Dear Anonymous

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Difference Between Ghosts and Spirits":

Jennifer

I think you are watching to much TV.

What you stated is incorrect. Ghost and Spirits are one of the same. There is no difference.

What you need to do is put down the TV remote control and go to the library and do some research.

Before you post anything on the Internet about the paranormal, please know what you are talking about.

Don't mislead the public with what you've learned from TV's Sci-Fi channel.

Next time, please know the facts before the post anything






Dear Anonymous
First of all thank you for the nasty comment, it is always so nice to know people care and that they have nothing better to do with their time than to go around and criticize others. However Next time you plan on leaving a comment nasty or other wise you should be sure and scroll down to the bottom of the blog and read the disclaimer. THIS BLOG IS FOR ENTERTAIMENT ONLY therefore nothing should be taken seriously Most of my post on local folk lore/hauntings are based on information that I have taken from other sources. I can not be held responsible if these sources are incorrect. . Second of all I am NOT Jennifer. If you had read the entire post you would know that that particular article was from someone named Jennifer who runs a paranormal group. I, ME, PATTY do not belong to any said groups. Again if you had taken time to read the blog you would know this. I have repeated several times on this blog that I write this for fun, I ghost hunt for fun and blogging should be for fun, and not for others to run around and leave nasty comments on. So if you will pardon me, I'm going back to my TV now. I think there is a rerun of ghost hunters on.

P.S. I also reserve the right to moderate comments and if you come back by again yours will be deleted and the moderation turned on. And just so you don't miss it. I am posting the disclaimer here again

Please note that this blog is for entertainment only. Most areas of this blog do deal with ghost, hauntings and the paranormal. I understand not everyone believes in ghost or hauntings. If you feel uneasy about these subjects please skip this blog and continue on to somewhere else. Comments are always welcome, but I reserve the right to delete those that are offensive to me or those who do believe in ghost and hauntings. Most of my post on local folk lore/hauntings are based on information that I have taken from other sources. I can not be held responsible if these sources are incorrect. In talking about the Paranormal I will usually let you know if this is a personal experience that has happened to myself or someone I know. Most but not all photos used on this blog have been taken by me personally. I usually try to let you know within the post if I have "borrowed" a photo from somewhere else. Please keep in mind that a blog is just that. A personal diary. Nothing written within these post will be published by me anywhere other than on a blog.I am not an author, or a paranormal investigator. I do not associate with any group publicly that is a licensed group of the Paranormal. Again. These post are for entertainment only

Creepy

I don't often blog about places that I haven't been to myself, but this caught my eye. I was watching "A haunting" tonight on TV and the episode was about Dartford Cemetery in Greenlake, Wisconsin. I have to tell you it really creeped me out. I normally don't mind cemeteries, but after watching this show I don't think I would want to go here even in the day time.
The following is from Unexplained Research and tells you about the show and the cemetery


A Haunting, Featuring the Dartford Cemetery

By Ashley Allgood


11/10/07 - The People’s Media Company

I am a huge fan of the Discovery Channel’s TV show "A Haunting." The show is in the top 10 shows for my TIVO to record. I’ve always loved ghost stories but I make a point not to watch the show too late at night. The show has a spooky host walking you through a real life ghost story. "A Haunting" reminds me of "Unsolved Mysteries" with it’s reenactments plus first hand accounts from the people who experienced the horror. I will honestly admit the show does a great job of creeping me out!
The most recent episode was called "Legend Trippers." Three brave teenagers take it upon themselves to investigate their town’s local legend. A "Legend Tripper" is someone who casually investigates alleged haunted places so they can decide for themselves if it is haunted.

The teens go to "Dartford Cemetery" which is located in Greenlake, Wisconsin. Legend has it that if you sit upon the top of the mausoleum a ghost will push you off. Yeah, sure let’s go there! I think not!

The show starts off with some teens sneaking into the cemetery late one night. They take a peek at an Indian grave first. According to the website featured on the show "Unexplained Research" apparitions of an Indian chief have been known to repeatedly appear. The teens climb upon the mausoleum and then start to tell the story of what happened on Halloween to some teens from their school.

The story: A teen, Nick gets online in search of something fun for him and his friends to do on Halloween night. He comes across the website "Unexplained Research" which has a list of supposed haunted places in Wisconsin. He decides to go to "Dartford Cemetery". This "Legend Trip" has a dare which is something the seeker must do in order to prompt the super natural occurrence. This dare is to sit on top of the mausoleum. So, of course Nick and his friends (John & Christian) decide to take the dare.

The fact simple that these boys are walking through a cemetery at night on Halloween is creepy enough for me. They walk around the cemetery and try to provoke a ghost to come out. But nothing happens except one guy playing a joke on another. They do climb upon the mausoleum and after awhile they see a crack. This scares them since it wasn’t there before. They climb down and before John can get down he is pushed. He yells telling his friends someone just pushed him! The two other guys are shocked since they didn’t even tell their friend about the legend for fear he’d be too scared to join them. Nick heads back to the car with John since he’s a little more than freaked out. The other guy Christian, though wants to check things out a little more. Brave guy, right? I guess they didn’t remember one of the major rules of horror movies. NEVER SPLIT UP!

More and more spooky things keep each happening to each of the boys like names and dates changing on tomb stones & seeing people. The confused and scared boys head home not speaking of what they saw. Only later after Nick has a dream about the cemetery they decide to talk about it. The story passes from one teller to the next.

The show returns to the original teens who were checking out "Dartford Cemetery" and I feel their experience was VERY creepy. Evil seems to follow them outside the cemetery!

I am sure this show will draw a lot of people to be one of the many Legend Trippers. But Nick and his friends will never return! I personally don’t blame them.

The show also showed information on another haunted location called "Witch Road" which is located in Rosendale, Wisconsin. You can find more information on Witch Road at "Unexplained Research."

Want to go check it out for yourself? Hop over to MapQuest and plan your trip. Just please don’t invite me along!


Sources: http://www.unexplainedresearch.com/media/a_haunting_featuring_the_dartford_cemetery.html


Video was found on YouTube.

The Hanging Tree

*Click on photos to enlarge*

We stopped by the Ferry Plantation house yesterday to take some outside photos.
 
You might remember that I was there two weeks ago for the “Spirit tour”. We didn’t think the house was open, but walked around the front to get a few photos and as we did my daughter peeked in the window. We were talking about how we didn’t think the wind was what was making the nose we heard the night we were there. (You might remember we head taps on the glass upstairs) Rebecca shook the shudder a bit and Just as she looked in the window my grandson walked up behind her and his reflection in the glass startled her. She then picked him up to take a peek inside and as she did a face stared back at her. It was the director of the house, who was probably just as frightened. She (the director) came to the door, and we reminded her that we had been on the tour a few weeks ago. We stepped into the hall for a few minutes to chat. I wanted to know more about a couple of things that had been mentioned on the original tour. The first being the hanging tree out back. 

In documents from the house we know that three slaves were hanged from it. The tree was struck by lightning at one point and I couldn’t help but wonder if the top branches that were struck are the ones that the hanging took place on or if it could be some of these that are remaining.
 
I don’t recall being told what year the hangings took place but know it was at lest as far back as the mid 1800’s. I was told however that a psychic has visited the tree and felt as if the bodies were thrown to this side of the tree. Which is the back of the tree if your walking from the house towards it.
 








I have to admit I felt a bit creepy walking around the tree. It wasn’t just from the thoughts of men hanging from the tree it was from knowing that I was walking on a scared Indian burial ground.
Yes a burial ground. That is the other thing I was dying to know more about. I had heard there was one somewhere on the property. As it turns out it was a large area of the back grounds.  I am not sure how it was discovered but was told that almost immediately after it was that the owners put in this to keep the curious away.

Those are tennis courts and all of this grass area still has remains in it and also all around and under the courts. A one point some Native Americans visited. They left in a hurry saying they would never come back and said something about how the bodies could not rest because sacred things had been stolen and needed to be returned. Of course no one has any way of finding out what these “things” are.
I also saw the tree that was planted by Sally Rebecca Walke. Records indicate that  this Southern Magnolia was planted in April 1863 in memory of her fiancé who died during the Civil War  Measured at 131 inches circumference, and 75 ft. tall, in 2001.

The house also has a working well with an old pump that still works


Also if you look closely out back you can see the original road that ran out behind the house. (The front of the home was near the river)
 
I was really glad to get a chance to learn more of the history of the home and not just the “haunted” side. As much as I love the paranormlal I have to admit I am glad I don’t live near the home. I was told yesterday that some of the guest of the people who own the homes that were built on the plantation land had been by the house talking about dreams of men hanging in the trees and Indians cutting down the bodies and taking them away. Vivid dreams, but then again look how close the houses are.




*Note
Just to clarify things you should know that The Ferry Plantation house sits in the middle of a neighborhood in a cul de sac (court). Several Houses are on all four sides of Ferry Plantation home. These houses sit on what was once the land of the Plantation house.

Haunted Carter’s Grove

The windy road known today as Route 60 leads from Williamsburg to Newport News. VA. and if your not paying attention you won’t notice the  dirt driveway that once led to Carter’s Grove Plantation.  Built in the early 1700’s it was once one of Virginia’s finest plantations. It was closed to the public around 2003,  but tales of hauntings still linger among the locals.

From what I’ve been told a black man in raggedy clothes can be seen walking towards the Plantation from Williamsburg. Could this be the ghost of Jim, a slave who once worked at the Governors Place and walked the eight miles every Saturday night back to the Grove to see his family. From what they say he died of a broken heart when he came home one weekend to find that his wife and children had been sold and no one knew how to tell him where to find them.

During the time the plantation was open for tours flower petals could be found on the floor after being placed in what is known as the refusal room. Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington offered marriage proposals to two different young ladies in the room and were turned down. Rumor has it that one of these young ladies still angry at herself for not accepting the life she could have had tears up the flowers any time they are left in the room. She especially hates white carnations. Could this have been what was offered to her along with the proposal? I suppose we will never know.  

Steps are sometimes heard in the halls. A phantom harp is said to play,  and another legend of Carter’s Grove is that Colonel Banastre Tarleton hacked the staircase as he rode his horse up the stairs to wake his troops during the Revolutionary War.


Click to open in new window where photo will be enlarged

I drove past the plantation today, and on a whim stopped at the beginning of the drive. The gates are locked now with big NO Trespassing signs in plain site, but for just a moment I jumped out of the car and took a few photos. When I loaded the photos and took a look I found something unusual in the upstairs window in the center of the house.

Take a look and tell me if it is my imagination or do you see a man wearing white pants and a red shirt.  Could this be Colonel Banastre in his Revolutionary War Uniform?

I may never know now that the plantation is  privately owned but from what I have read sometime in the future the new owners according to the terms of the sale have to open the house one day a year for tours. You better believe when they do, I will be there.

Seeking the Past

Mark your calenders. On May 23th. I will be returning to Gettysburg Pa. I can't wait to see what adventures I will find in this most haunted city.

Gettysburg, 1889: "In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream, and lo! The shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls."

General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Former Colonel of the 20th Maine Infantry

In search of spirits

The night was cold with rain and wind. Just perfect for a visit to a haunted house, and that was exactly where I was headed. My daughter  and I pulled up the Ferry Plantation house in Virginia Beach about a half hour before schedule. We arrived early due to the weather and the fact that even though I grew up in Virginia Beach and have lived in the Hampton Roads area most of my adult life I had never been to this house. Thankfully another person was arriving the same we were and showed us the way up to the house which was a short distance from the parking area. 
I loved the house from the minute I walked in and at no time felt uncomfortable.






As you can see it is full of warm cozy furnishings. 
We were given a short tour, told some stories then allowed to move about on our own. One of the local paranormal groups was there for this tour and had brought some equipment in which we were allowed to use. We grabbed a infra-red thermometer and a set of dowsing roads and set off to see if we would have any type of experience
We had heard the story of Sally Rebecca Walke who lived and died in this house, She seemed to respond when asked questions using the dowsing rods my daughter has in her hands. (young lady in the photo in the middle is Sally)


Some people believe that when a spirit is present that there energy will cause the rods to cross. We used them for simple yes and no questions. We would ask them to cross for yes and then ask the sprits to uncross them for us. It worked over and over.




We also heard the story of Henry a slave who died here. His room was at the top of these stairs. Its been turned into a storage room now.



We were told he had been chained to the wall at some point (not sure if this is a true story, We heard it from a teenage boy that was there with the paranormal group).

Rebecca seemed to be taken with this area and we spent some time there using the “ghost hunting equipment”







We never could get the meter to flash, but the dowsing rods did cross several times.
We moved on to other areas of the house. I was anxious to see if Eric the child that had died in the house would communicate with us. We made our way to the gift shop where I took out my voice recorder. We ask Eric if he was there, waited for a response. (It is believed that voices of the dead can be heard with a tape recorder. What we can not hear with our ears can be picked up electronically) We then asked him to make a noise for us. For several minutes we could hear what sounded like a tapping noise at the window. Both my daughter and I could hear it and of course realize that it can easily be de-bunked due to the rain outside, but it only seemed to tap when we asked it to. Was it our over active imagination? I am not sure, but it was enough to make us both nervous so we didn’t stay in there long. When I played back the recording. I can hear the knocks along with what sounds like a voice saying pretty girl, and also in response to me asking if Eric wants to come play…a YES, Before we took out the voice recorder we had used a pendulum in this room and ask simple yes and no question.  When ask if Eric was in the room it swung in the direction of yes, when asked if he wanted to play, it swung no, and when asked if he was frightened, yes, when asked if he would play later, it stood still and shook as if there was an undecided answer.
Our hostess had also used a pendulum in  another room and it seemed to be responding to “something”.



I really enjoyed roaming around this house and tried to spend time in the areas that were suppose to have the most activity.
On the third floor is  where the Nanny's room had been. She had died when she was descending these stairs




The way the story goes is she caught her heel on the third step from the top, and over the years others have either fallen up or down these stairs at the exact same spot.
Other than the tapping we did not have any personal experiences, but really enjoyed our evening and I plan on going back again.
Here is a slide show of random photos of the house.