The Paranormal at Home: Hauntings in 50 States – Indiana’s Black Moon Manor

Please click here if you would like to read the first article in the series.

As time passes, the physical world we all share changes. Places are renovated, modified and sometimes demolished. That’s the sad case with today’s location. We can’t stop progress, but it’s important to really consider the value of a building before we take it down. The Black Moon Manor is no longer standing, but it was the setting for strange activity reported by past residents and paranormal investigators.

Haunted Indiana: Black Moon Manor

Black Moon Manor was the oldest home in Buck Creek Township, Indiana when it was still standing. It originally served as the Eastes family home. There is significant controversy behind what’s true and what’s been spun about the building’s history. It was allegedly used as a small pox hospital. A woman was said to have committed suicide by jumping into a 70 foot well under the house in the 1930s.

The current owner, Matt Speck, claimed he obtained information about Black Moon Manor from a direct descendant of the original family named Georgia. This information included a printed list that contained the names of 200 people who had died in the house when it was used as a makeshift hospital.

Local legend focused around a man by the name of Dr. Harvey who married into the Eastes family. There were suspicions that the doctor may have intentionally infected people with small pox to further his medical career. This was never proven.

Many of the historic claims have no documentation to back them up. Speck says that the elderly descendant named Georgia has since passed away so nothing can be verified. The Ghost Adventures team met with local historians Diana Hoy and Joe Skvarenina at the nearby library to find the truth in the tales told by Matt Speck. No death ledger or other record of the alleged small pox outbreak of 1857 was found. According to the historians, much of the information gathered may stem from local legend and rumor.

There was mention of a Dr. Harvey who treated 84 small pox infections and only lost three adults and two children under his care. Those five may be the only official deaths related to any small pox outbreak in the area, a far cry from the 200 names on the list given to Speck.

Another claim was related to a five-year-old named Rachel Eastes. Speck claimed that the young girl lived and died on the property. Bagans located a burial record of a Rachel Eastes who was five years old when she was buried at the nearby cemetery in 1842. Her part of the history may be true. No cause of death was given, which makes it harder to determine why her spirit may remain.

The Ghost Adventures team found no documentation supporting the story about the woman who committed suicide in the well.

Speck claimed to have purchased the property in 2009 to use as a commercial haunted house. His application for the venture was denied by the county. This was around the time that Speck began claiming that the home was genuinely haunted. Some of the stories he told upset living relatives of the Eastes family. Online resources state that Speck’s claims are fabricated and that he was leasing the property and was subsequently forced to vacate because of falsified information about the family. More on this can be found at the Diary of the Watchman blog .

Paranormal Activity at Black Moon Manor

Paranormal TV show Ghost Adventures recorded an episode at Black Moon Manor that aired on October 12th, 2012. Lead investigator Zak Bagans interviewed Speck and his girlfriend, Jennifer Waltz. Waltz stated she was a skeptic prior to her personal experience. She went inside the house with friends and felt strong emotion which moved her to antagonize the entities by demanding that they come out. During her tirade, something unseen grabbed Waltz’s back, leaving severe red marks which were photographed.

Paranormal investigator Jeffrey Poe also shared footage he captured during an investigation of Black Moon Manor on June 27th, 2011. The footage included a child’s rocking horse moving on its own. The activity was immediately followed by the appearance of a strange round light that emerged from the toy, arched and expanded then disappeared off frame. The movements were rather dramatic and did not appear to be caused by a draft or vibrations.

Ghost Research Society members Lisa Krick and Nicole Tito maintain a website discussing their investigations. The pair also explored Black Moon Manor and managed to collect a handful of EVPs which are available on their website here.

Former Black Moon Manor resident Matt Gephardt reported hearing heavy footsteps upstairs. His mother would call his father home from work, fearful that someone had broken in. No one was ever found with no evidence that another person had entered. He stated his family experienced strange activity all the time during the 11 years that they lived there.

Gephadt also told of an outdoor gathering with friends on the property. They were sitting around a bonfire sharing ghost stories. One friend began talking down about the haunting, saying that he didn’t believe any of it when he was suddenly punched by an invisible fist. There seems to be a trend of violent physical contact when people say negative things about the property. Gephardt also curiously mentioned that the walls had the name “Rachel” written all over them throughout the house when his family first moved in.

The Black Moon Manor Today

The building can still be seen on Google Maps, at least until the satellite photo is updated.
Click the image to go to the address on Google Maps

The controversy behind Black Moon Manor seems to muddy the waters around its past and possible paranormal activity that took place there. While it sounds like the location wasn’t as death-ridden as Speck claimed it was, it does appear that the building has a long history and may have been active. Speck may have been intentionally trying to talk the place up in hopes of making a profit or he may have simply been mislead about the manor’s timeline.

Whether you believe Speck or not,  the fact remains that many paranormal investigators collected intriguing evidence. Perhaps something more was been left behind throughout the years beyond the aging wood and crumbling walls. It’s also saddening that the conflict between Speck and the living family members may have served as a catalyst in the building’s demolition. A photograph was posted to the location’s Facebook page on September 25th, 2013 which shows the recent state of the property (click here to see the Facebook page). As of now, the evidence already collected is all we will ever have from the Black Moon Manor.

Have you been to Black Moon Manor (or would you like to go if the building was still there today)? Share your personal experiences or investigative approach to this location in the comments.