Author’s note: This is the second of a two-part story on a haunted bed and breakfast.
Voices whisper in the night at The Parlor Bed and Breakfast in Ironton, Mo., and, when people turn to see who’s there – no one ever is.
Jeannette Schrum, co-owner of The Parlor since 2000, said disembodied voices speak to guests, a little boy playing in the main parlor smiles at those who see him, and a man wearing a white shirt stands in a window.
But the most common activity at The Parlor are shadows. Shadows of people often walk the porch of The Parlor, and sometimes wander the interior of the building.
“I see shadows all the time,” Schrum said. “The shadows are just unbelievable. They’re day and night both.”
Belinda Clark-Ache, founder of Haunted Missouri Paranormal Studies, has investigated The Parlor and knows the bed and breakfast is haunted. When her paranormal team stayed at The Parlor, members felt dramatic changes in temperature; taps on the shoulder and one man heard someone whisper his name – even though he was alone in the room.
“We were woken up at 5:30 a.m. hearing our names called in the hallway,” Clark-Ache said, going through the experiences of the evening. “Two different doors on the second floor hallway opened at the same time. There was the smell of fresh bread baking – she didn’t make us fresh bread that weekend.”
The most compelling evidence she saw was in a room called “The Brass Bed.”
Tim Harte MA, LCPC, University if Illinois-Springfield, was with Haunted Missouri Paranormal Studies that night, and had set up in The Brass Bed a computer system he developed with Dave Black, also of the university, that is designed to measure energy frequencies associated with haunt phenomena. Included was an infrared video camera with microphones.
“When he turned in for the night, he left the machine recording,” Clark-Ache said. “About 20 minutes later, you hear what sounds like him coming through the room. Then the bathroom light comes on. You hear bathwater and splashing. You hear draining and the bathroom light goes off. The rest of the recording is silent.”
No one took a bath in that room, or slept there during the investigation – and no one was visible on the video.
“Anyone going from the bedroom to the bathroom would have been discernable on the tape,” she said. “We could not reproduce the event. That’s got to be the most excited I’ve ever been about a piece of evidence and it wasn’t even mine.”
Although Schrum doesn’t embrace the ghosts of The Parlor, she doesn’t want to hide the fact that the home is haunted.
“I’ve had couples get up in the middle of the night and leave,” she said. “I put (the haunting) on the Web site because I didn’t want anyone to come in here and be frightened. That’s not fair. That’s not what they bargained for.”
Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
The Haunted Parlor: Part 1
Author’s note: This is the first of a two-part story on a haunted bed and breakfast.
The doorbells of The Parlor Bed and Breakfast in Ironton, Mo., ring at odd times. Jeannette Schrum, co-owner of the bed and breakfast since 2000, is used to it. It’s probably ghosts.
Flying curtains, falling clocks and strange shadows on the walls are common occurrences in the bed and breakfast that, for a short time in the 1960s, was a funeral parlor. But Schrum said there has been unexplained activity in the home much longer than that.
“The place had been haunted since the ’20s and ’30s, as far as we can trace back,” she said. “When we bought the place they told us it was haunted and I said ‘bull.’ I really don’t believe in that sort of thing.”
Schrum purchased the building with her husband, Robert Halket, mayor of Ironton, and her sister and brother-in-law, Dana and Moody Campbell
Architect Charles J. Tual built the home between 1901 and 1908 for he and his wife; the exterior constructed of concrete blocks made on site. A mortician purchased the home in 1960 and turned it into a funeral home. Although the building served in that capacity for only a short time, that time has a close connection to Schrum.
“My great grandfather was one of the few bodies that was laid out here when it was a funeral parlor,” she said. “And my grandmother worked here.”
And she may still be there. Although Schrum, who was raised not to believe in the paranormal, said the spirit of “a lady” – possibly her grandmother – follows her around the house.
“I have a woman friend,” she said. “It’s something you just know it’s there. It’s a woman and it’s always a warm, friendly feeling. My grandmother and sister and I were all very close. I’d like to think it’s her, but I’m a non-believer.”
Even to a non-believer, too many unexplainable events happen in the bed and breakfast. The new owners began renovating the home when they bought it in August of 2000 and immediately noticed something wasn’t right.
“When we first started working on it, things would disappear,” she said. “I kept it to myself because I knew the guys were going to make fun of me.”
By that time, Schrum had met her lady. Then her family began experiencing things, too. On a hot night, Schrum went to the porch to check on guests who sat talking in the evening breeze, when her sister called to her.
“She was standing with her back to the kitchen and pretty soon my sister’s at the door saying, ‘come here, come here,’” Schrum said. “She said, ‘did you walk up behind me a few minutes ago?’ I said, ‘she got you, she got you, she tagged you, she got you.”
Schrum could talk about it now; someone else had experienced her lady. Some time later, her husband received a more formal introduction.
“He was reared back in the recliner and had a pizza in one hand, a Diet Pepsi in the other,” Schrum said, “and he said, ‘oh my God. She just walked across there, stopped and looked at me and kept on walking.’”
The woman Halket saw wore a long, gray period dress, her hair pulled up in a bun on the back of her head.
“My husband hates it,” she said. “He just hates it.”
Next week: Paranormal research.
Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
You can find Jason’s books on the paranormal, "Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us," and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at www.amazon.com.
The doorbells of The Parlor Bed and Breakfast in Ironton, Mo., ring at odd times. Jeannette Schrum, co-owner of the bed and breakfast since 2000, is used to it. It’s probably ghosts.
Flying curtains, falling clocks and strange shadows on the walls are common occurrences in the bed and breakfast that, for a short time in the 1960s, was a funeral parlor. But Schrum said there has been unexplained activity in the home much longer than that.
“The place had been haunted since the ’20s and ’30s, as far as we can trace back,” she said. “When we bought the place they told us it was haunted and I said ‘bull.’ I really don’t believe in that sort of thing.”
Schrum purchased the building with her husband, Robert Halket, mayor of Ironton, and her sister and brother-in-law, Dana and Moody Campbell
Architect Charles J. Tual built the home between 1901 and 1908 for he and his wife; the exterior constructed of concrete blocks made on site. A mortician purchased the home in 1960 and turned it into a funeral home. Although the building served in that capacity for only a short time, that time has a close connection to Schrum.
“My great grandfather was one of the few bodies that was laid out here when it was a funeral parlor,” she said. “And my grandmother worked here.”
And she may still be there. Although Schrum, who was raised not to believe in the paranormal, said the spirit of “a lady” – possibly her grandmother – follows her around the house.
“I have a woman friend,” she said. “It’s something you just know it’s there. It’s a woman and it’s always a warm, friendly feeling. My grandmother and sister and I were all very close. I’d like to think it’s her, but I’m a non-believer.”
Even to a non-believer, too many unexplainable events happen in the bed and breakfast. The new owners began renovating the home when they bought it in August of 2000 and immediately noticed something wasn’t right.
“When we first started working on it, things would disappear,” she said. “I kept it to myself because I knew the guys were going to make fun of me.”
By that time, Schrum had met her lady. Then her family began experiencing things, too. On a hot night, Schrum went to the porch to check on guests who sat talking in the evening breeze, when her sister called to her.
“She was standing with her back to the kitchen and pretty soon my sister’s at the door saying, ‘come here, come here,’” Schrum said. “She said, ‘did you walk up behind me a few minutes ago?’ I said, ‘she got you, she got you, she tagged you, she got you.”
Schrum could talk about it now; someone else had experienced her lady. Some time later, her husband received a more formal introduction.
“He was reared back in the recliner and had a pizza in one hand, a Diet Pepsi in the other,” Schrum said, “and he said, ‘oh my God. She just walked across there, stopped and looked at me and kept on walking.’”
The woman Halket saw wore a long, gray period dress, her hair pulled up in a bun on the back of her head.
“My husband hates it,” she said. “He just hates it.”
Next week: Paranormal research.
Copyright 2009 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
You can find Jason’s books on the paranormal, "Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us," and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at www.amazon.com.
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