By Ford Turner
Of the Patriot-News
The woman who says she was once Mary, Queen of Scots, wore a purple sweater and did her most serious work with her eyes closed.
She is a psychic and her name is Karyol Kirkpatrick. She came into the 227-year-old stone building owned by John Fenstermacher yesterday afternoon and conducted a psychic investigation of the history-rich structure.
Kirkpatrick came away full of "readings" about the habits, professions and personalities of people who used the building in years past.
The detail of her observations and their correlation with history impressed Fenstermacher, an attorney who bought the building on Trindle Road in Hampden Twp. in 1997 and converted it into his law offices.
He acknowledged that Kirkpatrick's observations require the listener to suspend disbelief of her craft. And he smiled when asked if the visit by a psychic would cause people to scratch their heads and wonder.
"No, I haven't lost it, because I am just entering into an investigation, trying to find out more about the history of the place," he said. It was built in 1773 by Jonas Rupp, a prominent citizen. In June 1863, it was briefly the headquarters of a Confederate general. In recent decades, it was known as the Marshall Dean Fountain House restaurant and the Graystone Restaurant & Lounge.
Fenstermacher has carried out a complex and historically sensitive renovation of the structure. It is now occupied by the office of his law firm, Fenstermacher and Associates.
Graystone employees had told Fenstermacher that table settings mysteriously moved in the dining room. Fenstermacher said he heard an inexplicable crash one Saturday night when he was alone in the building.
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And there is the handed-down tale that Rupp was found dead, kneeling in prayer, in his study on the second floor.
WHO SHE IS
Karyol Kirkpatrick was born on a farm near Clarksburg, W.Va., hometown of Confederate Civil War hero Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.
The farm reportedly had been used as a campsite by Union troops during the Civil War. Kirkpatrick said she had some of earliest "visions" at the farm.
Kirkpatrick said she has appeared on TV talk shows and has aided police in catching criminals.
WHO SHE WAS
Kirkpatrick says she was Mary, Queen of Scots, in another life.
READINGS AND WRITINGS
When the house was a restaurant, employees said, table settings moved in the dining room. John Fenstermacher said he heard a crash one night in the building. He has no explanation for the noise.
One story that has been handed down maintains that the man who built the house in 1773 was found dead in his study. He had been kneeling in prayer.
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Mark Nesbitt, who runs Ghosts of Gettysburg Tours, is a client of Fenstermacher's and arranged for Kirkpatrick to investigate the law offices.
"She is drawn to various areas of the house...and gets or 'reads' a psychic impression of those areas and comes up with events from the past that have occurred," Nesbitt said.
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Kirkpatrick said she was born and raised on a farm outside of Clarksburg, W.Va., the hometown of Confederate Civil War hero Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. As a child, she went to a Baptist church.
Even there, she said, she experienced things other people did not.
"I can just close my eyes, since I was 4 years old, and I can find things and see things, and I don't know why except God gave me a gift," she said.
Kirkpatrick said she has appeared on the television talk shows of Maury Povich and Sally Jesse Raphael and has helped law enforcement agencies catch criminals.
She said she had never visited or heard of Fenstermacher's building before yesterday.
At one point, she stood motionless by an upstairs fireplace with her eyes shut and one finger resting on the mantel.
A short time later, she reported that she sensed the presence of a man known as "Mr. John," the presence of someone who helped create or implement laws in the community, and the presence of "important dignitaries" from the early 1800's.
Each of those findings corresponded at least slightly with history.
John Rupp, grandson of Jonas Rupp, was known as "the honorable" John Rupp. Jonas Rupp was an organizer of government and religion in Cumberland County and gave aid to George Washington in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion.
Kirkpatrick told Fenstermacher that the presence she detected in the house seemed to "like you a lot."
Responded Fenstermacher: "Well, that's good to hear."
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