Haunted History 2011 continues with yet more stories from the Royal Governor’s Mansion and Proprietary House in Perth Amboy. I have just been contacted by Steve, who tells me that a lot has happened just in the past week alone, and since my last article. I have to meet with him for a committee meeting tomorrow night at the House, so hopefully I will have more to report on, and maybe we can hang around for another investigation. I imagine the paranormal activity will only accelerate as we near closer to Halloween and All Soul’s Day, where spiritual energy is at its height.
A view into the kitchen area, where Tom captured his EVP below.
Identification of a Spirit
You are now all well aware of one of our resident ghosts, a shadow person named Byron. He was first named by a psychic while she was standing at the base of the first floor steps two years ago, the place where he is normally seen, although he tends to drift around when Steve is there. Then, a year later, another psychic, with no connection to the previous one, confirmed that is what his name was. Well, now we have a little bit more information on him that we were able to dig up. One of the house’s owners in the 1800′s, after Governor William Franklin, was Mathias Bruen, a self-made millionaire merchant who chose Perth Amboy, of all places, as his home. It was during his residency that the hotel was added, and the first major restorations were begun. It is also rumored that the first ghost sightings occurred with these changes. We have known for some time now that Bruen, in fact, owned one slave while living at the mansion, and we feared that Byron was him, but it seems that Byron was actually a mulatto servant at the home, amongst many others, and not a slave. He might have even been the head one, but we cannot be sure.
Either way, every bit of information helps, as maybe it will now be possible to communicate with him, other than him just showing up randomly and startling us. There are many people who believe that knowing a spirit’s name gives you power over them, but I believe that does not apply to spirits or ghosts, only demons. We did not want to know his name and background so badly to have control, we just wanted to be able to communicate with him better, and who knows, maybe help him cross over. Jeff also added this bleak assessment regarding Byron, “Maybe he walks up and down the steps all the time because the people he worked for didn’t give him keys to the rooms, and so he wanders up and down because he has no place to go.” This would be an example of what we investigators call a residual effect, in which a menial task from the person’s life continues over and over again in death.
An EVP in the Kitchen
This next recording comes from Tom Gillissie, who was one of our visitors on October 14th, for Bruce Tango’s event. When we allowed people to roam around the house to take pictures and recordings, he was able to capture this. If you listen closely, right after the person he was with says, “Damn”, and right before he himself says, “I think there’s too many people”, you can clearly hear a voice say what sounds like, “I like it. Like it.” This is one of the clearest ones I have ever heard, and as usual, they did not hear it in person, but only after Tom got home and listened to his recordings. It does not sound like a human voice, and actually ends at the same time that Tom began to talk, ruling him out as the cause for the noise. Many times, just general sounds, breathing, or background noises can sound like a voice during the excitement of trying to find an EVP, but this is definitely a voice, and it does sound other worldly.
I sure hope that if indeed the voice did say that he liked something, he was referring to the countless hours of restoration work we have been doing at the house. I know we can’t please all the people all the time, but if we pleased the dead with our painting, that’s good enough for me!
