Texas Spirit Seekers is scientific in its approach to dealing with the paranormal and does not except the information gathered from Psychics, Séances or Ouija boards as this evidence can be tampered with by the individual giving the information, they have preconceived ideas about the paranormal before the start an investigation, they believe the place to be haunted before the go in the home.

We at Texas Spirit Seekers use the Null Hypothesis for every investigation we conduct. We state that the property in question has no paranormal activity before the investigation starts and try to debunk any of the reports of the paranormal, collect evidence using instrumentation such as audio recorders, video cameras, DVR systems, EMF meters, thermometers, etc. and review all data collected. We do report personal experiences but it is not accepted as paranormal activity unless it can be backed up by our instrumentation. The final report will have an introduction, history of the property if available, list of investigation team members, all experiences, data of interest, instrumentation used, comments, and a final record/conclusion. We at TSS do not charge for any of our services and will not accept payment or contributions to the group; we do this as a service to the community.

Poised serenely on a gentle hill overlooking South Main Street, the Howard- Dickinson House stands as a testament to more than 130 years of Rusk County hospitality and history. The house is the second-oldest brick home in Henderson and the only one with iron-reinforced walls. The Howard-Dickinson House, in Henderson, Texas, was condemned in 1965, and after 15 years of abandonment, the city was ready to tear it down. The Rusk County Heritage Association bought the house for one dollar and began restoring it to its original décor and the house is now on the Texas Historical Register.

Dave and Logan Howard built the house after their father returned to Virginia from a trip to Texas and told the boys he had bought them a plot of land and to, get to Henderson. Dave was a brick mason and Logan was a carpenter. The original portion of the house had two bedrooms upstairs. Dave and his wife Martha shared the one on the left at the top of the stairs with their daughters, who slept in a trundle bed. Their sons shared the bedroom across the hall with their Uncle Logan. Logan never married. Logan told everyone he had built the best house in Henderson and not even God could destroy it. As the story goes, he was standing out on the balcony on the front of the house one day and a big storm blew up. Lightning struck the house but did no damage then Logan shook his fist and said, ‘See, God! I told you, you couldn't tear it down!'

The house was known locally for a while as Howard's folly because of its plaster walls. People said that with this humidity the plaster would never last. It just shows what they knew; the original plaster is still on the walls.

In 1905, the house was sold to Mrs. Katy Dickinson, who added the wooden portion to the back of the home and opened a boarding house.

Strange happenings at the house, there are a few, such as the Lights turning on and off, objects lost and then found again in the same location, and of course, cold drafts. A docent remembered, when leaving in the evening, she would turn all of the lights of, lock the door, and head home. Only to arrive the next morning to find a light on in the basement. This happen many times and with no explanation. Once, a police officer was driving by the house and saw a woman standing on one of the upper floor balconies, waving in an urgent manner, for him to come to the house. When he entered and told the docent, what he had seen and proceeded to investigate the upstairs rooms, he found nothing there.

Why do people claim the house is haunted? The tragedy attached to this house. Pat and George, two of Dave and Martha's sons, were in the basement. They had some friends over and were playing cards, cleaning guns and drinking. Somehow George's gun went off, shooting Pat in the chest. Somehow Pat staggered up from the basement, up the stairs and into his mother's bedroom. On the far side of the bed, he dropped dead. There is a blood stain on the floor at the location where he supposedly died. The story goes that supposedly, Pat was kind of Martha's favorite child, that there was something special about him, and because of his untimely death she still walks the halls of the house in great grief over his death.

Texas Spirit Seekers Investigators:

Teresa Allen, Lance Brooks, Reese Herring, Heather Lassitter, Michael Avis .

Date:11/30/2007

Time: 2000 hrs – 0035 hrsLocation: Howard-Dickinson House, Henderson, TX

Arrived at the Howard-Dickinson House at 20:45 hours Friday, November 30, 2007. Pam Robinson met us at the home, opened up the house and gave us an extensive tour of the house including a talk about some of the homes more macabre past. We set up the DVR and three IR cameras, 2 54IR, and one double 24IR cameras. The double 24IR was placed in the living room on the first floor of the house, 1 54IR camera was placed in each of the 3^rd floor bedrooms. Each of the two groups had the following equipment – 1 EMF meter, 1 IR Thermometer, 1 Audio recorder and one Sony HandyCam. Each group spent 20 to 30 minutes one each floor filming and asking questions for audio responses. Each group also made EMF sweeps of the home and checked for abnormal EMF readings; also a base line temperature was taken with the IR thermometers with the added air and gas probe for ambient air temperature.

After reviewing all of the HandyCam video, no evidence was captured. A review of the audio recorders however captured a number of EVP’s. In the basement dinning room a voice was captured saying “Get Out”, and a second voice saying “Hi”. The recording of the upstairs bedroom a voice saying either “Hello” or “Scrolls” was captured. A review of the DVR reveled nothing.

Lance Brooks (Co-Founder and Lead Investigator)

We were able to capture some evidence in the form of EVP’s that leads us to believe that the home has some type of paranormal activity. Due to the duration of the investigation and this only being an initial review of this site we are unable to determine whether or not the home is haunted. We suggest that follow-up investigations of increased duration be preformed in order to reach a more informed decision. As a group, Texas Spirit Seekers seek to disprove haunting and relay on current methodology and the most up to date technology for this determination. If we cannot disprove a haunting based on the evidence we will be left with paranormal activity and/or the haunting of a property.

At this time we will suggest that there is some paranormal activity but cannot confirm a haunting.

Evidence

EVPS

"Get Out"

"Hi"