Few places can capture eeriness like an old schoolhouse. This particular school house is located on an old back road in Epsom, NH. The school house was built in 1834 and closed for unknown reasons in 1911. At one point it had burned down and was rebuilt. It is a small red house with one open room. It's very reminiscent of what an old school house would look like. Next to the school house is a small graveyard surrounded by a colonial stone wall. In which a large twisting oak tree sits in the middle of weeded broken grave stones. This small location truly has a unique creepy vibe to it. The question is, "Is it haunted?"

The legend behind the story is that a teacher went crazy one day, and murdered all the children in the school. After the murders were committed he or she allegedly buried them in the grave yard that sits next to the little red school house and then he / she hung them self. There are many problems with this story. The graveyard next to the school house is actually a family burial ground. There is not a school house full of children buried with in those stone walls .There is also no documentation of a mass murder from this time frame in the Epsom historical records, let alone with children involved. Something of that capacity would have been documented. Therefore this legend was false in our minds and was later confirmed to be false. There is also a similar rumor about a school in Pembroke. Both have the same story line. Some how both school houses are sharing the same urban legend, the question is why? The only story that could be considerably twisted into a legend of such proportions is the unfortunate murder of Josie Langmaid. She was a 17 year old student at Pembroke Academy. She was walking to school on the morning of October 4, 1875 when she was brutally attacked. She was dismembered by her attacker and was discovered later in the day by her father. There is now a memorial in the town for her. It is said there are stones respectably placed in the woods where her body parts were found. There are many ways this story could be responsible for the legend of the murders in Epsom and Pembroke. The year of her murder correlates with the time frame that the apparent murders occurred at the Epsom and Pembroke school houses. Throughout the years this story could have been responsible for forming such legends of murders in the school houses. The unfortunate death of Josie Langmaid could have also been used as a learning tool by both teachers and parents to inform their children of life's dangers. Seeing as Josie was on her way to school when she was brutally murdered this could have made an unconscious fear realized that children aren't always safe at school (which is a parent's worst nightmare). This fear could be responsible for the murderous teacher stories in the neighboring towns.

Despite whatever history the Epsom school house may hold people still report strange things that seem to happen at this location. People claim to be touched by unseen hands and hear children's voices. I had never heard these claims because I stumbled upon this place by accident. A friend of mine said he found a creepy location and wanted me to check it out with him. We traveled to the school house and right away I was interested. The whole vibe of it was spooky. Especially since it had a whimsical large dead tree in the middle of the small grave yard (which we thought was a field before we discovered the grave stones under a bed of weeds) it is on a pretty secluded road that has no street lights which added to the eeriness. My friend and I had only assumed it was a school house because that's what it resembled. We also were not aware of any stories, legends, or reports of haunting's from the School house. Not knowing anything worked out to our advantage because we had no power of suggestion to play on potential experiences. We got out of the car and started to walk around a little. The school house and grave yard is bordered by woods. I usually do not just judge a place by its feeling because a lot of times that feeling is based off of sheer appearance. In this case the little school house gets a ten for its eerie looks. I ignored the fact it felt spooky, and focus on getting hard evidence of paranormal activity. After walking around for a minute or two I felt a gentle touch in my hair. It felt like someone stroked the top of my head gently but firm enough that I can say it felt like the size of a hand. This type of action happens to both Shane and I on active cases. We are often acknowledged by something in a home by the stroking of hair or pat on the shoulder. It was windy the night we went but I knew that is not what caused the sensation of a hand on my head. The feeling of wind is totally different than a hand stroke. I felt there was something unique about the school house. I began to take some EVP'S at that point. My friend and I decided to take turns being alone near the school house. He went and waited in the car, while I stayed out side. As I stood there I began to get a headache. I sarcastically said to myself "stop that" because my headaches had a tendency of getting really bad. After about ten minutes I went back to the car and let my friend take the EVP recorder outside. As he was walking around he said to himself "wow its really windy tonight." After about ten more minutes he returned. We listened to my recording first. To our surprise after you hear me say "stop that" you hear a voice of what sounds like a child saying "no". Then we listened to my friends recording. Directly after he said "wow its really windy tonight." You hear a deep voice say," yes it is." I was very impressed because it wasn't just any EVP. These EVP'S were intelligent responses to our statements. It was windy that night but I know that is not what caused the responses we got. You could hear the wind in the background, and these voices spoke clearly, even with the wind. If there was any distortion of fuzziness I would have discredited the results. Unfortunately I never got a chance to download these into my computer because I had to return the recorder to our EVP specialist for a project he had to do. We stuck around for a little bit longer but nothing else seemed to happen. At that point we left. I have always been intrigued by this eerie location. I can not find any historical documentation as to why this place would be considered haunted. TrueGhost truly believes a haunt has to have many elements to it other than a violent history (which this location lacks). If a place was simply haunted just because a death occurred at the location than the world would be crawling with paranormal activity. However that is not the case only certain locations have legitimate activity because everything needs to be perfect for a haunt to occur. This location lacks in a few key elements, but yet still has some sort of activity. The question is what kind?

The Epsom School House is definitely unique in its form of activity. On one hand I believe it has time slip haunt characteristics because people report seeing children and  hearing children's voices. Due to the fact it was a school house that could explain the time displacements. A death does not need to occur at a location for time displacements to happen. We also believe there are mechanics that can allow a past event to be seen today. For example the relativity of time space and the multi-verse. The EVPS and the pat on my head reflects that of an intelligence, which is different than a time slip haunt. On another note EVP'S are not always associated with haunting activity. The reason being is you can get an EVP just about anywhere, whether the location is reportedly haunted or not. The fact we got responses to our statements is what makes the EVP'S different. Although the activity wasn't as high as say Vale End or Gilson Cemetery it was still there. I can't say this place is haunted because I need more proof and need to do a more in depth investigation. The location is now private property and you need permission to investigate it and I plan on trying to arrange that. Maybe if I am lucky the owners will be kind enough to let me spend a night at the school house.

Remember, always stay level headed when you go to places such as this and make sure you are not trespassing!! Permission should always be granted if you even have a second thought you could be going to private property!! Happy haunting!! I also want to thank my good friend Matt who introduced me to this creepy location!