Out in west central Texas, among what was once prime peanut fields you can find the community of Stephenville, a town with a good deal of history, harkening back to the days of Indian raids and some of the state’s most elite Confederate cavalry, who left their homesteads to fight in the Civil War.  What they found when they returned to those farms is pivotal to a paranormal investigation by the ASUP a hundred years later.  Today, the area is central to the petroleum industry that made Texas great once again in the twentieth century, the town is prosperous and history is venerated here.

Our case involves a family whose roots can be traced back to the glory days of the Lone Star State. They live on property that was once part of a vast peanut farm and they earn their living working for the oil companies.  This home is comfortable, well appointed and filled with keepsakes from the family’s assignments to the oil fields of the Middle East.  Father and Mother are currently on an assignment in Saudi Arabia, their oldest son lives in the house with his wife and newborn baby, and the youngest child in the family only recently arrived home to go to high school in New England after spending most of her life in American oil company compounds overseas.  Another older brother is also a resident, but was not at home when the team came to visit.

The family has lived in this house for ten years and from their first memories of the home, there has always been a ghost, or possibly two.  Mother and Father have seen the apparition, as have all of the children and as a group they generally accept it as a fact of life.  Now with a baby in the house and a very apprehensive new mother, there are some worries.  As described by the family during the investigation as well as to our researchers before the visit, the ghost has apparently become much more active than usual, while they often saw the presence passing through the home; it had never become interactive before.  It now could empty a cupboard, move items or hide them, flash lights on and off at will and most disconcerting, was now able to turn on a toy mobile over the newborn’s crib.  Was this new energy something bad?

Given the fact that the apparitions were witnessed by all the residents, there still was a nagging question from the start of the investigation.  The eyewitness accounts all reported that the original ghost was wearing a uniform of some sort and originally it simply passed through the house, non-responsive to those around him and usually dematerializing in front of a breakfront in the formal dining room, pausing for a few seconds, then disappearing. He was described as average height and build with long salt and pepper hair tied back in a ponytail. They kids in the family came to call him “Mister Old Man.”

As with most case investigations, the cause of an apparition’s travels can be found, if you are willing to look.  During the interview it was learned that the entire bottom section of the breakfront was filled with a collection of Jewish artifacts brought home by the Mother of the house from one of her trips to the Middle East and referred to by their daughter as being religious in nature.  Outside the formal interview, we learned that at just 16, the daughter spoke several languages including ones of the Middle East and had studied the customs of the Bedouin culture. Otherwise a typical Texas teenager, she exhibits an understanding of the land into which she had been born and exhibited an intelligence that one might expect from a graduate student. Further discussions led to her admitting that she had argued with her father about their latest plans for her education, and finished her discussion with us with a telling comment, “Board school is boarding school, no matter where it is!”  Her personal curiosity, not fear had led to our invitation to the house, we might add.

A walk through the house by investigators in pairs did not raise anything suspicious, the baby was happy, the family seemed well balanced, except for the young mother who was concerned that there might be something in the house that could possibly be harmful. The younger daughter even spoke about how other cultures might see such a visitation. The two girls in the house had even drawn two pictures of what they saw, one next to the main door of the house, another in the bathroom, where the youngest was interrupted while showering.

After the walk through, we set up a K-2 session in the formal dining area of the house, where the activity seemed to gravitate. There was no lapse between the team sitting down and the beginning of the session. The K-2s started to react almost immediately without being prompted, even though three earlier sweeps did not find any unusual EMF readings during the investigation. This totally unnerved the baby’s mother who ran from the house until she regained her composure.

During this session we learned that the “soldier” owned the peanut farm on which the house had been built. He was in the Confederate cavalry and a Master Mason, who was very upset by what he found when he returned to his home.  This was the frontier before the war, and once the military aged men were gone, the Indians took to raiding the farms, burning them and extracting a fearsome price on all who remained.  Coming home he found his farm in ruins, an economy devastated and no one to help.  Nevertheless he did succeed in rebuilding the operation.

It was ascertained that he loved children and was drawn by the new baby in the house, he admitted to turning on the mobile over the crib to entertain the newcomer and meant him no harm.  He was rather upset with the youngest daughter however, who he did not see as a Texan; she had been born in Saudi Arabia and lived in Europe most of her life.  It took some explaining that the same might have been true if the “old man” had taken his wife with him to Gettysburg where his child would be a Yankee. The reaction to that was one of humor.  He also indicated that he had witnessed the daughters confrontation with her Father, which was unacceptable to his way of thinking.  It was explained that this was the 21^st century and young women dressed, spoke and had different beliefs than his Victorian sensibilities might allow in his day. Both girls apologized for their behavior, which seemed to please him.

In turn he was told by the team leader that he had to modify his own behavior and had to promise that he would not surprise them anymore.  He was reminded that he had taken an oath to protect his fellow Texans and that as a Mason he was sworn to do the same for all.  He indicated that he would meet his obligations, protect the family, even the little Yankee girl and be more subtle.

After we left the home, the girls told us that they continued to communicate with “Mister Old Man,” by asking him to rap on the dining room table top as he had with the K-2.  They said they conversed with the spirit for several more hours and were pleased with what they learned. They said that they now had no intentions of asking anyone to remove the spirit, feeling protected, rather than threatened by their residential ghost.

”Mr. Old Man” by back door as they saw him.

The youngest girl in the house called out to her sister in law when she turned to see “Mr. Old Man,” at the bathroom door. He was taller than she, probably around 5’9” and transparent.