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| 10/31/2007 12:01:00 AM |
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| The East Georgia Paranormal group has
reported hauntings at this historic home on the
grounds of Gaither’s
Plantation. |
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| Bobbie Bishop, left, and Joe Taylor of
East Georgia Paranormal use paranormal
investigative technology to determine if there is
any spirit activity in the bedroom of former
resident Cecilia Gaither. One of
Gaither’s original dresses is displayed on the
bed. | |
| If You Go |
What: Ghosts of Gaither Tour and
Investigation
When: Nov. 1 and 2 from 5 to
9 p.m. and Nov. 3 from noon to 7 p.m.; a special
paranormal investigation experience on Nov. 3 from
8 p.m. until dawn will be available on a
first-come first-serve basis.
Where:
Gaither's Plantation, 270 Davis Ford Road in
Covington
Cost: Tours are $2.50 per person;
investigation experience is $50. For more
information, call the Friends of Gaither's
Plantation at 770-385-1298. or visit
www.gaitherplantation.com or
www.bobbysuniverse.net.
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| Gaither's Plantation holds ghost tour,
investigation
Karen Rohr
Features
Editor
Cecilia Gaither, along with her
husband W.H. Gaither, ran a cotton plantation in Newton
County in the 1800s, and, although she died over half a
century ago, Cecilia could still be a presence in the home
where she once lived.
Cecilia had several children, one
of whom, the eldest daughter Clara, died at the age of 9. W.H
and Clara are buried in a family cemetery on the grounds of
Gaither's Plantation, but Cecilia is not beside them. She
was forced to sell the plantation, which included the resting
place of her husband and daughter, in 1921 because the family
could not pay the $28 owed in taxes.
There is a female
apparition, according to some, that haunts the Gaither
home. Reports of her presence range from a strong smell of
flowery perfume in the upstairs bedroom, Cecilia's bedroom, to
eyewitness accounts of a woman rocking a baby in the same
bedroom window.
Friends of Gaither's Plantation
Chairman Jerry Love said the group decided to bring in "ghost
hunters" several years ago to dispel the rumors once and for
all that the house was haunted. Instead, the effort ended up
confirming the paranormal experiences and even generating new
ones.
"That sort of backfired on me," said Love. "I was
totally a disbeliever when all this started but I'm not a
disbeliever anymore."
Gaither's Plantation, once a
several thousand-acre cotton plantation, now consists of a few
hundred acres, the original home, several outbuildings and a
relocated historic church - all owned by Newton County. Aid in
maintenance and preservation of the site is also provided by
the Friends of Gaither's Plantation.
Gaither's
Plantation, which serves as a host to festivals, weddings,
family reunions, will this weekend host the first annual
Ghosts of Gaithers Tour and Investigation. The Friends
of Gaither's group, along with East Georgia Paranormal,
will offer ghost tours Nov. 1 and 2 from 5 to 9 p.m. and Nov.
3 from noon to 7 p.m. Cost is $2.50. The tour includes the
Gaither home and church and will be led by members of EGP,
a Monroe-based group that investigates paranormal activity.
There will also be opportunities available on a first-come,
first-serve basis to join in a paranormal investigation at
the Gaither Plantation on Nov. 3 from 8 p.m. until
dawn. The cost for the investigation participation is $50. All
proceeds from the tours benefit the Friends of
Gaither's Plantation.
Love said that over the past
few years, several paranormal groups have investigated the
supposed spirits in the Gaither home, as well as
paranormal activity taking place elsewhere on the grounds.
Each time a new group comes in, he said, they experience the
same level of activity as past groups and discover additional
odd occurrences.
Particularly compelling, said Love, is
the findings by two "sensitives," or people who are
intuitively connected to the spirit world. The two sensitives,
not knowing each other or the history of the house, toured the
home on two separate occasions and both honed in on a female
presence named "Ceely." At first, the friends group didn't see
a connection until they discovered through Cecilia
Gaither's great-great-granddaughter that Ceely is the name
she was called by her grandchildren.
Along with
Cecilia's spirit, investigators have discovered other
apparitions on the plantation. These spirits are believed to
be connected with Confederate soldiers, a murder that was
committed in the back of the house and a murder-suicide that
occurred in the church on the grounds.
Bobbie Bishop
of EGP, which has investigated Gaither's six times over
the last year, said the property is extremely active. In fact,
it has the most paranormal activity of the 17 locations the
group has visited in the Southeast.
"We have named
three that we would call haunted and Gaither's is No.
1," said Bishop.
Bishop said that his group was told
about the apparition in the window, of objects inexplicably
moving in the house (including the parlor table shaking or
rotating) and of strange lights and fog appearing in photos,
as well as the sound of footsteps and voices heard in empty
rooms.
For their part, EGP investigators experienced
the smell of perfume in Cecilia's room (which traveled around
the room for 15 minutes), accompanied by increased activity on
an electromagnetic field meter; heard an argument between two
women in the attic of the Gaither house; captured a
voice saying "don't go up the stairs" on a digital voice
recorder when the group ascended stairs to the attic in the
Gaither house; and had mist shaped like a woman appear in
one of the photos they took in the church.
Bishop, a
Madison resident and information technology specialist for a
power company, said he originally got involved with EGP as a
technical consultant and he started off a skeptic. But, as a
result of his experiences with EGP, he's changed his
views.
"Everybody has that question, is there an
afterlife and if so, what is it like. As technologically
advanced as we are, there is still stuff out there that we
don't know about and basically we're just trying to find as
answer," said Bishop.
Contact Karen Rohr at
karen.rohr@rockdalecitizen.com.
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