We found a house that had been deserted for about 20 years. There was a windmill in the barnyard, so we pulled behind the house and decided to check it out. It was in the winter, but it was a quiet evening, so we got out of the car and just wandered around. The windmill didn't start spinning, so we decided to investigate the house.
It's really important that I try to explain the layout of the house for you to understand the situation. On the first floor, there was an enclosed entry way on the north side of the house.
First we explored the first floor. It was in bad shape, but not dangerous, so we decided to head upstairs and check it out. It was getting dark, so Matt brought along his flashlight, and we stopped at the first bedroom. The door was closed, and due to the warped floors, he had to use all his strength to force it open. It jammed tight against the floor and about halfway open, and we couldn't move it any farther, so we squeezed through and went in. Matt started getting what we describe as "memories" of what had happened there before. He started explaining to me what the family was like and things they used to do. We went back into the hallway and went to the west bedroom. He stared out the window (which looked to the west) and started telling me about all these feelings of horrible sadness and loss. It seemed to have something to do with Christmas's. Anyway, he was practically in tears reliving these feelings, and suddenly the door to the other bedroom (the one that was jammed) slammed shut HARD!! There was no wind that night, so it gave us quite a start. It broke the mood, so we headed back downstairs. We went into the sewing room downstairs, and we were talking about what had happened upstairs, when we heard heavy footsteps in the entryway, obviously stomping snow off his boots. My first thought was that a neighbor or maybe the owner of the place had seen our car, and, since we WERE trespassing, had come to kick us out. We stood close to the north wall, since there was a window between the sewing room and the entryway, and Matt cautiously peeked through the window to see who was there. He saw a large man in bib overalls and a flannel shirt, with a heavy jacket and one of those orange hunting caps with the flaps over the ears heading into the kitchen. Suddenly, we were both overcome with this feeling of intense anger or hatred. I could hear the man stomping through the kitchen, and Matt headed through the doorway and shined his flashlight into the kitchen, figuring we might as well face the music. By this time I was terrified. I followed him closely, and when we went through the kitchen door, no one was there! The man had disappeared into thin air. There was still an extremely strong feeling of anger, though, so we made our exit with no hesitation. We got in the car, with Matt driving, and headed for home. We were on blacktop, and the roads were clear that night. Suddenly, the passenger side front of the car started going down. I was actually looking down into the highway, with the headlight shining on it, as if a havy weight were on the right front fender. Matt thought that maybe the shock had frozen while it was sitting in the yard, so he pulled over and got out to check. When he got to that side of the car, the headlight was even with the right one again, so he shrugged and got back in the car. As we headed back down the road, the right side of the car went down again, with me looking straight into the highway. It finally straightened itself out on its own, and we never did figure out what caused it." Diane & Matt Henry
On March 7, 1999, Chuck and Pam Larson along with Diane & Matt revisited the Barnum House. We parked along the back of the house as seen in the second picture (back porch). The moment I got out to take pictures I was overcome with a horrible stench which reminded me of a septic tank, sulfur or rotten eggs. Everyone else had stayed in the car, but when I told them about the smell, they rolled their windows down and they all smelled it. This irritated me for some reason, and as we drove along the side of the house for more pictures, I suddenly found myself very angry and telling "whatever" it was to get out (not in those words, lol). I decided I would not allow "it" to intimidate me, so we drove back to the place of the smell and lo and behold...the smell was gone! Had it worked? Just telling it to go? Well, we got out to investigate the house and Chuck scoured the area looking for a possible old septic tank, outhouse or something that perhaps the stench had come from, nothing. In the meanwhile, we went into the house to take the pictures you see above. Only one other thing occured, that being a door slamming, nothing else happened and I can't positively say that that wasn't caused by the wind. As we were leaving I noticed that a cemetery ajoined the property, Matt & Diane had not noticed before when they were there. But, I must say they both turned a little whiter when they realized that the place that the ghost had gotten off the hood of their car was at the corner where the cemetery ended.....
We entered through there, and it gave way to the kitchen, which took up the entire west side of the house.
To the right was a doorway that lead into another room, possibly a living room.
On the south side of the room is another doorway leading out to a front open porch (see top picture). On the east side is a set of double doors that leads into what once was probably a parlour.
On the north side is the stairway going upstairs, and a doorway into what could have been a sewing room, that extended north so that it was even with the entryway door. Going up the stairs,
which head north, you reach the top and have to do a 180 degree turn down a hallway to get to the bedrooms. At the end of this hallway, as you're going south, is a doorway into the first bedroom. If you turn right, another short hallway leads to the second bedroom, which looks west.
We returned to the Barnum House one more time in the fall of '99 to get some night shots. I am happy to report there was no smells, or abnormal pictures taken during this last visit....or was there??? .... :o)
