Tag Archives: missouri
In an upcoming episode of Syfy’s 10th season of Ghost Hunters, T.A.P.S. visits a city I love and know well — St. Charles, Missouri. I’ve been waiting patiently for this special episode, and I’ll give you a heads up on the locations and stories you’re likely to see. Also, check out “Ghosts of St. Charles“, a great book by Michael Henry!
Psst… Are you looking for the SpeakPipe link?
Get to this episode in iTunes!
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3 Comments | tags: big seance, big seance podcast #41, big seance podcast episode 41, book discussion, dengler's tobacco, early thoughts on season 10 of ghost hunters, ebenezer curtis, elijah lovejoy, farmer's home, ghost, ghost hunters, ghost hunters and the ghosts of st. charles, ghost hunters and the ghosts of st. charles over my dead body, ghost hunters over my dead body, Ghost Hunters S10 E04, ghost hunters season 10 episode 4, ghost hunting, ghosts, ghosts of st. charles michael henry, goellner printing, goellner's printing, haunted, haunted goellner printing, haunted spots, haunted st. charles, haunted st. charles mo, lost cemetery, lost graveyard, main street, main street books, main street books st. charles missouri, main street books st. charles mo, main street st. charles, michael henry, millstream restaurant, millstream restaurant and bar, missouri, mo, mother-in-law house, mother-in-law house restaurant, moving cemeteries, moving graveyards, official viewing party, old farmer's home, over my dead body, paranormal, paranormal investigation, paranormal tv, photography, podcast, seance, season 10 of ghost hunters, spirit, spirit of mollie, spirits, spiritual, st. charles, st. charles missouri, syfy, syfy's ghost hunters, T.A.P.S., taps, the ghosts of st. charles, thoughts on season 10 of ghost hunters | posted in Book Discussions, Cemeteries, Haunted Spots, Paranormal Fun, Paranormal Investigation Topics, Paranormal TV, Photography, The Big Séance Podcast


Ginger Collins-Justus poses with her hearse in front of the Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion.
You won’t want to miss my conversation with Ginger Collins-Justus, owner and operator of Missouri History and Hauntings. Ginger shares some odd tales and little known haunted history of the state that I call home. We also chat about some of the historic connections that Missouri has with spiritualism.
Get this episode on iTunes!
Direct Download Link
In this episode:
- Her intuitive gifts and ability to speak with spirits and spirit guides.
- Ginger chats about her latest event at Maevas Coffee House at the historic Milton Schoolhouse in Alton, Illinois. The Milton Schoolhouse was featured on Syfy’s Ghost Hunters a few years back.
- Just before the interview, I give an update on the Third Annual Big Séance Thanksgiving Ouija Séance.
- Ginger drives a hearse!
- Some of Missouri’s history with witchcraft and Voodoo.
- Some old Missouri legends and ghost stories.
- Early St. Louis and Bloody Island.
- Pearl Curran and the fascinating story of Patience Worth.
- The Fox sisters and their connection to Missouri.
- The tragic love story of Leona Corder and Jesse Wall.
- Morbid Mondays
- Ginger’s upcoming events!
For More on Ginger Collins-Justus and Missouri History and Hauntings:
Missouri History and Hauntings on Facebook
MoHistoryHauntings.com
Missouri History and Hauntings on Instagram
Thanks, Ginger!
The Big Seance Podcast can be found right here, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, Google Play Music, and iHeart Radio. Please subscribe, submit a rating, or share with a fellow paranerd! Do you have any comments or feedback? Please contact me at Patrick@BigSeance.com. Consider recording your voice feedback directly from your device on my SpeakPipe page! You can also call the show and leave feedback at (775) 583-5563 (or 7755-TELL-ME). I would love to include your voice feedback in a future show. The candles are already lit, so come on in and join the séance!
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Leave a comment | tags: after life, afterlife, alton il, alton illinois, bloody island, fox sisters, fox sisters and missouri, genealogy, ghost, ghost hunters, ghost stories, ghost stories of missouri, ghosts, ginger collins justus, ginger justus, haunted history, haunted history of Missouri, hauntings, hauntings in missouri, hearse, jesse wall, legends of missouri, leona corder, leona corder and jesse wall, maevas coffee house, milton schoolhouse, missouri, missouri and spiritualism, missouri and voodoo, missouri and witchcraft, missouri ghost stories, missouri hauntings, missouri history, missouri history and hauntings, missouri legends, morbid mondays, odd tales, other side, ouija, ouija seance, ouija session, paranormal, patience worth, pearl curran, pearl curran and patience worth, saint louis, saint louis and bloody island, spirit, spirit world, spirits, spiritual, spiritualism, st. louis, st. louis and bloody island, thanksgiving ouija seance, tragic love story, voodoo, witchcraft | posted in Ghosts in General, Haunted Spots, Interviews, Mediums/Psychics/Sensitives/Intuition, Spirit Guides, Spiritualism, The Big Séance Podcast
Introducing the artsy-fartsy photos from my weekend at Belvoir Winery, formerly the Odd Fellows Home, in Liberty, Missouri. These photos can also be found on my Flickr page.

Belvoir Winery, a former orphanage, hospital, nursing home, and school, was featured on Season 9, Episode 10 of SYFY’s Ghost Hunters, and titled “Vintage Spirits”. For more information about Belvoir Winery and its history, visit their site at BelvoirWinery.com.























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10 Comments | tags: 1900, abandoned, abandoned hospital, abandoned nursing home, abandoned orphanage, Belvoir Winery, belvoir winery liberty missouri, belvoir winery liberty mo, belvoir winery/odd fellows home liberty missouri the photos, big seance, blogging, cemetery, Flickr, ghost hunters, ghost hunting, haunted, history, hospital, Liberty, liberty missouri, liberty mo, missouri, nursing home, odd fellows home, odd fellows home liberty missouri, odd fellows home liberty mo, old windows, orphanage, paranormal, paranormal investigation, paranormal research, photography, pictures, rundown, seance, season 9 episode 10, spiritual, syfy, taps, TAPS weekend, vintage spirits, windows | posted in Cemeteries, General, Haunted Spots, Photography

This afternoon I made another visit to Gumbo Cemetery in Chesterfield, Missouri. I hadn’t been there yet with the new camera, and I was excited to get more practice in! This cemetery is the resting place of Clara, from my Grave Adoption series. All photos taken with the Canon Rebel T3i and a prime 50mm f/1.4 lens.








The back of Clara’s headstone.








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Oak Grove Cemetery, St. Charles, Missouri (Big Séance)
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7 Comments | tags: another visit to gumbo, big seance, blogging, canon rebel, canon rebel t3i, cemeteries, cemetery photography, cemetery photos, chesterfield, chesterfield missouri, chesterfield mo, grave stones, grave yards, gravestones, graveyards, gumbo cemetery, gumbo cemetery chesterfield missouri, head stones, headstones, historic cemeteries, missouri, paranormal, photography, seance, spiritual | posted in Cemeteries, Photography
The Uninvited: The True Story of the Union Screaming House by Steven LaChance (2008), is about a man’s experiences with a haunted house in a small Missouri town during a several year time period in the early 2000s. I was unfamiliar with Steven or the “Screaming House” in Union until this book showed up in an Amazon.com book search. Being from Missouri, I figured it was something I should definitely check out.
In the beginning, the book focuses a lot on Steven (the author), who is a hardworking single father struggling to make it with three children. After moving from one disappointing rental to another, they manage to find what seems to be a dream home for their family… and this is where the real story starts. I am a person that reads a lot of books that would keep most people up at night, but I don’t usually have any issues. The activity that LaChance describes was enough to keep me from reading before bed. It does tend to be a little heavy on the demonic, and things like oppression and possession, but one thing I liked was that the author was really honest in describing those experiences and his opinions.
After reaching his limit of paranormal activity, the author finally moved his family out of the haunted home, but activity seemed to follow them, often in the form of nightmares. Fate also seemed to arrange for Steven to meet Helen, the next renter (or victim?) of the home. He felt the need to help her to find answers with the ongoing activity. In doing so, they formed a close relationship, and Steven ended up forming Missouri Paranormal Research (which I believe is now Paranormal Task Force), and the group seemed to spend an exhaustive amount of time investigating in the home. From there, the story focuses on Helen and the extreme experiences she goes through, including signs of possible oppression and possession, threatening both homicide and suicide, and even spending a short amount of time in a mental health facility. Steven seemed to talk himself through the thoughts that I was having while reading. Was she truly being affected somehow by some kind of demonic entity from the house, or was she purely having a psychological breakdown?
One thing is for sure. You won’t be bored with the twists and turns in the story.
For Steven’s website, click HERE. For a pictorial tour of the Union Screaming House, click HERE.
Author’s bio from the book cover:
Steven LaChance (Missouri) is co-host, with Denice Jones, of the popular Internet radio show Haunted Survivor. He appeared in the documentary film Children of the Grave and his story was featured on The Discovery Channel’s A Haunting. His experiences at the Union screaming house inspired him to form the Missouri Paranormal Research Society.
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3 Comments | tags: big seance, book discussion, book review, demonic, demonic activity, demonic entities, demonic possession, ghost, ghost hunting, ghosts, missouri, missouri hauntings, missouri paranormal, Missouri Paranormal Research, oppression, paranormal, paranormal activity, paranormal investigation, paranormal research, paranormal task force, possession, possession or psychological breakdown, screaming house, seance, spirit, spirits, spiritual, steven lachance, the true story of the union screaming house, the uninvited, the uninvited book, the uninvited the true story of the union screaming house, the union haunting, the union screaming house, union missouri, union mo | posted in Book Discussions, Haunted Spots

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Emmanuel United Church of Christ Cemetery
Weldon Spring, Missouri











Emmanuel United Church of Christ, Weldon Spring, Missouri
Some of my first shots with the new lens

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5 Comments | tags: a new cemetery, a new lens, a new lens and a new cemetery, big seance, blogging, canon ef 50mm f1.4 lens, canon EOS Rebel T3i, canon rebel, cemeteries, cemetery photography, Emmanuel United Church of Christ, emmanuel united church of christ cemetery, Emmanuel United Church of Christ Cemetery Weldon Spring, grave markers, grave stones, grave yards, graveyards, headstones, historic cemeteries, missouri, old cemeteries, paranormal, photography, photos, prime lens, seance, snow, snowy cemetery, spiritual, Weldon Spring, weldon spring missouri, weldon spring mo | posted in Cemeteries, Photography
18 Comments | tags: big seance, cemeteries, cemeteries at sunset, cemeteries in winter, cemetery, christmas eve in a cemetery, grave markers, grave stones, grave yard, grave yards, grave yards at sunset, grave yards in winter, graveyard, graveyards at sunset, graveyards in winter, head stones, headstones, historic cemetery, history, in the cemetery on christmas eve, lexington, lexington missouri, lexington mo, machpelah cemetery, machpelah cemetery lexington missouri, machpelah cemetery lexington mo, magic hour, missouri, missouri cemeteries, missouri grave yards, missouri graveyards, nature, paranormal, photography, photos, pictures, seance, snowy cemeteries, snowy grave yards, snowy graveyards, spirit communication, spiritual, sunset, winter | posted in Cemeteries




























Interested in my other cemetery posts?
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Forest Grove Cemetery, Lexington, Missouri
Lexington’s Old Catholic Cemetery
Machpelah Cemetery, Lexington, Missouri
Two Smoky Mountain Cemeteries
Just a Stroll through a Random Cemetery on the Way Home
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6 Comments | tags: big seance, cemeteries, cemeteries at sunset, cemetery, grave markers, grave stones, grave yard, grave yards, grave yards at sunset, graveyard, graveyards at sunset, head stones, headstones, historic cemetery, history, magic hour, missouri, missouri cemeteries, missouri grave yards, missouri graveyards, nature, oak grove cemetery, oak grove cemetery saint charles missouri, oak grove cemetery st. charles missouri, paranormal, photography, photos, pictures, saint charles mo, seance, spirit communication, spiritual, st charles mo, sunset | posted in Cemeteries
This post includes **Updated Information** below.
Over my Thanksgiving break, I visited my Grandmother at her home for a while. Very often I get sucked into her many books on the history of Lexington, Missouri (my hometown), or even just the high school yearbooks of both her and my late Grandfather. Naturally, that is precisely what happened during this visit.
I was super excited to find a photo of Ms. Verna Marie Owen in both the 1954 and 1956 Lexington High School yearbooks (the same photo in both, and included below on the right.) You may remember me mentioning and including a photo of her several months back, in a post titled “Collecting Someone Else’s Memories”, where I shared many of the photos and pages from the five 1920s era Lexington High School yearbooks that I have collected. It is just one of my nerdy hobbies, even though I can’t seem to find any other yearbooks from that era. I believe that Verna Owen began teaching in Lexington for the 1927-1928 school year (see updated information below) (see the below left photo). I have the yearbook from that year as well as for the 1928-1929 school year. Both of these yearbooks were originally owned by Verna herself. Obviously, me now owning two of her yearbooks, along with my Lexington roots, and the fact that I am a teacher, has made me feel connected to her in some way.

Verna Marie Owen
(1895 – 1986)
**Updated Information as of 12/2/13**
To prepare for this post, I did some genealogy research using FindAGrave and Ancestry. It made me a little sad to find very little information on this woman. Fortunately, Cathy Wallace, who is a great friend and Lexington resident who shares many of the same nerdy interests, went out of her way to fill in several blanks for us, including finding the obituary below. I told her I was going to have to give her the title of “senior reporter for BigSéance.com”. Thank you for the time and effort you put into helping us learn about and remember Miss Owen. Even though we’re unable to find an exact year of when she retired, she clearly had a long career in Lexington and touched many lives. I now have evidence of this, as people have left comments here and on the two Lexington community Facebook pages.
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Her obituary from the July 30, 1986 issue of The Lexington News:
Verna Marie Owen, 90, of Lexington, died Friday, July 25 in the Urbana, MO Nursing Home.
She was born September 18, 1895 in Lexington to John Martin Owen and Carolyn Sellman Owen.
She was a member of the United Methodist Church, the Lafayette-Lexington DAR and past matron of the Eastern Star. She attended school at Missouri University, Central Missouri State College and the University of Boldar [sic], CO. She taught school in Lexington for 47 years. She was a member of the Missouri State Teachers Association and the National Retired Teachers Association. She was a lifelong resident of Lexington.
Survivors include four nieces and eight nephews.
Services were held Tuesday, July 29 at the Walker-Nadler-Graff Chapel with Rev. Dan Sullivan officiating; burial was in Machpelah Cemetery.
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Some other information we’ve been able to gather:
Both her and her parents (John Martin Owen and Caroline “Carrie” Whelan Owen) were born and raised in Lexington, and are all buried in Machpela cemetery, a Lexington cemetery that I’ve blogged about.
It blows my mind to learn that as early as the fall of 1915, at the age of 19 or 20, Miss Owen was teaching 34 pupils at the Elm Park country school outside of Lexington. Again, it’s unclear when exactly she retired from the Lexington School District, but in recent days, former students have recalled having her as a teacher as late as 1965. That is simply amazing. I can’t imagine being there to witness all of the growth and change that public education went through during those five decades!
During her long career in Lexington, she taught at least English and Social Studies to probably several junior/senior high grade levels, and for many years sponsored a “pen pals” program. According to the 1940 US census, at age 44 she was making a yearly teacher salary of $855.
In recent days, former students have described her as being quiet, gentle, soft-spoken, sweet, and “one of my favorite teachers”. Alan talked of being paid to “porch” her newspaper for a few years in the 1970s each time it was delivered. Lucia sent me the cutest story (I’m adding it to the comments below) of how she would leave Miss Owen flowers on her doorstep on May Day.
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At the time of her death I was eight years old. I wonder if I ever knew her or if our paths ever crossed. Looking into her eyes, I just know she made a huge difference and was loved and respected by many. If anyone has more information, or if you’d like to add your memories of Miss Owen, or if you’re a family member, I’d love for you to contact me, or simply leave a comment.
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Skin and Bones (Big Séance)
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18 Comments | tags: 1895, 1915, 1986, antique photos, big seance, blogging, collecting, collecting old yearbooks, collecting someone else's memories, collecting yearbooks, collections, country school, doris long, elm park country school lexington, elm park school, elm park school lexington, high school yearbook, high school yearbooks, history, John Martin Owen, lexington, lexington high school, lexington missouri, lexington missouri high school yearbook, Lexington Missouri school district, lexington missouri yearbook, lexington mo, memories, missouri, obituary, old high school yearbooks, old lexington missouri junior/senior high school, old school yearbooks, old yearbook photos, old yearbooks, paranormal, seance, someone else's memories, teacher, the final hatch, Verna M Owen, Verna Marie Owen, verna owen, vintage, vintage photographs, vintage photos, yearbook collection | posted in Cemeteries, General, Old Yearbooks
Yesterday I accompanied Joe to a get together at a work friend’s home in beautiful and secluded Bellflower, Missouri. It was our first trip to this part of the world. Bellflower isn’t large in area and is truly in the middle of nowhere, seemingly consisting of mostly farms and gravel roads. The population is less than 400. Though that’s a very small population, I’m not sure where all those residents were, because turning from one long gravel road to another, we never met another human being until we reached our destination. As we were leaving, I asked our hosts if we’d find an old cemetery nearby, and fortunately the Bellflower Baptist Cemetery, established in 1841, was fairly close.















There aren’t too many times you’ll get me laying down on the ground with nature crawling all over, but for a great photographic shot in a cemetery, I don’t even think twice.
Interested in my other cemetery posts?
Walnut Grove Cemetery, Boonville Missouri
Assumption Cemetery, O’Fallon Missouri
Cravens Cemetery, Camden Missouri
Cemeteries: Concordia and Emma, Missouri
Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri
Forest Grove Cemetery, Lexington, Missouri
Lexington’s Old Catholic Cemetery
Machpelah Cemetery, Lexington, Missouri
Two Smoky Mountain Cemeteries
Just a Stroll through a Random Cemetery on the Way Home
Adopting the graves of little Clara and Johnnie (most recent listed first)
An Update in Four Photos
Adopting Graves: Second Visit with Clara and Johnnie
Adopting Graves: More on little Clara and her Family
Adopting Graves: Some genealogy of our little Johnnie and his family
Adopting Graves: A New Autumn Tradition (2013)
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5 Comments | tags: a lonely old cemetery, a lonely old country cemetery at magic hour, a lonely old country cemetery at magic hour bellflower missouri, a longely old country cemetery, baptist cemeteries, baptist cemetery, baptist grave yards, baptist graveyards, beautiful, Bellflower, bellflower baptist cemetery, bellflower cemetery, bellflower grave yard, bellflower graveyard, bellflower missouri, bellflower mo, big seance, Boonville Missouri Assumption Cemetery, cemetery, cemetery in bellflower missouri, cemetery in bellflower mo, country, country cemeteries, Emma, grave markers, grave stones, grave yard, gravel roads, graveyard, head stones, headstones, historic cemetery, history, lexington, magic hour, missouri, missouri cemeteries, missouri grave yards, missouri graveyards, Missouri Bellefontaine Cemetery, nature, paranormal, photography, photos, pictures, seance, secluded, spirit communication, spiritual | posted in Cemeteries