The Haunted Farnsworth Inn, Gettysburg
Witness: Jaci
Location: Farnsworth House Inn in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Date of Encounter: July 25-27, 2003
My mother and I arrived in Gettysburg around noon on Friday, July 25, 2003. She had made reservations to stay in the Farnsworth House bed and breakfast the month before. We are Civil War re-enactors and we visit Gettysburg several times a year. We were supposed to stay in the new addition of the house where it is not as haunted, but due to a cancellation, we were able to stay in the old part of the house for one night.
My mother (Sue) and I were taken up to our room — the Schultz Room. The lady from the bookstore turned the key to unlock to lock, but the lock kept turning in the opposite direction. My eyes were wide with excitement. She let out a sigh and said, "It looks like you have a visitor, but don't worry, they just like to play tricks." Before we got to the inn I kept thinking to myself "I won't be afraid if I see a ghost," but now I was a little scared. Finally she got the door unlocked. She warned me that I might see Mary (a midwife ghost) or Jeremy (a little boy ghost) because I was 14 years old. We walked into our room. There was a narrow hallway about ten feet long, as soon as we walked through it it opened up into the actual room. To the right was a bathroom and there were two antique wooden chairs in the room. One had a pillow on it and the other had a statue of a cat on it. My mom moved the statue under the chair and said out loud, "If there are any spirits here, you are welcome to visit with us." I just giggled. We set our suitcases in the corner of the room behind one of the chairs. Then we decided to explore the beautiful house. We locked the door behind us when we left. The floorboards creaked with every step we took. We walked through the hallway and up the stairs to the attic, which had a padlock on it. It used to be the Garret Room, but it was closed down because of too much energy, and the bathroom to that room would sometimes turn into a bloody mess that could not be cleaned. My mom was in front of me and suddenly the padlock on the Garret door began to violently shake. Then some sort of energy rushed past my mother, down the stairs, past me, and it blew some tiny leaves on the floor in its wake. We looked at each other and began to giggle with amazement. She walked up the rest of the stairs and peered through the cracks of the wooden door. There was a fan that was turned off inside the room, but nothing that could make that heavy lock shake. Whatever was up there didn't want us to go any further than what we already had.
We took pictures everywhere in the hallways. About five minutes after, we went back to our room. I unlocked the door and gasped when I saw our bed. "What?" my mom asked. I said nothing but slowly walked into the room. She followed behind me and was shocked. The covers on our bed were all messed up and wrinkled and the pillows were all lying down… as if someone was lying there resting. "Oh my gosh!" we both exclaimed. We straightened the bed and my mom said, "let's try it again." So we walked outside our room and closed the door. About two minutes later we opened the door to see that the covers were again messed up. There was no one in that room… at least no one who was still living.
I was a bit afraid now, but nothing was going to spoil my fun! When we came back from dinner, we explored the house again. Suddenly, the sound of loud footsteps were behind me. My mom and I froze. We got the courage to turn around and there… standing right in front of me, were two teenage boys. A big sigh of relief came from me. "Hey!" one said, "you ghost huntin' too?" We all smiled, "Yeppers," I said. They were staying in the Jenny Wade room, and their parents were in a different room. "Hey, you wanna see our room? It is soooo cool!" My mom and I walked behind them and entered their room. It was indeed a cool room! "Mind if I take pictures?" my mom asked. "Heck no…take them! You might get something on film." We took our pictures and then showed them our room. They took pictures also hoping to get a spirit on film.
That night, we went to bed around midnight. I was on the right side of the bed and my mom was on the left. I clutched my blankets tight because I was afraid something would pull them down. I begged my mom to sleep with a light on and she agreed. I also slept with my glasses on. The next thing I know my mom is shaking me, "Jaci…Jaci…Jaci he's on the bed…on the bed." For a moment I forgot where I was and I got angry she woke me up. "For crying out loud mom, I'm trying to sleep. What do you want?" She swallowed and said, "He's on the bed…he's sitting on my feet." I slowly turned and looked at the corner of the bed just in time to see the edge rise up as if someone got up. There was no change in temperature and no mist or anything. We fell back asleep. Later in the night I heard… creeeeeeeeeek, creeeek, crrreeeeeeeeeeek. My mom once again, "Jaci…" I told her, "I hear it." She replied, "the chair… he's on the chair." The wooden antique chair squeaked and creaked all night. Someone was in that chair and was squirming to get comfortable, but I couldn't see him. Once again, I went back to sleep. The last experience for that night happened around 5 AM. Mom and I woke up and heard the lock being messed with. Our first thought was someone was breaking in. We crawled to the front of the bed and watched as the lock on the deadbolt turned, the door opened as wide as it could, it closed again slowly and gently, and the lock turned and locked itself. No one was in the hall. Later that day we were taken to our new room the Eisenhower room. That night we went to the basement for story telling and told the fortune teller about the night we had. She said it was the soldier who died here and he was very thankful that we allowed him to rest in our room and when the door opened, it was him letting us know he was leaving. Earlier that day we bought Civil War soldier figurines for Jeremy to play with. We set them up in our room on a trunk and patiently waited for something to happen.
I got my shower around 11 PM and was getting dressed when my mom said, "Do you smell that?" I said, "Smell what?" She waved me over to where she was and in the one area in our room, the smell of cigar smoke was very strong. We stepped outside to see if anyone was smoking, and there was no one around. I took a bunch of pictures and my mom went into the bathroom and got her shower. When she came out, we both saw a white feather (about three inches long) lying on the green bed. We ran to the bookstore in our bare feet and pajamas and told the people in there what all had happened. The young man said, "I've heard of people reporting cigar smoke in that room, but never of finding a feather." Then one lady spoke up and said, "Yes, and we don't have feather pillows here." That feather wasn't on the bed before.
We went back to our room and the smell was stronger than before. We sat on the bed and talked and suddenly my mom said, "He's touching my hand." She told me something was gently stroking her hand. The room was so cold I'm surprised we couldn't see our breath. After a few minutes, the smell went away and the room was warmer. "I didn't say this when he was in the room, but he was stepping on my foot." We laughed.
We went to bed around 12:30 AM. I woke up around 1:30 AM and kicked off all of the covers. I was sweating bullets. "Jeez, Mom, I'm sweating bullets over here." She was awake and replied, "That feels nice." I had a confused look on my face, "What does?" and she said, "You playing with my hair." I shot straight up and said, "I'm not playing with your hair." Half asleep she said, "Oh, well it still feels nice." I lied back down and closed my eyes, trying to get some sleep. The covers were pulled back on top of me. I sighed and kicked them off again, not looking at what pulled them up. About 30 seconds later they were pulled back up to my neck and someone gently pinched my arm. I kicked them off disgusted, "Mom stop covering me up! I'm way too hot!" "I didn't cover you up, I'm lying here trying to sleep." she said. Later I was woken up by mom saying, "Mary, Mary, Mary! Jaci, it's Mary!" I woke up and frantically looked around the room. "Where, where, where?" She pointed right beside me, "there, there, there!" But I couldn't see her. I could not see what she looked like, but my mom did. She could see the wrinkles on her face the trim on her dress, and her hair pulled up and braided.
When we woke up in the morning at 6 AM, my mom went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and I studied the toys we laid out for Jeremy. Three of them were moved!
What I tell you is the truth. I hope that if you ever go to Gettysburg, you can experience what my mom and I have.
