Date: 26 Jan 2019 start time: 7 pm
Investigators: Brenda, Ryan, Megan and Carrie
Equipment: Ovilus V, Maglight flashlights, SP-11 Spirit Box, EMF Meter, Digital Audio and video recorders, E-pod, Flir, and Temperature gun.James
Temperature outside 15F Inside 70F
EMF: 3-5 the upper level had 5
Humidity 72%
Moon Phase Last Quarter
History
The Governor’s Mansion in Marshall, Michigan was built in 1839 by James Wright Gordon. This was done on the assumption that Marshall was to become the Capital of the State of Michigan. Unfortunately, Lansing was chosen as the Capital of Michigan after the mansion was built.
The mansion has two floors and a basement. The main floor has a kitchen, parlor, foyer and sitting room. The second floor has three bedrooms and what the Mary Marshall Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution calls a Tea Room. There is also a servant’s quarter that can be accessed by a set of stairs from the kitchen and a small door into the master bedroom.
The Honorable James Wright Gordon of Marshall, Michigan was born in 1809 in Plainfield, Windham County, Connecticut. His father was a Brigade Quartermaster in President Adams’ standing army. The elder Gordon may also have been a politician. James attended and graduated from Harvard College and served as a professor for a time at Geneva, Ontario County, New York. While at Harvard James studied law and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court in New York.
James Gordon moved to Marshall, Michigan in 1835. In 1839 James was elected as Michigan’s second Lieutenant Governor. When Governor Woodbridge was elected by the State Legislature to become United States Senator for Michigan, Gordon became acting Governor. Under President Taylor, James accepted a Consulship to South America, partially in hopes that the change in climate would restore his failing health. Unfortunately, James Gordon died while at his post in Pernambuco, Brazil in 1849. Mary Hudson, James Gordon’s wife, was left to tend her home and family in Marshall, Michigan. Upon her husband’s death, Mary’s father, Dr. Daniel Hudson, came to live with Mary and her children.
Dr. Hudson treated burn victims in the basement of the mansion when a factory had a fire in the nearby town of Perrinsville. Dr Hudson died in 1865 and his wife in 1850 and both are interned in Marshall. After this time the house went through a few sales and one of the owners was Jerome and Flora Palmer. Jerome served in the Union Army. The last owner Nettie Roosa gave the mansion to the Daughters of the American Revolution about 1984. They have been operating it as a museum for the past 50 years.
Claims
According to Martha of the Mary Marshall Chapter, NSDAR, people experience children in the upstairs, Mrs. Knickerbocker will cause stomach aches in the piano room if she does not want you there. There is a little boy that loves to play with people’s hair when they come to the museum. Some online articles have talked about a girl who plays in the bushes and an entity that appears on the stairway. Another claim is that a young servant girl is attached to the rope bed in the servant’s quarters, the bed is not original to the house, and it was donated. Martha also told us that some have seen a group of people in the basement holding their burned hands out in front of them waiting to be treated.
Pre-investigation
For this investigation, we had a medium start with us. She was not given any information on the site and comes from the state of Indiana so she has little info on Michigan historical places. She was told to document herself with video before coming to the site so she would have info we could verify before she came to the site. Brenda, Ryan and Megan stopped during the daylight to take some photos of the site. During that time, Brenda felt drawn to one window and asked Megan to photograph the window. We did not smell anything while there and gathered basic photos before the investigation. Carrie contacted Brenda on her drive to the site and said she came up with the name “Jimmy”. The builder of the Mansion was a James Gordon.
Returning to the Governor’s Mansion, investigators Megan and Ryan could smell the distinct odor of wet horse hide. When asked about this at the conclusion of the investigation, Martha explained that there was a business in Marshall that would take visitors on a horse drawn carriage ride. However, it was snowing that night and pretty cold. Also, the horses were housed on the other side of town a few miles away. So where did the smell come from?
Carrie contacted Brenda on her drive to the site and said she came up with the name “Jimmy”. The builder of the Mansion was a James Gordon.
Investigation
Upon reaching the site, our team smelled a strong scent of hay and wet horse. We could not see any close sites that housed horses and with the frigid temperatures, it would be hard for smells to wander.
The team started with a tour of the mansion. Temperature and EMF readings were taken and cameras were set up in various parts of the mansion. We went through the mansion with the Flir and found the mansion is not very well insulated and could cause a lot of cold coming into the site.
Brenda set up a camera in the “Tea Room”. On the video, you can hear someone inhale and exhale after she leaves. Her reflection can be seen in the cabinet showing her going down the stairs. We later came to that same area where displays of the children’s clothing is and had high EMF readings. The clothing is next to a window that we may have captured a photo of children looking out the window we took earlier in the day.
On that same camera at about 20 minutes, you will see Carrie talking about her stomach hurting. Earlier Martha had talked about Mrs. Knickerbocker causing people stomach pains if she did not want you there. Megan discloses to her at that time what was being told validating this claim.
While sitting in the “Tea Room”, Carrie began getting the name “Mary.” Could it be because the Mary Marshall Chapter of the DAR owns the home now?
We then move our investigation to the “Parlor” and complete an EVP session. When setting up Brenda’s recorder captures a female voice saying, “Hi” after she tells the entities we come in love and peace. Megan stated she had some orb activity through her camera and we heard some noises in the room. We think we came in contact with an entity Jack who was attached to the property.
Megan captured the mist moving through the parlor in the photos below
We tried an Ovulis V during this time. Please note that the Ovulis is still pretty new to the ITC world and should not be used as evidence because it is so experimental. See this video about the Ovulis V. Many of the words that came up are hard to determine if it was communication from an entity.
Carrie was sitting with her notebook writing down what she was coming up with and came up with the following names: Jack who wanted tobacco (confirmation with the maglight flashlight occurred), Gordon, Nora, Lynn, Mary, Bobby.
Team members notated many times feeling a cold breeze or cold spots in the areas they were sitting. Team members also seen a shadow moving in the piano room and sitting in a chair while sitting in the parlor.
We then moved to the “Parlor” for another EVP session and SP-11 Session. When turning on the SP-11, the first thing that popped out was “Brenda” then a bit after an entity says “I’m Dead.”
Brenda was sitting in a chair in the parlor and could feel something playing with her hair. At this point Martha (from the DAR) told her there are claims of a little boy entity who likes to play with hair and pulled someone’s braid at one time. Brenda tested the chair to see if it was able to stick her hair to the chair but was unsuccessful.
We then moved out investigation to the “Servant’s Quarters.” We had a small DVD camera running in that area. The temperatures were very cold in that area. Megan was feeling a call to that area and was attempting a dowsing rod session when we got there.
Lastly, we moved our investigation to the basement to see what Carrie could pick up down there. A previous psychic claims they used to hide liquor in the basement during prohibition but this cannot be verified with historical research. This area was allegedly the area where the doctor treated burn victims during a factory fire in the area. Carrie felt something “evil” on the crawl space side of the basement. We were not able to go on that side due to storage items.
EVP’s captured during paranormal investigation (please use headphones for best quality)
Megan captures a low giggle and we all state we heard a giggle.
Brenda says we come in love and peace and captures “HI”
Megan was talking about someone stating the State of Michigan was 182 years old and we capture “Right here”
Brenda has Martha bring out some sugary treats and Brenda says, that should be a good treat for you and we capture a “Right”
During the SP-11 session an entity calls out “Brenda”
Another part of the SP-11 Session we capture an entity saying, “I’m Dead”
Video Captured during paranormal investigation
Brenda set up a camera in the “tea room” of the Marshall Governor’s mansion.
At about :10 seconds you hear an inhale and exhale after Brenda leaves the room and goes down the stairway. Our research came up with a child who died of a breathing illness. Earlier in the day we photographed the window of this room and may have captured children looking out. Could the breathing be this child?
At the 20 minute mark, Megan and Carrie started talking about why Carrie was having stomach issues. Was is Mrs. Knickerbocker letter her know she didn’t want her there?
25 minute mark we show the EMF meter going off on the children’s clothes but there was no meter activity above or below the tables. The tables have boxes under them and two extension cords. Megan comes in on another video and tries to replicate the meters.
Megan tried to replicate the same meter activity that Brenda got earlier and was able to get the meter to go off at about a 5 in the upper level. We think an old extension cord under one of the tables could be causing some of the EMF which entities may be feeding off of but we could not explain the rest.
Conclusion:
We would like to thank the Mary Marshall Chapter, NSDAR for allowing us to come to the site to investigate. We believe there are numerous entities at the site that are not harmful. We look forward to working with the museum in the future with their fundraising attempts.
