(Bedford, Bedford County)

     Telling ghost stories is not like telling any other type of story.  Traditionally a story must have a beginning, middle and ending.  However, with a ghost story I sometimes don’t have an ending.  Many of the places that I write about are actively haunted, so I can only tell the story up until the time that the book is printed.  The Jean Bonnet Tavern and Bed and Breakfast in Bedford County is just such a story.   Furthermore, from time to time old items are unearthed that can change or clarify a story and this has happened at the Jean Bonnet. 

     The building site where the Jean Bonnet stands was part of the Seneca and Shawnee tribes’ landholdings as treatied for with the Iroquois Nation.  However, whites did not recognize Native land rights, so it became land up for grabs, and it did not take long before the land was grabbed up.  The property, with a structure already existing, was in place in 1758 when the land became part of a William Penn Land Grant to Hance Ireland who purchased 690 acres on July 23, 1762.  Hance ran the Hance Ireland and Company Land Speculation Firm in Cumberland County.  By then an event had happened at the spot that would give rise to a ghost story.

     During the fall of 1758 General Forbes moved from his post westward in hopes of taking Fort Duquesne from the French.  Forbes began his march, but he stopped to wait for reinforcements to catch up with him.  He found that he had to tarry five miles west of Raystown (Bedford) at what would become known as Plantation Farm, Twin Forks, and later the Jean Bonnet.  While waiting here a few days, Forbes noticed that a particular teamster or trader was showing great interest in troop movement.  He suspected that the man was a French loyalist or spy.  This was not a bad assumption as there were many French in the area at that time.  He feared that if word of a spy would reach the ears of his men they might desert, so he resolved the situation by trusting a few aides to apprehend the teamster quietly. 

     Local legend has always insisted that the man was tried and found guilty of spying.  At this time the penalty for spying was instant death.  However, Forbes did not want to risk loosing men who feared that the spy had gotten word through before being caught, so he tried and executed the man in secret.   The body was said to have then been disposed of by burying it under the floor of the stone fort or building. 

     Much of the story can not be substantiated, however there are parts that we know to be true.  General Forbes was definitely at Raystown in the fall of 1758.  He did leave Raystown to attack and claim Fort Duquesne for the British and he did cut the roads that would split and give the Jean Bonnet the name Twin Forks.  Therefore, General John Forbes certainly was in the proper area at the right time.  He did attack and take Fort Duquesne in November of 1758 along with among others Generals Washington and Col. Bouquet. 

     Furthermore, in Jones History of the Juniata Valley, he dates the settlement of Raystown as beginning in 1751 when a man named Ray built three cabins near present-day Bedford.  Ray was an Indian trader and Jones wrote, “In 1755 the province agreed to open a wagon road from Fort Loudon, in Cumberland County,  (present day Fulton County) to the forks of the Youghiogheny River.  For this purpose three hundred men were sent up, but for some cause or the other the project was abandoned.”  This would indicate that there were other settlers in the area at that time and give validity to the notion that though the official date of building for the tavern is 1764; a “fort” or stone structure that is now the basement or dining room predates that time. 

     Moving with men, provisions, and equipment, Forbes would probably not make more than five miles a day, particularly as he had to cut the road as he went in many areas or widen existing Native American trails.  There is reason to suppose then; that General John Forbes might have taken up lodgings at the “fort” which is now the Jean Bonnet when he was in the area.  He was moving his men and equipment in October and weather, troop reinforcements, or time needed to cut a larger, better road could have stalled Forbes in that area for days.

     But the best proof that a spy was executed and buried beneath the floor of the fort, and that the fort would later become the nexus of the Jean Bonnet, lies in the fact that in 1957 the then owners of the tavern dug up the floor of the basement prior to having it cemented and found a long dead body buried there.  The skeleton was determined to be male, and from the buckles and buttons it was believed to pre-date the Revolution.  Perhaps this legend is true, after all.

     For many years people have claimed to see a man who sits quietly at one of the tables and never speaks.  They say he wears colonial garb.  Others insist that footsteps, cold drafts and even a mist are manifestations of the spirit.  

     By the time this event supposedly occurred the fort had been in existence for at least forty years and had been abandoned by the French as the British pushed forward into the then French owned frontier.  The original basement structure of the Jean Bonnet that is now the dining area could, therefore, predate the rest of the structure by at least forty years.  There is little to prove the actual date of the building, but it had served as a French fort (unofficially) and was a trading post.  The building was referred to as being on the way to the Old Shawnese Cabins--present day Shawnee State Park-- in trapper and trader accounts for many years before Forbes supposedly stopped over there.  Furthermore, an inspection of the building itself does reveal a few tantalizing clues.  The restaurant area has a large fireplace that is not in line with the fireplace on the tavern level.  Usually a person building such a structure would use one central flue and chimney, as it required a great deal of work to build such a structure.  This is not the case at the Jean Bonnet.  We know that the building was built for resale by a land speculator so it is unlikely that he’d foot the expense of two separate chimneys when one was the standard of the day.  Furthermore, the mortaring is in a different style on the restaurant level fireplace than in the tavern level fireplace.  This would indicate that two separate groups built the fireplaces at different times.  Surely if a single group of men built the building they would have used the same mortaring style on both fireplaces.

     Ireland commissioned to have the building now called the Jean Bonnet Tavern and Bed and Breakfast built, but at that time the porches were not on it.  The building has gone through several significant changes or renovations through the years.

     Ireland soon put the land up for sale and it was bought by Robert Callender and his wife Francis of Middle Township in Cumberland County.  At this time the tavern and inn was called Plantation Farm.  However, the name was a bit of a misnomer for Robert Callender did not farm it.  He was an Indian trader.

     Callender would one day become a scout for General Washington and it would always be said that he kept his mistress at Plantation Farm.  During the Revolutionary War she was rumored to have worked at the tavern and she would run to the front of the building as she watched for Callender’s return.  She died while awaiting Callender who had promised to marry her after the war.  Now there are some discrepancies in this story.  Court House records indicate that Callender was married to a woman named Francis of Middle Township in Cumberland County.  Either this Francis was the mistress; or else Francis never left Cumberland County and was unaware of her husband’s liaisons.  If so, either Robert Callender was lying to this unfortunate young woman, or else he was about to engage in bigamy. 

     What is known of Robert Callender is that he was quite a wealthy man, he enjoyed adventure and, as an Indian trader, conducted business with the Iroquois nation throughout Pennsylvania and New York.  It is also known that he had several businesses.  It would not be that difficult to imagine this adventuresome man enjoying both mistresses and Native women.  Men of wealth and power in that time period often took both when the opportunity presented itself discretely, and it would not be likely that word from the then frontier would leak back to his respectable wife in their home.

     Throughout the years many people have insisted that the spirit of a woman inhabits the hallway and bar of the tavern.  In old newspaper accounts the haunting is attributed to the unfortunate mistress who was duped but did not know it.  It is said that the rustle of crinoline skirts and the light footfalls of a woman are those of the mistress who is yet awaiting Callender’s return so that she might still become his wife.  If so, then this is truly a very sad haunting.

     Callender and his wife eventually sold the tavern that was still called Plantation Farm to William and Isabell Neill of Baltimore Maryland.  The Neill’s took possession of the property in 1773, but as Neill was a land speculator he did not live at the Plantation Farm.  Instead he made money by reselling parcels of the original farm to the pioneers who were rushing into the area aided by the cutting of the military road from Carlisle to Fort Pitt.  He also made money on quit rents and Plantation Farm was cut down from its original Penn Land Grant of 690 acres.  At this time the tavern was pressed into service as a gathering place where white settlers could fight off the Seneca and Shawnee who were rightly upset that their land claims were being ignored and their homes destroyed

     It was most probably during this time period that one of the most famous ghosts to haunt the property met his demise.  On the first of each month a local tavern was used as a meeting place for local court business.  At that time usually a well-to-do businessman or farmer would serve as judge and other local folks served as jury as local government business was brought up.  At this time Plantation Farm was being utilized both as a monthly courthouse and as a fort for locals against Indian attack.  During a time when the local folks were gathered at the tavern for protection such a court was held.  At this time a white man ran into the building begging protection from pursuing Shawnees.  The last thing that the local folks wanted was trouble with the Shawnee who already were antagonized by the land grab.  It was soon ascertained that this man was from Carlisle and had been in the area “trading” for horses.  This was a euphemism for cheating the Natives out of horses. 

     Among the assemblage was a fellow who had recently arrived in the frontier from Carlisle.  He recognized this man as a horse thief who was wanted in Carlisle, too.  On the strength of this man’s testimony, and probably because they hoped to appease the Shawnee with the dead body of the thief, a trial was held.  The man was found guilty and quickly hung from the second floor staircase so that the body was suspended over the old, original staircase that is now a closed in closet.  The body was then shown to the Shawnee before it was buried. 

     Through the years many folks have claimed to hear the heavy footsteps of a man walking the second floor hallway and down the original stairs.  A cold breeze sometimes accompanies this spirit.  This is believed to be the spirit of the horse thief.  But if the horse thief does inhabit the second floor, he is usually said to be a nice fellow.  However, Scott Crownover, who would later join the GRF, told me that when he was investigating the haunting in the building he took his electromagnetic field detector (EMF) and his temperature probe into that area where the large walk-in cupboard or closet is and while holding them something sliced his thumb slightly.  He believed that this was the displeased spirit of the horse thief who was upset at him for invading his space.  Now Scott did not come to this supposition lightly, he did first look for any reasonable explanation, but could find none.  He had touched nothing inside the closet and the equipment he carried was made of smooth plastic with rounded edges.

     For many years, in fact until the late 1950’s, an effigy of the lone horse thief hung from the second floor stairs up to the third level in remembrance of the thief’s death long ago.  Many people have claimed to hear his ghostly footfalls in the halls of the tavern and second floor.

     Throughout the history of the tavern unknown numbers of men were tried, found guilty and executed by hanging outside or inside the building.   Another group of six horse thieves were always said to have been hung outside the building.  The proof of this event came when in the late 1800’s a man plowing a field that adjoins the tavern grounds dug up six skeletons who had broken necks.

     The tavern was purchased by John Bonnet, (Jean Bonnet) a French immigrant who changed the name of the business to John Bonnet‘s Tavern.  John ran the tavern for several years before he died.  His will specified that the tavern would go in equal shares to his son Isaac in Knox County, Ohio and his daughter Elizabeth.  Isaac chose to sell his share to John Sill.  Elizabeth kept her share and when she married John Ewalt he took over as innkeeper.  John Sill also helped run the business. 

     In turn, John Sill would sell out to Simon Stuckey III and apparently Elizabeth and John Ewalt sold their shares, too, for there is no further mention of them in the records.  Simon Stuckey III and his wife Margaret were Virginians who had moved to Pennsylvania years earlier and they purchased the tavern stand as an investment with an eye to its potential to help their 11 sons and six daughters get a start in life.  Stuckey purchased some surrounding properties, too so that his land holdings around the tavern stand would total over 1000 acres. 

     It is unclear whether Simon Stuckey III ever lived in the tavern as he hired John Sill, the former owner, to run the business for him.  At this time Simon Stuckey III wanted to disassociate the tavern from the Bonnet family, so he chose to rename it.  It became the Forks Tavern in reference to its position at the junction of two roads. 

     Simon Stuckey III would suffer the all too common tragedy at that time when his wife Margaret died.  He would remarry to a widow named Eve Phillips who brought with her two small children from her first marriage.   Not long after the couple was married one of Eve’s little children died and shortly thereafter, so did Simon Stuckey.

     In his will Simon left the property to his son David Stooky (David had changed the spelling of his name).  David ran the Inn for a time before his brother George took over.  Through time each of the children took pieces of the property and sold or built on them.  George would incur numerous debts while running the tavern and further property would be sold off to cover his debts.  By the time the Stuckey family sold the property there were only 85 acres left.

     The property would be purchased in the mid-1800s by the Sauser family who would use the building as a private residence.   It would be while the Sauser family owned the property that a field near the tavern was dug up.  Unearthed were six skeletons with broken necks.  The men had been buried in a row.  Were these the six horse thieves in the gang that legend says were hung at the building?  Most probably these were the horse thieves, but at the very least these skeletons were more proof of the tavern’s period as a monthly courthouse.

     The property would pass into the hands of the Enyearts in 1957.  The Enyearts would own the property for 28 years.  It was during this period that the name of the tavern once more became the Jean Bonnet Tavern and Bed and Breakfast.  The Enyearts would be the ones to discover the lone skeleton underneath the floor of the basement (restaurant) area while working on renovations.  In fact, the Enyearts would restore much of the building through their many years.

     It would be during their tenancy that the stories of the many hauntings at the Jean Bonnet would begin to reach the public.  Mrs. Enyeart was quite open about the many haunting experiences at the building. Of course, skeptics might point out that the ghosts were only the imagination of a creative woman, however, others were also experiencing the ghosts.  In fact, in 1976  Bedford Gazette reporter, Mary Anna Mikula would do a story about the ghosts at the Jean Bonnet and she would report a very interesting tale.

     Near the end of the 1960’s Westinghouse Electric Corp. was engaged in building a plant near the tavern.  A young engineer working on the project took up residence at the Jean Bonnet.  One night the young man seemed slightly distressed and when questioned he informed the Enyearts that he had just felt someone brush past him on the stairs in the lower hall.  He had heard the rustle of crisp cloth and felt the person, but he saw no one.

     Through the years many other incidents have been reported.  From sightings of a young boy lugging a heavy coal shuttle on the basement level to phantom footsteps of a woman who is heard but not seen, the stories have become legion.  Numerous people have claimed to see a man sitting at one of the tables in the inner dining room, but when they look back the fellow is gone.  Upstairs people have complained about someone touching them at the bar, but on one is nearby.

     Perhaps one of the most dramatic sightings occurred to a female bartender and her male friend years before Shannon and Melissa Jacobs, the present owners, had purchased the building. 

     One night the bartender was working when a friend of hers came in.  Through the course of the evening the fellow had too much to drink.  When it was time to close up, she and her male companion were afraid to let the inebriated fellow drive.  As the guy lived nearby, they decided to lock up, take the man home, and then return to finish cleaning up.  The woman had the keys and knew that this would be fine with the owners.

     They took the man home and returned to the tavern.  As they walked along the porch, they glanced in the window of the bar.  Sitting there was a solitary man who was sipping a drink.  That was impossible for they had made sure the bar was empty before leaving.

     Still, the fellow had gotten in somehow.  Quickly they unlocked the door and hurried into the bar.  No one was there, but the building is big so did the man hear them coming and hide?  The two immediately ruled out anyone hiding in the upper levels because they had the key that unlocked the iron grillwork that separated the bar from those floors.  However, someone could have gone down the stairs to the restaurant.  They mounted a search but found no one.  This upset the woman so much that after duly reporting the events to the then owners; she did not often mention the story.  After that night, she also refused to be the last person to leave the building.  She was afraid that the fellow might return for another drink.

     But employees are not the only ones to experience the hauntings.  Guests have reported many encounters as well.  Scott Crownover decided to spend a night at the tavern to see if he would have an encounter.  He invited a group of friends and a few members of the GRF along.  The group would not be disappointed.  They rented the attic apartment that was then for let and went down to dinner.   Afterwards they went up to the bar where one of the men felt someone touch him.  While they were discussing that, a woman heard them and came over.  She said that the conversation had caught her ear as she had just experienced being touched by someone at the edge of the bar a little earlier.  She, too, insisted that no one was near her. 

     The group would experience a few other oddities including the fact that they caught some orbs in the attic of the building.  But the most unusual occurrence to come from that night would also take place in the bar.  *Lou who would not describe himself as sensitive was in the bar watching the activity.  Now *Lou is a confirmed non-drinker so he felt a bit out of place in the bar.  However, he tried to concentrate upon his feelings, despite the loud voices and the piano playing at the other end of the room.  Suddenly he glanced at the one doorway that led into the hallway.  Looking through the door were a group of people in rough clothes.  *Lou called them “frontier type” clothes.  The group were watching the man playing piano at the other end of the room.  *Lou described his experience as “like trying to watch two televisions at once.”  He was aware of the real people at the bar, but he was equally drawn by those looking in from another time.  This lasted a few seconds, but when he looked away and back again, they were gone.

     Upstairs in the apartment the group began running their ghost hunting equipment and Scott picked up a couple odd readings.  However, it was not until he tried to peek into the cubbyhole in the ceiling of the master bedroom in the attic that they experienced real activity.  Suddenly the little Mag light he was using went out.  

     Scott got down and looked at his flashlight.  The bulb had burned out.  He tried to unscrew the cap at the back of the light to get out the extra bulb there, but could not.  In the next few minutes Scott would realize how unusual this experience really was.  He could not get the cap off the back of the flashlight despite the fact that he had taken the cap off earlier to put new batteries in.  Eventually he found out that the threads of the cap had been literally stripped, but by what?

     The group wandered around the building for a good part of the night.  At one point they found themselves in the private dining room called the Forbes Room on the second level just across the hall from the bar.  By now, some of Scott’s guests were feeling a bit frustrated because nothing had happened to them.  One female friend sat down in the little private dining room and said, “Well, if there’s something here I wish it would show itself!” 

     Immediately Scott scolded the young woman.  One of the protocols of the GRF is that we do not use ouija boards, participate in seances nor do we invite activity.  We wish to chronicle whatever activity already exists, but we certainly don’t want to stir up something that could adversely effect other folks.

     While Scott was explaining this to the young woman, Suddenly something was in the room with them and some of them could feel it.  At  just about the same time a camera, which was setting on the table, flashed as if someone had clicked it.  No one had touched the camera--at least no one living. 

     By the time Scott and his guests left the Jean Bonnet the next morning most of them were convinced that the Jean Bonnet indeed was haunted.

     One of the most recent incidents took place in late November of 2000.  A beer distributor from Altoona, named Bob, who services the bar decided to bring his twelve-year-old son and a friend to the Jean Bonnet for the Sunday night before Buck Season.  This would be the boy’s first hunting season and his father wanted to do something special to make it memorable. 

     The group got to the area early in the day, but they spent it visiting and tramping through the woods.  By eight p.m. the trio was quite tired.  They tramped into the inn and went to their room.  The men and boy soon fell asleep, but about ten p.m. Bob awoke feeling terribly hot.  Though the room had been quite pleasant when they had fallen asleep, now it was oppressively hot.  His mouth felt dry and he needed a drink.  He could clearly hear the sounds of the bar below them.  There were glassing clanking, people laughing and a Jazzy sort of music playing.  He thought it sounded like something from an old jukebox.  Bob pulled on his jeans and shirt.  His son and friend woke up and he told them that he was going down to the bar for a glass of juice and to ask the bartender to turn down the heat in their room.  His son and friend nodded because they were hot, too.

     Bob did not even bother putting on his shoes before he padded down the stairs to the bar.  He still heard the sounds people talking, laughter, glasses and that Jazzy music.  However, his way into the bar was blocked by a black iron gate.  Bob stared through the grates in shock.  The bar was dark, quiet and obviously closed.  Still the sounds had been so real that Bob found himself hurrying back up the stairs to look out the window to see if there were other cars in the parking lot.  There were no cars besides his own. 

     Bob went back to his room and asked his son and his friend if they had heard the bar sounds.  They all agreed that they had heard the same sounds that Bob had.  The next day Bob would tell his story to Melissa Jacobs.  Melissa informed him that on Sunday nights the bar closes at 9 p.m., an hour before he awoke and heard those sounds.  She would later check with the bartender who assured her that he did close on time.  Furthermore, I have to tell you that I personally found that fact that Bob’s room was oppressively hot unusual.  Anyone who has ever spent a night in an old stone house in the middle of winter will tell you, that the bedrooms are hard to heat.  The bedrooms at the Jean Bonnet are no different than any other bedroom in an old stone house.  They do have heat in each room, but it usually only keeps them comfortable and certainly not HOT!

     The fact that the room was oppressively hot becomes more significant when you know that temperature changes are nearly always associated with ghostly phenomena.  Usually people talk about a chill, a sudden coldness, however, the opposite, though more unusual, can also be true.  Some hauntings are associated with heat rising.

     Two nights later another couple was staying in the inn.  The couple were the only guests that night.   The next morning at breakfast Melissa asked them how the night had been.  The couple responded pleasantly enough, however, they were curious as to who came in at 4 a.m. and why an employee needed to come in that early since breakfast was not served until after 8 a.m.  Melissa assured them that she was usually the first person in the building in the morning and that she usually did not arrive until around 7 a.m.  The couple looked at her oddly.  They both insisted that they clearly heard someone come up the steps to the inn door, unlock the door, and come inside.  They heard the person walking around the bar area below them and the hallway.  The noise had actually awakened them both.  Melissa could not explain what they had experienced.  She only knew that she had been the first person in that morning and the doors had been locked as usual.

     Of course, Melissa has had her own experiences in the building.  Soon after purchasing it she began to notice that every time she went past the door to the then unrented attic apartment the door would be in a different position.  If it was closed when she first passed it, then it would be wide open a few minutes later when she came by again.  One morning she noticed this occurring several times and she decided that someone had gotten into the building somehow and was playing a trick on her. 

     Melissa went to her office on the tavern level to await a salesman who was coming in.  When the man arrived, Melissa explained the situation to him and asked if he’d accompany her on a search of the building.  He agreed.  The two went past the apartment door that was open as they began searching the bedroom level.  A few moments later they went by again but it was closed. No one was found in the attic apartment or on any other level in the building, and the doors were all locked securely from the inside.   The salesman was as baffled by the strange door as Melissa was.

     Melissa also told me that when they first bought the building a couple times she had heard a baby crying up the stairs toward the bedrooms and attic apartment.  Once she had been preoccupied with her paperwork when this happened and she had started to get up to see what was wrong before she realized that she was alone in the building.  Being a mother herself, her natural inclination was to answer the distress cries of the infant, though no infant was in the building.  In fact, Melissa was totally alone both times.  Since then she has not heard the infant’s cries.

     While talking to an employee who had worked for the former owners before Melissa and Shannon had taken over, the story of the baby’s cry was once again mentioned.  The employee was telling me that she had never had any ghostly experiences in the building despite having worked there for more than ten years.  She confessed too often feeling watched, but that was all.  She paused for a second and thought.  “You know the former owner’s wife actually ran this place, like Melissa does.  Now Mrs. ...... always said that this place was not haunted, but I know that she had several really odd experiences.  She used to hear a baby crying upstairs when she was here early to catch up her paperwork, and several times she was working when the door to her office opened by itself and she heard someone walk in.  She never saw anyone and she always kept her head down so that she wouldn’t have to look up and see a ghost or something, but I know this really frightened her some.”

     The woman went on to relate how the one quilt on display in the dining room would pull itself out from the wall as if someone was looking at it and at other times it shook and swayed despite there being no breeze.

     She spoke of the dryer coming on by itself in the middle of the night, of footsteps in the dining room when there was on one there, of the table where the silverware would be found pushed into the center of the table when there were no customers. She told of many of the happenings that have often been reported.

     Usually I am the one reporting on other people’s haunting experiences, but I believe that at the Jean Bonnet I also had an unearthly encounter.  In September of 2000 I was going to give a Ghost Tour of Bedford County.  I had been to the Jean Bonnet to arrange the details a couple weeks prior to the bus tour.  Since I was already at the restaurant and it was past lunchtime, I decided to have lunch there.  I was seated in the inner dining room and was happily munching my sandwich when I suddenly became aware that my left ear was freezing cold.  It felt like someone had engulfed it in ice.  My first thought was, “Man, they had better turn down the air conditioning!”  But when I looked around, I realized that even if the air conditioning were on it would not have been able to freeze that ear like that.  I was facing away from the air and my left ear was near the wall not the air conditioning. 

     I reached up to warm my ear and the earring, which felt icy, too.  Suddenly my hand was engulfed in a small, circular patch of cold air.  I felt around it and it seemed to only radiate about 8 inches around my ear.  Whatever it was, this cold spot was quite localized.  For several seconds I continued to feel the area around the ear and still that cold spot just hung there.  Perhaps the ghost was checking out my new earrings.  For the rest of the day, my arm and hand would ache badly.  I could not explain it, but where the cold spot had encountered my hand and arm I felt a dull, ache for about twelve hours.  I could not explain it to myself at the time, and I can not explain it to you now.  I do know that the air conditioning was not on because I asked my waitress to turn it off and she told me that it was not even on.

     In late February of 2001 Scott Crownover e-mailed me to let me know that he had stopped at the Jean Bonnet that night for supper and had been told of an incident that had occurred that very night.  Everyone at the Jean Bonnet knows Scott, myself and a few others as the “ghost hunters,” so when he came in the manager, Barbara, came over and told him the story of an odd incident earlier that same night.

     It seemed that a family that frequently came to the Jean Bonnet had been there that evening for supper.  While they waited for their meal to be served in the tavern, the family’s two-year-old son was playing with his grandfather.  The little boy would run into the hallway and come back.  However, he went into the hallway one time and suddenly something at the top of the stairs caught his attention.  Despite the fact that the child had never evidenced any fear in the building before, he now was very frightened.  He claimed to have seen a “monster.”  The child was so upset that when they left he balked at passing the stairs again and his parents had to take him downstairs and out through the restaurant entrance.

     The staff was concerned about the child’s strange actions and insistence that he had seen a monster at the top of the stairs.  When Barb spoke to the little boy’s mother later in the evening she inquired about the two-year-old.  His mother told Barb that the child was now fine.  When they had questioned him at home about the incident, he said that he was not scared anymore, “because there are no monsters at home.”

     There are many stories of the ghosts at the Jean Bonnet, and I imagine that in some future book I’ll once again return to the Jean Bonnet to tell you still more current stories.  I can tell you that whoever is haunting the Jean Bonnet, and there seems to be many ghosts there, they are usually friendly.  Most people who experience a haunting come away fascinated and not frightened.   The owners, Melissa and Shannon Jacobs, are gracious hosts and Shannon is the chef.  The food is wonderful and the atmosphere relaxing and charming.  No matter whether you are interested in ghosts or not, the Jean Bonnet is one restaurant and tavern that you really should visit.  And if you do happen to have a ghostly experience, well don’t forget to tell Melissa and me.  

     I would like to thank Melissa and Shannon for opening their business and their lives to my friends and me.  We gratefully appreciate the hospitality and patience you have shown us.  Because of your kindness, some of us, myself included, see the Jean Bonnet as a regular “haunt.”