn Hladky said she did not believe there was a ghost.
But she has heard talk over the years that people occasionally heard the sound of a long-deceased former county treasurer climbing up and down the stairways on his crutches.
Hofer said he does not have a particular theory about the odd noises from the 13 years he has worked in the courthouse, but he usually is called to check them out.
He has not heard those noises first hand and had not heard of the possible ghost until recently.
“I may be guilty of making it more than it is. I read somewhere about somebody being hanged and I came up with him,” Hofer said.
Casler accused of murder
Orlando Casler was a local farmer who in 1878 was hanged on the square for murdering George Munroe, a Kansas man who was traveling through the area.
The July 18, 1878, Nebraska Reporter said a father and son fishing on the Blue River near the mouth of Lincoln Creek spotted the body, which led to the investigation that quickly focused on Casler, a Civil War Army veteran.
After a coroner’s investigation with the sheriff, Casler, who had been seen with Munroe prior to his death, was charged with murder and horse theft.
The Reporter noted that law enforcement found letters from Munroe’s wife that indicated he was trying to sell the horses while she was trying to sell their home due to hard times with his belongings, as well as a “porte-monnaie” or small pocketbook with $2.75 in silver and one cuff pin.
She also wrote that she was sending him letters at Ashland and Omaha.
Casler proclaimed his innocence until his death, but an 1878 jury found him guilty.
Public hangings or executions were illegal in the 11-year-old state of Nebraska so the county sheriff had a fence built around the scaffolding, which was probably in an area now part of the square. The early courthouse was northwest of the existing courthouse, which was built in 1905 to 1907.
Crowd demolished fence
Stories vary, but an article entitled “Are We Law-Abiding and Progressive” in the Seward Advocate May 29, 1879, looked back at that recent hanging and the stories of a large crowd taking down the fence built around the gallows so they could watch.
“Many individuals from neighboring counties lent a hand to demolish the enclosure around the jail. Respect for the law was not sufficient to debark them from the horrible sight. Sheriff Sullivan placed too much confidence in the good sense and law abiding proclivities of the crowd with whom he had to deal,” the unnamed writer noted.
None of the newspapers included an estimated count of those attending, but more recent tellings of the story include a range from 1,600 to 6,000 people.
Seward County’s population rose from 2,958 in 1870 to 11,147 in 1880, a decade in which the railroad came to town and neighboring counties grew to as many as 28,090 in Lancaster County, according to the U.S. Census.
Longtime Concordia University professor Jerry Pfabe has looked into crimes and other stories from Seward’s history over the years.
“They would have had to come a long way, a real long way, because the town was not that big yet,” Pfabe said.
One version of the story says a teacher suspended class to allow students to witness the hanging.
Pfabe said he and his wife once drove to the cemetery near Beaver Crossing to see Casler’s grave is marked, and the only thing present is a marker noting it is the grave of a Civil War veteran. There had been some controversy years ago when those markers were being installed.
“But the guy made it through the Civil War,” Pfabe said.
Whether there is a ghost in the courthouse, and whether that ghost is Orlando is another mystery that won’t be solved.
