Octagon Hall Investigation

VSPR (Volunteer State Paranormal Research) vsparanormal.com, was kind enough to invite me out to Octagon Hall on August 26, 2009. The place has a ton of history and numerous reports of being haunted. In all cases I like to go in expecting nothing, but fully knowing the history and reports. If you dont know much about Octagon Hall, I suggest you watch the video below to catch up.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=24285327

Joining me during this investigation was Mike and Monique Sears from VSPR. A member from Nashville Paranormal Research and a science teacher from New York. Im terrible with names but will have them up in my next post. It was the perfect size and variation for a promising investigation.

We started in the main house working our way to the graveyard, the slave quarters, barn and back inside. The whole night, for me, was extremely comfortable. I never really felt "freaked out" or uncomfortable. Almost to a point where I felt it could possibly not be haunted. I felt a few cold spots and at a point my whole arm just felt really cold for a good 3 or 4 minutes, but being outside, I had ignore it as possibly being a breeze. I heard what could have been footsteps but being in an old house, it is hard to say. The motion detector went off a few times in the slave house, but after remembering that it may have been pointed at the door, it could have been a breeze. I have yet to go over my evidence(which will be posted in a later blog this week) but I have to say that I left Octagon Hall in a cheerful mood and feeling like it was a quiet night for the residents who may still call Octagon Hall their home.




History:

In 1847, Andrew Jackson Caldwell laid out the foundation for his new family home. With a desire for distinction, his home would not be a simple structure with four walls like so many others, but an eight sided edifice unique to the region.Completed in 1859, it would soon become a landmark in the south-central Kentucky area.Built for his growing family and as a headquarters for the plantation, it was occupied by the Caldwell family even after Andrew's death in 1866. His widow, Harriet, lived in the Octagon Hall until selling the house in 1918 to Doctor Miles Williams, an osteopath from Nashville, Tennessee.Dr. Williams moved from Nashville and made the Octagon Hall his residence until his death in 1954. At that time, the Octagon Hall was made rental property by his heirs.The Octagon Hall remained rental property until The Octagon Hall Foundation was formed and obtained the building in 2001. Dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the only eight-sided house in Kentucky, The Octagon Hall Foundation is furthering the efforts to save the past for the future. This history was brought to you by http://www.octagonhall.com/

Tulip Staircase

Rev. Ralph Hardy, a retired clergyman from White Rock, British Columbia, took this now-famous photograph in 1966. He intended merely to photograph the elegant spiral staircase (known as the "Tulip Staircase") in the Queen's House section of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. Upon development, however, the photo revealed a shrouded figure climbing the stairs, seeming to hold the railing with both hands. Experts, including some from Kodak, who examined the original negative concluded that it had not been tampered with. It's been said that unexplained figures have been seen on occasion in the vicinity of the staircase, and unexplained footsteps have also been heard.
Interesting side note: This photo isn't the only evidence of ghostly activity at the Queen's House. The 400-year-old building is credited with several other apparitions and phantom footsteps even today. Recently, a Gallery Assistant was discussing a tea break with two colleagues when he saw one of the doors to the Bridge Room close by itself. At first he thought it was one of the lecturers. "Then I saw a woman glide across the balcony, and pass through the wall on the west balcony," he said. "I couldn't believe what I saw. I went very cold and the hair on my arms and my neck stood on end. We all dashed through to the Queen's Presents Room and looked down towards the Queen's Bedroom. Something passed through the ante-room and out through the wall. Then my colleagues all froze too. The lady was dressed in a white-grey colour crinoline type dress."

Other ghostly goings-on include the unexplained choral chanting of children, the figure of a pale woman frantically mopping blood at the bottom of the Tulip Staircase (it's said that 300 years ago a maid was thrown from the highest banister, plunging 50 feet to her death), slamming doors, and even tourists being pinched by unseen fingers.

From Stephen Wagner, About.com

Freddy Jackson

This intriguing photo, taken in 1919, was first published in 1975 by Sir Victor Goddard, a retired R.A.F. officer. The photo is a group portrait of Goddard's squadron, which had served in World War I aboard the HMS Daedalus. An extra ghostly face appears in the photo. In back of the airman positioned on the top row, fourth from the left, can clearly be seen the face of another man. It is said to be the face of Freddy Jackson, an air mechanic who had been accidentally killed by an airplane propeller two days earlier. His funeral had taken place on the day this photograph was snapped. Members of the squadron easily recognized the face as Jackson's. It has been suggested that Jackson, unaware of his death, decided to show up for the group photo.


Interesting side note: In 1935, Sir Victor Goddard, now a Wing Commander, had another brush with the unexplained. While on a flight from Edinburgh, Scotland to his home base in Andover, England, he encountered a strange storm that seemed to transport him through time into the future. You can read more about his experience in the article "Time Travelers" under the section "Flight Into the Future."

From Stephen Wagner, About.com

Lord Combermere

This photograph of the Combermere Abbey library was taken in 1891 by Sybell Corbet. The figure of a man can faintly be seen sitting in the chair to the left. His head, collar and right arm on the armrest are clearly discernable. It is believed to be the ghost of Lord Combermere.
Lord Combermere was a British cavalry commander in the early 1800s, who distinguished himself in several military campaigns. Combermere Abbey, located in Cheshire, England, was founded by Benedictine monks in 1133. In 1540, King Henry VII kicked out the Benedictines, and the Abbey later became the Seat of Sir George Cotton KT, Vice Chamberlain to the household of Prince Edward, son of Henry VIII. In 1814, Sir Stapleton Cotton, a descendent of Sir George, took the title "Lord Combermere" and in 1817 became became the Governor of Barbados. Today the Abbey is a tourist attraction and hotel.

Lord Combermere died in 1891, having been struck and killed by a horse-drawn carriage. At the time Sybell Corbet took the above photo, Combermere's funeral was taking place some four miles away. The photographic exposure, Corbet recorded, took about an hour. It is thought by some that during that time a servant might have come into the room and sat briefly in the chair, creating the transparent image. This idea was refuted by members of the household, however, testifying that all were attending Lord Combermere's funeral.

Interesting side note: Lord Combermere is connected to another well-known paranormal story: the famous "Moving Coffins" of Barbados. The coffins inside the sealed vault of the Chase family are said to have been moved about by unnatural forces. The heavy coffins were repeatedly put in proper order, but often when a new coffin was added to the vault, the coffins were found strewn about. Lord Combermere, while governor of Barbados, had ordered a professional investigation of the mystery.

From Stephen Wagner, About.com

The Brown Lady

This portrait of "The Brown Lady" ghost is arguably the most famous and well-regarded ghost photograph ever taken. The ghost is thought to be that of Lady Dorothy Townshend, wife of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount of Raynham, residents of Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England in the early 1700s. It was rumored that Dorothy, before her marriage to Charles, had been the mistress of Lord Wharton. Charles suspected Dorothy of infidelity. Although according to legal records she died and was buried in 1726, it was suspected that the funeral was a sham and that Charles had locked his wife away in a remote corner of the house until her death many years later. Dorothy's ghost is said to haunt the oak staircase and other areas of Raynham Hall. In the early 1800s, King George IV, while staying at Raynham, saw the figure of a woman in a brown dress standing beside his bed. She was seen again standing in the hall in 1835 by Colonel Loftus, who was visiting for the Christmas holidays. He saw her again a week later and described her as wearing a brown satin dress, her skin glowing with a pale luminescence. It also seemed to him that her eyes had been gouged out. A few years later, Captain Frederick Marryat and two friends saw "the Brown Lady" gliding along an upstairs hallway, carrying a lantern. As she passed, Marryat said, she grinned at the men in a "diabolical manner." Marryat fired a pistol at the apparition, but the bullet simply passed through.
This famous photo was taken in September, 1936 by Captain Provand and Indre Shira, two photographers who were assigned to photograph Raynham Hall for Country Life magazine. This is what happened, according to Shira:
"Captain Provand took one photograph while I flashed the light. He was focusing for another exposure; I was standing by his side just behind the camera with the flashlight pistol in my hand, looking directly up the staircase. All at once I detected an ethereal veiled form coming slowly down the stairs. Rather excitedly, I called out sharply: 'Quick, quick, there's something.' I pressed the trigger of the flashlight pistol. After the flash and on closing the shutter, Captain Provand removed the focusing cloth from his head and turning to me said: 'What's all the excitement about?'"
Upon developing the film, the image of The Brown Lady ghost was seen for the first time. It was published in the December 16, 1936 issue of Country Life. The ghost has been seen occasionally since.
From Stephen Wagner, About.com

Carnton Plantation & McGavock Cemetary, Franklin TN

HISTORY OF CARNTON

Carnton was built in 1826 by former Nashville mayor Randal McGavock (1768-1843). Throughout the nineteenth century it was frequently visited by those shaping Tennessee and American history, including President Andrew Jackson. Carnton grew to become one of the premier farms in Williamson County, Tennessee. Randal McGavock’s son John (1815-1893) inherited the farm upon his father’s death. John McGavock married Carrie Elizabeth Winder (1829-1905) in December 1848 and they had five children during the subsequent years, three of whom died at young ages - Martha (1849-1862); Mary Elizabeth (1851-1858); and John Randal (1854). The surviving children, Winder (1857-1907) and Hattie (1855-1932), are pictured (left) circa 1865.

Beginning at 4 p.m. on November 30, 1864, Carnton was witness to one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Civil War. Everything the McGavock family ever knew was forever changed. The Confederate Army of Tennessee furiously assaulted the Federal army entrenched along the southern edge of Franklin. The resulting battle, believed to be the bloodiest five hours of the Civil War, involved a massive frontal assault larger than Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. The majority of the combat occurred in the dark and at close quarters. The Battle of Franklin lasted barely five hours and led to some 9,500 soldiers being killed, wounded, captured, or counted as missing. Nearly 7,000 of that number were Confederate troops. Carnton served as the largest field hospital in the area for hundreds of wounded and dying Confederate soldiers

A staff officer later wrote that "the wounded, in hundreds, were brought to [the house] during the battle, and all the night after. And when the noble old house could hold no more, the yard was appropriated until the wounded and dead filled that...."

On the morning of December 1, 1864 the bodies of four Confederate generals killed during the fighting, Patrick R. Cleburne, Hiram B. Granbury, John Adams, and Otho F. Strahl, lay on Carnton’s back porch. The floors of the restored home are still stained with the blood of the men who were treated here.

In early 1866, John and Carrie McGavock designated two acres of land adjacent to their family cemetery as a final burial place for nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers killed during the Battle of Franklin. The McGavocks maintained the cemetery until their respective deaths.

Today, the McGavock Confederate Cemetery is a lasting memorial honoring those fallen soldiers and the Battle of Franklin. It is the largest privately owned military cemetery in the nation.

The McGavock family owned Carnton until 1911 when Susie Lee McGavock, widow of Winder McGavock, sold it. In 1973 Carnton was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1977 the house and ten acres were donated to the Carnton Association, Inc. by Dr. W. D. Sugg. By that time the house had suffered from years of neglect and disrepair and since then the Association has been vital in restoring and maintaining the plantation through tours, gift shop sales, membership, special events, and generous donations.

History provided by http://www.carnton.org/


The author of Widow of the South takes you on a tour of the estate in Franklin, Tennessee where the bloodiest battle of the Civil War took place and the mistress of the house who started and maintained the largest private Civil War cemetery.



HAUNTS

HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS:

1) A graveyard where 1700 Confederate soldiers, who had died in the fields near this mansion were hastily buried after this bloody conflict, is located close to Carnton Mansion. After the horrible battle was over, Carnton Mansion became a hospital, where 4 generals died of their wounds, and their bodies s laid in state so the men who were lucky enough to survive could show their respect.

2) A young house servant girl was murdered in the kitchen by a jealous field hand in the 1840's, because she rejected him as a suitor.

3) Out of their five offspring, only 2 of the Cantron children made it into adulthood.

INSIDE MANIFESTATIONS

1) Two spirits haunt the kitchen area of the mansion, and sometimes move to other parts of the house.

A) A mischievous spirit likes to play tricks on the living, when not doing chores like washing the dishes in the kitchen. Hearing some noises from the small, enclosed porch off the back of the house, the curator went to investigate. She found two old panes of glass, on either side of the back door, which had been taken down from a box of panes, located on a shelf. It is thought that this spirit was the girl who had been murdered.

B) The head of a cook who worked for the family during the Civil War years was seen floating in the hallway, near the kitchen.

C) The cook is often also heard bustling around in the kitchen, doing her various duties, going about her business, letting the living know that she is still there.

2) A beautiful young girl, with long brown hair appeared to a workman on the second floor hall way, inspiring his hasty retreat down the stairs. Workmen now go upstairs in pairs.

3) A soldier's spirit has moved into one of the bedrooms. Perhaps he died there, or close by outside, and decided to move into the mansion and stay there, perhaps not quite ready to leave. A picture of the mansion mysteriously crashed to the floor in this bedroom, and was found on top of the floor heater, a place that it couldn't get to by itself.

4) A ghost of a lady dressed in white haunts the back porch area, sometimes floating into the backyard.

5) Spirits of the fallen are especially active in the Autumn months, at dusk. One general isn't able to rest, because he knew that his men wouldn't hold up too well and is still fretting about the coming battle he knew would be a bloodbath . This spirit, General Pat Cleburne, a man with a mustache, a short beard and piercing eyes, paces the back porch, walks around the outside parameter of the mansion, and on occasion talks to lone persons.

A) A man, Mr. P, who had an ancestor fight in the Franklin battle came at just after 5:00 PM to see Carnton Mansion, but it was closed, so he walked around the place, on a path that led to the back of the mansion, trying to soak up the atmosphere, and thinking about his relative who fought here and survived.

Near the porch, he saw the silhouette of a man that he thought was about to get on a horse, but the horse vanished. Noticing another man on the porch, Mr. P asked him what had happened to the horse. The man explained that the horse was shot from under the other soldier, like his horse had been earlier.

This mysterious man, standing on the porch, dressed like a Civil War Confederate Officer, went on to explain that whether on horse or on foot, they would be at the mercy of the enemy tonight.

Furthermore, if Mr. P was coming with him, P had better have a pistol, or he wouldn't last long. This Civil War officer further predicts in an angry voice that not many men were going to make it through the night, and it was the fault of that fool, Hood, who had ordered his men into this soon to be slaughter. He then hums a line or two of a rallying song.

Mr. P was thinking that this officer must of been part of a Civil War enactment, and must have thought that Mr. P was part of it. Mr. P asks this officer what kind of carbine he was carrying. "It's an Enfield .577. What do you have?"

Mr. P confesses that he doesn't have any, and wouldn't know how to use it. His comment astonished and alarmed the officer, who urgently told him to quickly leave and go to either the Carter house or to town, out of harm's way.

The officer then talks to another spirit by his side. "Well, Govan, if we are to die, let us die like men." The officer then throws his hat up in the air, in an angry, forceful way, and melts into the air.

Mr. P then heard the sequence of the sounds of battle. The officer's voice, yelling "Charge men! Charge." Then a swell of the sound of shots, shells, muskets and cannons fill the air. He heard the music of a regiment band, playing "Annie Laurie." Then he heard a whole army of rebel yells, which were fierce, nerve-jolting cries. Terrified, Mr. P tried to run toward his car, surrounded by the unearthly din of battle, as he felt the cold, creepy feeling of death surrounding him. He found himself stumbling around in the graveyard near the mansion.

The next day, Mr. P went back to Carnton Mansion when it was open, and found out that the officer he had talked to was indeed the much loved Irishman, General Pat Cleburne .

B) Still another officer paces back and forth in heavy boots on the front porch.

The spirits are especially restless at dusk, during the Fall months, when the Battle at Franklin took place.

The Cook is usually heard in the kitchen around meal times. Perhaps she doesn't know that she is dead, or feels she has unfinished business in the kitchen. The other spirits let the living know that they are still around, sharing the mansion.

Article of Haunts thanks to http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/tn/carnton_mansion.cfm


I know a lot of our members have had personal experiences and I would love for you all to share them here. I have never an actual ghost there, however I have heard whispers and when I went on the tour 2 years ago when I was pregnant, I got really sick and had to leave early. I only felt sick when I went to the second floor. After I left the house and went outside, I was fine. Hopefully soon I will have more to tell, but for now I would love to hear your stories!

1345 Carnton Lane, Franklin, TN, 37064
615-794-0903

Monday thru Saturday - 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday – 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission Prices:

Adults: $12.00
Seniors (over 65): $10.00
Children 6 – 12: $5.00
Children under 5: free
Grounds tour only: $5.00

Carter House, Franklin TN

HISTORY OF CARTER HOUSE

Few homes in Tennessee have as much reason to be haunted as the Carter House in Franklin. The house was built in 1830 by Fountain Branch Carter, never realizing that it would be in the center of one of the most terrifying battles in the Civil War, a battle in which nearly the entire Army of Tennessee was destroyed.
After the Fall of Atlanta, General Hood's Confederate troops marched northward to Columbia, Tennessee (about 25 miles from Franklin), flanking around General Schofield's Union troops.

Hood continued north to Spring Hill, which he reached on the night of November 29, 1864. Schofield desperately needed to join ranks with General Thomas at Nashville but to do this, he had to get past Hood. Somehow, under the cover of darkness, Schofield was able to slip past Hood and move further north. When Hood found out that he had been outmaneuvered, he marched his men in pursuit of the Federal troops. He then made one of the worst mistakes of his career.... he chose to take the fight to Schofield.

In the late afternoon of November 30, Hood's men charged the entrenched Federal troops. A few hours later, he had lost 6200 men. By dawn the next day, Schofield himself had lost over 2300 of his own men. He withdrew his remaining troops and started for Nashville, leaving the Confederates in chaos behind him.

In the midst of all of this carnage stood the Carter house.

When the Union troops had arrived in Franklin, General Cox had commandeered the house as a command post. The Carter family had been roused from their beds in the middle of the night, only to watch helplessly as the Federal troops moved in.

During the fighting the next day, the Carter's took refuge in the basement. Fountain Branch Carter was the head of the family but he was elderly and a widower, so his oldest son, Lt. Colonel Moscow Branch Carter, took charge of the family. Carter, having been taken prisoner in an earlier battle, was home on parole. He rounded the family into the cellar beneath the house. Besides the two Carter men were three daughters, a daughter-in-law, children, a few neighbors, and servants, making twenty-two people to huddle in the darkness.

The Carters were cut off from the battle, except for what they could hear taking place. They heard gunfire, bullets striking the house, screams of dying men and even a cannonball crashing into the side of the building. Soldiers fought hand-to-hand on the porch and in the rooms. The Confederates charged the Union position a dozen times, but each time they were beaten back.

The Carter family somehow survived the battle. Late that night, after it was all over, they left the basement and got some terrible news. Another son, Tod Carter, had been with the Confederate troops in the assault. He was lying somewhere on the battlefield with the thousands of other soldiers who were wounded, dead or dying. Moscow Carter went in search of his brother with only a lantern to guide the way. He wandered aimlessly for hours, searching everywhere. While he was gone, General Smith arrived at the Carter house. Tod had been on Smith's staff, serving under General Hood, and Smith knew how close the boy had been to home. He rallied all efforts to find the lost soldier. Smith took another lantern and started his own search, finding Tod Carter some time later. The boy had only been about one hundred yards away from the house when he had been hit.

Smith and the Carter's carried Tod into the house and placed him in a first floor bedroom. He was tended for two days before he died.

The Carter House was opened to the public in 1953 and in 1961 was listed as a Registered National Historic Landmark. It operates today as a historic museum to the Battle of Franklin.

by Troy Taylor
http://www.blogger.com/www.prairieghosts.com/carter.html

Former Director of the Carter house museum, Thomas Cartwright, details the action and fighting around the Carter house on the evening of the battle of Franklin, during its fiercest hand-to-hand fighting. Warning. It does involve graphic battle detail.






Former Director of the Carter house museum, Thomas Cartwright, discusses the action in and around the Carter house farm the night of the battle of Franklin.





CARTER HAUNTS

Despite heavy tourist traffic, the staff members and visitors are not the only ones who walk in this house. Most agree, given the history of the place, that it is not surprising that it is haunted. Poltergeist-like pranks often occur in the house and have been attributed to the ghost of Annie Carter, one of Tod's sisters. During a tour one afternoon, one of the staff members was interrupted during a talk by a visitor who pointed out that the statue behind her was jumping up and down. Other events also point to a playful ghost like objects that appear and disappear and the sensation of a child tugging at staff member's sleeves when they believe they are the only ones in the house.

One staff member even claimed to have seen the apparition of a little girl disappear down an upstairs hallway and down the steps. Others have spoken of hearing the friendly and welcoming voice of a woman in the house.

Not surprisingly, Tod Carter has also made an appearance in the house. The young man has been seen several times and recently, a visitor was looking into the bedroom where he died and saw his apparition sitting on the side of the bed. He was visible for only a few moments before he vanished.

by Troy Taylor
http://www.blogger.com/www.prairieghosts.com/carter.html

Given that the property saw the violent deaths of so many, it isn't much of a surprise that there are reports of paranormal activity. The ghost of a small girl, believed to be Annie Carter, has been seen running down the stairs, through the upstairs hallway, or tugging on people's sleeves. Theodrick's apparition has also reportedly been seen in the bedroom he died in. Still further reports of activity include things moving on their own, objects disappearing and re-appearing somewhere else, and voices seemingly coming from nowhere.

Last paragraph sited from here

Story of Tod's Carter's ghost based on the story from the book - Skeletons of the Civil War - True Ghost Stories of the Army of Tennessee by Debra Glass and Heath Mathews.




CARTER HOUSE INFORMATION

1140 Columbia Ave, Franklin, TN 37064, USA
615-791-1861
http://www.carterhouse1864.com/

Hours of Operation:
Monday through Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

*NOTE: during late Fall and Winter months
(Daylight Standard Time) site closes early at 4:00 pm

Closed Sundays during the month of January.
Closed major holidays. Please call to verify hours.

Admission:

Adults $10.00

Seniors (65 and older) $9.00
Military (with ID) $9.00

Children ages 7 to 14 $6.00
Children ages 6 and under Free
Adults Groups of 20 or more $8.00 per person