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The Metlar-Bodine House Museum investigation with psychic Jane DohertyPiscataway, NJ, the Metlar-Bodine House, circa 1728, has kept watch over the Raritan River for more than two and a half centuries. Jane Doherty first encountered the ghosts of the Metlar-Bodine House in front of a television crew from The Today Show who contacted Jane to film a segment investigating a haunted house.
Jane entered the house without any knowledge of the history or any information on the ghost experiences of the house. When ghost activity is present, Jane Doherty’s stomach gives a rather unusual, yet profound, reaction. The diameter of her stomach expands about six inches from her resting state and remains enlarged until the activity ceases. This is how Jane knows that she is in the presence of a spirit, she has involuntarily developed this ability. The doctors that she has consulted on how and why this occurs have no medical explanation for this unique reaction. Jane located the spirit activity in two areas of the "Bodine" room near the fireplace and near the tombstone displayed in the corner of the room. Jane then received an impression of something having been thrown across the room by a spirit in anger. The curator revealed an incident that had occurred to her when she was alone in the house. The curator placed a picture of a neighbor of the Metlar’s, John Field, on the mantelpiece prior to going in the kitchen. She heard a crash and went in the room to investigate. She found the broken picture on the floor next to the hall doorway clear across the room from the fireplace. Apparently, a spirit had thrown it, since the curator was the only person in the house at the time. Jane determined that it was the spirit of the previous owner who did not want the picture of someone (who wasn’t of his family) on his mantelpiece. According to rumors, Mr. Metlar did not get along with his neighbor, John Field, and often feuded with him. The other spirit activity in this room centers on an old tombstone of Piscataway resident, John Martin. Piscataway residents were driving by the construction site of the Middlesex Mall and saw the gravestone knocked down, apparently having been bulldozed during the construction of the Middlesex Mall. There must have been a family graveyard on the property. After they picked it up, the Piscataway residents brought the tombstone home. From time to time the smell of a burning pipe emanated from the stone. When the Metlar-Bodine museum opened, they brought the gravestone over and donated it to the museum. At times, people visiting the Metlar-Bodine house still smell the pipe tobacco smoke around the old tombstone.
CENTER HALLWAY –circa 1840 Jane walked in the path of a spirit in the center hallway feeling the presence of a male spirit as her stomach expanded. A member of the museum fellowship who was sitting in the parlor during a monthly meeting saw a figure walking down this hallway. When other members went to investigate, no one was found in the hallway. The door to the house at the end of the hallway, which is presently closed off, was still bolted shut. Former occupants going to the barns, shed and other outbuildings at the back of the property used this door at one time. The Fellowship member who had the otherworldly sighting described the figure as a man wearing a bowler hat. He came from the backdoor and walked down the hallway before disappearing.
BACK PARLOR- downstairs In this room Jane located the path of a male spirit near the fireplace. He paces the room from the back window to the front of the room with his hands behind his back. As if he is waiting for someone or is waiting to hear some news. Jane described the man as sporting a beard and wearing a coat jacket with tails. Jane also sensed a woman spirit present also in the room. The man tries to shush the woman from talking and tells her to go do something so he can concentrate and figure some things out.
FRONT BEDROOM UPSTAIRS There is the presence of a male spirit with a beard and tailcoat similarly described as the male spirit in the back parlor. This spirit appears to be in his thirty’s and stays around the area near the window. In the early to mid 1980's two members of the museum fellowship were across River Road trying to take a photograph of the museum after closing the doors for the night. A man with a beard appeared in the upstairs front bedroom window and waived to them. There was no one in the museum at the time. Others over the years have reported seeing a man appear in that same window. In that same bedroom former caretakers were awakened from their sleep to hear limericks or rhythmical songs heard behind the fireplace area. The singing was coming from the attic area above the bedroom. The songs sounded like sea chanty e.g. "There was an old woman…." Mrs. Metlar has been known to write and sing limerick’s when she was alive.
DINING ROOM ( circa 1870) downstairs When walking towards the judge’s robe in the dining room, she sensed two females arguing with a male presence. She walked in front of the window and her stomach again indicated spirit activity. She described the spirits as the judge and two females. The robe is the original robe Judge Parker wore when he presided over the Halls - Mill murder trial. No one was ever convicted of the murder. The spirit of Judge Parker, who knows who committed the murder is upset because the wrongdoer was never punished, as are the spirits of Eleanor Mills and Pastor Hall. Copyright©2005 Jane Doherty. All rights reserved.
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