The Grim Society

Archive for October, 2007

I recently took a little vacation to Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. I’ve been there many times so I was looking for something new to do when Luna suggested that I go on one of the ghost walks that are offered. We searched the net together and found that some were encouraging you to bring a camera and guaranteeing paranormal photos! Of course we knew that those kinds of tours weren’t for me so we kept searching.

Soon Luna found one that was a little more suited for people like us called Ghost Walk of Gatlinburg. We weren’t mislead as it says right on their site that they may embellish a bit for entertainment purposes and I really enjoyed the late night walk and the stories our guide told along the way. The best part for me though was after the walk. Our guide Tyler, was available to answer questions and was more than willing to go way above and beyond the parimeters of his job by talking with my husband and I about the history of Gatlinburg and his own ghost hunting experiences in the area! He gave us more than an hour of his time and when we had to leave to go back to the cabin I’d felt as though we’d made a new friend! I’ve invited him to join us here on The G.R.I.M. Society and hope to hear from him soon!

He told us many stories along our walk but the one that I found most interesting was the story he told about the pizza parlor.

Many years ago people could buy plots in the cemetery just like they could buy any other land so people would buy up a bunch of plots and then clear off the headstones, lump the plots together on one deed and sell them as usable land. Ths is what happened to a large portion of the White Oak Flats cemetery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Just over 35 years ago (a time that the locals refer to as B.D. — Before Dollywood) two businessmen bought a plot of land adjacent to the cemetary and erected the town’s first pizza parlor. Business was going well when they experienced some vandalising night after night. The owners noticed that there was no evidence of breaking and entering and contacted the police. They posted a night watchman outside and he never saw anyone going in or coming out, yet the vandalism continued.

Eventually one of the owners installed cameras inside and was astounded to find that things were being thrown about by something he couldn’t see and now and then he’d see an apparition on the film! He was afraid that his findings would not only label him the “crazy one” about town, but that it would be bad for business to admit to the haunting so he destroyed the tape and removed the cameras immediately! His business partner was anxious to find out what was on the tape so reluctantly the first man finally told him but swore him to secrecy. Of course the man’s partner couldn’t keep this outragous information to himself so he went to his best friend and told the story.

Before long the news had traveled through the small town and to the first man’s surprise it was very good for business but unfortunately it wasn’t good for keeping help. All of the workers promptly quit and the two men were left to run the booming business all by themselves. Sadly they weren’t able to keep up with the flurry of patrons so they eventually had to close up shop. I find it hard to believe that a business would have to close due to too many customers!

Today the building has been razed and there is nothing left but the parking lot. I snapped a couple photos there but haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary in those photos.

Reviewing images caught by our cameras while doing an investigation can be highly subjective; however, we try to look for the obvious reasons behind anything that seems out of the ordinary. We have posted several anomaly images in the past; these are the items we simply can not say are one thing or another- their cause, while possibly something we see daily without noticing, remains unknown.

So now its your turn to interpret the evidence. How good are YOUR eyes?

Can you tell us which one is a confirmed raindrop? What do you think the other two are?

We would really appreciate it if you could take part in this survey- and tell everyone you know to do the same! It’s very simple. Just answer these few questions:

Have you ever seen a ghost? (Actually SEEN one- not felt, heard, sensed, etc)

Now for the fun part-

Which way is the dancer spinning? (Clockwise or counter clockwise)

Can you make her change direction?

That’s it! Thanks for taking part.

Before I get started with this entertaining story, I want to let everyone know that our forums are currently disabled due to an error in the PHP Code that powers them.  We’ll have them back up and running as soon as possible. Now, on to the story of the crying woman…

The other night we were at our current extended-investigation location, taking pictures of the outside of the home when I was surprised to hear someone (female) say something that sounded like “Help Me” from the McCarty house next door. Let me set the scene….this is the McCarty House, built in 1905 and currently slated for demolition:

Here is a clip from the local paper giving the history of the building:

“The name Dan McCarty may not mean much to most people, but it should. Although he was tragically cut down in his prime, McCarty’s the only person from this area to be elected governor of Florida. Inaugurated in 1952, McCarty suffered a heart attack the same year and died in office in 1953 at the age of 41.

It’s doubly sad that the house where he grew up is now threatened with demolition.

When his father, Dan Sr., built the house in 1905 at 303 S. Indian River Drive as a wedding present for his bride, Elizabeth, the family wanted to know why he was building so far outside town. Nowadays, the city has spread to surround the house. It’s an imposing, two-story wood frame white house with steep gables and a tin-shingled roof, that sits on a ridge of land high above the Indian River in a marvelous location that catches the breezes off the water.”

My husband, who was standing next to me at the time, did not hear a thing, which was interesting, but the oddest thing was that the sound came from the top of a tree in the back yard of the home. The tree is near a 2nd floor window, which is boarded up. We searched the area for about 20 minutes, but couldn’t find anything that would account for the noise. We finished up the pictures of the outside of the house we’re investigating and headed home.

The next morning a friend messaged me to tell me she had just had the chance to read our recently posted research. She also commented that she wished she were at work (as a 911 dispatcher), as they get a lot of calls from the area. I inquired about the calls and here is what she said:

we get “ladies of the evening” calling up that there are screams coming from that area but they never say its from that house you’re researching. they are about the house next door.

I of course ask if it is the McCarty house. She responds:

AAAHHHH yes that sounds right. they call to report a woman asking for help. they always say someone is calling from UP…..and we always get calls, can’t remember what time of the night or what nights are the “norm” but i do remember getting calls, and they are always drunk chicks and ‘ladies of the night’, always female now that i think about it and they always say it sounds like a female voice yelling for help. of course when the cops get out there the person calling it in is long gone and theres never anyone screaming

There is one officer that you cant PAY to go to that location- she REFUSES to respond to either house, flat out, unless someone is getting shot at she aint going

Now we’re really interested. The house has no history of paranormal activity that we can find, other than these people reporting the woman screaming. Well, last night we went back to our investigation house but also spent a bit of time investigating the McCarty house. While we were there, we couldn’t find anything that would account for the ’screaming woman’.

Then we came home and started reviewing our evidence. Here is what we found:

Note the two feral cats in the bottom left of the image. You can’t see them when you’re there in person, but we’d be willing to bet $100 that one was in the tree the other night. In case you haven’t heard a feral cat cry, they can sound just like a woman.

William Turpin Jones was born in Carnesville, Franklin County, Georgia on August 31, 1868. He came to Florida in 1892 to work as a machinist helper for the Saint Augustine railroad shops. His career in the FEC was quite successful and in 1900 he was promoted to engineer and relocated by the company to Fort Pierce. As an engineer he operated the trains between Jacksonville and Key West.

During his career he survived two train accidents. The first took place when workmen left dynamite on the tracks and the train hit it; Mr. Jones was seriously injured in the incident and given a settlement by the FEC. The money he received was used to pay the $6,000 needed to build his new home, Cresthaven, which was located at 239 Boston Ave, Fort Pierce. The home was built in 1909 and was a marvel, with most of the materials being brought in by railway from Georgia and other points throughout the US. The second accident took place on a rainy afternoon when the station master sent Jones a note written in red pencil, warning him of an oncoming train and instructing him to switch to a separate track. Unfortunately the rain smeared the note and the train remained on course, meeting up with the oncoming train at a curve in the tracks, where they collided head on. Both engineers and firemen jumped into the watery canals running alongside the tracks and survived the incident.

Mr. Jones was married to a woman named Margaret and together they had five children:

• Fred, born about 1896
• Louis, born about 1898
• William L., born about 1901
• Margaret, born about 1905
• Clifford, born about 1909

Jones’ career with the FEC came to a stop in 1913, when he retired and began to raise oranges and pineapple and sell real estate. It was in this same year that Jones’ son Fred A. Jones was involved in a motorcycle accident that took a life. Fred, who was 17 years old and engaged to young Ada Daniels. On Friday, May 16^th, a party was held at Cresthaven and Fred decided to take Ada for a moonlight ride on his motorcycle. They were joined by Fred’s best friend Raymond Saunders, who was driving a second motorcycle with Ada’s sister, Nola on the back. Shortly after leaving Cresthaven, something went terribly wrong and the two motorcycles collided. Fred, Ada and Raymond were seriously injured; Nola was pronounced dead on the scene. Fred would later recover from the accident, but walked with a limp and never married Ada Daniels.

After the accident, life continued fairly quietly for the Jones family until 1915, when a fateful incident in downtown Fort Pierce (which we will report on later), ended with Jones being appointed Sheriff of Saint Lucie County around June 4, 1915. He ran for reelection in June of 1916, and continued to serve in the office of Sheriff.

On Friday, September 6, 1918, Mr. Jones’ son Clifford was involved in a fatal shooting. Clifford, age ten and his nine year old playmate William M. Fee were in the living room of Cresthaven when Clifford reached to take the cartridge out of his fathers gun. The gun fired, shooting William Fee in the abdomen. William was taken by train to the hospital in Miami, where he died shortly after 11:30 p.m. that night.

During that same year, Sheriff Jones made national headlines in the case of E.D. Griswold and David P. Valley; the former having perpetrated a scam that cost Mr. Valley over $11,000. Jones was made famous for refusing to accept a bribe from Griswold, instead choosing to prosecute a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Jones continued to serve as Sheriff until May of 1920, when he resigned the position due to the financial loss it was causing him. As a side note, he was replaced by Sheriff William R. Monroe, who was killed on March 25, 1921 while piloting a confiscated rum running boat. The boat, loaded with 200 cases of rum from the Bahamas, exploded in the Indian River Lagoon across from the Oslo area.

Rather than returning to work as a Sheriff after the death of Monroe, Jones went back to work for the FEC. He was beginning to feel the strain of the Depression and was having trouble covering his investments. In order to save his orange groves, he negotiated with a friend, Irving C. Whitney, who loaned him a sum of money and Cresthaven was used as the collateral. Sadly, Mr. Whitney soon passed away and the note went to his sister and heir, Rose P. Whitney, who was a retired school teacher hailing from Massachusetts. At the time of Mr. Whitney’s death, Rose was 62 years old and living in a modest house on S. 12^th Street with her sister who was 74. Rose Whitney inherited the note on Cresthaven and on September 3, 1932 she forced the immediate sale of the home to her. Both spinster sisters moved into the house.

While the Jones family’s involvement with Cresthaven ends here, their story is an interesting one and we thought you’d like to follow it all the way through. They were dispersed throughout the area. Mr. Jones and his wife moved to a small one story home north of Fort Pierce, overlooking US 1 and his beloved FEC Railway tracks. They had 40 acres of grove and hammock that later became Vero Shores. When trains would pass by the home, the engineers would sound the whistles and the Jones family would come out to wave to them. The sons opened the Jones Brothers Garage, which was located at 618 N. 4^th Street.

In 1938, the 3^rd son, William L. Jones, was severely injured in a motorcycle accident. He was taken by rail to Philadelphia, but died after surgery; he was only 36. Two years later, William Senior became very ill. He was taken by railway to the FEC hospital in Saint Augustine, where he died December 7, 1939. His wife passed away on January 10, 1944. In 1948, their daughter Margaret, who was in perfect health and working as a clerk at Canaday’s Pharmacy, suffered a heart attack and also died. On October 2, 1957, Fred Jones, the eldest son, took his own life, shooting himself in the bedroom of his family’s home at 135 N. 10^th Street, Fort Pierce.

Returning to the story of Cresthaven, we find that the home has been renamed to the Boston House and that both Rose Whitney and her elder sister died in the home. Rose suffered a drawn out illness before her death on April 5, 1954.

Her will, which was read into record on April 21, 1954, included a dispersement of nearly $150,000.

After her death, the executors of her estate held an auction, selling off the contents of the home. An advertisement was placed in the local paper, dated Sunday, December 19, 1954, and they also attempted to sell the Boston House.

Because the home did not sell, the executors petitioned the city for a change in zoning. On May 31^st, 1955, the notice was printed in the local paper that a public hearing would be held on June 20^th at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall to determine if the home could be rezoned to a commercial property; the zoning change was granted.

It is interesting to note that, according to the local historical society, Cresthaven was sold to John McCarty in 1949, but that he never resided there. According to the records, this is not possible, as there is a clear line of possession that does not include a sale to any of the McCarty family.

The home was sold in 1957 to Wood, Beard & Assoc., an Engineering Firm. They in turn sold the home to Diane & Leanord Cottem in 1976. Mr. Cottem began holding séances in the attic. This time period is the birthplace for the numerous ghost stories which surround this historic home.

The ghost stories include reports of Indians sitting on the front lawn, maniacal laughter sounding throughout the building, moving objects, and perhaps the most well-known haunting tale in Fort Pierce, the story of the Perkins family. The legend (as shown below in an article from The Fort Pierce Tribune, December 28, 1995) is reprinted nearly every year at Halloween.

“According to legend, the Perkins family was vacationing at the Boston House, which at the time was an inn. Young Tim and his father went fishing and drowned when their boat sank in a storm. The father’s body washed ashore, but Tim’s corpse never was found. According to local lore, the ghost of wife and mother Aleacon Perkins has been spotted at a third-floor window still awaiting the return of her lost family.”

In 1984 the Cottem family sold the Boston House to the current owners. During the renovations, old bottles from bootleg rum were found hidden in the walls behind the plaster. It was also discovered that Louis Jones, the 2nd son, had carved his name into a 2nd story window of the home with the engagement ring he was preparing to give to his girlfriend. The renovations by the newest owners caused quite a stir, yet again. Here is another quote from the Tribune:

“The law firm’s employees often are greeted by a whiff of perfume or the smell of coffee when opening the office in the morning. And sometimes office doors that were locked tight at closing time are found standing open the next morning. “We weren’t aware of the history of the building until after we bought it,” Phillips said. “After we bought it we talked to the former owner and he had experiences in the Boston House. The owners before him said odd things happened to them and some of their employees wouldn’t work on the third floor after dark.”

Phillips said he realizes that stories sometimes get exaggerated over the years, but the things that have happened to him and other in his office are not tall tales. “What has happened here has happened here,” he said. “There has not been any embellishment. There are certainly some oddities going on here.” The stories has led author Chaz Mikell to list the building in his book of haunts, “Florida Ghost House Directory.””

In addition to the Florida Ghost House Directory, Cresthaven’s ghost tales are retold in “Stories from the Haunted South” (page 62), as well as other books on hauntings in the area. As you can see from the research posted above, Cresthaven was never run as a boarding house or inn. Additionally, there are no records of a Perkins family in the area at the time frame in question. Searches of historical records (which have been corroborated by two independent researchers) show that there was no Perkins family in the area at that time; there also were no deaths of anyone with the last name of Perkins in Saint Lucie County at that time.

While researching the history of this home, we took the time to visit Riverview Memorial Gardens, the cemetery where the Jones and Fee families are interred. We were startled to find that the Fee family crypt contained not only nine year old William Fee, victim of the shooting at the Boston House, but also his mother, Emma Morgan and father, Fred. Fred was buried in the same grave as William Mixon Fee, grandson of Emma Morgan and Fred, who is listed as having passed away at the same time as Fred in 1939. Could this be the source of the tale of two lives lost by drowning on a fishing excursion? We can’t say for sure at this time, but we will continue to research the topic.

Cresthaven was added to the National Register of Historic Places is 1985 and is currently for sale. To view the full sized images of the pictures posted within this report, click on them below.

Resources:

• The Palm Beach Post
• The Fort Pierce News Tribune
• The Saint Lucie County Tribune
• Census Records dating from 1910-1930
• Saint Lucie County Historical Museum
• Downtown Main Street Association
• Clerk of the Court, Saint Lucie County
• FRF B Jones, William T, The Building of Cresthaven by William Paul Rogers, Jr., Grandson of William T Jones. Available at the Saint Lucie County Library, Fort Pierce.
• The Florida State Archive
• The Florida Photographic Archive

This afternoon I was discussing Oak Hammock Park with a city employee and was saddened to hear about the trouble they have had in the area. It seems that the curiosity of some individuals has overcome their common sense, leading to multiple incidents of trespass and even property damage. Because of the situation, Parks and Recreation has been forced to hire night staff, install cameras to monitor the area and to even contact the police when those who do not belong are found on the grounds.

Oak Hammock Park is a dangerous place at night; it is easy to become lost on the trails and there is always the concern of meeting up with a ‘worldly’ creature such as an alligator (or any other number of wild animals). It is also breaking the law to enter the property without proper permission from those in charge.

The truth of the matter is that by illegally entering the property, you are doing more harm than good to the entire area of paranormal investigation.

Please do not break the law in your attempts to satisfy your curiosity over the Devil’s Tree. We can not stress this enough.

Now that we’ve concluded the investigation of the Old Fort, we thought we’d ask you where you think we should go next. Below is a simple poll with a few options; if you have a suggestion that isn’t included, feel free to add it. Remember, though, that inappropriate responses will be deleted.

This afternoon I met a friend and her young son downtown for lunch. We enjoyed our meal along the water front as we caught up on the goings on in our lives. During the conversation, we began discussing the Old Fort Park. Curious, she asked if I would take her over there, as it is only a few minutes from where we were. We packed up and headed to the park.

I walked with her, taking her around the front of the mound, then up to the top. After that, we walked back down the mound and went around the southern end, coming out at the western center of the park. During this walk she told me she felt as if she were being watched (I did as well) and at one point even felt nauseated.

We then headed over to the area of the odd planting in the middle of the palms; this is the same location at which I’d had the odd feeling the last time we’d been there at night. I held the baby as she walked between two trees and headed towards the mound. As she passed between the trees, she appeared to stumble. There were no roots, no protruding branches. Coming over to stand next to me, she explained that she’d felt as if the ground suddenly ’sank’, had a sense of vertigo and felt as if she’d been pushed. At this point, her young son looked at the trees and began waving, saying “Hi”.

We finished up our visit, with her declaring that the Old Fort Park gave her the creeps even in the daylight and headed our own ways. Shortly afterwards, she sent me this message:

“When i got in the car and got onto Indian River Drive, I continued to feel like I was being watched; almost like something hitched a ride. I didn’t feel scared or freaked or anything, but my little guy kept saying HI HI HI and waving. As I turned at Midway Road, I felt like my arm was burning. At the same time, my ears popped and the baby started screaming- like something had scared the heck out of him; he was bright red in the face. I looked down and saw I’d been scratched on my arm. As soon as I felt the scratch, the feeling of being watched was gone, but I felt really scared. When we got home, I tried to put the little guy down for a nap, but he won’t go to sleep- he’s still obviously upset.”

I can’t confirm or deny the incident that took place in the car, but I can tell you that while we were at the park she did not come into contact with anything that would have caused the injuries pictured in the images below.  The first two images were taken only moments after the scratches appeared; the others were taken a little over an hour and a half later.

We went back to the Old Fort Park on Friday, Sept. 28th, in a final attempt to reach the mound.  There were no other people at the park on this night, so we were able to explore not only the area of the Old Fort and behind the mound, but also the area of the steps and the top of the mound.

We began by walking around the Old Fort area; there was one section where there was an ‘odd’ feeling of being watched.  If you look at the Scouting photographs, you will be able to locate the spot, as it is near the large ‘planting’ area.

After this, we went over and explored the mound. We climbed to the top and were somewhat disappointed to find that there was not even an odd feeling in that location.  However, as we were coming off the mound, I felt again that I was being watched.  I commented to Jim that I didn’t want to be the last off the mound; he laughed and said he didn’t want to have to go first.  About that time I stopped short; it felt as if someone had just brushed by me. As I stood there trying to figure out if there was a tree or some other innocuous reason for the feeling, it happened a second time, only this was much lower to the ground, almost like a small dog or animal.  The second incident even caused my pant leg to move.  After reviewing the audio of the incident, we were somewhat interested to hear that I had just announced we would be leaving the mound prior to this occurring.  We also were surprised to hear that there were two out of place wind gusts at that time.  After the incident, I asked a question and in response there is another wind gust.

While this information is highly subjective, we felt it was interesting enough to share.  Below you will find the audio of the incident; note that at one point you will hear a loud bang as I move the audio recorder in order to take a picture.

[display_podcast]

When we finished exploring the mound, we went around to the back of it yet again.  As we rounded the south west side of the mound, both Jim and I felt an overwhelming sense of being watched.  The EMF meter remained steady, with no odd spikes.   I should point out at this time that during all of our investigations at the park, the EMF meter remained fairly steady, ranging between .0 and .4.

The feeling of being watched was so powerful that Jim even began taking photographs over his shoulder, just to see if he could catch anything behind him.

During the investigation, we again caught several oddities on the digital camera. There was no rain, no fog or mist during the time we were there; nor had it rained during the day. The grass and trees were dry, and – as per our protocol- the equipment had all been cleaned prior to beginning the investigation.  We are unable to reasonably explain the oddities we captured with the theory that it is dust or moisture in the air. While none of these are as impressive as the anomaly found during the previous trip, we thought we’d post them here for you to review. We’ve also included an image of the oak tree, which we just felt was a great capture and wanted to share.

As a final note, I wanted to mention that Searcher and I went back to the fort and did a quick walk-through of the entire park with the EMF meter.  The wind was howling (25 mph average) and there was absolutely no sense of anything odd at any of the locations.  However, the EMF meter repeatedly spiked to 1.8 & 1.9, with no obvious source for the spiking.  We are completely baffled as to what would have caused this.

Summary:

At this point, we feel that further exploration of the Old Fort Park would yield similar results to our three expeditions. Until we are capable of returning with a larger team of investigators and additional equipment, we are forced to call this investigation inconclusive.