By Cody Berry 

Sometimes I get asked if the Gann is haunted or not. I haven’t seen the ghost of Dr. Gann or any member of his family, but I have had some strange coincidences. For example, while doing research for the “Only the Names Have Changed” exhibit, on downtown Benton, I spent a lot of time looking for anything to use in the exhibit. So, one morning, after turning on the lights before my shift started, I spotted some pictures on the closet floor. They were oversized images of the downtown area. Those pictures weren’t there when I went home the day before and I did use some of them.  

 I’ve had days where it sounds like there’s someone at the door and there’s nobody there. Probably just someone walking by or maybe our neighbors have visitors, right? That could be it. Even one of my library friends told me she saw something while visiting the museum. She said it was a person in white. Who? We don’t know.  

The Saline County Library had at least one spirit in the stacks when the library occupied the old Palace Theater building on South Street. Former library director Carolyn Ashcraft told me that when she was working at the old library from 1986 to 1993, she and her staff witnessed several strange happenings.¹ 

Mrs. Ashcraft said her office was on the bottom floor of the library so every time there were people browsing upstairs, she could hear their footsteps through her office ceiling. One day when she was there alone, she could hear someone moving around up there and coming down the stairs. Mrs. Ashcraft went to look in the staircase mirror and saw nobody was there. After that, she packed up and left.²  

Mrs. Ashcraft told her friend Sue Richards about the eerie event and Sue said, “Oh that was just Faye Minnie.” A long time ago there was a woman named Minnie Faye Hockersmith, who the library’s ghost was named after. Mrs. Ashcraft said she also heard the paperback racks squeak as if someone was slowly spinning them. Nobody was there. Another time, when nobody was around it, one of their copying machines turned on and printed a mostly blacked out picture with a white ghost-like image on it.³ 

Did Faye Minnie print a picture of herself? 

Benton may not have a cool name like “Devil’s Island,” or “Sleepy Hollow,” but it has had a rather haunted history. Way back in 2018, I wrote an article that spoke about “Charlie,” a ghost who haunts the Royal Theater and the aftermath of a fire at the old library in the former Palace Theater in 1988. Allegedly after the fire was put out, the only thing that wasn’t damaged was a portrait of two women in rocking chairs.⁴ Was one of them Minnie Faye Hockersmith?  

After more research, we found the picture at the Benton branch but the two women in it are a Mrs. Utley and a Mrs. Henry, so, not Minnie Faye after all. However, there was a Faye Hockersmith who worked for the library a long time ago. ⁵ 

Mrs. Ashcraft said that the painting hung above the copying machine in the front of the old library. She told me that the Benton Fire Department got a call from someone with a “female voice,” who told them that the library was on fire. The fire department was able to save the building. Mrs. Ashcraft told me they don’t know who reported the fire, and she often wonders if the call had come from inside the library.⁶  

Did Faye Minnie save the library? Maybe. 

Faye Minnie may have followed the library to the Benton branch on Smithers. Library Director Leigh Espey told me that one night about nine years ago, the library’s security camera recorded a strange occurrence. An outside door quickly opened and closed…seemingly by itself.⁷ Maybe Faye Minnie needed some fresh air.  

So, yes, the Gann Museum could be haunted, but from what I’ve heard, so is most of the historic downtown area. If you want to learn more about downtown Benton, come and see our new exhibit. Oh, and if you’re ever at the library and the paperback racks start turning by themselves, say “hi” to Faye Minnie for me.  

Happy Halloween! 

Citations:

¹ Cody Berry, Interview with Carolyn Ashcraft, former Saline County Library director. 10/26/2024. 
² Cody Berry, Interview with Carolyn Ashcraft, former Saline County Library director. 10/26/2024. 
³ Cody Berry, Interview with Carolyn Ashcraft, former Saline County Library director. 10/26/2024. 
5 Cody Berry, Conversation with Margaret Herzfeld. 10/29/2024. 
⁶ Cody Berry, Interview with Carolyn Ashcraft, former Saline County Library director. 10/26/2024. 
⁷ Conversation with Saline County Library Director Leigh Espey. 10/25/2024.