Warning: Please read no further unless you wish to know the truth.
HISTORY
Traditionally, spirits tend to walk outside of cemeteries. Though the dead bodies are buried there,
their life-force left long before they were laid down to their final resting
place.
But Galveston is different.
In the great storm of 1900, thousands of lives died. Some washed out to sea. Others sank in the sand. Still, some were buried in debris.
Children were paid to haul bodies in wagons. So many dead were found that the adults in
charge decided to dump the deceased, weighted down, into the waters away from the
island. Unfortunately, they washed back
up bloated, rotten, and eaten. This
resulted in two huge bonfires to burn the putrid corspes.
It lasted for weeks. The stench
was terrible. The land was
corrupted. Clean up began.
Note: For the longest time, no one would eat seafood for
fear they would be devouring their own loved ones.
Men were forced at gunpoint to help in the collection of the
dead. Only one was shot for refusing to
work. The others then fell in line. Of all the places known to modern
civilization, can it be any wonder that residual energy would still
exist there today?
Wars were fought on the island. The cries of native women and children rose
as they were slaughtered. For untold
years after the 1900 event, death haunted the city. And yet, they rebuilt.
On the graves of those buried, burned, or without remembrance,
entire blocks of buildings have been placed.
A seawall was added to help against nature’s attacks. The city prospered again.
So did the spirits.
THE INVESTIGATION OF ASHTON VILLA AND FORT TRAVIS
For us, this particular adventure started on October 30th,
2016. It was one of several. For three days we hunted Galveston for the
paranormal.
We arranged to meet our friends Charlie and Susie Clevenger for a
downtown ghost tour. ( http://susiessentences.blogspot.com/2016/11/time-for-ghosts.html
)
Our guide showed us around the Strand, an area of downtown Galveston. We learned fascinating history and ghostly stories but the end of the tour became even more enthralling.
Our guide was part of a paranormal group that had their own
investigation planned for later that evening.
So about 11 pm that night, we joined in at the Ashton Villa Mansion. http://www.galvestonghost.com/storiesashton.html
It is a three-story home, was built before the Civil War,
and was used as a hospital for Confederate soldiers. It is constructed of brick and cast iron. Interestingly, the house is not only
surrounded by an iron fence but has iron rails and supports around its front
interior.
Because of the investigation, we were given relatively free
access to the house. What we found was
intriguing. On the stairwell from the third
to the second floor, sharp spikes would abruptly appear on our EMF detector and
then vanish.
The stairway, we were told, was the one Tilly Brown would use. A bedroom was on the third floor. The third floor was said to have most of the
paranormal activity. Both Claudette
Peercy and Jackie Smith https://jackiesmith114.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/ghosts-of-galveston/
) received readings at separate times:
sharp spikes and then nothing. The energy appeared to move up and down the
stairs.
Down below, in the golden room, Jackie noticed high EMF
spikes in the corner of all Miss Bettie Brown’s paintings. It was always by the signature on the
painting. We found no electrical lines
around these areas. Was this Bettie’s
way of saying she appreciated us enjoying her artwork?
In the great banquet hall, just as one enters from the main
house, we found massive, constant, and repeatable EMF readings emanating from
the floor. When we asked our host what
was down below, they said, ‘Nothing.’
Upon further investigation, we discovered a basement had been below the
house at one time. However, after the storm
of 1900, they had filled it in. It makes
you wonder, had this basement been used as a makeshift tomb?
We snapped pictures, ran thermal scans, and recorded EMF
readings. Around 2 am in the morning,
exhaustion started to set in. Still
filled with excitement but unable to continue without rest, we headed off to
our hotel.
The next afternoon, we met with Susie and Charlie. They guided us to another location called
Fort Travis on the Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County. It was established in 1820 and modified
through the years to be a defensive position for the United States. ( http://www.crystalbeach.com/travis.htm
)
We took many pictures, ran a few EMF scans, but seemed to
come up with nothing too unusual, until this one photo.
It wasn’t until later that it caught my attention. It is the shadow of a person following us who
was not part of our group. I say ‘shadow’
because we saw no one else at the time.
By the evening, we were back at Ashton Villa. This time, it was the official tour, not the
investigation. Our access was severely
limited.
We were not allowed on the
third story so we could not verify the EMF readings we had recorded the night
before. We were guided room by room with
some great stories by those who helped take care of the mansion and the odd
things they had encountered. A partial
confirmation was attained. The signal
strength on the floor of the banquet room was just as strong as ever. However, before the stroke of twelve, we were
hurried out the door.
It felt like they were afraid of being in Ashton Villa
after midnight, especially on Halloween night.
With some of the stories that our guide told, perhaps there was a concern. I did notice that every time I raised the
camera to take a photo, the tour guide watched me with darting eyes as if
expecting I had caught something.
She warned us to be watchful for Confederate ghost soldiers
as we left the manor out the backdoor.
Still taking pictures, I stopped by the gazebo and found this.
Once more, I thought nothing as I snapped it, not even realizing there was a shadow. No people were in view. It wasn’t until later when I was evaluating what we had captured that I realized the two images, one at Fort Travis and this one, were similar. Had the ghost of Miss Bettie Brown followed us to Fort Travis? Had she followed me at Ashton Villa? Perhaps we’ll never know. However, if I get another shadow in a picture, it will definitely make me look twice!
BISHOP’s PALACE Oct 29th, 2016
The three of us, Jackie Smith, Claudette Peercy, and I head
to a place called Bishop’s Palace. We
get there early. We snap great pictures
of the outside and explore the basement.
The basement has been converted into a souvenir shop. It’s cool but much too commercialized. On top of that, the EMF detector shoots to
the top and holds all around the checkout counter. Right off the bat, we know there is way too
much electrical in that area to even try and detect a spirit signature. To the store clerk’s surprise, we use the EMF
device to identify the wifi router behind the counter.
Bishop’s Palace is one of the only four homes that remained
after the flood in the storm of 1900. At
the time, it was built seven feet above sea level. When the storm came in, they helped to
fish out as many people as they could to save them.
The architecture is absolutely wonderful. The rounded towers, statues, and ornate artwork
make a unique and beautiful setting.
When the host comes out and invites us in, he is dressed in ghoulish
white makeup and a suit. In the spirit
of Halloween, they have provided other actors to appear as the tour progresses.
All the lights are out.
We are given red lanterns.
Photographs can have no flash.
The host begins our tour of the house.
( http://ghoststories.brazoriaresearch.com/2010/06/22/the-haunted-castle-of-galveston
)
With EMF out, we
probe as we walk. The dumb waiter in the
building no longer works. They use it to
run networking and electrical lines from the bottom basement to the top
floor. Once more, though we can detect
the location of the lines, it makes the device useless for finding energetic spirit
manifestations.
Our group is fairly large.
There are enough people that the thermal scanner is not practical. As we get to the second story, a sensitive
claims she detects a little boy playing on this floor. There are no children in our group. I can hear her talking outside the room I am
in, but we get no spikes. Nothing seems unusual
until we get to the second floor chapel.
Strangely, on a hunch, we check each of the prayer benches. The EMF detector shoots up to the top two or
three times on three of the four benches and then drops to normal. It does not repeat no matter how many times
we check it again. If we didn’t know better,
it was like a child had played in the room bouncing from one cushion to another.
Our guide moves on,
but if it was the child causing the spiking, he appears to have slipped away
too. We listen to the history. The tour guide finishes. We start the journey down the stairs.
Once we hit the bottom floor, everyone starts out through the front doors. I turn back one last time to take a picture of the curving ornate staircase and the picture in the center. One of the tour guides is holding a red lantern at the half circle landing in the upper right corner. There is no one else on the stairs. I snap the picture and turn to go. Talking with some of those who helped with the tour, the lights come on. We say our goodbyes. It wasn’t until that night that I realize something unusual was caught.
Remember what I said?
No one else was on the stairs except someone on the landing. Oddly, in the picture I took, there are now
two people. Not only is there a second
person, but he is shorter than everyone else in the group we were just with and barely tall enough to have his shoulder over the banister. Who or what he is, I cannot say, but the
photograph caught him when my eye did not.
Thanks for reading!
James William Peercy
It was quite an experience. So glad we got to make the trip together!
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