Mount Gilead Cemetary Keller, Texas

On the evening of May 21, 2007 the SPI team investigated Mt. Gilead Cemetery in Keller, Texas. Mount Gilead Baptist Church was established over 100 years ago. It was the first Church that was established after Tarrant County was formed. Many of the grave markers date to the 1800s. Legend has it that Mt. Gilead Church was burned to the ground during an Indian raid in 1858. Church historian, Becky Harness said that there is no firm evidence to back this up, but that it is an accepted part of the Church’s history.

The team members on this investigation were Terri, Dawn, Karen, and Kevin. We were joined by psychic Paula Schemmerhorn. Becky Harness was our host for the evening.

We began the evening with Paula and Terri walking through the cemetery to see what they could pick up on. Kevin walked with them to record their thoughts. During this phase both Paula and Terri picked up scenes that reminded them of a busy churchyard from the 1800s and early 1900s. While they could not pick up on any individuals they did see lots of residual activity including kids playing.

As we were leaving the cemetery from the walkthrough, Paula described how she could see the original church and gave a description of the building and it’s alignment to the cemetery. Becky later confirmed that this was an accurate description with the exception of Paula visualizing s steeple. Paula did not pick up on the Indian attacks but did say that she could see people gathering at the church to feel safe, perhaps from threatened Indian attacks.

The entire group then returned to the cemetery to begin our investigation. We walked throughout the cemetery with recorders and took lots of pictures. Paula got a really strange set of two photos. They seem to show a thin light splitting the middle of the photo. You can look at these photos on this website.

Just a few minutes into the investigation Kevin picked up an evp, which seems to say, “I got the ball”. This to some extent coincides with an earlier feeling that Terri had of children playing.

Toward the end of the evening we gathered into a group. We were seated in lawn chairs in an open part of the cemetery away from trees and tombstones. We tried at this time to communicate with any spirits present. After a few minutes we noticed the temperature begin to drop. Paula said that she was picking up on the name Julia. Terri said that the same name had just come to her before Paula had spoken. Here is Terri’s description of what happened……..

“We had gathered as a group and we were concentrating on communicating with the spirits, trying to draw our energies together. As we sat in silence the name Julie or Julia popped into my head. Earlier I’d seen the name Juliet Grimes on a headstone and thought how I’d like that name better than my new baby niece’s name Juliana. I’d also wondered if we were related somehow as my mother’s maiden name was Grimes. As we continued to sit in silence the name kept coming back to me, Julie or Julia, Julie or Julia. I couldn’t get rid of the name even though I tried to convince myself it had to do with the headstone or my niece, Juliana. Finally, Paula spoke up and said, “I keep getting the name Julie or Julia.” I was shocked!”

We got a few responses on the dowsing rods, but we couldn’t sustain activity on them. The cold spots seemed to come and go every few minutes. We noticed that there was no wind at all during this time. We did not pick up any EVP activity during this time and experienced no other unusual activity.

We really enjoyed our evening at Mt. Gilead Cemetery. We all felt that there was some activity here, but that the spirits were not really used to interacting with humans. We look forward to returning for a follow up investigation at a later date. Many thanks to Becky for hosting us and providing great information on the history of the cemetery and the church.

Check out EVPs for clips from Mt Gilead!