SPECIAL MENTION
11
Ghost of Benjamin Chapman
It was the 15th of February, 1996 when my parents
loaded up the rest of our belongings into the Ryder u-haul. We were moving
from our duplex in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin to the new house my parents bought
in Pardeeville, Wisconsin. The move was needed due to the rise of property
taxes in Cottage Grove. Plus, my parents wanted to own a house of their own,
with land where my brother and I could play. After my brother and I got into
the car we were on our way to our new home. While my father drove us to our
destination my mother started telling my brother and me all about our new
home. She told us that our new home is a farm house, which comes with a barn,
a garage, a corn crib and 12 acres of land. She also told us that the realtor
may be there when we arrive because he is having a construction crew re-do the
cabinetry in the kitchen and re-carpet the whole house. My brother and I
couldn’t wait to arrive at our new home to inspect it. We were also very eager
to inspect the outbuildings that came with the house.
We arrived at our new home around 5pm on February 15th. My brother and I
followed my parents from our car into our new home. In our kitchen we met the
realtor and the construction crew that was working on our home. After meeting
them my brother and I took off in different directions to inspect the place,
while my parents stayed behind to finish up some business with the realtor. I
turned left out of the kitchen and entered the dining room.
This room was a long rectangle with white walls and
a door at the end of the rectangle directly in front of me, which led outside.
Looking to my immediate left I saw stairs that led to the second story of the
house. I proceeded up the stairs to check out the upper floor. Once I reached
the top of the stairs I saw one big room with a low ceiling. This room was a
long rectangle shape like the dining room. However, this room had two small
windows and a walk-in closet. I thought this room was really nice however, I
wasn’t too happy to see that the attic door was located above the stairs.
I got a really weird feeling from this room as well. It was a feeling of
uneasiness.
After my inspection of the room I headed back down
the stairs. Once again I was in the dining room. From the dining room there
were only two places I could go, one was to my left to the bedroom at the end
of the dining room or to my right thru the kitchen to the other bedroom and
living room. I chose to go to my left to check out the bedroom at the end of
the dining room. Once I entered the bedroom at the end of the dining room I
noticed that the room was kind of small but, it felt very welcoming to me. The
room had white walls like all the other rooms that I had seen so far and two
big windows. The first window was to my immediate right because I am standing
in the doorway. The second window was on the wall across from me down toward
the small closet.
The closet is small because it is directly under the
stairs that lead to the second floor. For some reason I really liked this
room. It made me feel warm, comfortable and safe. I stood in the room just
staring at it when I suddenly felt a hand touch my shoulder. I turned around
to see my mother standing beside me. She asked me what I thought of the place
so far. I told her it seemed nice to me. She then informed me that the room
upstairs would be hers and my father’s room but, I could choose between the
other two rooms which one I wanted to be mine. I told her that I really liked
the room that we were standing in but, I hadn’t seen the other room yet. So,
she and I went and looked at the other room.
We got to the other bedroom by going thru the dining
room, straight thru the kitchen and into the other bedroom. This bedroom was
very small. It was a small square shape and had only one window directly
across from my mother and me. It also had a small walk in closet. After seeing
this room I told my mother that I wanted the bedroom at the end of the dining
room to be mine. To get to the living room I had to leave the bedroom that was
now my brother’s, go into the kitchen about three steps and turn right. The
living room was also rectangle shaped. It was a little bit bigger than the
dining room and it had seven big crank out windows that my parents were going
to replace later with more modern windows. All in all I liked the house but,
for some reason I felt my room was the best and safest place in the house.
After two months had gone by, we finally had all the walls in the house
painted and looking nice. All of the garbage from the construction workers and
us updating the place was thrown into the rented dumpster outside which the
dumpster company then came and took away. It was April and starting to warm up
a little. So, I decided to finally go check out the big yard we now had. From
the house I turned to my right and started walking to our wood line.
Once I reached our woods I turned right and followed
the wood line down our front yard to the ditch. Then I turned left and headed
into our woods. I walked about 50 feet and turned left to go further into the
woods to try and find the pond that the realtor told my mother about. Walking
another 50 feet I came upon a small pond. It was about three feet deep and ten
feet wide all the way around. It was very pretty to me because it was
surrounded by our woods. From the pond I started walking up an incline. Once I
came to the top I saw our back yard and more of our woods. It was a beautiful
site.
I looked to my left and saw something shimmering
thru the woods. I started walking toward the shimmering object but stopped at
the long row of trees that was blocking me from it. Even though I had not
reached the shimmering object, I was now close enough to see that the
shimmering object was actually a bigger spring fed pond. Standing there
staring at the pond I started to feel strange. I started to feel like someone
or something didn’t like that I was there. My heart raced faster and my mind
told me to run away. But, my legs wouldn’t move the pond was holding my
attention as if it was trying to lull me into a trance. However, the feeling
grew stronger and whatever it was that didn’t want me here was making its
presence clearer. It now felt like I was being pulled by someone or something
away from the pond.
Then all of a sudden it was like whatever it was
that gave me that feeling knew I didn’t understand and it spoke to me in my
mind. It told me that the pond I just saw wasn’t a safe place for me and that
I shouldn’t go by it again. So, I started walking back to the house, feeling
weird but, understanding what had just taken place. I understood that for some
reason this presence that I had encountered did not like me near that pond. I
just didn’t understand why. I went back into my home but, I didn’t tell anyone
what had happened to me. I knew they wouldn’t understand.
A month had passed without anything weird happening; then came May. In May, my
brother and I were outside doing some work for my mother. She had asked us to
dig a path for a sidewalk from the house to the garage, which would end up
being an L shape. She told us that once we had the path for the sidewalk dug
out that we would go into town and buy some wooden slats to build our
sidewalk.
So, my brother and I started digging by the house.
We were only two feet from the house when we hit a rock with our shovels. We
started to dig this rock out. When we finally had the rock uncovered we
realized that we hadn’t uncovered a rock at all. What we just dug up was a
gravestone. I was more frightened of this than my brother was. However, before
we removed the gravestone I read what it said. It said: Here lies Benjamin
Chapman; he was 12 years, 11 months and 3 days old when he died in 1917. After
reading the gravestone I wondered if this could have anything to do with the
presence I had encountered in my woods. I was drifting in my thoughts until my
brother broke through them by saying to me that we needed to show our father
the gravestone. So, we went and got our father to come out and look at the
gravestone. I had asked him if he thought the boy was buried where we were
going to put our sidewalk. He told me that if anything the boy was buried
under the apple tree that was located in between our house and our garage.
After my father examined the gravestone he helped us carry it to the barn.
Even though I still felt uneasy about the situation I went back to digging
with my brother.
Digging up that gravestone made my father and me
very curious. We both wanted to know who this Benjamin Chapman kid was and
what he was doing on our land. So, my father did some research and found out
that Benjamin’s family owned our house and land back in the early 1900’s.
However, he didn’t find any information on how Benjamin died or why he was
buried on our land. All he could tell me was that back in the day when the
Chapman family owned our house kids died from all kinds of things because they
didn’t have the medicine or vaccinations that we have today. He also said that
most families didn’t have enough money for a burial plot in a cemetery so;
they would bury their dead on their land. This news really didn’t make me feel
any better and as I was about to find out I had a lot to be nervous about.
I believe that when my brother and I dug up that gravestone we set off a chain
reaction of events. Unfortunately, I was the only target of the chain
reaction. It started with small things; things that could possibly be
explained as coincidence. I was in my room reading a book; when all of a
sudden a gust of wind would blow over me sending shivers down my spine. I got
out of my bed and checked both of my windows and noted that they were still
painted shut from when my mother and I had painted them. I also knew it wasn’t
from my door because I always kept my door shut when I was in my room. So,
seeing as how I couldn’t explain it I just tried to forget about it. I went
back to my reading and was really getting into my book and that’s when the
light in my room turned off. I wanted to know the cause of this so I opened my
bedroom door and looked out thru the dining room and into the kitchen. I
noticed that the kitchen had lights on. So, I called out to my father and
asked him if the power just went out and came back on. He informed me that it
hadn’t. A little puzzled I went back into my room, turned back on my light and
closed my door. Nothing else happened that evening.
Then three days later I was in my room with the door
closed and I was listening to my radio. I was having fun singing along with my
radio when it suddenly went off. Once again I had asked my family if the power
had just went off and came back on and they told me that it hadn’t. So, I
decided to try something. I went back into my room and shut the door. I stood
in the middle of my room and said "Benjamin I was listening to my stereo and I
would still like to listen to it" and to my amazement it came back on. From
that very moment I knew that the presence that I had encountered in my back
yard was Benjamin Chapman, the boy that was buried on our land.
A week later my mother said that I had earned the
privilege of having a TV in my room. After getting it all set up my mother
left me to my room and TV. I was having a wonderful time watching “The
Simpsons” when all of a sudden my TV turned off. I knew it wasn’t a power
problem so; I called out to Ben who then turned back on the TV. He continued
to do things like that to me. He would turn the volume way up and then turn it
way down. Seeing as how these things kept happening to me I wanted to find a
way to prove that these things were actually happening and prove to myself
that I wasn’t going crazy. So, I took an abacus that my mother had on a shelf
in the dining room. (The abacus was for my brother because my mother
home-schooled him). I went back into my room where I shut and locked the door.
I told my parents that I was conducting an experiment in my room and it
required me to lock the door, so that way I would know that no one had
interfered with it. I then separated the beads on the abacus. I made sure that
each side had the same number of beads which left the center of the abacus
empty. Then to make sure that no one could get to the abacus and mess up my
experiment, I put the abacus on a shelf in my room that was close to the
ceiling. Then I went to sleep.
When I woke up I checked the abacus and found one
bead directly in the middle of the middle bar. I unlocked my door and went to
the kitchen where my parents were. I asked them if they had come into my room
at all and they said that they hadn’t. So, I continued this experiment for a
week and everyday gave me the same result, one bead in the direct middle of
the middle bar and my parents telling me that they never came into my room.
After having done my experiment for a week and
getting the same results each day, I knew I wasn’t going crazy. So, I lived
with it. Besides, Ben made me feel safe. He never tried to hurt me. In fact,
it was as if he loved me, loved me like a girlfriend. He just liked to goof
around with me. Like the day I was running late for school and was on the
verge of missing my bus if I didn’t hurry up and get outside. I had laid my
homework on my bed and ran to the bathroom to quickly finish my hair. When I
came back to my room to get my homework it was gone. I ran to the kitchen and
asked my father and brother if they had seen my homework at all. They told me
that they hadn’t. So, I ran back into my room, shut my door and started
talking to Ben. I told him that I was going to miss my bus if I didn’t get my
homework and get going. I also said to him that I have to go to school but, I
will be back at 3pm. With that said I opened my door and went to the porch
where my shoes were and put them on. When I got back into my room I found my
homework back on my bed. I thanked Ben then left for school.
Ben’s behavior was the same for a while. He would do all of his usual things.
Like sending gusts of wind over me, turning off and on my lights and radio and
TV, and moving things around on me. Then on October 1st, 1997 he took things a
step further. I was in my room with the door closed as usual and my clock
showed me that it was 7pm. I had my radio on and I was dancing to the music. I
would see myself in my full length mirror (that was on the wall behind my
bedroom door) whenever I turned my head to my right. So, I am just dancing
away and having fun and for some reason I look at my mirror and to my surprise
I see an all white figure looking back at me. The figure looks like a boy. I
stare at it for a few seconds then ask it if he is Ben. Then it disappears
just as fast as it appeared.
After seeing the ghost boy in my mirror I was a
little shaken up. I really didn’t know what to think. I had never seen a ghost
before. However, I was even more curious now than I was before. After seeing
what I presumed to be Ben in my mirror I felt an urge to go for a walk
outside. As I walked out onto the porch of my house I realized that it was a
lot darker outside than I thought it was. Even though I was feeling a little
uneasy about the dark, I still proceeded with my walk. I stepped off the porch
and headed to my left to go around my house to the front yard. I then walked
through my front yard to the ditch and turned left and headed for the wood
line. Once I reached the wood line I turned left so that I could walk the wood
line that went by my house. While I was walking I noticed that the sky was
clear and that a half moon was out. The moon looked so beautiful that I ended
up standing still for a while to take in its radiance. When I brought my head
back down to look at the woods I noticed a white figure standing about 30 feet
in front of me. It was the same figure I had seen in my mirror just moments
earlier. After wiping my eyes and realizing that I wasn’t dreaming I proceeded
to follow the wood line. The whole time I walked I kept watching the woods and
noticed that the white boy figure was following me. However, when I reached
the end of the wood line in my back yard the figure had vanished.
I stood in my back yard for a while just staring at
the woods. I didn’t dare go into the woods but, I wondered why he had decided
to show himself to me after all this time. Why hadn’t he shown him self to me
earlier? This is a question that still puzzles me to this very day. It puzzles
me because; I shared a room with Ben for eight years and it took him at least
two years before he showed himself to me.
It may have took Ben two years to show himself to me but, the other entity in
the house didn’t waste any time making his presence known to me. I could tell
that this entity was not very friendly. He would never enter my bedroom
though. I think that may have had something to do with Ben being in my room
all the time. All I know is that when I would leave my room I would hear the
other entity’s footsteps right above my head. He would follow me wherever I
went. This made me very uneasy and I didn’t like to stay in any of the other
rooms for too long. It got so bad for me that I even got my mother to let me
eat in my room. She didn’t understand why I didn’t want to eat in the kitchen
with them but, she ended up blaming it on my adolescence.
I recall one day that I had come out of my room to
go to the bathroom. The footsteps followed me the whole way and then stopped
right in front of the bathroom door. I figured that maybe it couldn’t come
into the bathroom for some reason. This actually calmed my nerves a little.
So, I shut the door and proceeded to use the bathroom. I hadn’t been in there
for more than five minutes when all of a sudden I heard the footsteps above me
in the bathroom. Then the footsteps spread quickly and turned into scratching
sounds. The scratching sounds were all over the ceiling and surrounded every
wall. It was scaring the life right out of me. I quickly finished using the
bathroom and washed my hands. I had the water at a lukewarm temperature which
almost instantly went to blazing hot then freezing cold. I knew it wasn’t a
plumbing problem because all of the pipes had been replaced and so had the
water heater.
The bad entity was able to come into the bathroom
after all and it was very obvious to me that it didn’t like me. So, I quickly
left the bathroom and headed back to my room. Once in my room the fear had
subsided. In fact every time that I would walk into my room I felt like I was
walking into a warm sunny day with flowers all around. My room felt very
peaceful to me. I always had a feeling of ultimate safeness and protection in
my room. I contribute that feeling to my ghost boyfriend Ben. For; I had come
to realize that Ben was residing in my room with me to keep me safe.
I moved out of the house when I turned 18. However, my parents and brother
still reside in that house and I am a frequent visitor. I still will hang out
in my old room during most of my visit to talk to Ben and tell him how I have
been; and the rest of my visit is spent with my nerves a little on edge
because I know that the bad entity is still there as well. However, I am glad
that I had all of that stuff happen to me. I never really believed in ghosts
but, I am a firm believer now. For those who want to sit and tell me that it
never happened, well, I did an experiment and the outcome proved to me that I
was and will never be alone in that house. That is all the proof I need that
ghosts do exist.
-Leona.
