claverack wrgb

The Haunted Farmhouse, Claverack, NY
By Donna Kent
Cosmic Society was asked to investigated for and appeared on CBS affiliate WRGB News-Channel 6, Albany, NY

What an interesting time the week before Halloween has become each year. I know others of you reading this with your own ghost hunting groups and organizations understand I’m being facetious using the word “interesting”...

Cosmic Society has been fortunate enough to gain media coverage from many different avenues, it only becomes a problem when producers of TV, radio, and documentary shows all seem to wait until the last minute to try and schedule a taping or interview with us, usually October 30th...! This past year (1998) was no different, but WRGB Channel 6 in Albany gave us one week advance notice (I took this as a good sign!) and Christine Milano and myself headed up to NY on October 23rd.

We arrived at our hotel around 11:30 p.m. exhausted but had promised fellow members, Nancy Zieglar and Robin Barron we would contact them upon arriving. They met us a short while later and as usual we had a lively get together, receiving blessings and protection from the Shaman and discussing our plans for the shoot with Pete Bronchato and cameraman meeting us at 9:00 a.m. the next day.

At 2:30 ish (these ghost hunting endeavors ALWAYS involve LATE NIGHTS!) we finally tried to sink into bed only to discover that, as I pulled the bedding down on the bed ..THEY HADN’T BEEN CHANGED!! Now wait...this is the second time this has happened lately...I know Cheri Mohr Drake of the Georgia Haunt Hunt Team is reading this and shaking her head...same scenario..up late, big gig the next day and just when you think it’s safe to go to bed...AAACCKKK! Someone else’s hairs and weird little scabby things...(talk about scary!-YUCK!) Cheri and I actually changed rooms at 3:00 am, but this time I was just too tired and ended up sleeping (if you want to call it that-more like tossing and turning and freezing with a little dozing off going on in-between) on top of the covers...it also didn’t help that I had seen that segment on 20/20 about all the germs in hotels-I’ll never be the same after that one!...

Things got better once we were outta there however and we all left for Claverack and The Haunted Farmhouse about 9:30 am arriving about 11:00. We were greeted at the end of the driveway by three large Labradors, who become fast friends. Their master, Bob Winge, had given permission for us to be there in his absence, along with the camera crew. We met Chris Bush, a caretaker who relayed that all he had heard was from the former caretaker who told him about his wife, the cleaning woman in the home, who had experienced “weird” things in the house. No details however.

The home was originally owned by the well known Vincent Van Rensellear family and a two hundred year old piece of graffiti-the initials VVR, were found carved into a door of the home.

The only info we were given by Pete Brochato was that Mr. Winge, the homeowner for the past ten years, had, on many occasions, been seated in a large red leather chair next to the living room’s fireplace and having had an overpowering feeling of “a presence”, glanced over to the front porch windows seeing a “gentleman farmer” pacing back and forth and looking back in at him. He had bushy grey or white hair and beard, wore a leather vest and work clothes. He seemed to be from another era, colonial or early 19th century perhaps.

Par for the course, when we first arrived Nancy and I desperately needed restroom facilities (I said that very graciously didn’t I? :) and she headed upstairs while Chris and I began setting up our equipment, which, on this trip consisted only of gauss meter, compass, and 1 video cam, so that it would run continuously while we shot tape and sound bites for WRGB. I ran upstairs next and except for noting all of the exquisite pieces and antiques, nothing seemed out of order.

Nancy had decided to remain off-camera for her own reasons and meandered around the property, which aside from the main house, an eyebrow colonial with green shutters, included a barn, a garage type of building, a small one room house used as an art studio and other structures. She had a gorgeous, sunny, warm day and peaceful country setting to commune with the atmosphere and and the tranquility (sometimes) necessary to receive psychic impressions or feelings.

By now, Chris and I had spoken outside of the house with Pete and the cameraman regarding Cosmic Society’s operational procedures, our beginnings in this field and of course, ghosts in general.

Bruce and Pete surveying the windows facing the porch where ghost has been seen.

We headed inside after having decided we would conduct this as we do any other investigation (except that this was daytime and most times we investigate at night) and they would film the entire operation.

Beginning with loading fresh film in the 35mm cameras, we ascended the creaky wooden stairs with the crew following along behind us. As I reached the second floor I was assaulted by the heavy scent of cigarette smoke! No smoke was visible but, being a smoker myself, there was no mistaking that smell! This was fresh and none of us had smoked in the house! Both Nancy and I had been upstairs when we first arrived and there was no odor of smoke at that time. We remarked about this and explained that smells are often associated with spirit presence. Christine pointed out that there was an ashtray in the room to the right at the top of the stairs that held stale cigarette butts, but even that couldn’t account for the heavy, lingering burnt tobacco smell. Not more than 5 minutes passed that Chris went back upstairs and the scent had dissipated.

Taken just as I began to smell the heavy scent of tobacco.

After canvassing the top floor, we returned to the main floor and I reversed the roles of Pete and I by placing him in view of my video camera and proceeding to interview him on what he had been told regarding Mr. Winge and the activity that had gone on in the home.

According to Pete, Mr. Winge, in his 60’s, was a self made millionaire with properties in NY, Paris, France and elsewhere. He had been a lucrative stockbroker and attorney practicing international law and had an appreciation for fine artwork, which was prevalent (although quite an eclectic mix!) in the home. He said there was even a Rembrandt somewhere in the house. Pete claimed Mr. Winge’s account of “feeling” a presence always happened around dusk or dark. He also reiterated a tale of a painter who had done some work over a summer where ladders would fall over, paint cans would spill, all without apparent reason. What really freaked out the painter, he said, was the time that no paint would adhere to the walls while he painted with his left hand...Only painting with his right arm would enable the paint to stay, and it was this event that the painter brought to Mr. Winge’s attention by saying “I can’t paint here. Your house is haunted!” There was nothing left to tell so we concluded my interview of Mr. Bronchato.

Chris was the first one to descend the rickety stairs to lower level of the home; a somewhat finished basement complete with antique four poster bed, a sitting room and spa facilities. She had just made her way to the bottom step and had turned the corner to the right to face the bed when she heard a knock on the stairs, felt a bit claustrophobic and her heart began to race. She called to me to come inside by saying “Donna, you may want to come in here...”Concerned I asked her what was wrong and she explained what she had witnessed. I gave her a hug for reassurance and (pointing my finger at her) reminded her of being careful about exploring on her own. It is very easy to to become too at ease when on investigation, especially when it is a beautiful sunny day and all appears well.

Original beams are prevalent at entrance to basement.

Making my way downstairs followed by the cameraman, I happened to catch a quick glance of a small black dot of energy moving from right to left in front of me about 3 steps up from the bottom landing. I failed to mention this at the time for reasons unknown to me-I just didn’t. I did tell of it as we were sitting on the front steps and making our final comments regarding our findings. I was later to discover that both Chris and I’s impressions and sightings on the basement stairs helped to document activity experienced by Mr. Winge, (an uncomfortable “shudder” every time he is on the steps) and recounted on camera without our knowledge (until we finally saw the segment which aired on October 30th). Although seemingly “light” occurrences, these documented impressions help to validate our abilities as “psychic investigators”. We had pinpointed an area that the homeowner regularly experienced “a feeling of dread” and of “being watched” without any prior knowledge of such. This made the whole trip worthwhile for me both personally and professionally!

Conferring with Nancy, we concluded that the ghost of the property was definitely male, and very attached to the property in general. He liked it here, especially in the fall season, when (in his lifetime) the summer work was ending and crops had been harvested. He was a sensitive man and interested in Mr. Winge (like attracts like, remember) and his activities in and around the farm.

Mr. Winge, on camera with WRGB commented “I actually felt that during this progression of events, that it was a ghost, “spirit”, whatever and I had a feeling, just a “sense” that this had been his home or that he had worked here, and this place was very special to him”. (Cosmic Society nailed these impressions, again, without any prior notification.) He went on to claim that he didn’t feel haunted but that he did feel he wasn’t the only on occupying the home. To him “haunted” was a “frightening and menacing feeling” and that he only felt that the ghost was a protector of the property. Funny, because in summation, on film, Cosmic Society claimed that “This was a happy haunting if you will, we don’t feel this a frightening situation in this house”.

Pete promised to FedEx us a copy of the videotape and our photos back, he also promised a website blurb and contact information but as I’m still learning the hard way, promises made are not always promises kept, and such was the case as far as the advertising end went. Cosmic Society’s name was mentioned twice during the show and that we “investigated and documented hauntings along the East coast” (this is why contracts are SO important! - and that may seem petty but it’s really not! When you are taking a weekend of your time, at no fee, advertising the company is compensation -- and the least they can do, especially if they have said they would!)

Three months later, I received the tape and the photos (not too bad, I’ve dealt with worse...see WMAR article on website or in issue #5 “Cosmic Connections”) I liked Pete however, and to be fair, I have to admit that it wasn’t until I received his package in the mail, that I stopped procrastinating and forced myself to sit and down and watch my own videotape of the investigation. Thank goodness I did because once again we captured actual spirit energy on videotape! And, this is the second time that it has appeared within the first 30 seconds of filming!! I counted five instances of “globule” like energy zipping around the living room. Four of the occurrences happen in the early seconds of filming and one is about 12 minutes into the tape. The first appears to be a small white globule that shoots into view from the top of the frame down in front of the fireplace and disappearing off to the right. The second seems to be the same and in the same area only it shoots up from the chimney and out of view. The third is a dark shape that flies across the room from left to right (so quick it was very difficult to rewind the tape to the point where it occurs to watch frame by frame), and the fourth looks like a globule or small “spark” of energy that is yellow-orange in color and again, it just flits about in front of the fireplace for a few seconds and disappears. The fifth appears to look like a bright flash of energy near the fireplace while no one is present, but I still need to double check if possibly it was a camera flash reflection. There is a fair amount of tapping on the camera, always while no one is present in the room and in a few instances, actual knockings.

After leaving the camera crew and Peter Bronchato, we visited a few cemeteries, one even boasting President Arthur’s gravesite (See the "Stoned Angels" section of this website). While we were walking around, I suddenly smelled the odor of the Shaman’s pipe, this was about 4:00 p.m. We rejoined him and he said he was thinking about us at that time.

Our second to last stop was a trip to a local bodega, to stock up on metaphysical supplies, oils and herbs. Chris was overpowered by the heat (or maybe the spirit energy?) that she stood outside of the store to clear her head.

We then took a few photos of a haunted building in Watervliet (see "The House on the Cobblestone Street" section of this website), which yielded great psychic energy pics.

All in all, we had a great trip, and active daytime investigation, and a lovely visit with our colleagues in NY, and the TV station did a nice job with the segment. Cosmic Society has been invited back next October and I’m sure we’ll have an interesting time, again. At least now we have plenty of time in advance to prepare! :) but for what ?

Updated 8/2010

Hello Ms Kent: Let me start by saying great website! You are doing very informative and important work. I just wanted to give you an update on "The Haunted Farmhouse" in Claverack. My husband and I and our 2 kids have owned the place for going on 8 years now and have created such wonderful memories there. We purchased it from Bob Winge who you had done the investigation of the house for.

Let me say the house and the entity that came with it it truly have taught me much about the paranormal world. I believe his name to be Franz, a medium height man, fond of a pipe, hat and wearing farmer type, perhaps rubber boots. He is a gentle and kind character, if not somewhat melancholy. He has or had a Germanic type accent. I would first get an visual impression of him or perhaps a sense of smoke to indicate he was present. I would then received confirmations by him telling me the phone was about to ring and nobody would be there, and then it would. I Heard him say "Hello Henry" so clearly I would turn because I thought a living person was there.

When I went to the county clerks office and did some research I found that a woman named Heneriette Miller did own the house and it was in the family for about 150 years. They were Dutch. Her husband was Franz. I felt he protected our property. I once got a phone call when in the city one winter afternoon, from the house number. Nobody was in the house at the time and there was no voice on the phone. I called a neighbor to check the house for me and he found the French patio doors off the kitchen had blown open and would have frozen all our pipes. I believe Franz warned me. He loves when children are around and without prior knowledge of him kids always report seeing a man in a hat visiting them.

Due to economic circumstances we had to put the house on the market. I has not sold and I thought maybe Franz was unhappy about the sale. I did some pendulum work to find the focus of his energy and called him in to tell him our situation and even ask him to bring a buyer he approved of. I called in his wife's as well to give him the option to pass over and be with her if he was ready. I felt he left. This brings me to my present request for help. I have had some workers refuse to work on the house as well as a cleaning lady quit before even entering the house due to reading the listing of our house's investigation on your website. Also more than one potential buyer has brought it up as a concern. People generally know little of the paranormal world other than what Hollywood depicts. If you Google "The Haunted Farmhouse" your investigations pops up. I would like to request that you take this page down or at least take the name off the investigation. Maybe it could read Farmhouse in Claverack, NY or something similar. It is becoming crucial that we sell and our present potential buyer just sent the web page to our real estate agent and is quite worried about it. He has agreed to rent for 6 months and perhaps buy then. I'm interested in hearing your response.

P.S. The mediumship things happened only when we bought the house so Franz was my first teacher in that area! Thanks for your time, feel free to call me with questions or concerns.

Send mail to donnakentcosmicsociety@gmail.com with questions or comments about this web site.

You deserve to know! Order a Tarot Card Reading by Donna Kent