Dennis Webster - Haunted Mohawk Valley

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Dennis Webster, with Bernadette Peck

All rights reserved

All images courtesy of the Ghost Seekers of Central New York unless otherwise noted.

First published 2011

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.154.4

Webster, Dennis, 1966

Haunted Mohawk Valley / Dennis Webster with Bernadette Peck.

p. cm.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-266-3

1. Haunted places--Mohawk River Valley (N.Y.) 2. Ghosts--Mohawk River Valley (N.Y.) I. Peck, Bernadette. II. Title.

BF1472.U6W434 2011

133.1097476--dc22

2011015496

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the authors or The History Press. The authors and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

DENNIS: This book is dedicated to those who seek answers for the unknown, lovers of the mystery, seekers of the spirit and all who partake in the quest for ghosts.

BERNADETTE: This book is dedicated to the spirits that watch over us and the hope that everyone everywhere will experience their presence in our world during their lifetime here.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

DENNIS: In the summer of 2008, I attended a presentation by the Ghost Seekers of Central New York (CNY) at the Oneida County Historical Society in Utica, New York, where I sat in the first row of a packed house. Bernadette Peck and the rest of her seasoned team enthralled the audience with their findings of paranormal investigations conducted in homes, churches, cemeteries, pubs, jails and battlefields. I sat in stunned silence as I listened to the electronic voice phenomena and looked at pictures of orbs, mist and apparitions. The scientific equipment they use was unparalleled, and time was taken to explain the technical specifications, usage and results. This was a passionate display by ghost seekers who knew their craft and displayed the joy and love they have for seeking and archiving the unknown. I went home and sat alone in my kitchen, thinking of events around me that I could not see or feel.

Flash forward to a snowy, dark evening in October 2008 at the Dunkin Donuts in New Hartford, New York, where I sat and chatted with the Ghost Seekers of CNY. I talked a long time with the leader of this first-class group of ghost hunters, Bernadette, along with her team members Ed Livingston, Leonard Bragg, David Peck, Marlene Marrello and Kathleen Durr. I was enthralled by their kindness, passion and professionalism. This was a serious group doing important work, and their quest is one of significance. I felt humbled to be in their presence as we discussed this book and their willingness for me to tell their tales of the unexplained.

Ghosts and unexplained phenomena require an open mind. Some people among us are born with special gifts of sight, and others use scientific equipment that can reach beyond the spectrum of mere mortals. So sit in a chair in a dark corner, light a candle, cover your lap with a blanket and prepare to be educated and enthralled by the seekers of ghosts.

BERNADETTE: In most ways, Im just like everyone else, except for the fact that sometimes, since I was a child, Ive been able to see ghosts. Some, I believe, are earthbound, while others seem to be able to travel back and forth from another dimension into our earthly world. It all started in my childhood as a visitation from a woman who would appear to me at night in my bedroom. She wore a red dress and had ink-black hair and eyes. She scared me. Who was she? What did she want?

I attended St. Marys school in New York Mills, New York, for a Catholic education. I felt that the school repressed my gift, and the guilt of being able to see supposedly dead people caused me at times to deny this gift. Of course, seeing the original black-and-white movie 13 Ghosts excited me and inspired me to think that maybe there really were ghosts. Every adult I knew told me that there was no such thing as ghosts and that it was just my imagination. But I knew what I saw! Then, one day when I was skipping down the sidewalk, I had an epiphany that I did not quite understand. When I die Im not really going to be gone. Ill always be right here, alive! It was so profound then, and at times still is, but now I truly believe it.

Sometimes I would try looking for ghosts in cemeteries and old, abandoned houses. I called them haunted houses. I came to realize that ghosts were everywhere. I wanted to know why.

As I reached adulthood, I was drawn to the ghost world and all things paranormal. I continued seeing ghostly specters, and in 1992, in the home my husband and I built, I was privy to witnessing my first shadow person moving swiftly through the hall. It looked just like the shadow of a living person, except that no one else was in the house other than my sleeping husband. I said, So this is what Ive read about and researched? There it was, right in front of me, and I felt a little unnerved about it. Not long after that, an apparition materialized right before my eyes as I sat watching television that, amazingly, looked just like my deceased brother Jim, complete with plaid shirt. My father also reported seeing an apparition in a window of this home as we relaxed on the patio. Nobody was in the house. I sometimes believe that my father also possesses the gift of sight and that I have somehow inherited this gift from him. He is never afraid to talk about his ghostly experiences.

Can you imagine, by now, how my thirst for knowledge and understanding about the afterlife, as well as why some of us dont seem to go or stay in their resting place, had become my passion? Why do some become earthbound and yet others decide to return and visit at will?

After my deceased grandmother appeared and was apparently talking to me with her eyes, not her lips, I decided to find other like-minded people who had experienced the same things that I had. By now I had read every book and bit of material I could get my hands on about this phenomenon. We all had to want to seek answers about the world of ghosts that is apparently very much part of our everyday lives.

Some came for thrills and chills, but after years I was able to hand-pick the truly serious and dedicated ones to embark on a journey of the unknown and unanswered. We are seekers of the truth and the understanding of what happens to people after their earthly passing. We are, all of us, in a society that has become so focused on progress that we sometimes fail to realize that, as human beings, we have somehow left out our spirituality. I now truly believe that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience.

I will never defend what I believe in or what I do. If I were to do that, I would have to admit that there is something to defend, and I believe there isnt.

I believe that you dont have to have any degree to experience the paranormal or research the paranormal. The world that we cant explainthat of supernatural and paranormal eventsdoesnt ask for a certificate or diploma for you to gain admittance. There are those who have gifts bestowed on themsinging, dancing and artistsand the second sight of the paranormal is also delved out by someone greater than us. Im one of the lucky ones who was born with this gift, and Im here to share with you the experiences of me and my team. I believe communication with ghosts/spirits is possible only if we open our eyes and hearts to it.