Ghost dog

Louis Bromfield, the conservationist and writer who created Malabar Farm,
told his own ghost story about the property during his life time.

After his beloved dog Prince died, Bromfield woke up during the night to the presence of an invisible dog lying next to him and then to the sound of a dog pulling with his paw on the frame of the stuck door to let himself in, as Prince did in life. Of course, there was no dog there when Bromfield opened the door. Bromfield related this experience in his book about the property, Malabar Farm. If Prince is still there, perhaps he visits his master, who lies buried in Olivet Cemetery on the farm. Visitors today sometimes report seeing or hearing a ghostly dog.

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Olivet Cemetery at Malabar Farm

At Malabar Farm State Park, there is a tiny pioneer cemetery up on the hill.

Never heard of Malabar Farm? My grandmother is disappointed in you.

It’s ok, she was disappointed in most of us, too, when we went there during a family reunion. Malabar Farm in Lucas, Ohio, was the home of Louis Bromfield, author and conservationist. A prolific writer, he produced novels, plays, short stories, non-fiction works, and finally an autobiography, writing more and more about conservation later in his life. Four of his books were transformed into films and brought him acclaim on the silver screen. He won the Pulitzer Prize for the novel Early Autumn.

Despite Bromfield’s acclaim, in popular culture of my grandparents’ day, Malabar Farm’s wider claim to fame was as the location of the 1945 wedding and honeymoon of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart.

Malabar Farm and Bromfield’s passion are now preserved as an Ohio State Park, demonstrating the conservation methods that Bromfield pioneered. The Big House that Bromfield and his family lived in remains, full of artifacts of their lives, and a working farm surrounds it. On a small rise, a little pioneer cemetery stands, which nearly has more names than tombstones: Pioneer Cemetery, Olivet Cemetery, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Schrack Cemetery, Malabar Farm Cemetery, Bromfield Cemetery. The park calls it Pioneer Cemetery on the map and Olivet Cemetery on the sign.

Surrounded by a pristine white picket fence, the graves inside are sometimes swallowed by the lush plants that flourish in the farm’s sun and rain.

The cemetery was there before Louis Bromfield bought his farm, as evidenced by the 19th century dates on a number of tombstones. George Franklin served in the Civil War, as did George Baughman.

And there Louis Bromfield, his wife, his mother, and his father, lie in quiet repose with the residents of a previous century on the same land.

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