December Musings

Well, here we are again. Winter weather is here!

It's the end of another year, and perhaps the end of the world if we listen to some of the folks who believe it all comes to a grinding stop on December 21st.  I am of the belief that perhaps this will not be the dire event that some people believe it to be, but rather a bit of an awakening spiritual for many people. I think the sun will set on December 21st and will rise again on December 22nd and life will continue on. (hopefully!)

It's been a busy year. Even though I cut my schedule down quite a bit, it was still chaotic! The last book came out in January, there were book signings to attend, haunted events to put together, overnight ghosthunts to attend, kids to enjoy, a house to plan, a husband to supervise and all while working on yet another book. 

It seems as if research is never done. I love the research part of any project to the point that I believe I must have been a project manager in another life. (that would be sandwiched between my previous life as a country singer and my other past life as a Confederate soldier LOL)

  Research on book #5 (2014 Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum) will continue and I hope it will be out in late 2014. Before my favorite holiday of Halloween would be ideal! 

Book #4 should be out in a week or two...and will hopefully be a great resource for lovers of West Virginia hauntings and folklore. It is called "Fireside Folklore of West Virginia"

The new book will feature 24 chapters with each chapter focusing on old, and not so old, haunting's and folklore across the Mountain State. I was very happy to have Lisa Minney, owner and publisher of West Virginia's largest independent publication, write the foreward for the book. Thank you, Lisa and thank you Two-Lane Livin'!!

 To write a book is like giving birth. Cigars, anyone?

Power outages during the Franken -Storm

Halloween this year was very odd. Never before have I seen that much snow at one time!

We had the effects of a Noreaster hit us while Hurricaine Sandys moisture added to the mix. All in all we had about 3 feet of snow in central West Virginia. The power was off for 8 days. What fun though! I DID miss hot water, but it was great to slow down a bit and enjoy life. Farm chores had to be done in daylight hours, house cleaning was minimal, and water to wash with was warmed on the woodstove. I read by oil lamp and flashlight at night. Kinda cool. On the down side of the storm, people lost homes, business roofs collapsed (8 here in Nicholas County WV) and food spoiled. Many people lost entire freezers and fridges full of food. Gas stations couldn't pump gas if they did not have electric and of course, that added to the chaos. We survived though!

Snow on the Swinging Bridge and broken trees

Website Updates!

Tour dates, festivals, conferences, and events that I am scheduling will be posted at my website this month www.HauntedHistory.net  

 I have already listed the Ohio State Reformatory dates for 2013. They will go up for sale online on Saturday January 5th at noon. The Reformatory holds a warm spot in my heart...and always will. Strange how a building can "grab" you like that. One of the volunteers told me years ago that the building picked her...not the other way around, So true!

The Ohio State Reformatory

Mobile Phone update

Our website is now a more mobile friendly website with text that is much easier to read on smaller screens and a sleeker more simple design. Check it out on your smart phone at www.HauntedHistory.net

    

As the month draws nearer to its end,

 I hope you have a great Christmas season and a wonderful, memory filled New Year!

Sherri Brake

Prison Ghosts

The Ohio State Reformatory

Okay. I know it's an old creepy building. I know it has a dark history and that many men were murdered and felt their last breath slip away while incarcerated in this place. But what....and why would you linger is such a hell hole like this in the afterlife? Wouldn't you want to "go" somewhere pretty with green fields, birds singing and the sun shining? Why spend eternity slithering around in a dark and dreary building like a prison?

The Ohio State Reformatory

There seems to be a general consensus among prisoners that if you die in prison, your soul stays in prison. You are serving an eternal sentence with no chance of parole.

Eastern State Penitentiary

Take for instance this photograph I took of an old door at Eastern State Pen. My husband and I visted this historic prison in the summer of 2009. Roaming the halls was one thing, but stepping into a cell gave you a completely different feeling. Your body knows the difference between a "happy" place and a "not so happy" place. Stepping over the doorway and into a cell gave me an overbearing sense of dread and a mild claustrophobia-like feeling of suffocation.

 Can you even imagine what went on inside the heads of those men who were not mentally insane ? Feelings of desperation, anger, hate, resentment and fear?

Solitary confinement cell at Eastern State Pen

What a recipe for a haunting!

Eastern State Pen prisoners in the yard

And what of those prisons who executed the condemned? What kind of spirits haunt areas where men- in the name of justice- snuffed out other mens lives? The firing squads, the hangings, the electric chair and the needle. The list of the executed in America is sadly a long one. Both men and women were put to death legally. I have come across records of men...and women being burned at the stake in Colonial America. Not to mention to hundreds of illegal lynchings that took place in small town America.

Whitegate Cemetery, West Virginia

And what of the locations where the prisoners were buried? Would they be haunted as well? Would the souls of those hung and electrocuted for their crimes wander the burial ground? Whitegate cemetery in Moundsville West Virginia is a great example of a prison cemetery. Hundreds are buried here with only a simple license plate style marker. These were the bodies of men who were not claimed by their families after dying in prison...or after their execution was completed. Just a simple field, no fancy statues or marble markers...just little white plates with names and dates.

The paranormal field tends to be a subject that offers more questions than answers. Why do we haunt? Are we really stuck in the Afterlife? Can we help ghosts?

One thing is for sure. Prison's are haunted. They have been...and will continue to be.

Maybe that's why I like spending so much time investigating them and writing books about the subject? Who knows? Maybe I was a prisoner or a guard in a past life?

Now THATS another Blog!