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Tiverton, R.I.
November 13, 2010
RISEUP made arrangements through the Tiverton Historical Society to gain access to one of its most celebrated local landmarks, The Chase-Cory House. In presenting our case, the mission as it were would be two-fold: to investigate and document any possible paranormal activity in the former home and; to bring more public awareness of this vital and significant throwback to the Colonial era.
We approached this investigation with no real sense of gain from a paranormal standpoint. There had been no reported claims of activity there, but that was tempered with the knowledge that as a functioning museum, there was no constant presence there beyond the occasional tenants in the small, second floor apartment. As we stand firmly as a group that embraces historical preservation and education, we welcomed the opportunity to spend more than a few brief moments exploring the home. Our ultimate goal was to combine our particular interests in the paranormal and history to bring positive attention to the museum and perpetuate its use as a living memorial to its Colonial roots.
Since our first investigation, Chris Blanchette and Ken and Dave DeCosta have become members in good standing of the Tiverton Historical Society and hope to use the resources and objectives of RISEUP to bring a different perspective to the organization's efforts.
RISEUP Investigators Present: Ken DeCosta
Dave DeCosta
Chris Blanchette
David Grady
Tom Stewart
Dan Snizek
Geographical and Historical Data
The Chase-Cory House dates its construction back to 1730 or perhaps even earlier. It was donated to the T.H.S. by former Secretary of the Navy, J. William Middendorf (below), who was at that time a resident of neighboring Little Compton. The restoration effort was performed under the direction of noted local historian Carlton Brownell.
While little is known of its first few years of existence, it is known that a member of the Chase family, either Benjamin or Abner was its builder and first occupant. It was a home that would change hands quite frequently as the years passed. The house and its residents saw the likes of King Philip's War, the advent and proliferation of the whaling industry and our country's struggle for liberty. In many ways, it was on the front lines of each of those landmark events.
There is a bit of a gap in its history between the years of 1823 to 1846, but we know the adventurous and well-traveled son of local residents Phillip and Sarah Pierce Seabury named Corneilius married a woman named "Polly" Mary Gray, who was the daughter of Col. Pardon Gray. Col. Gray did not approve of her marriage to the audacious young man, but in the end, Polly won out. The only concession to his grudging consent was her dowry - which was to consist of a horse and two slaves. This was a far cry from the usual handsome sum she would have normally been given by a more approving father. The newlyweds made the long trek to Schoharrie, NY, where they would construct their first home and farmed the land for eight years.
Tired of frontier living, the couple eventually sold the farm and returned to Tiverton in either 1802 or 1803, this time with four children in tow. It was a hard existence and their children in later years would recount hearing the howling of wolves outside their cabin door. They moved into the Chase house in 1804 and that was where a daughter, Nancy, was born.
Of the four children born in NY, Pardon and Jane later attended school there in Albany. Jane became a teacher, eventually mentoring the neighborhood children in an upstairs room of the house. Pardon, who originally had planned on becoming a minister, gave up on that notion and went on to become a successful businessman in New Bedford, Mass. Harriet married a local man named Frederic Almy and they moved into their new home not a mile away while Joseph became a sea captain and eventually purchased the home. Nancy would go on to marry the minister of the local church.
In 1816, it was acquired by Andrew Cory and his wife Jane Gray Seabury, the grand-daughter of Col. Pardon Gray. Andrew was the great grandson of Thomas Cory, one of the twenty-seven freemen listed as the original inhabitants of Tiverton when it became incorporated in 1694. Andrew's father, Phillip, achieved the rank of Captain in the Rhode Island Militia during the Revolutionary War. Andrew would also make the sea his vocation, serving as a cooper on a whaling ship. It was said he was quite fond of children.
Andrew and Jane's oldest son Edward also made his living from the sea. On dec. 2, 1842 at the age of 26, he married Mary Ann Bamford, 19, in Albany, Australia and brought his new bride home to Tiverton on his ship. On his last voyage, Edward was injured by a whale his ship was hunting and, as a result, was forced to endure six years away from his home, three of which were spent in an hospital in China.
Edward J. Cory Sr., was the home's next inhabitant. His wife was the former Gertrude Sisson of Middletown, R.I. Edward was a man of a few vocations over the course of his life: oil works manager, fisherman, and poultry farm owner. Their son, Edward, Jr. was the last of the Cory's to live in the home. Like his forbearers, he too made his living as a man of the sea and married a woman from Middletown as his father did. Her name coincidentally, was Christine Sisson.
Orientation
When we arrived wed were let in by a member of the historical society who gave us carte blanche for the evening without anyone from the organization present. We would phone him to lock up when we were done for the night. Out of respect for his time, we decided to limit our initial investigation to a few hours as we were all but certain this would become an on-going process.
Static cameras would be set up in each of the three rooms (kitchen, bedroom, living room, L-R below).
The base would be set up in a smaller entry area off the kitchen. Only 2 pairs of investigators would be allowed in the main house at any one time, with one pair quietly observing in one room while EVP sessions are conducted in another room.
Investigation
Inside the bedroom, Ken and David were performing an audio session when their KII meter went off after the question "Is this a member of the Chase family" was asked. It was interesting only because there is little to no electricity on this floor, and even more so after a series of questions yielded no further results until again the question "Are you a member of the Chase family?" was asked again and the device spiked.
Within this time frame they recorded a female voice that was not audible. The roster for this evening included no females and was not the result of any outside television or radio interference. Despite the remarkable clarity of the recording, this must be classified as a "B"-level EVP as there is no doubt a voice is imprinted, but there is some debate as to the word or words that are being spoken. It is quite possible this voice is not in direct response to any line of questioning, but residual in nature.
Within this same time frame, yet another interesting piece of audio was generated. This time, it sounds very much like a laugh or a cry of anguish. It is very hard to discern, and again may be residual in nature.
There was nothing particularly overt in terms of possible activity during the remainder of the evening and a large part of it was admittedly inspecting various artifacts from the Colonial era that remain inside the home. As we were investigating, we were also gathering data on the house. The otherwise peaceful night was thrown into confusion by one event that left everyone there puzzled and looking for answers.
Earlier in the night, while watching the monitor, Tom found a silver spoon on a shelf in the entry way, picked it up and held it in his hands, spinning it absentmindedly while he observed the rest of the group. When it came his turn to enter the home, he placed it back down where he had found it and went on his way.
Dan Snizek was in that next group. He was sitting on a folding-type chair we had brought along in the event the furniture in the home was not adequate or sturdy enough to sit on. This proved to be unnecessary, but nonetheless was done out for respect for the property. Dan brought the chair into the kitchen area, opened it up and sat down for a while before eventually getting up and switching his position to the other side of the room. At this point everyone else was sitting quietly in other rooms simply "listening" to the house and taking note of anything that might be considered unusual.
At the very end of the night, as we all started back to the base, we heard what sounded like metal hitting the wooden floor. Dan heard it more clearly than everyone else as the sound came from directly under his chair. He looked down and was surprised to see a spoon sitting underneath him on the floor. What would be even more astonishing seconds later was that Tom recognized the object and retreated to the entry way only to find this was the very spoon he had been toying with 30 minutes earlier. It was no longer where he had placed it.
In this period of time, all investigators were on camera with only Dave Grady alone at the monitor. At no time did he or anyone else stray from their positions save for Dan moving his chair to get a better overall view of the room. How then, could this happen? We were certain Tom was not mistaken as Chris had also seen the spoon in the entry way in the multiple visits he had paid to the home prior to our visit. He had also seen it there that night as well. Apportation of an object is a phenomenon we have all heard about but none of us had ever witnessed before and we, to a man, were stunned by what had just happened.
It was left to us then to do whatever we could to explain or debunk what had just happened before we made such a fantastic claim or took it to heart. The effort would spill into the following day, when we actually took the folding chair and for almost an hour attempted to stick the spoon somewhere on it where it might wedge or rest only to be released when the chair was folded, unfolded or moved from one place to another. Only one thing we did accomplished this and that was jamming the spoon into a hinge on the chair in the closed position, but this resulted in not being able to unfold the chair into an open position. It was also literally impossible to jam a spoon into any hinge on the chair when it was in the open position. Placing it inside a fold was just as difficult without being able to at least have it in plain sight and maintain that position when moved. Dan had brought the chair into the room folded and opened it in clear view of our DVR cameras, then moved it again, so neither scenario explained what we heard and saw.
Dan had not brought the spoon in with him and in fact did not know it even existed. The spoon had not come in with the chair either wedged into the folds or resting on the seat where Dan obviously would have been able to feel it when he sat down. The spoon was not inside either of the mesh drink holders on either arm and neither holder had any holes in it a spoon might slip through. The two photos below were taken within a minute of our find and shows exactly how we found the spoon.
There are two additional pieces of this story we can present; one is audio of the event taken from our wireless audio mic that was placed on a table in the living room and the other is a video from a static camera that was trained on the exact spot Dan was sitting. While it is impossible to actually see the event take place as people are beginning to move out of their assigned areas and crossing in front of the camera, you can clearly see that no one is responsible for the placement or tossing of the object. There is one shot in which we think we may be seeing the spoon suspended above the floor just before it makes contact with it. Below are some screen captures depicting the incident.
2:00 audio of the 'spoon incident'
That we were anxious to view the audio and video the following day goes without saying. We packed our equipment up for the night, thanked our hosts and set for home.
Conclusion
Through the years, the Chase-Cory House has been a must-stop on elementary and middle school field trips. It harkens back to a harsh and volatile period in American history when survival was difficult and creature comforts few and far between. Men made their living from the land and the sea and each was a grueling vocation in its own way. The times were fraught with peril and only the strong endured.
We approached this investigation with more of an eye toward learning about the families of the Chase-Cory House and left with much more. IT does seem that there is a residual energy about the house as our recorders picked up voices we could not adequately explain. The spoon incident was particularly baffling. In RISEUP, as in all reputable groups of this nature, a strong emphasis is placed on trust and honesty and whatever experiences we might have are free of tampering, slight of hand and misdirection. It was rewarding then to see such effort put into the attempt to invalidate the appearance of this object. Our first response was to point to the chair as the vehicle for which the spoon appeared, but despite our efforts to do so, we cannot point to it as the culprit.
This leaves our group to be the ones scrutinized. Beyond our inherent trust, the presence of our cameras proved a valuable asset is dispelling any notion that anything sinister took place. Our IR cameras are never placed with the intent of capturing paranormal activity, but to document the scene of our investigations so a quick review might reveal ordinary reasons for something initially thought to be supernatural. In this respect the camera does not lie.
We will return to this location on many occasions as we move forward as the historical society has welcomed our presence there. Some of these visits will be investigative, yet others will be geared toward education and preservation. In either case, our priority will remain advancing our knowledge of this most noteworthy and unusual location.