Hammond Mansion By Day

Hammond Mansion Investigation

Investigators: Jamie, Debby, Albert, Patsy, Ted, Doug, Joyce and Bridget

History/Results: On October 27, 2001, we took a trip to check out a reportedly haunted mansion in West Virginia. The history of the house dates back to the time when Indians were still a threat to the settlers. The family that built the first house were attacked by bears. Later, the large brick mansion was built on the home site. During the Civil War, the husband and his sons went to war for the Confederacy while the wife and daughters stayed home. While at home, the women would pick off Union soldiers with their rifles. The Union found out who was shooting at their troops and locked the women in the slave quarters on the property.

The slave quarters consisted of a wooden shack with no windows, and a door that locked from the outside so that the slaves could be locked in at night. The women were placed in the building, and a command was given to get rid of them. The command was mistaken as a directive to kill the women, though they were only supposed to move them. Union troops set fire to the shack with the women locked inside. They burned to death.

The house was also the site for a typhoid epidemic. Those suffering from the disease were quarantined on the house's summer porches in the belief that the cooler air would offer comfort from the high fevers. All those afflicted died.

The mansion was occupied again and eventually caught fire and has been made a ruin. Vagrants favor this site as a place to seek shelter, however, in the summer kitchen, a homeless man froze to death in the corner during one cold winter. Another item of supernatural interest is that apparently for 200 years, a coven of witches and warlocks met in the caves and caverns located on and near the Hammond property. They met until authorities felt they were a problem and the cave entrance was sealed. Now a shed stands where the cave is located.

We went to the area during the day in order to get a feel for the setting. We also wanted to check out things such as electricity, and map out the terrain. We never expected to have anything happen. While there, Joyce became distraught and met up with some of us looking at the front of the mansion. She said she heard a baby crying for its mother. Joyce was visibly scared and it took quite a bit of coaxing to convince her to show us where she had first heard the sound. As we approached the area on the side of the house where the summer porches are located, Joyce insisted she heard the crying again. At that moment, the EMF detector started to whine and was reading between 5-8 milligauss, something it has rarely done.

We weren't picking up anything on digital cameras or on our recorders, but the EMF detector periodically spiked. The mansion has not had electricity since the 40's or 50's, and there are no power lines in the area. In fact, where the house is located is very remote backwoods West Virginia. Another thought was that there might be a rock setting off the detector. That was a good thought, but had there been a rock or something else in the ground setting off the detector, the readings would have been constant. However, the EMF detector would pick something up, but then fade away. Also, it picked nothing up laying on the ground. In fact, using the EMF we could follow the disturbance.

The house has a very eerie presence. By the end of the day, we were all on edge, and a few of us opted not to return at night. One investigator wanted to stay home, but we insisted we needed him to operate the EMF. He looked at us and said, "I only liked using this because it never really worked and I could make fun of it." He did venture back with us.