November 8, 2005

LIVINGSTON, Ala.—University of West Alabama professor and author Alan Brown joined a group of ghost hunters in Ellisville, Miss., for a night in the reputedly haunted Amos Deason House, hoping to witness the unexplained firsthand. Brown, along with members of the paranormal investigation organization Observations, members of the Ellisville Daughters of the American Revolution and personalities from the Meridian, Miss., radio station WOKK spent the night on Friday, Oct. 28 trying to gather readings of paranormal activity in the Deason House, built in 1845. 

Brown, the author of several books on ghost stories in the South, says he is more interested in ghost stories that the paranormal. Because of his interest in the history of the Deason House, he decided to arrange the pre-Halloween visit.

 “I believe that people who tell me the ghost stories believe them,” Brown said. “You don’t have to be ignorant or crazy to believe in ghosts.”

The Deason House has many stories associated with it. From the rocking chair that rocks on its own to the ghost of Amos McLemore, this home has a history of secrets.

According to printed accounts, Confederate Major Amos McLemore was charged with finding Jones County, Miss., native Newt Knight and his band of nearly 100 Confederate deserters in the swampy woodlands. McLemore made his headquarters in the home of Amos Deason, a loyal Confederate, while he tracked Knight. However, Knight found out about the plot, vowing to kill McLemore himself.

On Sept. 14, 1863, Knight threw open the door, finding McLemore standing in front of the fireplace in the center bedroom. Knight shot him point-blank and escaped back into the swamp. McLemore’s blood seeped into the pine flooring of the Deason House, and no matter how many times it was scrubbed, the stain would never disappear. After years of seeing the blood stain, Deason’s descendants finally covered it with new flooring.

People have seen the door to the murder room fly open by itself on the anniversary of this event. Others recount seeing Virginia Holliman Anderson staring out the front window wearing a white dress. Brown hoped to witness some of these strange occurrences during his overnight stay at the Deason House.

Brown explained that Observations used tape recorders to hear electronic voice phenomenon and digital cameras to capture any floating orbs.

“To hear EVP, you ask questions in a dark room while the tape recorder is running. When you play it back, you can hear a low, garbled response,” Brown said. “Barbara Knotts, a DAR member and relative of the Anderson family who inherited the house, asked Jenny Anderson if she was there in the room. When we played it back, we heard ‘Sit down’ on the recorder.”

Orbs, transparent balls that cannot be seen with the naked eye, will appear in photographs taken with a digital camera. The group saw one blue orb in the dining room that night.

Brown also noticed one other odd occurrence once he finally drifted off to sleep.

“I was asleep around 1:30 a.m. in a room where two men had died of old age,” he said. “I put my ink pen on my note pad on the floor. I later noticed it was gone, so I searched for it before falling back asleep. I woke up again at 4:30 a.m., and the pen was back in the exact spot I had left it on the note pad. Very strange.”

Although it was a fairly quiet night at the Deason House, Brown still said it was a fun visit. He will use the interviews with the group of Mississippi ghost hunters and DAR ladies for his next book, tentatively scheduled for release in 2008.