DOYLE HOUSE

Location: Plover, Wisconsin is south of Whiting at the junction of US Highways 10 and 51 in Portage County in Central Wisconsin. The Doyle House is a private residence in a residential part of Main Street.

Description of Place: A two-story ranch-style house close to the curb with a small front yard and garage, the house was built in 1958 as part of what was then new modern housing. The street is lined with sidewalks in a open treeless neighborhood resembling a Hollywood residential back lot. 

Ghostly Manifestations: Like a lot of kids, Max Doyle loves ghost stories, and shortly after moving into his new home on Main Street in Plover, Wisconsin, he began suspecting it might be haunted. His dog acted frustrated in parts of the house and reacted to things only it could see. He could hear whispering sounds in the basement that seemed to be coming through the wall. He wasn't sure just where those voices were saying, but they sometimes floated through the house and came from other locations. His exciting discovery was not exactly warmly shared by his parents; they were sure he was eagerly expecting to make his house a haunted house because of his interest in the subject, but whether he had placed the idea in their heads or they wanted to believe in it as well for him is something they never expected.

"Hi, welcome to my house..." John Doyle welcomed the Collinsport Ghost Society to his home on the first week of November during a break in the rain over the town. A former school coach, now a city employee at the Plover Town Hall also reputed to be haunted, he had asked Matthew Oh and Nick Sidle to do a cursory examination of the home in order to either disprove or confirm the things that were happening there.

"One thing we seem to get here a lot is strange sounds." John testifies. "Everyone in the family seems to hears something different. It's probably the same noise, but everyone describes it different, you know. Max calls it an incoherent whispering from somewhere in the house, and my wife has described hearing a young girl giggling in the house. On the other hand, all I ever hear are the creaks and groans of the house and they sometimes happen like footsteps. I can't tell how how many times I've been sitting here watching TV and I've heard someone come up alongside me, but when I look up, no one is there.

"Max has also described seeing a strange woman in our kitchen," John continues. "But just where she appears from and where she vanishes to he doesn't know. Now, I've heard the sounds of the dishes and things being handled as if my wife was putting things away, but when I enter the kitchen, there's no one in there. I tell you... it gets pretty creepy. My wife has been in at times and has admitted to feeling someone behind her, but it's never me and my boys are very often at school or elsewhere. My other son, Colin, he was never touched by anything at all for the longest time, but this last Halloween when Max was getting open talking about our ghosts, Colin was mocking him a lot over it and screaming at the house... daring it to do something. That night, he wakes up screaming about a black shadow reaching over his bed that suddenly plummeted through the floor."

The feeling in the Doyle House is very atmospheric even when it is sunny outside, and during the rainy day of the investigation, it was hoped something would happen to confirm the experiences of the family. Max is distracted often in the house, always examining every sound he hears and rushing to explore the basement when a sound occurs. On one occasion, the lights down there flickered and he began asking yes and no questions to get responses to his responses in a session he taped himself on video:

"Can you hear me?" 

One flash for yes, two for no. It flashed once.

"Did you die here?"

Two flashes.

"Are you alone here?"

Two flashes.

"Is your family with you?"

One flash. He began trying to find out who it was.  

"Are you a boy?"

Two flashes.

"Are you the daughter?"

One flash.

"Are you going to hurt me?'

Two flashes.

"Is there someone here who could hurt me?'

One flash.

"Is it a member of your family?"

Two flashes.

"Does their name come before the letter "O" in the alphabet?"

Two flashes.

"Does it start with a P?"

No flash. Max believes the spirit he had contacted was being kept from contacting him any further. He has tried several times to make contact since, but he has not been successful. Meanwhile, his mom has heard a young girl calling for her mother in the house, and she has heard doors open and close. 

During the investigation, Oh and Sidle went through the house and found very little to confirm the house was haunted. Max's bedroom seemed darker than the rest of the house and they caught some cold spots and electromagnetic spikes, but they didn't have any outward personal experiences. In the photographs they took of the exterior and the interior of the house, however, there is a blurry image of a young girl looking down from an otherwise perfect picture of the second floor... and right behind her is an anomalous black form hovering behind her.

History: The Doyle family has lived in the house for only about a year. The previous tenants were Michael and Michelle Roland, graduates of the anthropology wing at the University of Wisconsin. Before the neighborhood, the property was part a former limestone mining company and several of the old caves are believed to still exist. The Rolands died in a car accident with their children a year before the Doyles moved into the house.

Identity of Ghosts: Max Doyle has done a lot of his own research into the house and identifies the ghosts in the house as Nick and Tara Roland, the son and daughter of the previous owners. He does not have a name for the woman in the kitchen, but neighbors do recall the Rolands having a housekeeper named Lulu. Max's research at the county archives also turns up the name of Jerold Phears, a religious leader who lived in the wilderness near the house in the 1880s. Phears reportedly became eccentric and dangerous in his later years by sacrificing live animals and amassing a cult before he was blamed for the deaths of several children and hanged by an unruly mob. His unmarked grave is believed somewhere in the proximity.

Source/Comments: Mostly Ghostly (2008). Based on a story by R. L. Stine. Phenomenon based on the Old Sherman House in Plover, Wisconsin and the Old Shea House in Markham, Arkansas.

David DeLuise (John Doyle) also play Jerry Russo on The Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2008).

Kim Rhodes (Harriet Doyle) and Brian Stepanak (Jerold Phears) also play Carey Martin and Arwin Hawkhauser on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (2003-2008).


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