By Dr. Raymond A. Keller,
author of The Real Resident Aliens is available on Amazon.com while supplies last.
Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus
Cosmic Ray's Excellent Venus Adventure
Known as Pennsylvania’s “Mistress of the Macabre” and “Hostess with the Mostest Ghosts,” for two decades (1970-1990), Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey, supernatural investigator, and best-selling author, was considered the Keystone State’s preeminent authority on spectral phenomena.
In the early 1970s, Adi-Kent Thomas Jeffrey (1916-1990), then a resident of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for over twenty years, was considered one of the nation’s premier paranormal investigators. She first attained notoriety when she wrote a series of articles on the “Dark Side of the Delaware,” which appeared regularly in the pages of the Sunday Magazine of the Philadelphia Bulletin. The notoriety that she gained from her writings on the paranormal in the Philadelphia press, led her onto the lecture circuit, presenting programs on such controversial topics as parapsychology and extra-sensory perception (ESP) to large and ever-expanding audiences across the United States. She also conducted ghost tours throughout Pennsylvania and wrote several books on sundry mysterious phenomena one might encounter in the contemporary world, with her most famous and best-selling being The Bermuda Triangle (New York, New York: Warner Books, 1975). Her fascination with and research activities in various areas of the paranormal garnered her the title of Pennsylvania’s “Mistress of the Macabre.”
For investigating hundreds of ghost reports in the Delaware Valley over the decades, Adi-Kent came to the realization that ghosts tended to haunt people, rather than the places where they lived. This profound insight came upon her after she met a hospitable lady by the name of Hilda Chance. It seems that in nearly every home where Hilda ever resided, specters have consistently been sighted. While Hilda did not encounter any ghosts herself while growing up in the small town of Harrington, Delaware, she did report that her mother frequently reported seeing a spectral apparition walking through the rooms of their home in the early hours before sunrise. Once Hilda was on her own, however, she got married and moved with her husband Joseph into a home that he had rented across the Delaware River in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, in the Delaware Valley. After a few years, Joseph and Hilda had several children. But there was also one uninvited guest. “We had one visitor there,” related Hilda to Adi-Kent, adding, “a little boy.”
This young boy would just appear to the Chance children at such times that they were sick. Whenever the Chance family members were in good health, the little boy would never materialize. “Then the moment one of them would feel ill,” noted Adi-Kent, “she (Hilda) would report a visit from this strange little boy.” In her report to Adi-Kent, Hilda remarked, “He (the little boy) would talk to my children at such times and the message was always the same: ‘Leave this house with me! Come on! Run away! Follow me, and I will show you a nice place, a much nicer place than this!’” Hilda didn’t believe that the appearance of the little boy was frightening to her children, although it did serve to arouse their curiosity. Hilda said that her children became preoccupied with questions about who the boy was, in addition to wondering where this “nicer place” was that the ghost was prodding them to seek refuge in.
At first, Hilda thought that maybe the young visitor was a spirit who once had lived and died in their very house. The little visitor did seem to revel in being in the company of her children, as the young boy appeared to be about the same age as her children. But why did the ghost boy only show up when her children were sick, and moreover, why was he trying to persuade them to leave with him and go into the spirit world? Once Hilda provided all of the details she could remember to Adi-Kent, the paranormal investigator went right to work on the case. After a brief week or so, she looked into the past of the Boothwyn home and discovered that some years back a young boy had died on the property from meningitis. The physical description of the ghost boy provided in the documents uncovered showed a match with the descriptions of the apparition provided by the children. Joseph was concerned about this phenomenon and how it was impacting his family. Therefore, he decided to buy a home of his own to move his wife and kids out of the growing controversy surrounding the haunted property in Boothwyn.
The new home was a large, old-stone mansion surrounded by beautifully planted grounds, located in nearby Upper Chichester Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The manse was once owned by a locally prominent family, one that also owned most of the real estate (residential, commercial, and undeveloped) in the environs. Hilda Chance recalled that “When I would be alone in that house, working or reading or writing downstairs, I would hear what sounded like footsteps of a little old lady padding about on the second floor. I would hear much opening and closing of doors and closets and the creaking and slamming of dresser drawers as though they were being opened and closed one after another. I would stop and listen attentively. It was always easy to picture the little old lady cleaning the house and putting things away. I could hear the hustling of hr busy feet for hours at a time. One day I decided to try to meet this friendly spirit whom I felt undoubtedly was the former mistress of that house. I went to the foot of the stairs (Oh, those beautiful, old curved banisters!); and called up, ‘Welcome to my home now! Come on down and let’s have a friendly visit!’ Abruptly, the sounds ceased and I never heard them again.”
Hilda does note, however, that after this incident her family was “badgered with other strange occurrences.” There were loud knocks that banged incessantly on different doors when no one was close to them. Some thumps would trounce against the window panes, but these were always close to where Chance's family members were sitting. Every time that Joseph and Hilda tried to check out the situation, nobody could be seen and no apparent cause was detected for these unusual events. “But oddest of all such annoying manifestations,” reported Hilda, “was the disappearance of various articles. Things actually vanished from sight, right alongside where we would be sitting! Just there one minute and gone the next! Sometimes, never to be found again.” Having put up with these haunting experiences for many years, the Chances packed it all in and moved out of Upper Chichester. Joseph purchased an old farmhouse in northern Pennsylvania, where he was thinking that he, Hilda, and the children could enjoy some peace and quiet in his retirement. Boy, did he get that wrong!
“One night,” Hilda informed Adi-Kent, “I was sitting alone in the kitchen of the farmhouse, quietly writing letters when there came the sound of contented humming from one corner of the kitchen. I looked up, startled, and listened. Soon I could detect interspersed with the humming, the creaking of a rocking chair. I realized that someone was sitting and rocking in a chair by a far corner window. But it is interesting to note that the kitchen had been redesigned by the former occupants, and there was now no room for a chair in that spot. The window was blocked out by modern cabinets. The next day, I set out to discover if what I suspected had been true. I talked to a neighbor who had known the residents of previous years in that house. Sure enough, I heard that at one time before the cabinets had been put in, the farmwife had kept a rocker by that window and used to sit there frequently.
“Not long after, I heard the sounds again. This time I put down my pen and listened carefully. I was able to pick out the tune. It was an old lullaby. I have heard it from that corner many times now. I just sit quietly and enjoy it. It is so ‘homey’ and charming. It makes me smile to myself with contentment as I sit listening. One time I got up and walked as near to the spot as I could get. The tune stopped abruptly and an old air swept around me like an icy draught from a door opened suddenly. I realized with some remorse what I had done. She didn’t care to be interrupted or spied upon. ‘Whoopie!’ I said; ‘I’m sorry! Carry on!’ I returned to my chair and the humming started sweetly up again.” Hilda’s account above attests to the many manifestations that have taken place while she was in the house, albeit it does not recount all of them.
There is one particular haunting that really stood out in Hilda’s mind. She declared to Adi-Kent, “We found after buying the farmhouse that we needed more spare bedroom space as we have children and grandchildren with us often. So, we transformed a storage room on the second floor into a finished and lovely guest room. My husband built a closet in one corner as the room utterly lacked any cabinet space. In that corner, a bed had formerly stood, but to make room for the closet, we turned the bed and backed it against the other wall. The night my son arrived we were all sitting in the kitchen having coffee when suddenly we heard the bed above being pushed over the bare floor! My son looked at me, wonder in his face. Without thinking, I said, ‘She doesn’t like the way we placed the bed!’ ‘What are you talking about?’ he asked. I explained what I meant and told him all about the humming and rocking of the former farmwife.”
Hilda wrapped up her story: “Quickly he arose and we followed him up to the room. The bed had been turned. My son moved it back again against the far wall. I found myself looking upwards and carefully explaining, ‘Now you see; it must stay this way. There’s a closet in the corner now and there is no room for the bed there! It must stay here. Do you understand?’ The bed stayed there. It has never moved since.” Hilda then testified to Adi-Kent that other things still move around in the farmhouse, and most likely always would, as long as she was living there. Hilda even opined that no matter where she moved to, the ghosts would follow her there. Fortunately for Hilda, she has managed to adjust, adapting herself to the hauntings. In writing about Hilda’s accommodations with the unknown, Adi-Kent notes that “She (Hilda) enjoys these ‘spirit visits;’ and so why shouldn’t supernatural guests continue coming to that lady who is probably the ‘Hostess with the Mostest Ghosts’ in all the Delaware Valley?”
*****
*****
PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARY
POLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!
Bigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTube
LYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE
'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDS
CRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)
'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINES
