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Belvidere Mansion
Belvidere Mansion Movie Documentary
Date:
August
18, 2007 Special Thanks to the Roger's Historical Society for allowing our group to investigate the Belvidere Mansion! To view their website and learn more about them, please visit: http://www.rchs1.org/index.htm History:
William Farris Martin, 31 years old, has an office in the Waltham building. It was his custom to telephone his wife just before he started home for supper. He did this about 5:00pm yesterday but the call was unanswered. Thinking that his wife had left their flat for a few moments, he went directly home. Entering his apartment and going into the dining room he was startled to find his wife's body. Immediately he called for help. The woman was released from the cord and the frantic husband then endeavored to bring her back to life and would not leave the body until coroner Carlinsky told him there was no hope that Ms. Martin could be revived.
So why would the
Belvidere Mansion be haunted? Many visitors and
employees who have been in the mansion have witnessed seeing
the ghost of Mr. Bayless and his daughter Bland. One
of these employees name is Ruth and she calls herself the
"Ghost Teller for the Mansion." Ruth has stated
hearing the voice of a Intrigued not only by the history of the Belvidere Mansion and the Bayless Family, but also by the possibility of experiencing paranormal activity, our group set out to investigate. Does the ghost of Mr. Bayless really remain at the mansion? Does he stick around to see how his home is being cared for? Does Bland remain at the mansion and if so why? Does she hope she can possibly relive her life differently? These are just some of the questions that our group wanted to find out so we set out to investigate the Belvidere Mansion for ourselves.
While our group was on break, a strange phenomenon was witnessed by two of our group members who was along one side of the house. They noticed a light come on in the second story window of the mansion and then after a few seconds it went off. The two investigator's thought that the team had finished break and had started the investigation without them, however when they came around the corner they saw several of the members were still sitting on the porch. Upon talking about what had happened, we all knew that no one was upstairs in the house when the event occurred and we also knew that all lights were off in the house with the exception of the kitchen light which was right by the porch where members were stationed outside on break. After reviewing the video we took discussing this event, we were talking about the different types of hauntings and ended up recording an evp of what sounds to be a man saying, "Like Me." Several other evp's were recorded during the investigation, especially in Bland's room when we were doing a sit-down. Light footstep's were heard as well as strange knocks and then Anita and Christy heard the voice of a woman and little girl and then later on when we reviewed over the audio we got an evp of 2 voices. One saying, "Grace?" (1st voice) then "Right here" (2nd voice). Upon the end of our investigation, our group felt that the Belvidere Mansion did have spirit activity and was possibly haunted by Bland and Mr. Bayless. We came to this conclusion after the experiences our group had there, the information our psychic's received and then by the recorded evidence that we obtained.
I had previously investigated the Belvidere Mansion a few years back so I knew what I could expect, however I can say that I was more impressed by this investigation and I feel that more vital data was collected. I did pick up again on Bland and felt the burn of the rope around my neck as well as one of the other investigators in our team. I also picked up on her intense sadness and depression I'm pretty sure that was spilt over from years ago. I did feel something a bit different about her though this time rather than the last time. This time I felt like she was trying to reach out for help as if she wasn't happy with her current circumstances and she had grown tired of her wait and time here. I did feel like she was ready to move on. I didn't quite pick up on Mr. Bayless as strongly as I did Bland however I do feel like Mr. Bayless was there as well and I do feel like he is very protective of the house. I could not determine whether Mr. Bayless stayed in the home on a constant basis, however I do know that he still visits the mansion. I did pick up on the 3 children again playing marbles in the floor. These were the same children that I had picked up on the time I investigated the mansion before. I do believe that these children are quite possibly residual as I could not pick up on any other communication with them other than seeing them play the marble game. The Belvidere Mansion however has a sad feel to it which seems to be spiritually embedded in it's walls. I do think there is a haunting going on however and it is a good little place to investigate if you are looking for a true paranormal experience.
Evidence Collected
Photographs: There were no positive photos taken from this investigation. Video: 1 Video Clip of an Evp caught on Video:
Back Porch Evp: "Like Me" Evp: There were 5 evps recorded from this investigation.
"Please let me
in"
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The Belvidere
Mansion was built in 1907 by John M. Bayless and is on the
National Register of Historical places. Mr. Bayless
was born in 1851 in Green County Tennessee but moved to
Cassville with his family where he became an adult while
working on his parent's farm. He left Cassville to
attend college at Hiawassee College of Tennessee and
graduated in 1875. He then returned that same year
back to home to Cassville with 40 cents in his possession.
Two years later in 1877 he married Francis J. McCarey and
shortly afterwards in 1878, a daughter was born and they
named her Francis. Sadly Ms. Bayless died 1 year after
their marriage. Then another year later in 1879, Mr.
Bayless met and married Mary Stubblefield and they had
a
total of 7 children from 1880-1895. All survived to
adulthood except for one daughter named Gracie who
tragically died on March 21, 1881 when she accidentally fell
into a fire pit when she was only 8 months old. Her
little body was laid to rest at the old Stubblefield
Cemetery in Cassville, Missouri and her inscription reads,
"Grace Bayless, daughter of J.M. and M.M. Bayless. Here
our little one lies, sleeping in death's long dreamless
rest. Eyes though closed on Earth are now open in
Heaven. 
Mr. Bayless was
a banker and though his own company circa 1902, built in
Claremore a 3-story opera house, the Sequoyah hotel an
athletic building with an indoor swimming pool and then
finally the Belvidere Mansion in 1907 for his family.
However, only the Belvidere Mansion remains today.
Many of the materials used to build the Belvidere Mansion
were brought into Claremore from the 1904 St. Louis World
fair. Mr. Bayless moved his family from Cassville to
Claremore, Oklahoma to live in the Belvidere, however sadly,
Mr. Bayless died on June 2nd 1907 on the operating table for
appendicitis, just 6 months before the family was due to
move into the mansion. Times were hard for the family,
however Ms. Bayless and her children moved into the mansion
after his death where the children grew into adulthood and
married all seemed well until September 11th 1913 when the
family learned about the death of their daughter and sister
Bland, who committed suicide by hanging in her Kansas City
home. The Cassville Republican Newspaper reported the
events of her death taken from the Kansas City Journal
Newspaper and reported...
"Bland
Martin was found dead Thursday evening at her home in Kansas
City. Suspended from a curtain rod in a doorway by a
piece of clothesline, the body of Ms. Bland Bayless-Martin,
wife of William Farris Martin, an insurance man, was found
late yesterday afternoon by her husband when he returned to
their home on the 2nd floor of their apartment house at 1606
E.
33rd St. The cause of the suicide is unknown.
Mrs. Charles C. Martin, mother-on-law of the unfortunate
woman said, "Last night a sudden fit of insanity must have
of lead the young wife to kill herself. She was at my
home yesterday and several times complained of a pain in the
back of her neck," the elder Mrs. Martin said, "I thought
nothing of it at the time but now I believe she must have
suffered some sort of temporary derangement. She and
my son were happily married and were building a new home in
Morningside Park. I know of no cause for her to take
her own life."
In
1928, just 15 years after Bland's death, Ms. Bayless died
and with all the Bayless children now grown and married, the
Belvidere Mansion remained empty empty for a few years until
the 1930's when it was privately purchased and used for
apartment units up until the 1960's. By this time the
Belvidere Mansion had become neglected and began showing
signs of it's age, shown through the run down conditions of
its owner and occupants throughout the years. It was
then that the Roger's historical society purchased the
Belvidere Mansion to restore it's beauty and to preserve
it's historical value and heritage. Today the Mansion
is still owned by the Roger's historical society and has
been given back its luxurious stance within the community.
woman throughout the mansion and has stated that her
grandson was up there one day with her and witnessed a woman
who talked to him which fit the description of Bland.
Ruth has also told us that there was a visitor that came to
the mansion for a tour and after walking into the mansion,
she asked who the gentleman was outside on the porch.
Baffled by whom this woman was talking about since there was
no one that they knew of sitting outside on the porch, they
inquired about her encounter. The woman stated that a
man was sitting outside on the porch and as she approached,
he said hello and said that he was happy with the way the
house looked and was being cared for. After being
shown a picture of John Bayless, the woman in amazement
stated that that was the man she had seen sitting outside on
the porch. Ruth has also said that guests have
witnessed the voice of a woman talking to them, one time in
particular was when a male guest was up in Bland's old room
(shown in the picture to the right ) and he audibly heard,
"Who are you?" Needless to say the man left the room
and refused to go back in.
While arrived at
the Mansion around 8pm and began our walk-thru with our
audio recorders running. After we did the walk-thru
and learned the layout of the mansion, we began getting
ready for our investigation. While setting up
equipment and getting interior shots, Christy witnessed a
shadowy figure standing beside her near the stairwell.
Later on while investigating the 2nd floor, a few of the
investigators witnessed shadowy type figures passing through
the hallway and into a couple of the different bedrooms.
Throughout the investigation a few of our investigators
heard audible voices, but all in the forms of whispers. 
Psychic Investigator's
Comments: 
