We began the night with frosty outside view of the house. It was below freezing when we arrived and the high temperature in the house was 37 degrees on the first floor. It was slightly warmer in the basement at a balmy 39 degrees. We did know heat was scant in the house. It had two large Salamander heaters that we opted not to use. They weren’t portable and if you’ve ever used one, you know they are noisy as hell. We had an average of six layers, plus gloves, scarves and hats on.The evening started oddly. As we drove up, I swore I saw someone in the corner west room on the second floor. The large figure (seemingly of a man), stood with his arms raised and waved. As we came into the drive, he moved to the other window and rested his arms on the window and looked out. I thought it might be someone inside. But when I asked, there was only one person and he said he was on the first floor the whole time. Another oddity of the evening was the way I began investigating. We normally do a walk through but this one was different. I was vibing on this building from the get go. I began taking pictures with my Google Pixel 2 in bursts. The best thing about these pics is that the ones taken in a burst are big in dimension but small in resolution. With a program like Photoshop, you can increase the resolution without loss of detail. Also, with the burst feature, I held my camera still and just took the rapid succession of pics with very good results.
Ted, our historical society guide gave us the 411 on the building. Among the nuggets of history we found that a ghost that was held in a room with barred windows on the men’s wing did not like Ted. Ida was brought in because she was probably menopausal among other things (such as defecating and rolling around in it), so she was locked away. She asked for a broom and was given one (they thought she was going to clean her room). Instead, she positioned it on top of some pipes in her room and stripped he cotton tick from her bed, making strips of material and tying them together. Then, she tied it to the broom. When she jumped off the bed, the ticking stretched and she did not hang as she hoped. But she was tenacious. She lifted her feet from the floor and held herself there till she strangled to death. As we took our walk through, we may have captured her outside the room. We did not know exactly where she was kept. I went through on feeling and took pictures when I felt something around. As we got to the door in this series of photos, Ted wondered if I would pick up anything. The first are the photos alone. The second is with a box around the shape moving through.
After I showed the photos, he said, “Yeah, you probably got Ida.” and he opened the door.
A bit more about Ida. Her husband, Francis Orange Gunkel (or Gunkle, Gunckel or Gunckle), had neurosyphilis. If you aren’t familiar with syphilis, it can be dormant or it can turn into neurosyphilis. on Frank’s WWI registration in 1917, it stated, “This man is a physical wreck.” Frank died of pneumonia with neurosyphilis as a secondary cause in 1928. His body was weakened. Ida most likely was infected as well, which would account for her behavior. She died on August 2, 1938. Frank is buried in Fairview Cemetery. We still haven’t found Ida.Frank and Ida had two children, Georgia and Edith. Edith, named most likely for Frank’s mother, died of malnutrition when she was less than a month old in 1909. Her death certificate states, “puny weak child.” Ida’s grandson, Lynn, hanged himself in Ft. Wayne in 1977. Below is a picture of Georgia when she was about 15.
And that was it for Ida. A very small, narrow room. No love, affection..... or help. (Sound familiar, all you Fractured Intentions readers?)
As we trudged on, we moved on through the basement. Again, I snapped some photos that had a lot going on in them. When we started investigating, I also got some interesting shots. I have noted which are the walkthrough and which are during the investigation. I have linked out to them because it is easier to see the fluctuations in the photos that way. The only changes to these photos are the brightness and contrast changes, dimensions, and resolution (most are at 150-300). Look through each album and you will see the progression of things going bump in the night.
Walk through (Links to Facebook photos right now, will change soon):
Basement shapes shifting
Note: There were no lights on. These photos were taken in the dark from my Google Pixel 2 set on burst. I only changed the brightness and contrast on these. I walked down alone but when I got there, there was nothing. I took photos down the hall later during the investigation and got nothing. There was nothing I saw that could do that unless it was something from outside. The only thing up the stairs was a window and there were no lights on that side of the building or nearby trees.
Next up: Coming soon Part 2 of the investigation