There is a small town in the North West part of Ohio that tells of a tale of a soldier that fought in the war of WWI. The legend takes place in the early 1900’s. The young man not native to the area was drafted to war as many young men were in that time. To this day we know not of his home state or town not even his name. We only know this story because of his young lady of love he was forced to leave behind. The young lady was a child born illegitimate. She was believed to be in her teen age years raised silently on a farm near “mud creek” in Ohio. Her mother a woman in her youth as well, kept of her secret. It is believed that the young lady was of the Bowersox or Hetrick family but no one knows for sure. As the story is told she fell in love with the young soldier. Early in 1917 the young soldier went to war as America entered WWI. This meant that their love would have to wait until his return. She vowed to be true to him while he was gone and would wait anxiously for his return. The soldier shipped off to battle Germany. It is believed that he fought in heavy battle zones as no letters every reached the young woman back home. With no word from the soldier she feared that he became a casualty. Almost one year later the soldier had returned home after his early discharge. As you can imagine after being away this long he was overwhelmed with emotion to greet his love he had left. When the soldier reached state side he purchased a motorcycle believed to be one of Indians V-twin race bikes. Anxious to meet his love he rode through the day and into the night as he sped toward the old farm where he had left her. As he met with the lane of the old farm he stalled his engine and silently rolled the bike towards the house. He softly walked up the porch steps to the kitchen window to see his love preparing food for the next day’s meal. Slowly he entered the house and came up behind her with tears of joy in his eyes and quickly embraced her. Startled, she spun around as she screamed only to see the tear trailed face of her soldier. As she quickly covered her mouth in disbelief her wedding band was revealed to the soldier. She had not kept her promise. With out a word the soldier turned away with sadness and anger. He jumped onto his bike and roared off seemly as fast as it would go. He quickly made the turn at the end of the farm lane onto the old road. Increasing his speed with anger he came to the end of the road. With violence the soldier and his bike flew through a barbed wire fence at the side of a creek bed. On March 21, 1918 the same night Germany launched their last great offense the soldier laid dead and decapitated in the bottom of the muddy creek bed. Today there is a bridge that crosses the creek in the same spot. For many years stories have surfaced about a headless ghost rider that refuses to leave our world speeding across the creek every year on that same night. It is told that the ghost rider can be summoned on that night by parking along side the road at the bridge and honking and flashing a cars horn and lights three times. The bridge is located south east of Elmore Ohio on Fought road crossing Mud Creek.
