In the mid-1800s, the Miami & Erie Canal connected the Ohio River to Lake Erie, with boats traveling from Toledo to Cincinnati. Mules pulled these boats along the towpath. Two notable boats were the Daisy, driven by the kind-hearted Jack Billings, and the Minnie Warren, led by the moody William Jones. The Minnie Warren was named after the captain’s daughter, Minnie, who cooked for the crew and rode alongside her father on their journeys.
Minnie and Jack often flirted as their boats passed, eventually realizing they loved each other. Jack counted the hours until he saw her boat again, while Minnie felt her heart race whenever their eyes met. This playful interaction made William Jones, who also loved Minnie, seethe with jealousy, knowing she only had eyes for Jack. He spent his nights dreaming of ways to win her over.
One fall evening in 1854, William’s jealousy erupted after Minnie and Jack attended a social event together. Waiting in the shadows, he attacked with a sharp ax, killing Jack in one stroke. Minnie fell into the canal and drowned in the murky water.
Some would say it was shock that sent her reeling to her death, but others believed the moment Jack died, she did not want to live at all and took the plunge to be with him. Soon after, someone stumbled upon the gruesome scene of Jack’s lifeless body and noticed the girl floating dead in the water. They brought her body up and laid it next to the remains of her sweetheart. Gone, they were. Each of the young lovers left their mark on the region. For nearly forty years after Jack’s body was removed, bloodstains remained on the bridge, which became known as Bloody Bridge. Some claimed to see Minnie’s face staring up from the muddy canal water below.

For those who like the crazy, scary kind of love:

On Thursday, January 21st of, 1869, 13-year-old Louisa Fox was walking home from work with her 6-year -old brother. As they passed a small chestnut orchard near her house in Sewellsville (Belmont County), Thomas Carr, a deranged 22-year-old coal miner who had been relentlessly stalking the girl, came out from where he had been lurking in the shadows and begged her to marry him. When she adamantly refused and tried to flee, he slit her throat with a straight razor, nearly severing her head from her body. Passersby have also seen poor Louisa’s ghost chased by the psychopath Carr in this remote section of Belmont County in the Egypt Valley Wildlife area. Louisa also wanders Salem Cemetery down the road where her family buried her.

Louisa Catherine Fox Murder Site 35615 Starkey Rd Barnesville, OH 43713 (40.104476,-81.174702)

Salem Cemetery (Old Methodist Church Cemetery) Egypt Valley Wildlife Area
Salem Ridge Road Barnesville, OH 43713 (40.089457,-81.153572)

For those with daddy issues:

Once the Columbus Arsenal, this property was a recruiting and training post for many soldiers from the Civil War. Now called Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center, it is haunted by the ghost of soldiers who came to the camp including one killed in front of this building by the explosion of a cannon. It is believed that the young dead soldier was wooing a daughter of a captain who disapproved of the courtship. The poor man walks in front of the old tower searching for his lost love.

Fort Hayes Columbus, OH 43215

For those who anger your lover's family:

A gravestone has an impression of a bloody horseshoe because a man refused to return a wedding gift horse to his late wife's parents after she died.
James Henry was a young farmer in the region. In 1844, two women caught his eye – Mary Angle and Rachael Hodge. Both were attractive, charming women, and James was so smitten with both that he could not decide which one to marry. But at the age of 30, the young man was expected to find a wife and settle down. James was sure he could never decide. But one night, while heading home from visiting his sweethearts, he fell to sleep on the back of his horse. When he awakened, the horse was standing outside the door of Mary Angle. James took it as a sign – fate had decided who would be his bride.
So he married Mary, and each of the parents gave the newlyweds a horse. Less than a year later, Mary died during childbirth. Henry would recover from his loss, and he married again. It was none other than Rachael Hodge.
Everything went as planned in the marriage. There was only one problem; Henry did not return the wedding gift horse to Mary's family as tradition would expect. It was then found that on Mary's grave, a bloody horseshoe print was embedded in the stone where it still stays today as an everlasting ghostly reminder to all who take romance and tradition too lightly.

Bloody Horseshoe Grave of Mary Angle Henry— Otterbein United Methodist Church Cemetery

County Road 62/ Otterbein Road Northwest Rushville, OH 43150 (39.77194, -82.36333)

For those who are the crazy jealous type:

In the 1880s, 27-year-old Ellen Ann Athey, in a jealous rage, murdered her housemaid, 18-year-old Mary Seneff. The disturbed woman believed the girl was flirting with her husband. A miner heading to work and crossing the Sugarcreek Bridge in Dover discovered Mary’s lifeless body in June of 1880. But Mary’s story was just beginning. She hadn’t been dead and buried a full year before her ghost started showing up along the banks of Sugar Creek. Many people claimed to see it, and one farmer best described it like this: "I was attracted by a loud splashing in the creek below. Immediately a white form arose slowly out of the water and glided noiselessly toward the shore, beckoning to me with its hand. A ball of bluish light surrounded the head-" Ellen Ann was sent to the state penitentiary for life in 1880 for her deed. She was later committed to Lima State Hospital and died there in 1919 almost 40 years later.

Bridge over Sugar Creek Along Stonecreek Route 1678 Ohio 39 Dover, Ohio 44622 (40.512396,-81.488475)

For those who get stupid when they are infatuated with somebody else who doesn't like them in return. You are not alone . .

Long ago, there was a woman whose tribe lived near the location of Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve today. She was in love with a man from her tribe. However, he loved another. One afternoon as many young men and women gathered for an outing along the pretty valley where the Little Miami waters flow blue and deep, she watched as a rival flirted playfully with her love. In a fit of jealousy, the young woman decided to force the man to choose her over the rival. Thus, she climbed up to the highest rock, screamed into the air to catch his attention, then jumped. Instead of running to save her, the man turned to the young woman he had been chatting with and let his young admirer drown. Occasionally, hikers along the trail see the young woman standing atop the rock. Her ghostly screams fill the air before she disappears into the blue waters below.

Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve— Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387
Parking off Jackson Street: (39.794942, -83.828476)