Jamestown Paranormal Investigators will set up voice recorders, cameras, motion detectors and electromagnetic frequency detectors. It’s a follow-up effort to a similar investigation in December, which did find some activity.

“I was sensitive to a few things that happened here I couldn’t explain,” said Catherine Oag, archives assistant at the museum, who initially reached out to JPI last fall.

She has heard a man’s voice when she was the only one in the building, and once spotted a shadow-like figure of a man in the Children’s Museum Room on the second floor. Oag said she has an uncomfortable, heavy feeling in that room.

Oag is not the only one with such experiences. “A former intern spoke of objects moving on shelves, not being found where they were left previously,” she said.

Catherine Oag, archives assistant, stands in the Darwin R. Barker Historical Museum. Photo by M.J. Stafford

During JPI’s initial investigation, “they caught two audio clips,” Oag said. “We we’re upstairs … kind of where we noticed the most happening. They caught a voice that said ‘Stop’ in the background.” The other clip was breathy but sounded like someone saying “Hello.”

Oag said JPI also experienced some unexplained glitches with their equipment. The audio clips and the incidents made the investigators want to come back and inquire further, she said.

“Through speaking with JPI, we also learned that objects can hold residual energy — and the museum is certainly full of old, personally significant objects ripe for holding paranormal energy,” she said. “While these objects have not yet triggered a response, that does not count out the possibility of them having energy attached to them. These objects include a large headstone, travel trunk, items of clothing, pictures, and much more.”

Built in 1821 as Leverett Barker’s family home, the museum was the first brick building in Fredonia.

It was a residence when hospitals and funeral homes, as we know them, didn’t exist. “We have records that mention family members who died in the house,” said Oag.

She said Leverett Barker’s daughter, Mary, died there in 1836 at age 18. His wife, Desire, passed away at the home in 1840. Leverett himself died there in 1848 of “a painful but unknown illness,” and another of his daughters passed on at the home in 1877. At least five other relatives died in the home, and funerals were held there, as well.

The JPI personnel should be on-site tonight into the early Sunday morning, Oag said.

“It is our hope that we find more evidence of paranormal activity,” she said. “It is not only a unique way to market the museum, but also gives peace of mind to those of us spending our days in the museum.”

As she also put it: “If I hear a voice, I can be like, ‘Oh, it’s just so and so.’ “