Evidence of Emma at 52 Building

Emma Lebban is on the right.

Transcendent Paranormal Society has investigated many locations in the 13 months since we split off to form our own team.

It’s thoroughly satisfying when we can help a client with activity in their home. We have been blessed to do that many times.

It’s exhilarating when we catch a piece of evidence that is then validated, not through what that evidence reveals, but validated by factual information. We’ve had a couple instances of that happening, and the latest was in August at a reveal of our July 27 investigation of the 52 Building in Lancaster, Wis.

As part of a reveal, we talk about personal experiences that weren’t caught by evidence. One of the staff members who worked in the 52 Building talked about how during part of her group’s investigation, they were in the old kitchen. Kelly, a guest investigator who is also a medium, picked up on a spirit named Emma who was running things in the kitchen and thought the group members were getting in the way.

One of the women in the audience at the reveal was Jeni Oyen. She came because she was intrigued by what we would find at the building. After the staff member shared her personal experience, Jeni spoke up. She knew an Emma who worked at the 52 Building.

“My great grandma Emma Lebban is from Beetown and worked in the kitchen of the county home, I believe her entire adult life until retirement. My grandma was a wonderful, kind soul but she was very matter of fact about things.

When I heard someone mention that they had asked if Emma wanted them to leave and she replied with ‘We’re cooking here’ that would for sure be something she would say, and I can hear her voice saying it in my head.

Grandma was a very hard worker and enjoyed for the most part working in the kitchen. She actually handed that trait down to my grandma (her daughter) because my grandmother was a cook for the Lancaster schools her entire adult life until retirement.

I’m sure Grandma Lebban wanted the investigators to come help her in the kitchen but probably soon realized they were more in her way, then got irritated.”

Investigators had no knowledge of Emma beforehand. Jeni’s information validated this piece of evidence for us. Truly amazing. We love it when stories like this come out and back up the evidence. It’s motivation to keep doing what we’re doing.

Diving into a new passion

Proudly sporting my Odyssey Paranormal Society T-shirt and the bat of Grant Wilson, co-founder of Ghost Hunters.

In April 2017, I was given the opportunity to accompany the Odyssey Paranormal Society from the Twin Cities on a paranormal investigation of Edinburgh Manor just west of Dubuque, Iowa.

It was an amazing experience. Who would have known that six months later, I am now the lead investigator for the new Dubuque chapter of Odyssey Paranormal Society. I have been on multiple investigations, both with the Twin Cities team and the Dubuque team, and I can safely say this is something I truly enjoy. We have helped people feel more comfortable in their homes, investigated historic and notorious locations and learned a lot along the way.

Maybe I’ll even start a blog dedicated solely to what we capture during investigations.

In the meantime, to see some of our cases, and to learn about OPS, go to the OPS website here.

Until next time…

History captured inside a garage

Dubuque has a lot of history. It’s the oldest city in Iowa and its citizens are a people who take great pride in restoring and maintaining many historic buildings, especially downtown.

My home is by no means historic. It’s in a quiet suburb on Dubuque’s west side, built in 1963. It lacks fancy cornices and facades. Its interior isn’t laden with stained glass and ornate woodwork, mantles or staircases. But inside the one-car garage prototypical of the houses of that era is a small slice of history, recorded by the home’s first owner, Joe Beck, who lived here with his wife, Rita.

Many initial residents of the subdivision were employees at John Deere Dubuque Works. One of my neighbors still works there, and another is retired. Beck, 89, was an employee at John Deere, too, as evidenced by the deer-shaped sticker on one of the white, metal cabinet doors. It’s in the shape of a deer, and says 50 years, 1946-1996.

The sticker is just the start of a personal history Beck chronicled outside and inside the cabinet doors. In 1986, he made a list of cars, perhaps ones that he owned or worked on: a 1980 Chevy Monte Carlo, a 1981 Oldsmobile and a 1986 Chevy S-10 pickup truck.

The picture of Beck starts to come together. A fiercely loyal employee, working at the factory, who buys nothing but American when it comes to his cars. Beck had a lot of pride in his country. American flag stickers are on two different cabinets.

“I spent a lot of time in that garage there,” Beck said. “The notes weren’t really of importance to anyone. I was going to take the writing off, but the kids who moved in moved in so fast I couldn’t do it.

“They’re just the doodles of an old man.”

Beck also loves Rita. He noted the couple had a 35-year anniversary party at the house in 1981 and a surprise 40th anniversary surprise party five years later. Beck cited no party for the 45th anniversary, but for the 50-year golden anniversary, Beck wrote, “WE DID IT 1996 Big Party.” They are still together.

Beck was a fisherman, too. He noted his fishing exploits, including a 4.5-pound catfish caught on June 6, 1992, a 1.5-pound brown trout caught at Swiss Valley Park on April 2, 1994 and a 14.5-inch brown trout and 13-inch trout caught April 11, 1994 at Heritage Pond.

“I wrote the fish I caught down, because if I didn’t, I would forget,” Beck said.

Other entries showed Beck led a busy life. On March 28, 1986, he helped install a cross on a new church in town. He put a sticker on one cabinet door, a baseball sticker that displayed the year 1967. Beck noted when he changed the oil of his Toro snow blower and when the back porch and all-season room were completed.

I wonder how many other older Dubuque homes have a similar history captured in their garages. If anyone finds writing in their garage, read it, study it and appreciate that someone who lived at the house before you had such a great time there. Keep your own history on those cabinets and walls, so others may reflect on your milestones.