We never know what to expect when we walk into a location that has never been investigated before. Will it be active or will it be quiet? Sometimes it’s like rolling the dice. We are always surprised, but we never expected to be as shocked as we were during the Ghosts in the Gallery investigation. Something would happen during the night that would leave us shaken.
The Mason-Nordgauer Fine Arts Gallery in New Harmony, Indiana, is a treat for the eyes. When you first walk through the door, you will notice the colorful art lining the walls, but soon your eyes are drawn to the architectural details of the nineteenth-century building. If you are a paranormal enthusiast, you might also wonder if it’s haunted.
It wouldn’t be surprising that ghosts might linger there. The building began its existence as the Centennial Saloon. Old sepia-tinted photos depict men with bowler hats and long dark jackets lounging at the entrance while horse and buggies approach in the distance.
(Above) The earliest photo I could find of the building. As you can see, of the buildings that now grace Main Street, it was the first one build on this block. Photo courtesy of Workingmen’s Institute
The building has endured many incarnations since its grandiose beginnings, many of them lost to time. We know the building, or at least half of it, was the location of Heckmann’s Drug Store. When I wrote Haunted New Harmony, I often fell down a rabbit hole during my research. It was difficult not to become enamoured with the characters from New Harmony’s past. Afterall, they were people just like us, living a life of their own creation in a town we still covet.
From Haunted New Harmony:
Louis Heckmann purchased the building in the early 1900’s and opened a successful drug store that operated for many years. The more I researched his life, the more obsessed I became.
(Above) Louis Heckman in front of his drug store. Photo courtesy of Workingmen’s Institute
I learned that he was born in 1870 and died in 1958 at the ripe old age of 88. In the years between, he married a woman named Ella and had several children, one of whom worked with him at the pharmacy. He was fond of travel and took several trips on airplanes to visit his grown children in Pennsylvania. Like me, he too was intrigued by the history of the people who lived there before him.
While renovating a Harmonist house, he discovered footprints in the dirt beneath the floorboards that belonged to the Harmonists who built it. Not only were there footprints of people, there were also footprints of cats and dogs, showing that the Harmonists kept indoor pets.
Louis’s store was once the site of a robbery, with the thieves making off with $300 worth of jewelry, watches, fountain pens and money.
We know Louis sold the business in the 1940’s to man named Clyde Ramsey. As I dug into the research, I learned that Clyde committed suicide in the building in 1946. The night before his death, he attended a Masonic Temple meeting in Evansville. When he returned to town, he discovered his soda fountain was broken. Instead of going to bed and worrying about it in the morning, he stayed up all night working on it, not stopping until 5pm the following day when he put a revolver to his head and ended his own life. We have to assume that Clyde had other troubles in his life besides a broken soda fountain, but that information is largely lost to time as well.
We also know that a funeral home existed in the store next-door to the gallery, with the embalming process occurring in the basement. Considering the sheer amount of lives that passed through those front doors, the possibilities for a haunting were endless.
Chelsie, the Gallery Director, told me they often find items moved or disturbed. Sometimes when she comes in, paintings that have been hung and puddied securely to the wall will be hanging eschew. Other times, common items they use in the office will disappear from where she put them and reappear in another location. This phenomena is called apporting. We had a personal experience with this ourselves as we checked out the building prior to the investigation.
As the owner of Haunted New Harmony and the coordinator of all the investigations, I need good people to help me. Because we often divide into two or three groups, I need trained, competent investigators to cover the areas where I can’t be. Two friends who often work my events are Crystal Folz and Traci Hoehn. Both are talented mediums, with Crystal being a full-fledged psychic medium. This allows her to connect with the ghosts of the building and to also tap into the energy that hangs in a space.
I decided to bring both Crystal and Traci to the gallery to see what they felt. I visited the building a few weeks earlier and picked up on an angry man in the back corner of the basement and a playful female who hung around upstairs in the gallery. I was curious to see if they would pick up on the same two ghosts I encountered. As soon as we came in to the gallery area, Crystal sat her bag down on a stool. She collects pins from interesting paranormal locations and pins them to her bag. Traci immediately noticed that one of Crystal’s pins was still missing. One had fallen off several weeks ago, something Crystal told us about over coffee one morning.
“Still haven’t found your pin?” Traci asked.
“Nope. It’s still missing. At this point, it’s probably gone for good,” she said. It was a shame too because it was her favorite and wasn’t easy to replace.
We headed down to the basement to walk the area. While we were down there, neither Crystal or Traci felt the presence of the male I felt there the first time I visited. They both picked up on female ghosts. Was it possible the angry male drifted away or was he hiding from them? We weren’t sure, but we would find out more during the night of our investigation.
After about fifteen minutes, we came back upstairs. Chelsie greeted us as we came into the gallery.
“Does this belong to any of you?” she asked, holding out a pin.
The three of us gasped. It was the pin Crystal lost several weeks ago. Did the gallery ghost, who Chelsie has nicknamed “Karen” retrieve the pin for Crystal? Just the mere thought made our heads spin. Crystal doesn’t live in New Harmony and almost never comes down Main Street. Chelsie found the pin on a piece of art that sat on the counter, something she had just moved there shortly before our arrival. She knew for a fact the pin wasn’t there before we arrived.
From that experience alone, we knew we’d have an interesting investigation, but we had no idea how fully mind-blowing it would turn out to be.
Eleven guests had signed up for the event and arrived just before 7pm. I gave a brief presentation about the building and what we might encounter. Besides picking up female energy in the basement and in the gallery, Crystal also felt as though performers once spent time there. She saw them getting ready for a production. I don’t know if there were vaudeville acts at the saloon or not, but the information seemed to fit.
Chelsie shared a story with all of us about something strange that recently happened at the gallery. Several weeks prior, she found a dead bird in the basement. There are no holes in the walls or ways a bird could have gotten down there. They found it to be we strange, but weren’t sure what to make of it.
We broke into two groups. One group headed down to the basement with Crystal and Traci, while the other group stayed upstairs in the gallery with me.
My group worked primarily with the Spirit Box. This is a modified radio that scans rapidly through the radio stations, allowing the ghosts to speak through the white noise. We’ve had amazing results with it at other investigations and would see that happen again at the gallery.
Gallery Investigation
First Group
Rick Schlegelmilch lives in New Harmony and often helps me with my investigations. When I told him that I didn’t need help this time, he quickly purchased a ticket, not wanting to miss out on the investigation.
Anyone who has investigated with Rick knows he’s going to ask several of the same questions he always asks. He wants to know if the ghosts see him walking past with his little dog Clutch and he also wants to know if they remember Town Marshall Scotty, who is Rick’s brother-in-law. For the first time ever, Rick got a response. A male voice came through and said “I do.”
Mary Ann Michna, who is a local artist, asked if there was something we could do to help them and the same male voice said, “I’ll take it.”
The speaker for my Spirit Box kept shorting out. If I nudged it, it would start playing normally again. As I leaned down for the fourth time in a matter of minutes, I commented that I wasn’t sure why this was happening. We all thought we heard a response of “That’s nothing,” but on audio review, it sounded more like “Apache,” which makes no sense. As we were commenting on it, the same male said, “That’s nothing” for real this time, repeating what we said.
Mary Ann asked them if they had a favorite person at the gallery. She didn’t get a response, so I jumped in and told her she should ask if they had a favorite artist, knowing her art hangs on the wall there. She laughed and I added, “Hopefully they don’t say something rude,” knowing how ghosts can be sometimes and a male voice agreed with me, “I’m rude,” he said.
Some of my equipment is high tech, but I often use common household items too. For this investigation, I brought a small motion- activated cat ball that lights up when its moved. I put it on the floor in a quiet area that was far away from our investigation. If something nudged it, it would light up. We weren’t sitting for long before it suddenly lit up. It would continue lighting up for most of the night, letting us know we weren’t alone.
As soon as we got started, we began hearing the same male voice come across the Spirit Box. We would occasionally hear a woman’s voice as well, but the male answered most of the questions. He sounded friendly and somewhat intrigued by what we were doing.
Rick asked the male if he ever visits his neighbor in the basement and he told us, “He’s evil.”
I began asking questions about the pharmacy that once occupied the space next door. I knew two of the pharmacist’s names and asked if they remembered them. I didn’t get any clear responses, so I began asking if the pharmacy occupied both buildings instead of just the one. In looking at the old photos, it appears to be one business. I didn’t receive an answer so I asked if they were there when the building was a saloon. At that point, the male called me a “Freak.”
I was sending people back to the storage room, two at a time, to experiment with a pendulum. I realized the first group had been back there for nearly twenty minutes and I wanted others to have a chance to try it, so I went back to get them. While I was gone, Rick asked if they ever visited the doll shop across the street. After he asked his question, a female voice came through clearly and asked, “Who did you like?” It was so clear, it sounded like one of the people in the room speaking.
As Ben and Cheryl came back into the room and two others got up to take their place, the same female voice asked, “What is your last name?” and then all hell broke loose. A large painting was wrenched off the wall high above us and crashed down, hitting Rick in the process. Ben saw it happening and yelled, “Watch out!” Rick moved just in time to avoid serious injury. His arm was scraped but he was otherwise unharmed. The art was undamaged, however, the wire on the back looked like it had been severed.
Here is the audio we recorded when the painting fell:
Dan Mason, the co-owner of the gallery watched it happen on his security system at home. He said he saw something swirling around on an empty chair and attempted to take pictures of it. Then, seconds later, the painting fell.
I’ve been on over 300 investigations and, trust me when I say this, things like this don’t often happen. It was astounding to me. The energy it took for them to sever through a heavy cord and knock it to the ground was monumental. Most ghosts aren’t capable of this.
We had no idea what caused it. All the voices coming through the Spirit Box were friendly and informational. No one had asked a question that could have been anger inducing. What caused the sudden fit of rage? Was it simply because we were there? We’d find out later that it might be connected to the investigation that was going on in the basement below us.
It took us a while to settle down after that incident. We switched groups at that time.
Second Group
I started off by apologizing to the ghosts of the gallery for anything we might have said or done that angered them. I then asked if they knew who knocked it down. The same male voice we’d been hearing all night said, “From knowing.” That didn’t make any sense to us, so I asked if they knew why it was knocked down. He told us, “The printer was in there.” Neither response was crisp enough to include it here.
It did make me think though. Was the printer the man who hid in the basement? When I first visited the gallery basement, I found him to be angry and reclusive, someone who most definitely didn’t want people in his space. Did he lash out at us for invading the basement by knocking a painting off the wall upstairs? Was I actually the intended target for the painting to fall on? I was sitting next to Rick and the painting landed several feet away from me.
There was a printing press in town at one point, but it was located in Community House #2, a building we’ve investigated extensively. The two printers who primarily operated the press and printed the local newspaper will talk to us frequently when we investigate and are always congenial and chatty. This definitely wasn’t one of them.
I passed to the next person and she asked if he was friends with the lady in the basement. He said, “Tell me now.”
Someone asked if he was there when it was a pharmacy. He asked, “Was this one?” Apparently he didn’t know.
Someone asked if they like Chelsie and a different male voice said, “We like her now.”
John asked if there were more than one of them with us and the same voice from earlier said, “Nice and tall.”
“What happened on Monitor Corner,” I asked, wanting to pin down the time period they were in New Harmony. There were two fires on that corner, one causing a tremendous explosion, but the woman didn’t know or didn’t want to tell us. “Cannot say,” she told me. I went on to explain to the group about what had happened there and the same male voice chimed in. “You forgot the groceries.” This is interesting because Owen Market used to be right across the street, caddy-corner, from Monitor Corner. It’s now the location of Capers Emporium.
I was still trying to determine a timeline for the ghosts. I asked “What did the Harmonists use to insulate their buildings?” The correct answer is Dutch Biscuit, a technique of rolling mud and straw around a board. The woman told me, “They painted.”
We asked a few questions but couldn’t make out the responses. Then, out of the blue, a male asked what sounds like “Did you bring woman?”
John asked about “the gifts” (something they discussed in the basement session) and someone else asked why they hid them. “It’s hard for them,” the man said.
I asked if they’ve ever seen Heaven. As I explained in the session, if they’re there, answering us, they probably haven’t seen Heaven because they’re stuck in our dimension. The man answered us, “I wonder.”
I asked if they ever pull pranks on Chelsie. The response was “I try.”
Lynn asked if they like Dan again and the male said, Go D!” like he was rooting for him.
We went around the room and asked the pie question. I do this during most investigations to lighten the mood. I ask everyone to name their favorite pie. Sometimes the ghosts will pipe in and tell us theirs, but there wasn’t an answer this time.
Angie asked, “Where are you in this room,” and got perhaps the most chilling response of the evening. “Behind you,” the woman said. We all took a moment to look behind her, but didn’t see anything.
Lynn asked if they ever go to the basement and the male answered, “Not much.”
They call their lady ghost “Karen” so I asked if her name was indeed Karen and the male came through again. “I didn’t break it,” he said. Was he talking about the painting?
Someone asked, “How many in the basement?” and a male responded with, “They’re lost.”
The session ended at that point.
Pendulum Room
We set up a small storage room as a dowsing area. Groups of two went back and asked questions with the pendulum. Ben & Cheryl went first:
- They were talking to a female
- She’s 70 years-old
- She’s married
- She has children – sons
- Her name is Karen
- She likes to sing
- They got her to knock on the wall
- She’s originally from New Harmony
- She had a dog
- She rode on a wagon for transportation
- She was around automobiles, but didn’t know what a train was
- She was once a slave
- She is tired
I walked back to switch the group out, but the painting fell in the other room before the next group could come in. After a few minutes, the Keith and his wife went back.
- She isn’t going to hurt them
- She’s mad that they’re there messing up her evening
- She likes beer
- She is the one who threw the painting
- It will be safe for them to go into the basement
- She likes Keith
- It’s easier for them to talk to Keith
- They didn’t bring any spirits with them to the investigation
The groups switched floors and the next two people came back to try the pendulum.
- They were talking to a woman
- She’s not friends with Erica (a name they learned in the basement session)
- She’s glad they’re there talking to her
- She died when she was young
- She worked there
- She worked there when it was saloon
- She wasn’t treated poorly when she worked there. She enjoyed it
- It wasn’t fun time to work there
- The other ladies were not her friends
- She wasn’t the boss
- She wasn’t a bar maid
- She wasn’t there when it was a pharmacy
- Erica isn’t sad or angry
The next two people came back and tried it.
- She’s not tired of them
- She lived in New Harmony for a long time
- Her family is from New Harmony
- She went to church there
- She liked New Harmony
- She was there when it was a saloon
- She wasn’t happy there
- She worked – had a job
- She worked as a prostitute at times at the saloon
- It was difficult
- They weren’t nice to her.
- She doesn’t hate men
- It wasn’t difficult work
- She knows it’s no longer a saloon
- She misses it being a saloon
- Her name was Suzy
- She likes being in the building
- She’s not tired
- She didn’t have any children
- She wasn’t married
- She knows who Joni is
- She likes Joni
- She came from somewhere nearby
It was interesting how each group picked up slightly different information. One group pinpointed the woman’s age as 70 years-old, while the other group felt they were talking to a younger woman. It’s possible they were talking to two different ghosts, but it’s also possible that they were getting misinformation from one of them or they were experiencing difficulties with the pendulum. It’s not a scientific device and we know that, but we’ve had a lot of luck uncovering verifiable information by using it.
It was interesting that they were finding some similarities though. None of the groups passed on information to the next group as they switched places. My guess is they were talking to “Karen,” the ghost who often moves items in the gallery.
Basement
Traci Hoehn and Crystal Folz led the investigation in the basement. For a portion of their allotted time, they conducted the Estes Method. In this experiment, Traci wore noise-cancelling headphones that were attached directly to a Spirit Box. She also wore a blindfold. People in the room asked questions, but Traci couldn’t hear them. Instead, she simply said what she heard come through the box. The importance of this experiment is the elimination of leading information. Sometimes we hear what we want to hear. When we ask a question and hear something that sounds like an appropriate answer, we often jump on it. With the Estes Method, we can’t do this.
Crystal assists Traci in this experiment, insuring the group is asking appropriate questions and isn’t firing them off in rapid-fire sequence. Ghosts need a bit of time to respond, so we always ask that they pause 15-20 seconds before asking the next question. Crystal also watches Traci to make sure she’s okay. While in the Estes Method, Traci often goes into almost a psychic trance. In past cases, she’s actually found herself seeing visions of what she’s also hearing. If she begins to look agitated or seems overwhelmed, Crystal will gently pull her out of the session.
No one had a chance to ask Traci a question before she was off and running.
T: Love it
Q: Did you grow up in New Harmony?
Q: Is your family here?
Q: What date did you last see on a newspaper?
Q: Can you see us?
T: Like you
T: some more then
Q: Are you glad to have us here? What do you like about us?
Q: Do you like that this building is being used as an art gallery?
Q: Did you work or live in this building?
Q: Were you here when they had the battered women’s display? (Several weeks prior to the investigation, the gallery had an exhibit in the basement that delved into Victorian era prostitution. Quite eerily, the story Traci would uncover with the Estes Method mirrored the story the exhibit told. We spent a lot of time discussing this. Chelsie actually wrote the story in the booklet they handed out, telling the story of two prostitutes. She wrote it at the gallery, making us wonder if she had supernatural assistance.)
Q: Do you like the people who come here every day?
(creaking from upstairs)
T: What’s that? No!
Q: If you don’t like the people who work here, what about them don’t you like?
Q: Did you like Christmas time?
Q: Did you work here or did your family own the business?
Q: Can you tell me some of the things this building was used for before?
T: Do it!
Q: Do what?
Q: Was it a bar? Did you perform here?
Q: What do you want us to do?
Q: Do you have good memories here?
T: Tonight
Q: Good memories when people are here?
Q: What about tonight?
T: When
Q: Are you disturbed by us being here?
T: In general
Q: What makes you uncomfortable? Do you not like having us in your space?
Q: Can you tell me something personal about yourself?
T: Learn
(Joni came downstairs to take pictures)
T: Under
T: You
Q: Did you go to school here?
Q: Was the bridge built during your time?
Q: What was it you want us to learn?
T: One. Uh huh. Same thing. Don’t. Sad.
Q: What are you sad about?
T: I’m…
Q: Do you know about the bird that was found in the basement?
Q: Do you know how the bird got into the basement?
Q: Does this building make you feel sad?
T: Every
Q: Are we upsetting you?
(Crystal noted that the energy in the room was building. It felt as though they were growing agitated.)
Q: Do you need help with something?
Q: Are you okay?
T: Susie. Was here.
Q: Who was Susie?
T: Don’t. Hey.
Q: Hi. Is Susie here right now? Do you like Susie?
Q: Are you Susie? Or was Susie your friend?
Q: Is there a message we can pass on?
T: Hard
Q: What was hard?
T: Erica. (Traci noted that the voice was a woman who was sobbing)
Q: Are you Erica?
Q: Are Erica and Susie related?
Q: How long have Erica and Susie known each other?
T: Forest
Q: Is there a forest you’re thinking about?
Q: Did you like to hike in the forest or did you like to stay in the town?
Q: Did Susie get lost in the forest?
T: Hide!
Q: Susie was hiding in the forest?
Q: Is Erica afraid she lost Susie?
T: It’s not our problem (man’s voice)
Q: Susie hiding from the man?
T: In there
Q: Is Susie hiding in here from the man? Was the man mean?
T: Stay (Traci noted that something kept touching her left side.) Got you.
Q: Did someone take Susie from Erica?
T: Are you free tonight? (man’s voice)
Q: How old are Erica and Susie? Are they friends? Are they family?
Q: Are you scared of the man?
T: Waiting for you
Q: Are you waiting to go out tonight?
T: A man needs gifts. Hiding.
Q: It seems as though something happened in the woods. Can you tell us?
T: Someone.
Q: Did you hide gifts in the woods?
Q: Did this happen when this place was Mr. Heckman’s pharmacy?
T: Rotten
Q: Was Mr. Heckman rotten or was it someone who visited here?
Q: Did you like him?
T: There’s a bunch talking at once
Q: Are there too many voices around?
T: Get them
Q: Get who?
T: So? Great.
(painting fell upstairs at that point)
Q: Did you have anything to do with what happened upstairs just now?
(sound of the cat ball rolling across the floor)
T: Don’t. Famous last words.
Q: Are these multiple people’s stories or one person’s story tonight?
Q: Did you make the painting fall?
(Joni came downstairs at that point to tell them what happened)
T: My memory. It’s wrong. Inbred.
Q: Inbred? What does that mean? What memories are wrong?
T: Here with me
Q: Who’s here with you?
T: A man
Q: Does he make you fearful?
Q: We’re going to be stopping soon. Is there anything else you want to say?
T: That’s it
Crystal then pulled Traci out of the session. Traci then explained everything she heard and saw. She got really hot and her chest got very tight during the session. She said that women were in the woods hiding from men, trying to get away. She felt they were being used as prostitutes and they were the gifts the men were seeking. It so closely resembled the story Chelsie wrote, it gave us chills. In her story, Chelsie discussed the lives of two women who were forced into prostitution and were abused. Was the energy from this discussion what caused the painting to fall upstairs? We weren’t sure.
They decided to do a dowsing rod session while Traci recovered from the Estes Method.
Q; Are you still hiding from someone? A: Yes
Q: Does it scare you? A: Yes
Q; Is it a male? A: Yes
Q: Do you feel safe with us? A: no answer
Q: Did you have anything to do with the picture falling upstairs? A: Yes
Q: Is your name Erica? A: Yes
Q: Did a man hurt you in the woods? No answer
Q; Did you work at the saloon? No answer
Q: Was Susie your friend? No answer.
Q: Did you make the picture fall on a man to hurt him? A: Yes
(Joni came down to get them, but they asked for a few more minutes)
Q: Where are you standing in the room? Rods pointed towards Traci
Q: Were you rubbing Traci’s arm earlier? A: Yes
Second Session
The guests in the second group were still shaken up by the experience they had in the gallery. During the entire session, Ben kept hearing sounds in the back corner of the room.
T: Hello (female voice that was kind of creepy)
Q: Hi!
T: Ben (male voice)
Q: I’m right here (Ben said)
T: Possibly
Q: Possibly what? (Ben asked) Is this Karen?
Q: Are you alone here?
T: Over there. Sure!
Q: sure, what?
Q: Did you talk to us earlier or are you someone new?
(could hear walking upstairs from the other group)
Q: Do you hear the people walking upstairs?
Q: Are you female?
T: I did it
Q: What did you do?
Q: Do you regret it? Would you do it again?
Q: I’m looking over there. What should I see?
Q: Did you knock the picture off?
T: Read
Q: Read what?
T: My name’s Doreen (different female voice)
Q: Pleased to meet you Doreen
T: Say it
Q: Doreen. Say what?
Q: Doreen’s a pretty name. What’s your last name?
T: Like that
T: The father
Q: What about the father?
Q: Doreen’s father?
Q: Were you here when they had the visiting art display down here in the basement? Did you relate to it?
Q: Did you like everybody coming in here?
Q: Is your father here, Doreen?
Q: Does someone keep all the other spirits here separated? The one who dominates the rest of you? (Crystal asked)
Q: Do you have a sister or brother?
(Ben was seeing something block out the light in the corner)
T: Most people
Q: What do most people do?
Q: is there a domineering man? (Crystal asked)
(Crystal noted that it felt like someone was holding them back from answering)
T: Teamwork
Q: How many of them are you?
Q: Can you tell us how many of you are down here with us?
Q: Someone left and now someone new is here with us. Who is that (Crystal asked)
T: Who are these people?
Q: We are visitors here, talking to you.
Q: Cheryl introduced herself. Can you tell us your name, please? Are you a leader?
(Joni came down to take pictures)
Q: Can anyone do anything to help you?
T: Weird
Q: What’s so weird?
Q: Is it weird that people want to help?
T: Christmas
Q: Are you ready for Christmas?
Q: Do you celebrate Christmas?
Q: To whoever came down, is there anything you want to tell us? (Crystal asked)
Q: What year is it right now?
T: Get out!
Q: I don’t want to get out. (Ben said this, almost in a hurt voice)
Q: Are you asking for us to get out or are you talking to the other spirits who are here? (Crystal asked)
(Rick noted that Traci had someone standing right behind her)
T: Seven
Q: Did you feel something, Rick? He explained that he was hearing someone clairaudiently.
T: I just saw a black shadow cross in front of me.
(Everyone felt the room grow substantially colder)
Q: Are there more with you?
T: Oooooh! (sounded kind of provocative)
Q: Ooooh, what?
Q: Did you come here with anyone or were you here? (Crystal asked)
Traci then took off the headphones. She’d had enough. She said she felt constrictive breathing and felt it was connected to a woman wearing a corset. She said it was different this time than it was the last time. A lot of people kept popping in, but she didn’t feel she was connecting with the same two women from the first session.
They started a dowsing rod session at that point.
Q: Is there just one person down here right now? A: Yes
Q: Are you a young child? A: No
Q: Are you a teenager? A: Yes
Q: Are you female? A: Yes
Q: Did you used to work in this building? A: Yes
Q: Did you enjoy your job? A: Yes (slow Yes)
Q: Did you work anywhere else in New Harmony besides here? A: Yes
Q: Do you ever want to leave New Harmony and go somewhere else? A: Yes
Q: Do you enjoy us being here? A: Yes
Q: Do you like dogs? A: Yes
Q: Are there any dogs in this building? (they thought they heard a bark) A: No answer
Q: Do you wish you had a dog? A: Yes
Q: Were you here when the bird showed up in the basement? A: No
Q: Did you hear the painting fall off the wall? A: Yes
Q: Did that surprise you as much as it surprised me? (Rick asked) A: Yes
Q: That means you had nothing to do with it, right? A: Yes
Q: Do you know who did it? A: No answer
Q: Are you afraid to say? A: Yes
Q: Will you tell me if I guess right? A: No answer
Q: Is it the man who stays down here in the basement? A: No answer
Q: Is it a child? A: No answer (They started hearing more sounds in the back corner)
Q: Is the woman we talked to in the first session the one who knocked the picture off onto Rick? (Crystal asked) A: No answer
Q: Did you come here with someone this evening? A: No answer
Q: Is the lady from our first session still here? (Traci asked) A: Yes
Q: Can you point to where you are right now? Rods pointed towards the same area where Rick felt someone, which happened to be directly behind Traci.
Q: Is there a man down here? A: Yes
Q: Does he stay in the back corner? A: No
Q: Is he back there right now? A: Yes
Q: Does he keep walking in front of the light? A: Yes?
Q: Do you like him? A: Yes ( The group was surprised by this)
Q: Is his name Mr. Heckmann? A: No
Q: Is his name Clyde Ramsey? A: No
Q: Were you an actress here? A: No
Q: Do you remember when they had productions here? A: No
Q: Did girls perform at the saloon? A: No answer
Q: Did girls dance at the saloon? A: No answer
Q: Did girls sing at the saloon? A: No answer
Q: Are you feeling confused right now? A: Yes
Q: Was this a pool hall at one time? A: no answer
(They heard another noise)
Q: Are you back in the basement right now? A: Yes
(Cheryl mentioned that she saw a flash of light)
Q: Did you ever use a carriage outside of this building? A: No answer
Q: Are you having a hard time breathing? A: Yes
Q: Are you listening to the people upstairs too? A: Yes
The session ended and we wrapped up for the night, walking away shaking our heads at the events that had transpired.
It was an intense investigation, one we wouldn’t soon forget. It’s easy to connect the dots and say that we were honing in on two women who worked at the saloon. We know from history that barmaids and servants were often forced into prostitution in saloons like this, but we have no documentation that this happened at the Centennial Saloon.
And who was the man who hid in the corner? Was he also connected to the saloon or did he come in during another time period? And why was he hiding? Was he Clyde Ramsey, the pharmacist who committed suicide in the building? These were all questions we didn’t get answers to. This is part of the mystery involved with communicating with the dead. Sometimes they only give us enough information to intrigue us. We often need to revisit the location several times to pull more of the information.
Despite the falling painting, the owners of the gallery would like to have us back for another investigation in the near future. We hope to uncover more of the story about Susie and Erica and possibly help free them from the torment they are reliving.
(Above) Joni, Crystal and Traci
I’d like to thank Dan Mason and John Nordgauer for opening up their lovely gallery for us to investigate. I’d also like to thank Chelsie for letting us in the building to check it out and for hanging out with us for the duration of the night. And of course, I am indebted to my team, Crystal Folz and Traci Hoehn for making this an incredible event.
Thank you to everyone who attended!
Joni Mayhan
December 2019
(Above) The Golden family sitting on their front porch
In 1964, the Harmonie Associates encouraged the town to purchase the building. It underwent more extensive renovations and restorations, returning it to the grand dame it once was.
Group One: Rick, Liz, Jamie, Maddie, Eddie, Tina, Mark, Rick, Ashley, Jason, Tim, Sandy, Matthew, Elliott
Group Two: Gerald, Diane, Adam, Paige, Shanna, Gerry, Lori, Debbie, Lisa, Paula, John, Heather, Angela, Brent
Dowsing Rod Session:
We had a break-off session on the third floor. Several people would go into the Print Shop alone and work with a pendulum. Some of their results were interesting.
First Break-off group
(Above) The Fauntleroy Home while it was undergoing renovations nearly ten years ago
They investigated the foyer area beside the staircase. We have photos of Mary Emily sitting in this room and by all accounts, it was her favorite room in the house. We soon learned that two of our guests were former tour guides for Historic New Harmony. They described feeling very uncomfortable inside the house. Liz told me about getting pushed while on the stairs and Elliott reported always singing “Amazing Grace” as loud as possible while walking through the building when he was alone and needed to come inside for something.
(Above) Photo #1 shows nothing more than what we could see with our eyes
(Above) Photo #2, taken seconds later, shows what was really going on in the room with us
First Floor – Maclure Room – Lead by Rick Schlegelmilch
(Above) New Harmony natives Robyn Davenport and Linda Clifford trying the Ganzfeld Method.
(Above) LaKeisha was the ghost’s favorite and she was a very good dowser too!
(Above L-R) Joni Mayhan, Rick Schlegelmilch, Jason Nelson, Paula Bundy and Traci Hoehn
I held court on the first floor. In one room, we worked with a variety of tools to speak with the dead, while Paula Bundy managed the Ganzfeld Experiment in another room. Four guests at a time left the investigation to try the Ganzfeld before returning to the investigation.
“Are you a man or a woman?”
Traci welcomed her second group and then got started with the Estes Method once again.
Traci’s third group seemed like they had experiences on every floor. We talked afterwards, wondering if one of them might have brought their own ghost to the ghost hunt. She introduced herself, explained the process and got started.
The third floor of the building was primarily used for dormitory-style housing. Community House #2 was the only community house that offered a third floor thanks to the Mansard roof, which gave it additional space. Visitors to the space will notice the open wall, displaying the “Dutch Biscuit” style building material. Mud and straw would have been wrapped around boards and placed in between the beams, providing the building with insulation and protection from fire. The floors in the room are the original floors from when the building were built.
Jason Nelson led the investigation of the old print shop on the third floor. Jason has been an investigator for Haunted New Harmony for several years, assisting on investigations and ghost walks. He is a resident of New Harmony and was instrumental in helping me gain access to the State owned buildings. His style is more straightforward and to the point. He describes himself as a skeptic, but has seen enough paranormal activity to make him a “skeptical believer.”
The second group arrived and Jason led them through another Spirit Box session. As they were introducing themselves, Jason said he hoped someone would talk to them during the session. A male voice instantly said, “probably.”
(Above L-R) Joni Mayhan, Crystal Folz, Traci Hoehn, Jason Nelson, Paula Bundy and Meagan Patterson
The Culbertson Mansion is located in New Albany, Indiana, near the banks of the mighty Ohio River. It was built in 1867 by William Culbertson, who was the richest man in Indiana at one point. Culbertson built the house for his second wife Cordelia (Nellie) and lived there with her, their children and his children from his first marriage until Nellie’s death in 1880 of cholera.
As we were waiting for the first guests to arrive, two Haunted New Harmony staff members were standing by the front door. Rick Schlegelmilch and Traci Hoehn heard a sound and turned to discover the doorknob jiggling. They thought that someone was trying to get in, so they opened the door and were surprised to find the entryway empty.
First Group (Group 1)
The group had just spent an hour on the third floor and were eager for more intrigue. We started out with a dowsing rod session:
My third group had their own EMF meters which were going off continually. I tend to ignore them when they flicker constantly because it usually is due to electric lines or Wi-Fi floating through the room. They reported that they’d been having this issue all night. The devices they were using were Ghost Meters, which I’ve found to be less effective than more expensive models like the KII or Mel Meters. I had a Ghost Meters for several years and ended up giving it away because it provided far too many false positive results.
During my first floor investigations, I sent groups of 3 down to the basement, where Rick Schlegelmilch was overseeing the Ganzfeld Experiment. This sensory deprivation experience involves participants sitting around a table, wearing goggles and headphones that are plugged into a laptop that’s playing white noise. A red lamp in the middle of the table completes the experiment. Many people who have tried this have tapped into dormant psychic medium tendencies, allowing them glimpses of images, sounds and smells. Several people felt ghostly touches. After they rose from their chairs after ten minutes, Rick asked them to write their experiences in a notebook. Here is what they wrote:
Crystal Folz, who is our group’s psychic medium, managed the investigation on the second floor. Those rooms would have been bedrooms during the Culbertson and McDonald eras. When they owned it, the American Legion removed one of the walls and turned a portion of the second floor into a billiards hall. Guests on the second floor often smell cigar smoke, which they believe comes from Frank Semple, who was married to Culbertson’s daughter Anna and lived in the mansion for many years.
The first group settled in and Crystal explained how the session would go. Even though she’s a psychic medium, she stays closed down psychically during the investigation so she can stay focused on the guests. They started with a dowsing rod session.
The second group spent a lot of the session chatting with Crystal about how being a psychic medium works and she gladly shared several stories. At one point, her group started laughing so hard, I could hear them down on the first floor. It made me smile and pick up my game a bit too. Her group started with a dowsing rod session:
Crystal’s third group came to her after our break and were eager to get started. They stared out with a dowsing Rod Session and got far more responses than the other groups got.
The third floor was probably used for a combination of functions. While it might have been used for servant housing, it was probably also used for the Culbertson children. He had more children than he had second floor bedrooms for and the third floor would have been convenient. We do believe the room Traci investigated was the head maid’s room, although she wouldn’t have had it all to herself. She probably would have shared it with other servants.
As Traci started her first session on the third floor, she noticed something that every other group had issues with all night. The EMF (Electromagnetic) meters used to detect the presence of ghosts were flickering and wouldn’t stop. In previous investigations, the meters only reacted on occasion, remaining quiet for the majority of the event. It’s not necessarily an indicator of paranormal activity, but it was strange.
The group settled in after being on the second floor for their first session. Traci explained everything they would be doing and then they started a dowsing rod session.
Traci’s last group would prove to experience the most activity. They started off the session by taking a baseline on the dowsing rods.
The Natural History Room is located on the second floor of the building and contains a portion of the museum. Glass cases wrap around the room, showcasing everything from old Civil War weapons to old shoes. It also houses quite a few taxidermy animals, including an 8-legged calf, and the skeleton of a Civil War hero horse named Old Fly.
The Gallery Room is across the hallway from the Natural History Room. It houses some of the larger historic artifacts in the museum, including a Harmonist wagon, fire engine and Father Rapp’s desk. All around the room are huge paintings in gilded gold frames. The photos were provided by Dr. Edward Murphy.
My second group arrived after being in the Natural History room. Several of them told me they had experiences with the Ganzfeld Experiment.
My third group was primarily composed of people I know from other investigations or from around New Harmony. I decided to go right to Spirit Box since we were starting to get some reactions during the last group. We introduced ourselves and then went around the room, asking questions.
(Above) Joni giving a presentation about the paranormal and expectations for the investigation
(Above) Chuck, a long-time volunteer at the mansion, giving a presentation about the history of the mansion
We started out with a straight EVP session. We sat quietly and began asking questions, allowing the digital recorder to catch any ghostly responses. Sometimes ghosts will respond in a different frequency than our ears can pick up. The digital recorder will pick this up.
(Above) A near-perfect replica of Mr. Culbertson in his coffin, made for a murder mystery party
(Above) One of my groups doing a dowsing rod session in the basement
Traci’s First Group (Group 4)
She then gave them some history on the third floor. The uses for the third floor aren’t as clear as the other floors. The room with the photos and historical displays in it was once used as the ballroom and possibly a children’s play room. They think that the bedroom she was in and the other one on that floor were used as servants’ quarters or might have been used as bedrooms for the Culbertson children. Someone asked if there was a fire in the house, pointing towards the black marks on the walls and ceilings. Traci explained that the house was heated with coal, which left soot behind. Since the third floor was blocked off by the second owners, it was basically untouched and looks like it would have during the Culbertson days, with about a hundred years of wear and tear added.
(Above) Mary using the dowsing rods on the third floor
They turned on the Spirit Box, but weren’t getting anything substantial. Because we were next door to Louisville, they were picking up hundreds of radio stations despite the Faraday Pouch. After a minute or so, they turned it off and went back to the dowsing rods.
(Above) The Ribeyre Gymnasium at dusk. Photo by the author
(Above) The group doing an EVP session in the gymnasium. Photo by Traci Hoehn
(Above) Joe and Amy in the basement of the gymnasium. Photo by Traci Hoehn
(Above) The group investigating the second room in the basement of the gymnasium. Photo by Traci Hoehn
(Above) Ali holding the Mel Meter as the numbers climbed in the basement of the gymnasium. Photo by Traci Hoehn
(Above) Traci Hoehn in the basement of the gymnasium. Photo by the author
(Above) Our group investigating the Annex. Photo by Traci Hoehn
(Above) Ali using the dowsing rods in the attic. Photo by Traci Hoehn
(Above) Our investigation on the stage of Thralls Opera House. Photo courtesy of Traci Hoehn.
(Above) Our investigation on the first floor of Community House #2. Photo courtesy of Traci Hoehn.
(Above) Our investigation in Community House #2. Photo courtesy of Traci Hoehn.
(Above) Thralls Opera House. Photo by the author.
(Above) Community House #2. Photo by Joni Mayhan
(Above) Several members of the group during an EVP session. Photo courtesy of Traci Hoehn
(Above) The room was completely dark when Elizabeth Stowers took this photo. Several people have stated that a slow shutter speed will produce these results, but I find it interesting because a flash was used for the shot. Is it paranormal or just a slow shutter speed? You be the judge.
Haunted New Harmony 