GALION – “Are there any spirits here?”
This was the question posed by paranormal investigator Barry Moneysmith in the foyer of Brownella Cottage in Galion. In my sweaty palms I held two metal dowsing rods, commonly used by paranormal investigators as a way to communicate with the other side.
“If there are any spirits here, please cross the rods that Brittany is holding,” Moneysmith announced to the room.
The theory is, the rods act as a conductor of hidden energy sources, and spirits reside within these fields and draw upon this energy to manifest themselves. I focused my energy on keeping the rods level as Moneysmith requested any spirits present to please cross the rods, their way of answering a yes-or-no question.
I can’t explain how it happened. But I watched the two rods cross in front of me – the confirmation that Moneysmith and I were apparently not alone in the cottage.
“Is this a man we’re speaking to?” Moneysmith asked. The rods crossed again. “Is this Bishop Brown?” he asked.
Bishop William Montgomery Brown was the original resident of the cottage after it was built in 1887. He resided alongside his wife Ella Bradford Brown, the combined namesakes of Brownella Cottage. According to Moneysmith, the spirits of the husband and wife are still quite active in the cottage, along with Ella’s mother, Mary Scranton Bradford.
However, that’s not who was allegedly communicating with us. The rods remained straight.
“Is this Patrick?” Moneysmith ventured.
Again, I can’t explain it, but the two rods crossed each other as an answer.
From what he can tell, Patrick is a 10-year-old, redheaded boy that Moneysmith was able to make contact with through his own equipment as well as the help of various psychics and professional paranormal investigators that frequent the cottage. Why he is here, though, remains a mystery.
“The Browns had no children, so we don’t know why he (Patrick) would be here,” Moneysmith said. “We’ve had psychics and mediums in here that tell us sometimes the spirits we’re speaking to have nothing to do with this cottage. They’re just here, passing by.”
As a journalist, it’s my job to fact-check and make sure everything I present in my stories is accurate – which is hard to do when you’re talking about the next dimension. Naturally, I approached my experience with a healthy dose of skepticism, but according to Moneysmith skepticism is a necessary part of paranormal investigating.
“I’m very skeptical, even though I do this,” he said. “You have to be skeptical to ghost hunt, you cannot believe that every little sound is a ghost. When I got to see actual equipment work and run voice recorders where you can hear voices, that’s when I started to believe.”
Moneysmith and his wife, Cathy, first started in the paranormal investigating world five years ago, performing their first hunt at Brownella Cottage. Growing up in Galion, Moneysmith always knew the cottage as the creepy “haunted house,” covered in ivy.
He hesitates to use that word now.
“This house we like to say ‘active,’ because we don’t want people in Galion to be afraid of this home,” he explained. “What happens in here is very friendly, whereas compared to the (Ohio State Reformatory), they can be mean. Some are evil spirits and some are not, but in here we feel they are very friendly.”
Of all the locations Moneysmith and his wife study as paranormal investigators, Brownella Cottage is easily the most active. Various other investigators have also allegedly made contact with Bishop Brown and his wife Ella, her mother Mary Scranton Bradford, a brother, two caretakers, servants, “passersby” like Patrick, and even a dog.
However, it’s hard to tell why the spirits are still at Brownella, or why they feel the need to connect to the living.
“Do spirits come back to a place they enjoyed during their life, do you go back to a happy time?” Moneysmith asked. “Is this just so part of their life that they want to be here? We also feel entities can be attached to furniture and articles, so is there stuff here that’s holding them in?
“Are they trapped in the next dimension?” he continued. “Do they want to come back? Have they passed over? Are they just friendly people and they want to communicate? Are they still trying to tell their story? It all depends.”
Those curious about the paranormal can experience the hunt for themselves this Halloween at Brownella Cottage. The Moneysmiths host public ghost hunts throughout the year, but the next one is on Saturday, Oct. 29 – coincidentally, the same weekend that Bishop Brown himself passed away.
“Halloween is a very active weekend because Bishop died on Halloween day of 1937,” said Moneysmith. “It could have to do with his death, it could have to do with Halloween; if you believe in all this stuff, that’s when they said the veil of darkness is the thinnest and the creatures are out.”
Armed with Moneysmith’s various ghost-hunting equipment, guests have the freedom to wander through Brownella Cottage with the goal of communicating with the other side. First, guests are given a tour of the house with all the lights on to get familiar with the rooms and the equipment – then, the lights are turned out and the hunt is on until the stroke of midnight.
According to Moneysmith, the spirits present themselves in various forms. Sometimes he can feel a presence there, similar to the static feeling of a balloon rubbed on your arm. Sometimes they appear as voices on a voice recorder, or over a radio frequency. One time he saw a full-body apparition appear in a hallway.
Still, usually the hunt is only as successful as the person hunting wants it to be.
“I’ve had people in here who do not believe in it and don’t want to believe in it, and that’s fine,” Moneysmith said. “Other people come in and they’re very accepting of it. I notice if we get a group of people in here and a lot of them don’t believe, we don’t get a lot of activity. If people are into it, we seem to get more.”
One thing you won’t experience as part of a ghost hunt is pressure to believe in the paranormal. After my own experience, I still can’t explain what exactly caused those rods to cross.
For Moneysmith, he believes the activity in Brownella Cottage confirms there is an afterlife.
“To me, it does lead you to believe there is something after we’re gone,” he said. “What is it, we don’t know – we feel that an entity or spirit is nothing but energy. To me it’s interesting to know there is something happening. It’s all up to your beliefs.”
Paranormal investigations at Brownella Cottage take place in March through November. The next public ghost hunt is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 29. The cost is $25 per person and runs from 8 p.m. until midnight. You must call ahead at 419-462-5672 and leave a message to make reservations.
