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General Investigation Information
Investigation Number
and Location:		 032009

Wood County Historical Center and Museum
13660 County Home Road
Bowling Green, OH 43402
E-mail
Phone.419.352.0967
Fax.419.352.6220

Our deepest appreciation goes out to the staff at the Wood County Historical Center for allowing us the honor and privilege of conducting an investigations at there historic location. If your ever in the Bowling Green area, do yourself the favor of stopping in to see these well preserved locations. Also while your there please consider a small donation to help support these locations.
Date of Investigation: May 20, 2009
Time of Investigation: 09:00-14:00
Type of Investigation: Public location during closed daytime hours
Solar Conditions:
Lunar Information:

Weather Conditions:

Location Information
Description of Location:
National Register of Historic Places

Wood County Home and Infirmary

  • Added: 1979
  • Building number: 79001981
  • Also known as: Wood County Historical Museum;Adam Phillips Park
  • Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
  • Architect, builder, or engineer: Et al., Fallis,E.O.
  • Architectural Style: Italianate, Greek Revival
  • Area of Significance: Architecture, Social History
  • Period of Significance: 1850-1874, 1875-1899
  • Owner: Local Government
  • Historic Function: Domestic, Health Care
  • Historic Sub-function: Hospital, Institutional Housing
  • Current Function: Landscape, Recreation And Culture
  • Current Sub-function: Museum, Park

Grounds

The Wood County Historical Center & Museum is made up of several period buildings consisting of:

  • Brandeberry Wall
  • Cattle Barn
  • Chicken Coop
  • Granary
  • Herb Garden
  • Hog Barn
  • Horse Barn
  • Ice House & Ice Ponds
  • Infirmary
  • Lyle Fletcher Arboretum
  • Lunatic Asylum
  • Oil Derrick
  • Pauper's Cemetery
  • Pest House
  • Pole Barn
  • Power House
  • Privy
  • Slaughter House & Wash House
Elevation of Location:
 738 feet
Investigators:
  • BSPHI
    • Amy
    • Brian
    • Gene
    • Karen
    • Joan
    • Penny
  • GCOPS
    • Jas
    • Rob
History of the Home/Area:

Wood County Historical Center and Museum

Housed inside the 1869 Wood County Home (Poor Farm), the museum features over 30 rooms of historical artifacts and items related to the early history of Wood County.  Includes exhibits about the early Native Americans, the Black Swamp, the gas boom, the Civil War era and more.  Located at 13660 County Home Road in Bowling Green, OH.

Lunatic House

The Infirmary, also known as the poorhouse or simply "The Home," is one of the last county poorhouse sites in Ohio where nearly all of the original structures still stand. The main building, constructed in 1868 with outbuildings added over the years, served as home for the county's poor, sick, orphaned, elderly, and mentally ill. The Lunatic House was added in 1885 as a facility for the violently insane. The Infirmary operated as a self-sufficient farm where residents contributed according to their ability. Throughout its 102 years of service, the Infirmary had an average population of eighty residents, swelling to over 140 during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The site closed as a poorhouse in 1971 but reopened in 1975 as the Wood County Historical Center and Museum. The Wood County Infirmary was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Historical Time Line:
Location's Historical Time Line:
  • 1713: Wood County formed a part of the original province of Quebec
  • 1713 to 1764: Wood County was Louisiana
  • 1764 to 1769: Wood County belonged to Quebec province
  • 1769 to 1778: Wood County it was attached to Botetourt county, Virginia
  • 1778 to 1787: Wood County formed a part of Illinois county, Virginia
  • 1787: the Northwest Territory was established
  • 1838, December 16: Edwin Farmer was born at Wantage, Berkshire, England
  • 1865: Wood County Board of Commissioners agreed to move ahead on plans to build a poor farm
  • 1867: Commissioners raised the money to purchase 160 acres southeast of Bowling Green
  • 1868: west wing of the museum was built for a cost of $4,975.00 ($110,776.12 in 2009 dollars)
  • 1869: the home opened it's doors
  • 1873: original chicken coop was built
  • 1873: west attic was added to the current museum
  • 1875: horse barn was built
  • 1878: Edwin Farmer and his wife Charlotte were hired as the new Superintendent and Matron of the infirmary
  • 1884: the first natural gas discovered in Wood County was found on the Infirmary grounds
  • 1885: first pond was built on site
  • 1885: lunatic house was built for a cost of $1,700. ($50,964.88 in 2009 dollars) At least four rooms had bars over the windows, for the violent inmates. Because of the bars, the building was referred to by some as the 'Jail House.'
  • 1886: first 8 patients were transferred to the lunatic house
  • 1898: the County Commissioners found that the east and center wings were in disrepair and decided to demolish them and build the current structures
  • 1870's: slaughter house was built
  • 1870's: laundry facility was built
  • 1892: infirmary's cattle barn was built
  • 1898: power house with a coal-fired boiler was built on the property
  • 1900: Ohio legislation mandated that all mentally ill patients transfer to state hospitals
  • 1900: flu epidemic that took the lives of eight inmates
  • 1902: the Wood County Jail with the Sheriff's Residence, began operations
  • 1903: front porch was added to the west wing
  • 1904: Superintendent Farmer passed away and was replaced by Frank Brandeberry. Brandeberry served for 45 years.
  • 1905: ice house was made using blocks from Perrysburg's Wood County jail
  • 1913: hog barn was made by using bricks from the demolished Corril House in Bowling Green
  • 1913: a great flood filled the Power House with 30 inches of water
  • 1925: stone wall and concrete picket fence that still encloses the front and side yards of the site were completed by an inmate and Brandeberry
  • 1942: second pond was built to house additional water
  • 1949: Frank and Lottie Brandeberry retired
  • 1950's: the Home's primary function was that of a nursing home for the elderly
  • 1950's: all of the gravestones in the cemetery were removed to make it easier to mow/maintain the grounds
  • 1965, Sept. 8: infirmary's cattle barn burnt down
  • 1971, February 15: the residents of the infirmary were moved to a new County Home
  • 1975: the Wood County Historical Center and Museum opened its doors to the public
  • 1986: pole barn was built
  • 1992: Black Swamp Herb Society was founded
  • 1992: a group of community members began a major restoration effort of Sun Set Acre
  • 1995: the wall was restored by A. Schooner
  • 1996: oil derrick wooden house was built
  • 1998: the gravestones were reset, but no necessarily matched up to the bodies
  • 2000: restoration began on the Lunatic Asylum
  • 2004, April 17: Lunatic Asylum open to the public
Edwin Farmer
Three Fingers
Infirmary

What else happened in 1867?

  • Legislation gives suffrage to DC blacks, despite Pres Johnson's veto
  • Bricklayers start working 8-hour days
  • Prince Mutsuhito, 14, becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan (1867-1912)
  • Most of Nebraska becomes 37th US state (expanded later)
  • Johann Strauss' "Blue Danube" waltz premieres in Vienna
  • Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company issues 1st policy
  • First ship passes through Suez Canal
  • Congress abolishes peonage in New Mexico
  • Congress created the Department of Education
  • Jesse James-gang robs bank in Savannah Missouri, 1 dead
  • Michigan becomes 1st state to tax property to support a university
  • Congress approves Lincoln Memorial
  • US buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 ($158,780,152.16 in 2009 dollars)
  • Tokyo opens for foreign trade
  • Opera "Roméo et Juliette" is produced (Paris)
  • Reconstruction of South begins, black voter registration
  • 1st barbed wire patented by Lucien B Smith of Ohio
  • Joseph Monier patents reinforced concrete
  • First US dental school, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, established
  • Battle of Moorefield, WV
  • Midway Islands formally declared a US possession
  • 15th & last Tokugawa Shogun resigns in Japan
  • "Harpers Bazaar" publishes
  • Alfred Nobel patents dynamite
  • US Congress commission looks into "impeachment" of Pres Andrew Johnson
  • Refrigerated railroad car patented by JB Sutherland of Detroit
  • First self-made millionairess (Sarah Breedlove-hair straightner)
  • First telegraph ticker used by a brokerage house, Groesbeck & Company, NY

From Outside.Away.com

"The Wood County Historical Museum in Bowling Green displays three human fingers in a jar, the knife that Gay Nineties* murderer Carl Bach used to sever them from his wife's hand, and the noose used to hang Carl."

*Gay Nineties is an American term that refers to the decade of the 1890's. The decade was a period of exceptional economic expansion, and, in particular, of rapid wealth gains. The American empire of trade was at one of its zeniths, and cities were growing rapidly.

Activity Reported:
  • Children being seen in a part of a building
  • Footsteps being heard in the infirmary and lunatic house
  • Child reported seeing a man in the lunatic house
  • Sighting of a woman on the infirmary stairs

Data Collected
Video Findings:
 None
Photographic Findings:
 The picture below shows what we consider an energy ball. A lot of the 'orbs' you see on the net are clearly dust, pollen, rain, snow, ect. However, on rare occasions you catch one like this. We are not saying this is a spirt. If your interested in learning more about orbs, take a look at our guide.

Audio Findings:
  • mp3= cleaned
  • wav= unaltered

Classification Scale

 Infirmary 1st floor

Infirmary 2nd floor

  • There were three investigators at this time, they were all three recording but only one recorder picked up this sound:
  • In the room with the beds and wheel chair:

Election Room (three fingers display case):

  • Only one male investigator was in the room at the time of the recording:

Lunatic House 2nd floor:

  • Here is a disembodied voice that was heard by two investigators. You will hear on the recording one investigator makes not to listen for "male evp" that both of them heard:

Personal Experiences:
  • One location in the attic we had a repeatable Geiger counter hit. This hit was free floating and could not be traced back to any source.
  • Loud noises and foot steps were heard in the upstairs of the lunatic house by all three groups of investigators.
  • Got a hit on a K-II meter- light up 3 lights for a few seconds the investigators tried to find it again and it was gone.
  • During the investigations, we try to convince the spirits to touch an investigators. This procedure was tried and the investigator in a separate room reported right after this was requested by and investigator in a separate room. The investigator that reported this even was not aware that the request was made.
    • "I felt someone play with my hair on the top of my head and my arms got really cold"
  • We asked for a spirit to make a sound, it happened but it was not repeatable. Listen to audio
  • We heard a female disembodied voice in the lunatic house and caught it on audio. Listen to audio
  • Feeling of constantly being watched was reported by 6 of the 8 investigators.
  • In the attic an investigator was the last to go threw the doorway:
    • "Something stopped me that isn't like anything I have ever felt before.  Instead of my chest feeling like it was being crushed it was more like my heart was being pulled out. I backed away from the door and it eased a little but not until I got clear back into the room did my heart beat again and I was able to gasp for air.  It was immediate also, not something I was walking threw.  More that I walked against it.  I didn't feel hot or cold and there was no fear to it at all.  I ask if it would let me in and I walked back up to the doorway very slowly and went in"
  • In the military room an investigator had made a comment about the Nazi flag. Shortly after that they started to feel light headed and just didn't feel good. After stepping out of the room it went away and then went back into the military room and the feeling came back.
  • A camcorder that was placed upstairs in the lunatic house turned off shortly after being placed. The camera worked the rest of the day with out any issues.
Equipment readings:
 Geiger counter reading of a floating location in the attic

False Positives
Video:
 none
Photographic:
 This picture is looking at the lunatic house. There appears to be an odd shape in the window of the small white "Bug House" or quarantine house next to it. We are calling this image a false positive since we don't have the means to recreate the image we choose too error on the side of not being paranormal. However, with that said we have circulated this image to some of our highly respected piers and they are split on the decision if this is the figure of a woman.

What many people are seeing is a woman with a bun in her hair, a balloon dress and arms folded holding a basket.
Audio:

After this recording was placed on our web site it was discovered that the recorder that recorded this particular audio was malfunctioning. Do to the malfunction of the recorder, we are moving this down to the false positive section. We would rather error on the side of this not being paranormal than to put out false evidence.

  • Far bed room on left as you walk up the stairs. One investigator in the room and one standing in the door way to the room:

We did capture several section in audio that we were able to debunk as to being the sounds of a radio that was on for a short time in the basement.

Conclusions
Investigation Summery:
 The Wood County Historical Center is nothing less than spectacular. We could have spend days, if not weeks investigating this location. There is a little bit of everything in the museum and the grounds are well maintained. This is a must see location and the history speaks for itself.
In our opinion, based solely on the evidence collected
at the time of this investigation we believe this location to be:
_ No paranormal activity
_ Paranormal activity, but not enough to consider it a haunting
X Residual Haunting
X Intelligent Haunting
_ Benevolent Spirit
_ Malevolent Spirit
_ Benign Spirit
_ Inconclusive
Case Status
X Follow-up recommended
_ Case Closed

Additional Notes
General Photographs:
Misc.
Related Web Sites:
Investigation Lessons Learned:
 This is another investigation that proves that you do not have to ghost hunt in the dark. We pulled several evp's and one compelling photograph out of the collected data- all during day light hours. This reenforces that if a place is haunted- it is haunted night and day.

Please stop at our guest book so we know you stopped in to say hello, thank you.

Related materials:

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