Old Town Quilts
Keller, TexasPre-Investigation
Investigation
Pre-Investigation
Old Town Quilts is located at 140 Olive Street in Keller, Texas and provides quilting services, fabrics, notions, classes for quilting, and books relating to quilting topics. The building that is home to Old Town Quilts is one of the oldest remaining in Keller. Construction on the house began in 1899 and was completed in its present condition in 1940. The house was originally located at 105 North Main Street at the corner of Main and FM1709. It was moved to its current location in 2004.The owners most commonly associated with this home are Hugh and Lyda White. Lyda White was recognized for many years as being one of the most prominent of Keller’s citizens.
Lyda White was born in 1895 in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Lyda’s father ran a ranch located near Ponca City, OK. After her family moved to Texas, Lyda was sent to a private school in Arlington which has now evolved into the University of Texas at Arlington. Lyda later obtained a degree from the College of Industrial Arts in Denton, now known as Texas Women’s University. While at Arlington, Lyda met and later married Hugh White.
Lyda became a schoolteacher and later worked for the WPA, a depression era government work program, in several locations. They finally settled in Keller with Lyda teaching school and Hugh ranching and owning several businesses. They had three children, Betty Bayne, Virginia, and Brian. Brian committed suicide at the age of 19 and is buried in Bourland Cemetery in Keller. Betty died about three years ago and Virginia is still living in Houston. Lyda died in the house (what year).
Old Town Quilts owner Becky Harness began renting the home in 2001 and later acquired it, moving it to its present location. Becky said that she had always admired the home and was delighted to discover it offered for rent. At the time she was looking for a place to open a business and jumped at the opportunity to rent the old house.
The house is quite large with 13 rooms. There is a very distinctive large stone fireplace located in the front room.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
Becky told us that several people have commented to her that they feel like there is a presence in the house. Anna, a current employee said that she feel this. Becky said that another employee, Nancy, has reported similar feelings. There is a bathroom located off one of the front bedrooms. Anna said that she has always had a very creepy feeling from this room. Finally Becky told whomever it was to go away and that since then Anna has not had the bad feelings from this room. There is a closet next to this bathroom. The walls of this closet have a fabric padding on the wall. At the time of our pre-investigation we had no idea why the walls were padded. We would later develop a possible theory for this.
Last year around Thanksgiving they were doing construction in the very back bedroom which they use for sewing and for classes. They were in the process of removing a wall to enlarge the room. Anna was sitting at a table sewing. Nancy’s husband came in the room and saw an older woman sitting next to Anna. Robert spoke to Anna while watching the older woman. The apparition remained for several seconds and then just wasn’t there.
There are reports of things going missing. This is believed by Nancy’s daughter, Sarah, to be the work of a young spirit boy. Becky said that on one occasion a chord of fabric was missing. They all searched off and on all day to find it. It finally showed up right in the spot where they had been looking.
Becky said that she has smelled lilac in the front bedroom on several occasions. They have also heard strange noises particularly coming from the attic.
After we had visited Old Town Quilts and prepared our pre-investigation report, Becky told us that a customer who claimed some psychic ability visited her. This person reported that she picked up on several spirits in the house. She focused on the room where the bathroom that Anna had mentioned earlier. She claimed that she felt that someone had been trapped or locked in this closet and that it made the person feel panicky.
Becky was later able to discover that Brian had been subject to fits or seizures and that he was thought to be schizophrenic. It is quite possible that Brian may have been locked in this closet on occasion. The strong emotions that would have come from this could possibly put a psychic imprint on this area of the home and cause some of the feelings that come from this room and closet.
Investigation
Stockyards Paranormal Investigations conducted an investigation of Old Town Quilts in Keller, Texas on the night of February 6, 2007. Terri’s daughter Jamie and our guest psychic, Paula Schemmerhorn, joined team members Terri, Dawn, Kevin, Pat, and Rebecca.We began the evening by having Paula go through the house with Terri and the homeowner, Becky. Paula had not been given any previous information on the house and she attempted to pick up on any spirit activity. Jamie attempted to video the walk through. However she quickly lost power on her fully charged batteries. Terri also experienced drained batteries with the camera. She had put in fresh batteries at the beginning of the evening. Many paranormal investigators have reported drained batteries at haunted locations.
During Paula initial walkthrough, she reported in the back of the home that she kept hearing a church hymn called “Because He Lives”, playing in her mind. When the group got to the main room she mentioned this and Becky pointed out a sign with this inscription hanging on the wall.
Paula was able to pick up on the fact that this was not the original location for the house. She said that she picked up on a sense of peacefulness. She felt like there was a lot of spirit activity in the house. She said that she could see a lot of people, a lot of activity in this home. She admitted that she had been unable to pick up on the spot where Lyda had passed and that she was initially unable to pick up on any single spirit. She said that she suspected the type of paranormal activity that would be encountered in this house would be the sighting of apparitions, electrical problems, and things going missing.
Terri later found two possible EVPs from the walkthrough. The first is a slight moaning noise that can be heard while Becky is showing us some pictures of the family. The second one comes a few minutes later and sounds like someone saying “rocks”.
After Paula’s initial walk through, the team gathered in the main room to review the history and reported paranormal activity of the house. Becky told us that the current location of the house sits on grounds once owned by Keller’s original Methodist Church.
We agreed that we would focus on two rooms. The first being referred to as the old “gammel” room. A gammel is a machine used in quilting. Old Town Quilts features two of these and the older one is located in this room. The room also has the bathroom that gives off a negative vibe. There is also a closet next to the bathroom in this room. The closet is the one that has padding along the walls.
The other focus room would be the sewing room in the back part of the home. This is the room where an apparition had been seen.
The team would divide into two groups with Pat, Terri, Dawn, and Becky starting in the old gammel room and Rebecca, Jamie, Paula and Kevin starting in the sewing room. As a controlled experiment we placed a ladle that had been used by Lyda on a piece of paper in one of the middle rooms. We drew lines on this paper and placed the paper and ladle on a table. As the evening would proceed we would ask any spirits in the house to move the ladle. With the paper marked we would be able to tell if the ladle had been moved.
The group that started in the sewing room found no unusual EMF readings in this room. The average reading was around a point one or point two. This group worked the room for about thirty-five minutes with no unusual activity to report. Kevin later reported that he felt like there was someone behind him and he kept turning his head to see who was there. Paula later said that she picked up on several spirits in this room that were just watching us.
The team that started in the old gammel room began by asking questions using the dowsing rods. Lyda reported that she was present along with Brian and Betty Bayne. There was no response when we asked if Hugh was present. Several questions went unanswered until we asked if Brian was angry and there was a quick and strong response. We asked if there was any way we could help Brian and again he answered yes. Terri asked if Brian would like the closet door left open sometimes and he said yes. He also responded yes when asked if he would like the padding removed from the closet.
While the first group was in the old gammel room, Becky took a photograph of the creepy closet. There is a light anomaly in this photo. There is a streak of light coming from the closet. Terri was able to get a similar photo but several others did not have this same streak.
In the old gammel room we noticed a higher overall EMF reading. There was an especially higher reading in the creepy closet. However this is probably attributable to an exposed wire. Jamie said that this room gave her a very eerie feeling. One that she didn’t pick up on in the rest of the house.
Paula said that she picked up on the presence of a young boy in the old gammel room. She said she felt as though he was yelling, calling out for help. Paula said that this could be a residual haunting, not an interactive spirit.
Both teams came together to spend some time in the main room of the house and ask questions through the dowsing rods. Terri was operating the rods during this experiment. The rods responded positively to the following questions:
Is Betty here?
Is Richard here? (Paula was getting the name Richard. There was no previous information on anyone named Richard associated with the house).
Is Richard connected to the old church previously located near this house?
Does Richard like the hymn “Because He Lives”?
We received no response to these questions:
Is Lyda here?
Is Brian here?
During our dowsing rods experiment, Pat said that he noticed the fragrance of something sweet, he compared it to bubblegum. A short time later, Paula noticed a similar smell. Also during the dowsing rod experiment, Dawn felt drawn to the rear sewing room. She went back there and took a few pictures.
During the evening we got several photos with strange lights. We only got a few orbs photos. Dawn took one photo that includes bubbly lights coming off a wig stand. We have included these photos on our website for the readers examination.
At the end of the evening the ladle placed on the paper had not moved. The analysis of our recordings has revealed no EVPs. We had an experienced psychic with us who reported the presence of several spirits in the room. We have several members of the group as well as people who frequent Old Town Quilts report unusual feelings from the old gammel room and it’s closet and bathroom. We did pick up several light anomalies in our photographs. Unfortunately these can’t be viewed as conclusive evidence since light reflections can frequently play tricks on the photographs.
Spirits or ghosts do not perform on cue. There has not been a lot of reported activity at this home and it could well be that the spirits that are here are content with their lot in the afterlife and don’t feel the need to act up.
We had a great time on this investigation and would like to thank Becky for her hospitality. The house is important to Keller’s history and it’s nice to know there are people like Becky who are willing to work so hard to preserve this history. We would love to come back on another occasion and see if we could get more responses from the spirits that reside here.
Pictures
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Picture Five
Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVPs)