When I walked into Stonewall Manor, the group of ghost hunters still were setting up their equipment.
There were ultraviolet and infrared cameras in upstairs and downstairs rooms. Some people carried electromagnetic field meters; others carried cats’ toys that lit up when jostled. A motion sensor guarded one of the rooms. There even was a psychic medium on site.
Their goal: To debunk or verify claims of paranormal activity at the nearly 200-year-old planter’s mansion in Rocky Mount.
Jason Smith, a co-founder of Onlyphantoms Paranormal, a North Carolina-based paranormal investigative group, has led two visits to Stonewall, the most recent in early June.
“It’s all about proof — scientific proof that cannot be debunked,” Smith said.
When Smith first approached Renny Taylor in 2023 about visiting Stonewall Manor, Taylor said he was a little apprehensive at first. But after two investigations, that has changed. Taylor, board president of the Friends of Stonewall, now wants to offer Paranormal Nights at Stonewall.
“They were very respectful, which was really important to me,” Taylor said. “I didn’t want a lot of people just running around or hanging out. I didn’t want a trick-or-treat night.”
But this was hardly a Halloween dress-up party. The ghost hunters brought along thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and they appealed to any spirits in the house to show themselves with courteous and reverent conversations.
While the group of investigators set up equipment, Taylor recounted some of the unexplained occurrences that had been reported over the years at the house.
“I told Jason some of the stories, and as it turned out, that’s where they got some of their hits,” Taylor said.
The original owner, Bennett Bunn, died in the house, as did Elizabeth Bryan Lewis, who lived there for almost 50 years until 1916. And a young boy reportedly died on one of the upstairs porches.
Taylor talked about the doorknob in an upstairs door that kept falling out even after it was securely repaired. He also recounted the time that items on top of a desk were found on the floor when he came by to open the residence.
“I was the last one to leave the night before and the first one here the next day,” he said, “I don’t know what happened. But when I come in — especially at night — I say, ‘Hey, it’s me. I’m the one trying to keep the walls up.’”
As in the first investigation at Stonewall, Smith brought plenty of help last month. Jennifer and Bryan Grill of Two Rivers Paranormal of Eden were there. And Jennifer Pearce, a certified psychic medium from Raleigh, also helped in the investigation.
Throughout the night, the investigators divided into groups. I followed one group with Smith into the basement. Using devices that would light up when moved, they tried to entice spirits to jostle the mechanisms.
Later upstairs, Jennifer Grill tried to recreate a scene from the first investigation when she reportedly enticed a spirit to sing while she played the piano.
Pearce told the group that she sensed at least four spirits at the house, including two young boys — one who died in the house and the other who died outside, possibly after being punished. She said she also sensed an older man named Walter or William Pitt downstairs in the kitchen.
“He’s agitated about all the stuff we brought in that doesn’t belong,” Pearce said. “He asked why are there so many people here asking so many questions. I tried to explain to him that we wanted to hear his stories.”
Notwithstanding Pearce’s communication with the spirits, there was no smoking gun that night that said, yes, ghosts roam the halls of Stonewall. A light meter blinked a few times, and a few suspicious images showed up on monitors. But there were no apparitions, no eerie voices and nothing moved by itself.
“Sometimes, it can be fascinating, and sometimes it can be boring,” Smith said. “But there’s a lot that goes into finding evidence that doesn’t include being onsite.”
Hours of video must be analyzed after the visit, and that takes time, he said. During the visit, monitors showed a darkened silhouette in the corner of one room and white orbs that danced across the screens.
The after-visit analysis showed that the silhouette was an investigator’s shadow picked up by a camera, and the orbs likely were floating dust particles or tiny gnats in front of the lenses, Smith said.
Sterling Hunt, Smith’s partner at Onlyphantoms, has been a part of both investigations at Stonewall.
“They were far more active last time,” Hunt said.
Although the veil between our world and the spirit world might be thinnest in October, paranormal activity can theoretically happen anytime and anyplace.
“Ghosts don’t stick to a calendar,” Smith said. “Though it seems the closer you get to when those people passed or closer to the fall, they seem to be more active.”
Taylor said he remains open-minded about any spirits at Stonewall, especially after his own unexplained encounters. And he’d like to see more investigations in the future.
“They did get ‘hits’ in places where deaths occurred, so it does make it more plausible,” Taylor acknowledged.
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