Investigation Team: Dave Miller Investigation Date: April 2014, February 29, 2020 & October 2022
Just about every Haunted Dayton book you pick up has this site. As the story goes, in 1860 the five-year-old son of a cobbler whose shop was near the Miami & Erie Canal in Dayton. One day while playing Johnny lost his balance and fell into the canal. His dog pulled him out, but he had already drowned. Carved on the tombstone in Woodland Cemetery is his top, ball, mouth harp and cap which were in his pocked when he drowned. Legend has it the dog sat by the grave all hours of the day.
Paranormal Claims: Today, cemetery workers & people claim to hear a dog barking and a child’s laugher near the grave. An apparition of a dog and a small boy have been reported in parts of the cemetery. People claim to see the breath coming out of the dog’s nose.
Investigation: On a winter afternoon he only chills I got at this paranormal location was from the cold wind and not from the site. The grave is the second most visited site in the cemetery. The grave area was quiet and made you sad looking at the statue. Nothing extraordinary occurred. Perhaps this is just an urban legend built around the stunning carved gravestone showing a faithful dog keeping a constant vigil over its sleeping master.
