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The phantoms of Potosi, Missouri
got put to work when Paranormal Task
Force invaded some of their historic
abodes during one of their Ghost Hunting
Workshops recently. Greg Myers and
other Paranormal Task Force crew teamed
up with the Mine Au Breton Historical
Society when they took their ghost
hunting knowledge, skills and experiences
south of St. Louis, Missouri about
an hour drive down what many refer
to as “Blood Alley” (Missouri
State Highway 21) to the very haunted
and historic town of Potosi.
With a sell out crowd of paranormal
enthusiast in attendance and a conference
room bursting at the seems with only
standing room left, Paranormal Task
Force educated others with haunting
classifications, theories, basics
of ghost hunting, field equipment
usage and even shared many of their
eerie tales and evidence from some
of their past encounters with the
unknown. Everyone was on the edge
of their seats while learning about
hunting ghost and being able to actually
explore some of Potosi’s most
haunted locations soon after and on
the hunt themselves for their first
time.
Greg Myers inside
the Austin-Milam Store at the bottom
of the stairway that attendees heard
an unexplainable growling come from
Potosi, Missouri is no stranger to
ghostly residences with its rich history.
Originally called Mine Au Breton,
it was actually founded by Francis
Azor, aka "The Breton" a
retired soldier from Ft. DeChartres,
Illinois. He was called "The
Breton" because of his birthplace
in Brittany, France. Francis Azor
and his guide were hunting bear in
this part of then Upper Louisiana
around when he discovered large outcrops
of lead at the grounds surface. After
this discovery, he soon received a
land grant and built crude stone furnaces
in the area for smelting the lead.
The primitive mining village of “Mine
Au Breton” seemingly popped
up overnight with many French miners
and their slaves coming to the call.
Around
1796 Moses Austin, a wealthy businessman
from Virginia heard of the rich
mining area and received a grant
for a much larger tract of in
this same area. He moved to this
area in 1798 in his newly built
home known as Durham Hall. Moses
sank the first mine shaft in Missouri
and built the first reverbatory
furnace west of the Mississippi
River. With such large scale operations,
other businesses and improvements
such as roads and bridges soon
followed. This soon became the
first major industry in this area
and in what was later to become
the State of Missouri.
After the County of Washington formed
in 1813, Moses donated 40 acres of
his land for the county seat and public
lots. The town was named Potosi after
a Bolivia silver mining town with
the same name meaning “place
of much noise”. Even though
Francis Azor may have been the original
founder of the area, it was Moses’
large scale operations and donation
of land that credits him as being
the towns’ “founding father”.
A little known fact about Moses Austin
is that he traveled to San Antonio,
Texas in 1821 and received the very
first land grant for American colonization
in Texas. After receiving this grant
he returned to Missouri and passed
away the same year. Is was his son
Stephen Austin, who took this grant
and moved 300 families to Texas and
later becoming the famous “Father
of Texas” and who Austin, Texas
is named after. Moses Austin is sometimes
referred to at the “Grandfather
of Texas”.
Greg Myers with other
Paranormal Task Force Members outside
the Long-Banta Home
Some of this town’s paranormal
activity may stem from its founding
father as Moses Austin was originally
buried in Hazel Run Mines, Missouri
in 1821. Then in 1828 other individuals
thought it would be proper to dissenter
his remains from Hazel Run Mines and
reenter them in Potosi, the town he
was the founding father of. Upon digging
up his remains it was noted that his
coffin was completely rotted and gone,
but his body remained in an almost
perfect stone like or petrified state
with only his nose and some of his
fingers missing. After being reentered
into the Potosi Cemetery, Moses grave
was later found dug open with the
new coffin lid open. It seemed that
some who heard of the possible petrifaction
of his body did not believe it and
they had to check it out on their
own. Moses was undamaged and again
buried back into his resting place
deeper in the ground and entombed
this time. Moses Austin seems to have
had a hard time finding rest after
his death.
Then if that wasn’t enough,
in 1938 a group of Texans equipped
with their own undertaker and hearse
came to Potosi with plans to steal
Moses’ body and take the “Grandfather
of Texas” back with them to
burry him there. Their body snatching
attempt was foiled when they were
caught chipping away at the tomb after
a call was made to the local Marshall.
A few weeks later the Texas Governor
sent his Secretary of State to Potosi
to make a public apology. With the
deceased being treated this way no
wonder why this historic town may
have spirits not at rest.
PTF's Case Management
Coordinator and Investigator Sandy
Oates inside the Austin-Milam Store
on the hunt.
The early settlers of this area have
also been subjected to savage attacks
in which some settlers were killed
and their wives were taken away by
Native Americans. Ironically, it was
also a stop along the “Trail
of Tears” in the 1830’s
and even later visited by Confederate
Rebels during the General Sterling
Price raids during the Civil War in
Missouri. This town even hosted what
is referred to as the “Battle
of Potosi” by some which occurred
on September 27, 1864 when some troops
of Confederate General Joseph Shelby
came to ransack and claim the town.
While most of the town got word and
took their worthy possessions and
fled, John Meyers a resident and Veteran
of the War of 1812 decided to defend
his town. Equipped with three rifles
he took his position upon his porch
and fired upon the advancing Confederate
Rebels. After wounding one of them,
the Confederates then shot this lone
defender dead on his own porch then
filled his lifeless body with several
more bullets before trampling it and
ransacking his home.
John was not the only one planning
to defend the town as 26 Union Soldiers
and 130 citizens attempted to hold
off the Confederate advances. However,
they all were forced to yield the
white flag after having to retreat
into the old Court House subjected
to cannon fire. Some were then taken
outside and shot dead for being obnoxious
towards the Confederate Rebels. The
Rebel flag was then hoisted high above
the town while its women and children
were robbed of even their clothing.
The town was then ransacked and looted
for its goods while nearby mining
facilities and its branch of the railroad
were destroyed.
Attendees of the
recent workshop in the room where
Mr. Flynn committed suicide in 1932
To further add to its tragedies,
the town awoke to one of the most
brutal slayings in Missouri history
on Monday, November 21, 1870. A local
French Creole family, David and Louisa
Lapine
along with their children and
Mrs. Lapine
’s sister with her
child were found brutally murdered
in their log cabin. On the night of
November 19, 1870 Leon and Charley
Jolly along with John Armstrong went
to the Lapine
cabin while intoxicated
from whiskey. While the family was
sound asleep, John Armstrong kicked
in the front door with an axe in hand.
Charley Lapine
then entered and mercilessly
shot the startled adults dead where
they stood. John Armstrong then chopped
Mr. Lupines head off and killed the
children with the axe and then mutilated
the bodies into several pieces. They
then set fire to the cabin before
returning home to have breakfast while
still wearing their blood covered
clothes.
What could be gathered of the Lapine
family was placed into a box and buried
in the Potosi Cemetery. The Jolly
brothers and Mr. Armstrong were soon
arrested and placed in the town’s
jail, but before their trial a mob
gathered outside the jail on November
26, 1870 wanting to deal their own
kind of justice to the murderers.
Before all was said and done six citizens
were wounded and one killed by the
Sheriff and his deputies defending
the jail and prisoners. The trial
finally came on December 21, 1870
and after deliberating for only 10
minutes the Jury came back with a
“Guilty” verdict. With
the Judges final words of “May
God have mercy on your soul”
Charley and John were sentenced to
death by hanging. Leon did not participate
in the murders and testified against
his own brother at the trial.
Anomalous mist in
the Old Cemeteries adjacent to the
Old Presbyterian Church
On January 27, 1871 the day of reckoning
arrived and it was proudly advertised
in all surrounding newspaper as “The
Day for a Double Hanging”. Families
came from afar adorned in their best
Sunday clothes as eager spectators
for this event and at 1:40 p.m. the
two condemned murderers were placed
on the gallows with nooses secured
around their necks. When the jaws
of justice below them finally opened
Charley’s head was almost ripped
from his body while John’s toes
scraped the ground and he slowly strangled
to death. Justice was finally dealt!
PTF's Greg Myers and
Mat Hendrix in the Old Presbyterian
Church. Note the replica of the Long-Banta
Home next to them
With tragic events such as these
one would find it more amazing if
this historic town was “not”
haunted!
After the presentation, the enthusiastic
attendees were then able to explore
the three very historic and haunted
buildings of the Mine Au Breton Historical
society. Lead by Paranormal Task Force
and Mine Au Breton Historical Society
members they were able to search for
their own ghostly encounter and learn
more about the history and hauntings
of the Long-Banta Home, Austin-Milam
Store and the Old Presbyterian Church
with its adjacent cemeteries.
"The
first stop on the trip for some
was the well known and haunted
Long-Banta home which was built
by James Long, a very prominent
business man, around 1865 not
too long after his father was
taken by Confederate Rebels and
executed in a wooded area in Union
Township in Washington County,
Missouri." This beautiful
and charming Victorian vernacular
building has been home to generations
of the Long Family. It has also
been the building where several
of them breathed their last breath
as James Long, his wife Betty
and all three of their daughters
passed away within its walls.
This home has also hosted the
passing of Parke Banta who was
the husband of a female descendent
of the Long family and who also
served in the United States Congress.
It was actually James Long’s
descendents who first experienced
ghostly encounters within this historic
home as they told others that they
believed their ancestor James was
still there watching over them and
haunting the home. Later reports came
from those who witnessed seeing ghostly
figures looking out at them from the
windows when this building was absent
of any human inhabitants. Some even
reported hearing strange unexplainable
noises and voices while inside. This
led to the paranormal investigations
conducted by Paranormal Task Force.
It was during these investigations
that investigators outside the home
witnessed a ghostly shadow walking
past windows on the inside, experienced
unexplainable moving areas of electromagnetic
fields coupled with temperature drops
on the inside, had questions answered
by piano notes played by the unseen
and even captured the disembodied
voices or what is referred to as Electronic
Voice Phenomena (EVP) on their audio
recordings.
Another stop in the pursuit of ghostly
happenings was the very historic Austin-Milam
Store. The front portion of this building
was first erected by Moses Austin
from logs about 1797. It has since
been added to and built upon over
time crating the building that stands
today. This is the same location that
victims on the “Trail of Tears”
bought supplies when passing through
in the 1830’s, a place Confederate
Rebels ransacked and raided during
the Civil War and also the place in
1932 where Frank Flynn, a bank clerk,
decided to take his own life with
a self inflicted gunshot wound to
his heart with a .38 caliber pistol.
Over time local residents have reported
seeing a shadow person walking by
or peering out the upstairs windows
where Mr. Flynn took his own life.
When used for boarding and apartments
in its later years, tenants reported
odd electrical occurrences, unexplainable
odors as well an anomalous floating
lights inside. During investigations
by Paranormal Task Force interferences
with electronic equipment were documented,
unexplainable moving areas of temperature
drops were recorded, disembodied voices
were captured on recordings and a
black floating ball like anomaly was
captured on video.
The last stop on this adventure was
the Old Presbyterian Church built
in 1832. This is the oldest Presbyterian
Church still standing west of the
Mississippi River." . The Church
also had an upper gallery where slaves
could attend church services with
their owners. The church relocated
to a new building in 1907 and this
building was later used as a Masonic
Auditorium, a school gymnasium, a
theatre where silent movies were shown
during the 1920’s and finally
a Boy Scout Hall. Now is sits as a
Museum and a reminder of the rich
and significant past this area has
endured. There has really been no
reports of paranormal encounters from
this building except for those who
may be a bit more sensitive than the
rest of us and just have had “that
feeling” over time that something
was there inside watching them from
the old upper gallery. A feeling that
some of Paranormal Task Force’s
more sensitive investigators confirmed
with their special inherited gifts
and believe is more of a residual
haunting presence and not interactive
or intelligent.
The Long Family Plot
within the Old Presbyterian Cemetery
Jerry Sansegraw, President
of the Mine Au Breton Historical Society
explaining the history of the Austin-Milam
Store to attendees
However, this building also sits
adjacent to three small cemeteries
which hold a different tale. The Old
City, Presbyterian and Masonic Cemeteries
sit just behind this Old Presbyterian
Church. Much of the town’s history
is buried within their boundaries.
Within the confines of these small
cemeteries is final resting place
of the Long Family right across the
street from the home they once resided
in, Moses Austin the founding father
is also here along with the box containing
the remains of the brutally murdered
Lapine
Family, the grave of John Meyers
and many more. Past Paranormal Task
Force investigations have captured
the disembodied voices from some of
the souls at unrest here along with
unexplainable moving areas of electromagnetic
fields coupled with temperature drops.
And, of course, the occasional experience
of an investigator seeing something
from the corner of their eye has occurred
in these cemeteries many times as
well.
Everyone in attendance at this Ghost
Hunting Workshop and its interactive
investigative tour had a very positive
and enlightening time. Some even had
that ghostly encounter they were or
were not looking for. At the Austin-Milam
Store one paranormal enthusiast in
attendance had her arm grabbed by
the unseen, others encountered an
unexplainable growl and a human sized
shadow was observed as it walked by
a second floor window by those outside
the building when it was empty.
Steve Rusbarsky and
others inside the Long-Banta Home.
In the Long-Banta Home some newly
trained hunters were able to physically
chase around a moving anomalous area
of increased electromagnetic fields
coupled with a temperature drop. Even
the Old Presbyterian Church gave its
first paranormal performance this
night when several heard the sounds
of footsteps walk across the upper
gallery before descending the stairway
to the floor they were on below.
"Thank you to Esther Carroll
for the weeks upon weeks of research
to develop the historical facts and
aspects used in this article. Her
website can be found at:
www.carrollscorner.net"
Greg Myers, Director
PARANORMAL TASK FORCE, Inc.
Whether you are interested in history,
hauntings or both then Potosi, Missouri
is a “must see” addition
to have on your ‘places to visit’
list. To check on available tours
or special events with the Mine Au
Breton Historical Society and their
properties you can call their President,
Jerry Sansegraw, at 573-438-3093 or
email him at - jerry090@centurytel.net
If you are interested in the paranormal,
hauntings or future events conducted
by Paranormal Task Force, then they
can be found on the World Wide Web
at
WWW.CATCHMYGHOST.COM
or you can email then at: admin@paranormaltaskforce.com
Future ghost hunting workshops will
be conducted by Paranormal Task Force
with the Mine Au Breton Historical
Society in Potosi, Missouri. In fact
the next one is scheduled for November
8, 2008. Come and learn more and possibly
go home with your own ghostly encounter
to share!
"You say You Don't You Believe
In Real Ghosts And Haunting's?"
When visiting Kentucky Take the Haunts
of Owensboro Ghost Tour, and you just
might change your mind!
Have
The Dead Spoken To You Lately?
PRSNE do not charge
for conducting an investigation. They
will ask for travel reimbursement,
which can include gas, airline tickets,
phone and tolls. They generally travel
by car whenever possible to keep the
costs to a minimum. Due to the reality
that there are always those who can
not financially reimburse this amount,
the fee will vary on case by case
basis. If you would like more information
please feel free to call 1-203-375-6083
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