Availability for Special Events
2005 Happenings:
20 Jan.�05 � Tonight I was struggling to get a large piece of wood in the woodstove in the Keeping Room. It was heavy and a little too big and already burning on the far end. I was struggling to get it into the stove when I heard the floor squeak behind me. I turned my head just far enough to see a man wearing a long-sleeved cream-colored shirt standing outside the bedroom door watching me. Because I was not looking through my glasses lens, the figure was fuzzy except for color. Thinking it was Chuck, (I knew he was wearing his long-john shirt which is cream and he was in the bedroom watching basketball) I went back to my wood thinking he would come and help me push. When he did not come help me, I looked again and he was gone. Just then the wood slipped into the stove and I closed the door and went into the bedroom to ask Chuck why he did not help me. Chuck said he did not go into the Keeping Room, he did not know I needed help, he had been in the bedroom all along. I think it was Buck again. He wore a cream colored long-sleeve shirt when I saw him before.
23 May �05 � Today I called the people from Room 8 who left early. She said their toilet kept flushing by itself and they heard footsteps walking around upstairs and it was too creepy so they left around 3am. They live nearby so they just went home to get some sleep.
27 May �05 � Today Debbie and John came by to talk. They had stayed in Room 6 during the ghost hunt. As we were talking in the dining room, Debbie kept looking under the table and around the floor. She asked if our cat was in the house. She said it felt like a cat was rubbing against her legs. It went on for several minutes then stopped.
28 May �05 � More cat. Jinni had let Tiger in and then went into her room. Chuck put Tiger back outside. I was in the dining room washing tables from breakfast, when Jinni came into the dining room and asked �Where�s Tiger? Oh, there he is, on the chair.� I looked up and saw the tail and back legs of a grey striped cat about the same size as Tiger go into the parlor. Jinni went into the parlor after him. I looked into the parlor and she was on her hands and knees looking under the couch. She said he had gone under there, but now she could not find him. Chuck said he had put Tiger outside and we looked and he was in the backyard. What cat did Jinni and I see?
We had a lady here for lunch today who told us that when her group stayed here in February, one of the ladies who stayed in Room 7 woke up because she heard clicking and creaking noises. When she looked toward the foot of her bed she saw an old lady in the rocking chair, knitting. She thought it was her roommate and went back to sleep. But in the morning the roommate said it was not her.
29 June �05 � We had a bus tour group here last night. During breakfast I overheard a lady say she could not sleep all night long (Room 5). She said that when her husband went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, she started hearing a rhythmic creaking sound and could not imagine what he was doing in the bathroom to make such a sound. When he came out, the sound continued. She asked him if he heard the sound and he said that all he heard was some birds. She said the noise went on all night long and she could not figure out where it was coming from. It finally quit about 3 a.m. but she still could not sleep. Her husband never heard it and slept fine. I wonder if she was hearing Mary�s rocking chair.
13 July �05 � We had a couple stay in Room 5 again last night. At breakfast, the wife (Deborah) reported hearing women talking and music coming from the twin bed area of the room, but it was dim and seemed far away. It started around 11pm and went till about 1:30am. The husband did not hear anything out of the ordinary. Deborah said the music sounded like a player piano or a music box type of tune and kept playing the same notes over and over. She said it was not scary, just very interesting. I told her the parlor is located just under that area and it was a ladies parlor and there used to be a Mason family heirloom music box on the table in the middle of the parlor. (The McDermets either sold it or kept it but it is no longer here.) Deborah has experienced unexplained phenomenon in her own house, so she was not frightened by the experience, and she wants to come to the next Ghost Hunt in Sept.
16 July �05 � We have had some young people for 2 nights in Rooms 5 and 7 who had read about the ghosts on the About.com web site. The boy and girl in Room 7 did not experience anything in there, but the two boys in Room 5 did. The first night they said as soon as they entered the room they decided there was too much energy around the big bed, so they slept on the twins. One boy went to sleep right away, but the other one kept hearing someone walking around in the room and muttering to himself or some one else. He said he could not make out the words it was just murmuring sounds. The next night things got really wild. First the window shade on the window at the end of the big bed kept going up and down by itself. The boys went and got the girl and boy from Room 7 to come and see it. Then it stopped and a knocking sound started. It sounded like a knocking on the walls and it went around and around the room for a while then that stopped. Then the window shade started flapping in and out. This went on for a while. Then more knocking. They said it went on for most of the night. They all were mesmerized by it and not frightened.
21 July �05 � Last night was a busy one for us. Around 11:30pm I heard someone walking around in the Keeping Room. Chuck was at work so I knew it was not him, but we did have guests in Room 5. I did not investigate. Chuck got home at 12:30am, and we went to sleep. At 3:35am I felt Chuck startle and jump and it woke me up. Just then I heard two loud knocks on our bedroom door. Chuck said he heard two loud knocks on the bedroom door and that is what made him startle. But I heard it after he startled. He said it only happened once. Why did he hear it before startling and I heard it after? But we both agree it was very loud and distinct. I got up to look just in case it was our guests, and there was no one there. About 10 minutes later, I heard someone walking around in the Keeping Room again. Again there was no one there. But, finally, Chuck has heard the noises I have been telling him about for years! The guests in Room 5 said they had gone up to bed about 10pm and did not come out of the room until they came down for breakfast.
28 July �05 � Yesterday, Kristin and I had cleaned Room 6 and I put the key on the dresser next to where the cookie jar goes. Then I gave a tour and I found the key on the information notebook, so I put it back on the dresser where it belongs. When the night guests checked in and I showed them to Room 6, I found the key back on the notebook again. I put it back on the dresser and whispered, �Stop it. Behave.� I hoped they would have a quiet night. But it was us who had the visitor. About 4am I heard what sounded like a jingling noise coming from Jinni�s room. I thought she was digging in her dresser drawer and I got ready to tell her to go back to bed. Then the jingling noise stopped and I heard Jinni shifting in her bed. She had not been in her drawers and had been in bed all along. She shifted quite a lot for about 5 minutes then settled down. This morning I tried to duplicate the noise and I cannot. Her drawer handles don�t jingle.
31 July �05 � Last night we had lady, Tracy, staying in Room 6 with her husband, Jeff. Her friend, Lisa, was in the twin bed in the room also. Tracy said that about 4am she heard someone walking around in the room, but she thought it was Lisa going to the bathroom so she did not open her eyes. The walking around noises continued for several minutes and she opened her eyes to find out what Lisa was doing making so much noise. But instead of Lisa, she saw an old man standing next to her bed, looking at her. Tracy said the man was just a head, his body was not fully formed and was kind of foggy looking. (I think it was Francis Clark or Frank as they called him.) Tracy started hitting Jeff to wake him up and it took several seconds to wake him. As soon as Jeff opened his eyes, the old man disappeared. Jeff decided to go to the bathroom and walked past Lisa to do so. Lisa said she heard someone pass and looked and saw Jeff and closed her eyes again. Then she heard a second person pass. Thinking it was Tracy she did not look. She heard Jeff return, but did not hear Tracy return. When she looked, Tracy and Jeff were both in their bed. Tracy said she did not get up. I think Lisa heard Frank leaving behind Jeff
14 Aug. �05 � For the last 3 nights there was a couple in Room 6 who said that all 3 nights they heard a knocking sound on the walls and ceiling of the room. It lasted several hours each night and then stopped. They said it was not scary, just very interesting. Last night we gave them a small tape recorder and asked them to turn it on when the knocking started. This morning, Chuck and I listened to it and we heard clicking sounds and then three quick knocks. There was a lot of hissing from the recorder sounds, but then the clicking and more knocks. Really interesting. It seems rhythmic, almost like Morse Code.
21 Aug. �05 � Last night we had a mother and daughter staying in Room 6. I told them about the knocking sounds and gave them a digital voice recorder to turn on if they heard anything. They did not hear any knocking and went to bed about midnight. Soon after, the daughter in the twin bed heard someone walking around in the room and assumed it was her mother. But then a man�s voice, very close to her head, said �Hey!� very loudly. She jumped up and did not see anyone and ran and got into the queen bed with her mother. They waited and listened and did not see or hear anything more so they settled down to go to sleep. Then the bed started shaking. The mother said it felt like someone was pushing on the side of the bed near her knees. It shook for about 30 seconds and quit. Then it was quiet so they went to sleep.
28 Aug. �05 � Yesterday, a reporter from the Fairfield Ledger came and interviewed us for a newspaper article about the coming ghost hunt. While taking pictures, we went into Room 6 and found the bed rumpled like someone had been laying on it. When the reporter tried to take a picture of it, the camera would not function properly. She went out to the hallway and it worked. Then tried in the room again and it would not work. Then she pretended to take a picture of the hallway and turned fast and took the picture and it worked, but when she tried again, it would not work. Later she emailed that the picture she took of the bed has something odd in it, but she would not elaborate. Just said it was weird. Then, last night around 10:30pm, I was in bed watching TV, Chuck was at work, and Jinni was sleeping. I heard a loud �Bang-thump� noise come from the Keeping Room. It sounded like something had fallen. I went to look and found a book that had been on the book shelf above the rocking chairs. It was laying on the floor in front of the �murphy tub� cabinet. This is a good 7 feet from the book shelf. The noise I heard was the book striking the cabinet. There is no way it could have fallen on the chair and bounced that far by itself.
Some notes from the notebook in Room 5: The guests who stayed the night of Aug. 19th said they �had a nice stay, except for the knocking on the walls�. The guests who stayed the night of Sept. 2nd said �the lights seem to have a mind of their own. We had gone to dinner and when we came back we noticed that a light was on in the room, it was the one on the dresser by the bathroom. But when we went up to the room, no light was on. Later in the night, a light in the room where the twin beds are came on and then went out�.
3 Oct. �05 � During breakfast this morning, we had guests in the main dining room and so Jinni had to eat in the Keeping Room. As she carried her bowl of Cheerios over to the little table, she stopped and said �There�s that cat. That�s not your cat.� Then she continued on and ate her breakfast. Later Chuck questioned her. �Did you see a cat in the Keeping Room?� �Yes.� �What did it look like?� �Gray.� �Was it Tiger?� �No, not Tiger. Cats �supposed to be outside.� Then her ride came and she went to school.
5 Oct. �05 � Tonight Jinni and I had gone to the grocery store and then got home late and we were eating supper in the dining room about 7pm. Suddenly both the door to the Keeping Room and the door to the foyer both opened at the same time, about a foot wide. They just stayed open like that. Jinni jumped up and said �I�ll get it.� She pulled on the doorknob to the door to the foyer, but the door did not close. She pulled and the door pulled back. She was having a �tug of war� with the door! Then she said �Hey!� and the door let go and she pulled it closed. Then the door to the Keeping Room also closed. Jinni went to bed about 8pm and about 8:30 I heard what sounded like a knock on the east dining room wall. It was windy out and I just thought maybe something outside had bumped the building. But then I heard a knock on the china hutch on the west end of room. It sounded like one knuckle rap. Then there was a tap on the bay window. Then I saw an orb zoom by in front of the TV screen and a knock on the buffet at the east end. I thought this was really interesting and asked �Harold? Is that you?� Just then there was a knock on the table I was sitting at. Then it started over again�. wall, china hutch, window, buffet, table, wall, china hutch, window, buffet, table. This all took place over the space of an hour. Then the phone rang and I just about jumped out of my skin! It was Kristin calling and I went into the Keeping Room to talk to her.
10 Oct. �05 � Last night, I was reading in the Keeping Room and I heard someone walking around in the dining room. Thinking it was the guest from Room 1 looking for me, I looked and there was no one there. I went back to reading and the walking around sounds started again. Then there was a clinking sound that sounded like silverware on a glass dish. I went and got Chuck from the bedroom and we listened, but it did not do it again. This morning, I found that the spoons in the little bowl on the coffee corner table had been rearranged. Then, tonight I was again reading in the Keeping Room and the walking around sounds started again and I heard the dining room door to the foyer close. (We have no guests in the house tonight.) I decided to go to bed early and got ready for bed. But then I remembered that I left a candle burning on the fireplace mantle. When I went into the Keeping Room to put out the candle, the door to the dining room was open about 4 inches and then it closed. I went back in the bedroom and made Chuck go put out the candle.
30 Oct. �05 � This weekend was a busy one for our guests. On the night of the 28th, the people in Room 5 were getting ready for bed when the husband noticed that the quilt on the big bed was going up and down by the foot of the bed. He said it looked like someone�s hand was under there moving it up and down, or maybe an animal curled up and breathing. All three of the guests saw it. They decided to pull back the quilt to see if something was under there and when they did, there was nothing there and when they put the quilt back, it did not do it again. They all thought it was kind of strange and went to bed. Right after they turned out the lights, the knocking started. They said it sounded like one knuckle rap on the wall right above the little warming stove. There was no pattern to it and no rhythm, just a knock every now and then. This went on for about an hour and quit. At breakfast on the 29th they told us about it and the people in Room 6 were jealous because they were hoping something would happen to them. They got their turn that night. They had been up to the cemetery taking pictures of orbs and had come in about 9am. The parents were downstairs talking to me and the two teen girls went up to the room. They were sitting on the twin bed and looking at the pictures they had taken. They said they had left the bedroom door open about 4 inches. Then they heard a click and looked up and saw that the door had closed. Then the door knob started rattling and the girls started screaming. It was the parents trying to get in. All they knew was that the door was locked
12 Nov. �05 � This morning at breakfast, the lady who stayed in Room 5 last night, asked if any of the guests had a little girl. We said there were no children. She told us that last night, as she was climbing the stairs to go to her room, she saw a little girl about 3 or 4 years old run across the top of the stairway, like from Room 4 area over to Room 6. She was wearing a long white nightgown, and just ran across and that was all. But there were no children guests in the Inn that night. Did she see Robin?
19 Nov. �05 � Tonight our guests in Room 5 left. They left a note saying they were �freaked out�. Dee and her sister had come here after reading about us on About.com. They had come to do some Ghost Hunting. When I showed them to the room, I noticed that the two twin beds looked a little messed up but I did not say anything about it. They went to dinner and soon after coming back, they left. I called them to see what the problem was and they told me this: �I had put my purse on the twin bed and then we used the bathroom. When we went to go to dinner, my purse was on the floor next to the bed like it had been pushed off the bed. This was interesting, so we set up a digital camera facing the twin beds and turned on a digital voice recorder and left them running. When we got back from dinner we looked at the camera and saw a large orb coming out of the wall above the twin bed, next to the square wedding picture. It floated around and then went over the camera and out of sight. We listened to the voice recorder and heard a lot of banging and knocking sounds and then a man laughing. It was not menacing or scary, just like he found something funny. It was way too freaky for us and my sister was freaked out and she wanted to go home. We came there looking for a ghost and when we found one, we could not handle it. I guess I don�t make a very good ghost hunter.� I asked her to send a copy of the recording or the video camera, but she said she had already deleted them.
21 Nov. �05 - Chuck and I went up to the room after they left and looked around and found the quilt on the left side of the bed had been pulled down a little bit exposing the pillow and the bed was mussed in the center. Dee said they had not touched the bed and she did not remember anything being out of place on the bed, so it must have happened after they left, but before we went up. We left the bed that way just in case it was the bed that freaked them, but when I went up today to make the bed, the quilt had been pulled back over the pillow and badly tucked in. It looked like a child had tried to fix it.
10 Dec. �05 � This weekend the people staying in Room 6 said the wife had put her silver hoop earrings and her glasses on the dresser before going to bed. In the morning, there were her glasses and only one earring on the dresser. She found the other earring on the floor by the door to the hallway. Thinking that maybe her husband had knocked it off and kicked it on the way to the bathroom, she did not think anything of it. The next morning, she found both earrings on the dresser, but not her glasses. She found her glasses on the floor by the door in the exact place she found her earring the day before. Her husband said he did not get up during the night and neither did she.
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