Haunted happenings don't phase Ingram family
By Harry Bradford, Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Robinson Township native Michael Keaton recently starred in "White
Noise," a movie in which he uses elaborate computer equipment contacts
the dead to find his wife, who was killed in auto accident.
The next time he stops in town to visit relatives, he may want to
consider visiting a house located at 179 West Prospect Street in Ingram,
owned by Tony Finnegan, an economics and ancient history teacher at Our
Lady of the Sacred Heart High School.

Finnegan bought a three-story Victorian home, which dates back to 1891,
by fiduciary deed.
A man named Hunt built the dwelling and sold it to the Sheetz family.
Later on, William Sheetz and his wife, Esther, inhabited the house.
Sheetz and his father were both engineers, and the elder Sheetz also
served in World War I.
Bill Sheetz' wife later died in a nursing home.
The Finnegan family moved into the house in May 1990, and neighbors told
them stories about how the Sheetz family had made them fearful about
what was going on in the house.
"Bill Sheetz was a tall guy with snow white hair," Finnegan said.
"He had light blue eyes. The neighborhood kids, who are older adults
now, were terrified of him.
"We were living in Stowe Township, and we needed a house that was big
enough for three kids. We drove by Crafton-Ingram Shopping Center and
saw a house for sale. They were having trouble moving it."

Finnegan and his wife, Phyllis, who is the head librarian at Sto-Rox
High School, and their three children, Sean, Meaghean and Shannon, moved
into the house within two weeks.
In August 1990, they heard a noise like a bowling ball dropping off a
bed while they were sleeping.
That was the same night, many years earlier, that Esther Sheetz had died
in the nursing home.
"Up to that point, I didn't believe in ghosts," Finnegan said. "I wasn't
afraid because, as Mark Twain said, 'stranger things have happened."
Finnegan was sitting in the living room one day in December, 1991, when
he heard a Christmas reindeer decoration start to play.
He didn't think much of it and then he heard it go off a second time
when he went upstairs.
"I collect Hallmark ornaments where you press a button and it says
something. On one of the ornaments, if you press a reindeer on the roof
it will say, 'Santa is on the way.'
"My wife and I went into the room and the ornament was going off. I
walked over to the ornament and it was disconnected. We looked at each
other and we were trying to put it together. The hard part was
explaining this to my kids."

Two incidents occurred in 1993 when Meaghean was in the second-floor
bathroom and Sean was using cartridges from a Sega video game.
"A figure was going by the door and my daughter thought it was her
mother," Finnegan said.
"She talked to the figure and it went into the bathroom. The door
closed. My daughter was talking to the ghost as if it were her mother.
"My wife was in the kitchen and there is an open staircase. My wife
looked up and Meaghean said, 'I was talking to you.' Meaghean opened the
bathroom door and no one was there."
There was an instance when Sean left Sega cartridges at a friend's
house. Two days later, he was sitting in the living room watching
television when he found all of the cassettes stacked together in a
section of the couch.
Finnegan decided to check on the history of the house and determined
that it might be occupied by a ghost of the late Esther Sheetz.
"As things occurred, we got the feeling that Esther liked the kids,"
Finnegan said.
"That was how she got her enjoyment. If they had a spat with each other
that would cause problems. Something would occur because Esther wasn't
particularly happy."

The Victorian-style house was burglarized in 1998 when someone tried to
steal cash, computers and weapons, but they didn't stay long.
"They were there less than 15 minutes," Finnegan said. "They took a
detour through the living room when something scared them because they
couldn't get off the (rear) deck. They left the front door open."
Finnegan said they heard tremendous, loud crashes on the second floor
when his grand-nieces came over to visit.
Then he had to make up some excuses.
"We didn't mention Esther when they heard what sounds like logs
cracking," Finnegan said.
"There are two standard answers - it must be the dog, even though we
don't have one, and it is the air conditioner. We want to keep the kids
happy.
"We thought we heard Esther wailing when we thought the house was empty.
We talked to the local police and had an alarm system installed."
Since the alarm was put in place, Finnegan says Esther likes to be
interactive and play with it.
Finnegan claimed he saw the ghost one morning in 2001, when he was
standing in the kitchen.
"I was getting a bowl of cereal when I heard this voice go, 'Oh,'"
Finnegan said.
"Esther was startled and in the doorway I saw this woman 32 to 35 years
of age. She went down into this mist. Then it would go into the butler's
pantry."

The Finnegan family has thrown Halloween parties in the house with 125
kids and had another party April 4.
The ghost likes kids.
"The Sheetz family didn't have any kids and she has an attachment to
them," Finnegan said.
Finnegan recalls when they found a hand print on the ceiling wall.
"We painted over the hand and it wouldn't go away," Finnegan said. "We
had to get rid of it and we sanded a whole section of wall. We were glad
it disappeared. Two weeks later, the hand print was on the ceiling in
the bedroom."
Finnegan has never had a séance or used any mystical items to conjure
up the ghost because he doesn't believe in messing with things he can't
understand.
"I don't know if I will have any phenomena done," Finnegan said. "During
the holidays, Esther is big on Christmas. She is interactive and we can
talk with her."

Paranormal activity also occurs in other neighbor's homes. Finnegan's
lawyer lives across the street and he claims he was told by a voice in
his dreams to play 0-1-4 on the lottery. Finnegan said he played 0-1-4
as a straight box and won $100.
"I took my lawyer out to lunch," Finnegan said.
In ancient history classes, Finnegan tells his students about ghost
stories from Greece, the English Commons and the Tower of London.

Finnegan said he also has to deal with a ghost dubbed the faceless nun
of OLSH if he ever works late at night. The faceless ghost even got OLSH
mentioned on a historic register of haunted places.