Homespun Farm Bed and Breakfast

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Homespun Farm Bed and Breakfast

Ghost Houses Said To Be Haunted, But Owners Remain Undaunted

October 28, 2001

By CHERYL CRABB, Special to The Courant

The specter of Old Man Simon appears out of nowhere.

Dressed in a plaid shirt and overalls, he hovers over the

orchards he once tended at Homespun Farm in Griswold.

Simon Brewster passed away decades ago, but his

"guiding spirit" lives on at the homestead his family

founded 260 years ago, according to current owners Kate

and Ron Bauer. The couple purchased the property in

1996 and said they first came in contact with Brewster's

ghost when they began working in the fields.

"I was out there pruning blueberries, having this feeling of

someone telling me, `No, no, no not there,'" Kate Bauer

said. "I guess he was trying to make sure we knew what

we were doing and not cutting too much off the trees or

hurting anything."

Homespun Farm is one of a handful of houses in towns

throughout Connecticut whose owners say are inhabited

by haunted spirits of various shapes and sizes.

There's the "Little Red House" in Madison, a Cape-style

home dating back to the mid-1700s, where the apparition

of a little girl standing by the kitchen sink is one of several

ghostly sightings that have startled residents over the

years, say the owners.

At the historic Chart House restaurant in Simsbury, the

feisty spirit of Abigail Pettibone is still said to spook

employees and guests in the upstairs room where she

allegedly was murdered by her husband after he caught

her in the arms of her lover, according to the restaurant

folks.

And at a rambling farmhouse in Deep River, the fun-loving

ghost of a previous owner - Pultizer-prize winning artist

C.D. Batchelor - likes to host parties in the living room and

has been seen on nocturnal visits to pet the family dog,

say the residents.

Some homes, such as the historic Benton Homestead in

Tolland, reportedly have been haunted for centuries,

according to one of the supernatural tales told in the book

"Legendary Connecticut" by David E. Philips. In others,

such as Homespun Farm, the spirits are relatively new

residents.

Some homeowners, unaccustomed to periodic visits by

the spirits of past residents, have a hard time trusting their

senses at their first ghostly encounter. Bauer said she

never told her husband about her visit from Old Man

Simon until after he described having a similar experience

about a month later.

"I thought I was just being silly, but when it happened to

Ron and he came in and told me what happened it was

so weird," she said.

The Bauers, who have three sons, said they also have felt

the presence of Simon's wife, Laura Brewster, in the

house as she walks up and down the stairs at night. "It's

not a scary ghost if you want to call it that," she said. "I

don't think I could live here if that was the case."

Businesses such as hotels and restaurants often find that

having a ghost on the premises helps attract customers.

At Homespun Farm, which is now a small

bed-and-breakfast, there are guests who come

specifically to ghost hunt, Kate Bauer said.

"When people say `I want to see 'em,' I hand 'em a pair of

clippers and tell 'em they have to work awhile."

Abigail Pettibone, Simsbury's most famous ghost, also is

a big draw at the 300-year-old Chart House restaurant,

said Christine Ivory, catering sales manager.

"I would say most of our business asks about it. We even

get e-mails about it," she said. "Sometimes when

customers are here for dinner, we'll show them around

and explain and answer questions."

However, some private homeowners, including Lorraine

Ballsieper of Deep River, are reluctant to tell people that

their house is haunted.

"People think you're crazy if you say you have ghosts in

your house," she said.

Ballsieper said she had never encountered spirits before

moving into the Batchelor home on Kelsey Hill Road in

1986. The "ghostly experiences" began a few months after

they moved in and began doing major restoration work.

One of the most impressive appearances by the late

cartoonist was a 2 a.m. visit to the family dog, she said.

"He was downstairs in the kitchen," Ballsieper said. "I saw

the dog and then a big white apparition with Batch's black

tousled hair."

Haunted house owners often bring in psychics or groups

such as the Connecticut Paranormal Research Society to

investigate the level of supernatural activity in their homes.

Some share their ghost stories on the Internet at sites

such as www.realhaunts.com. Others turn to their local

historical society to determine if any unusual historical

events have taken place within the house that would

explain a ghostly presence.

In 1999, historian Carol Laun of the Salmon Brook

Historical Society traced the history of a Granby home at

the request of an unnerved resident who said she had

seen the ghost of a sad little girl in a Victorian dress in the

bathroom doorway.

"She freaked out," Laun said of the resident after learning

that her fiancé had seen the little girl on a half-dozen

occasions, along with man dressed in black who

appeared to be in his 20s and carrying something in his

hand that looked like a briefcase. "She bought a condo

and moved out immediately."

In her research, Laun found no mention of any children

who died young while living in the house to explain the

ghostly presence of the little girl. However, she did learn

that the second owner of the clapboard, center-chimney

colonial home, Sylvester Barnes, died at 25 in 1842. The

house, built around 1800, was replaced by a medical
office building this summer.

"The question is where will they [the ghosts] go, now that

their home is gone?" Laun said.

Those looking for a rational explanation of a ghostly

encounter also can call the New England Skeptical

Society, which replicates investigations by so-called ghost

hunters by taking and analyzing photographs and

electromagnetic readings and by measuring possible

temperature anomalies. The group, which promotes the

use of science and critical thinking, has investigated

about a dozen "haunted" houses and has not discovered

any evidence of ghosts, said Steven Novella, president of

NESS.

"Everyone loves a good ghost story," said Novella, a

neurology professor at Yale University. "But there aren't

really haunted houses, there are only haunted people."

Many perceived ghostly encounters often can be attributed

to a variety of sources ranging from faulty plumbing or

pest problems to sleep disorders and the side effects of

medication, said Robert Damon Schneck, the director of

the White Crow Society. The Brooklyn-based nonprofit

volunteer group has about 400 members who aim to help

people manage paranormal phenomenon that they find

disturbing.

"We first look into the background of what's going on.

Does this house have a history of haunting and did the

previous owners experience it?" he said. "If not, then

maybe it's an expression of something in a person's life

that's gone wrong."

Sometimes getting rid of ghosts is as easy as fixing

creaky stairs or hiring an animal control specialist, he

said. "We once had a woman who was hearing genuinely

frightening sounds from the attic," Schneck said. "Our

investigators found a raccoon in there."

Yet even Schneck - who once saw a thermometer rise four

degrees in 10 minutes just as a client claimed to be

attacked by spirits - acknowledges that there still are

mysteries.

"Every once in a while, there's something strange going

on, something paranormal or something our investigators

can't explain."