2004 Happenings

Feb. 5, ’04 – Today I was upstairs dusting in Room 7 when I heard Chuck’s footsteps walk down the hallway. I thought he was looking for me so I called “I’m in Room 7!” He did not come in the room, nor did he come back down the hallway, so I assumed he had gone down the front staircase. Later, I found him downstairs talking on the phone, and after he hung up, I asked him what he wanted. He had no idea what I was talking about. “Weren’t you upstairs looking for me?” “No, I’ve been on the phone down here for ever since you went upstairs.” He had not been upstairs. So, whose footsteps did I hear in the hallway?

Feb. 8,’04 – Our cat Tommy has been coming in the house lately. For a long time he would not come in the house. I was in the dining room yesterday, and suddenly Tommy came zooming past me from the parlor to the kitchen like his tail was on fire! (I did not know he was in the house let alone in the parlor.) He looked out of the kitchen door toward the parlor and his eyes definitely looked like he was looking at something that had scared him, his tail was tucked and his ears were down. His eyes kept looking up and down, up and down, like he was looking at something tall that was past me in the parlor. Then he frantically wanted outside. Today he followed me upstairs and he got about halfway down the hallway when he tucked his tail and hissed and ran back down the stairs like something was chasing him! I tried to get him back upstairs and there was no way he was going back up.

Feb. 13, ’04 – For 5 days now Chuck and I have been finding the back staircase door open. I thought Chuck had been up and did not latch the door. He thought it was me. After comparing notes, we figure we have found the door open 2 or 3 times a day for 5 days in a row. Today was the first day that the door was not found open. We thought maybe the vibrations of opening and closing the back door may have jiggled the latch enough to lift it, but we could not duplicate the effect.

Apr. 3, ’04 – Our daughter-in-law, Sarah, and her father, CF, and our first grandbaby, Larissa, have come for a visit. CF told me that during the previous night, he had been awakened by a tugging on his sleeve. Thinking he was snoring and his wife wanted him to roll over, he tried to roll, but his sleeve was not coming with him. He looked and his sleeve was being held but there was no one there holding it. He tried to pull his sleeve free, but it would not come. (His wife was not with him on this trip.) The sleeve continued to be pulled and yanked for several seconds before it stopped. CF was really shaken by this and got up to walk around. When Sarah asked him what was the matter, he told her he was dizzy and could not sleep. (He did not want to tell her about it because she would “freak out”.) CF told me something Sarah had said to him. When he had gone up to bed the night before (Sarah had taken Larissa up an hour earlier), Sarah asked him if he had come up earlier, because she had heard him come up the stairs, but he did not come into the room. Then about 15 minutes later, she heard him come up the stairs again and this time he did come into the room. CF had been downstairs in the dining room with Kristin and me the whole time. There were no other upstairs guests that night. Who did Sarah hear climb the stairs?

We had some guests check in last night and I had unlocked the front door at 8am so they could come in for breakfast. When they arrived at 8:30am, they rang the doorbell and I went to answer it. The door had been locked.

May 5,’04 – This morning, about 9:30am, I was in the office answering emails on the computer and I heard someone walking around in the Keeping Room. I assumed it was Chuck as he had been in and out all morning. The phone rang and I could hear him walking toward the phone in the Keeping Room, I thought he would pick it up in there since he was expecting a call. But he did not and so I answered the phone and it was for him. I called “It’s for you!”. But there was no answer, just more walking around. I called again, but got no answer. I looked out the office door and saw no one. I know he did not go out the back door as that makes a distinctive sound, so I assumed he had gone into the kitchen or dining room, but he was not in there. I finally found him outside and I asked if he did not hear the phone ring when he was in the house. He said he had been outside since before 9am and had not been in the house. Who did I hear walking around in the Keeping Room?

May 6, ’04 – This morning I went upstairs to close some windows I had left open. It was supposed to rain. I went up the back stairs and saw the light to Room 8 was on. I know it had not been on the night before, because I had been up there doing laundry and would have noticed it if it had been on. I turned off the light and went around closing windows. While I was closing the window in Room 5 I felt a touch on my right arm. It was a very firm, definite pressing feeling. I quickly closed the window and left fast.

May 14, ’04 – My parents came for a visit and they have been staying in Room 1 on the first floor. My mom said she heard someone walking around up in Room 6 which is directly above them. My dad did not believe her, until he heard it also the next morning. He said it sounds like someone walking around in the room and then walking out of the room, he did not hear anyone go into the room. A high school class came for a tour and they thought it was fun to sit on all the beds. The teacher, Mrs. Jones, was taking their pictures with a digital camera. When they got back to the school, she downloaded the pictures into the computer and they were looking at them. In one of the pictures she took of the kids in Room 6, there is an extra head she cannot account for. There were 15 kids in the group, and between that picture and another, she accounted for all 15 kids, but there are 16 heads. I went to the school and emailed the picture to my computer and Chuck altered

the brightness and contrast and got what looks like a boy wearing a Civil War type hat. Unfortunately, there is another boy right in front obscuring the face. He is out of proportion to the other 13 and 14 year olds.

May 22, ’04 – For 3 mornings now I have found the front door unlocked when I know I had locked it before bed. This morning was different: I locked the front door before going to bed. At about 3am I went to watch the weather channel in the dining room (there was a tornado warning) and I looked toward the front door and it was unlocked. Not wanting to disturb my parents, I left it unlocked. At 7am I was setting the table in the dining room for breakfast and I looked toward the front door and saw it was locked again. Neither my parents nor any of the guests had locked or unlocked the door.

June 21, ’04 – This morning I was sitting in the Keeping Room at 7:00 a.m., putting on my socks and slippers like I do most mornings. I heard someone walking around in Room 8 which is right above the Keeping Room. I did not think too much of it and thought maybe Kristin was up and walking around. When Kristin came down around 11 a.m., she asked if we had guests in Room 8 the night before. I told her the only guests we had were in the Cottage, there were no guests on the second floor. She said that she had gotten up at 2:30 a.m. to go to the bathroom and she heard someone walking around in Room 8. She was not up at 7:00 a.m.

June 28, ’04 – When Kristin got up this morning, she asked if I had been on the second floor around 1 a.m. I had not. She said she had watched a movie in her room on the third floor until about 1 a.m. and then turned out the lights and closed her eyes. In a matter of minutes she heard a woman talking on the second floor. At first she thought it was me going around closing windows (which I do if it is going to storm), but then she realized it was not my voice. She could not tell what the woman was saying, but she seemed to be talking to someone. I have had the same experience with hearing a woman’s voice in the dining room, but when I look there is no one there, and the front door is locked, so it can't be someone from off the street looking around.

I think Jinni can see and talks to the ghosts. Several times now I have heard her talking to someone in the dining room. I also hear a woman’s voice, or a man’s voice talking to her, but I can’t make out the words. When I look into the dining room, I see Jinni looking off to the side, smiling and nodding and answering questions in a perfect one sided conversation, but I don’t see anyone else. When I ask her who she is talking to, she says “I don’t know.” “Are they still here?” “No.” “Where did they go?” “I don’t know.” (She has Down Syndrome and is really not very helpful.) Other times she will come tell me there are people in the parlor. But when I go look, no one is there, and the front door is locked.

30 July ’04 – Last night we had a group of 6 ladies here who were “ghost hunting”. They had read about us in Frances Kermeen’s book “Ghostly Encounters” about haunted hotels. At breakfast this morning I asked them if they had had any ‘encounters’ and Tanya said that she had, but she did not know it at the time. She said she had gotten up first to shower and the other 2 girls in her room were still in bed. While she was in the shower, she heard a knocking on the bathroom door. Thinking one of the other girls wanted in, she shouted that it was okay to come in. No one came in and the knocking continued. She shouted a second and third time and then the knocking quit. After her shower she asked the other girls if they had been knocking on the door and they both said they did not knock, but they did hear the knocking and thought it was strange that Tanya was knocking and shouting from inside the bathroom. So Tanya thought it was coming from outside the bathroom, and the girls thought it was coming from inside the bathroom. Who was knocking?

14 Aug. ’04 – Today I was in the second floor hall closet when I heard Kristin call for me. “Hey, Mom?” I called that I was in the closet but she did not come. Again I heard “Hey, Mom?” Again I called that I was in the closet. A third time I heard “Hey, Mom?” This time I went looking for her and found her upstairs in her room and she had not been calling for me. Chuck was at work and Jinni was outside playing, no one else was in the house. Who called me? I told Kristin about hearing her call me and she said that sometimes she hears me call for her, but when she comes to find me, I had not called for her. I wonder if the spirits can mimic our voices or know our names?

2 Sept. ’04 – Someone new has shown himself. I was making the bed in Room 5 when I saw someone over my shoulder. I turned to look, but no one was there. I went back to making the bed and again I saw someone over my shoulder. So instead of turning, I studied him out of the corner of my eye. He is wearing brown pants, a cream-colored shirt with puffy sleeves, and brown suspenders. He has reddish brown hair and beard. He stands with his legs apart and his arms hanging down. (Looking over my shoulder, I am not looking through my glasses, so things are sort of fuzzy and I cannot get a good look at him.) When I turned, he disappeared.

4 Sept. ’04 – I was making the bed in Room 7 when I heard someone walking down the hallway toward the room. Thinking it was Chuck, I turned and looked toward the doorway and the same bearded man I had seen a couple days before walked into the doorway. We just looked at each other for a few seconds and then he disappeared. The pants may be buckskin, and the suspenders look leather. The shirt is gathered at the dropped shoulder and wrists. His reddish-brown hair is almost shoulder length and his beard is short but full. I think I will call him "Buck", Chuck calls him "Buckskin Joe" like on the poster in the foyer. He looks like the Buckskinners we get here during the "Buckskinner's Rendezvous". I have looked through all the pictures of the Mason men and town pictures, but none of them look like him.