Tinker Swiss Cottage Investigation 2019

The Tinker Swiss Cottage is a historic place, museum, and park in Rockford, Illinois, USA. It was built as a personal residence by Robert Hall Tinker in the1860s. It is now a popular destination for school trips and wedding receptions.

Robert Hall Tinker was born in Honolulu to missionary Reuben Tinker (1799–1854) and his wife Mary Throop Wood (1809–1895) in 1836. Tinker moved to Rockford in 1856, where he was employed as an accountant by Mary Dorr Manny, the wealthy widow of John H. Manny of the Manny reaper works. Tinker traveled Europe in 1862 and was greatly impressed by the estates and gardens he had seen there. On his return to Rockford, Tinker built himself a 20-room Swiss-style cottage on a limestone bluff overlooking the Kent Creek and the home of Mary Manny. In 1870 Robert and Mary were married, becoming Rockford 's most influential couple. Tinker was mayor of Rockford in 1875 and a founding member of the Rockford Park District.

Upon the death of the Tinkers, the cottage was left to the Rockford Park District. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on December 27, 1972.

Curator Hochmann reports that there used to be an orphanage on the property where the current main parking lot is now located. There was at least one shooting that also occurred in the parking lot where a man was shot in the chest.

Located at: 411 Kent St., Rockford, IL. 61102

Telephone: 815-964-2424

Executive Director: Samantha Hochmann

Website: www.tinkercottage.com

Equipment setup: Teams were Greg Kos, Ron and Laura Lovatt in the Barn, Jim Piscopo and Len Novak in the basement of the Main house and Dale Kaczmarek and Mike Rosario in Robert Tinker’s Master Bedroom on the second floor of the Main House. The Carriage House was not available for investigations this time.

Experiments performed: EVP, SB-11 Ghost Box, Ovilus X with the digital text display and Phasma Box sessions were conducted in the Barn and the main house on both the basement and 2^nd floors.

Personal experiences:

Greg Kos: I was in the barn with Ron and Laura Lovatt. The equipment that was used included an EDI+ meter, a K-II meter, digital voice recorder, a Parascope 360 and a set of Dowsing Rods and a SB-7. It was a quiet night for the first three groups. There was a little activity on the K-II .While the second group was in the room I saw a shadow just outside the room go towards the exit sign and disappear. After that we were using dowsing rods and had a conversation with someone who had worked there before and I want to say his name was Russ. I had been taken still IR shots throughout the night and captured nothing. Additional notes were an orb was seen going to the back of the person working the Dowsing rods. The Spirit Box gave us two names which we confirmed with the rods and they were Russ and Ann. I wish more people would have seen the shadow. We talked during the dead time about equipment and took questions.

Ron & Laura Lovatt: equipment used included: IR camera, Parascope 360, K-II, digital recorder, EDI+ meter, dousing rods

Group 1:

There was not much heard during the EVP session, there was a lot of background noise from the people in the audience and from people going in and out of the building. The K-II did respond when we believe a possible apparition touched it. We did move the K-II from the front of the room to by the back door to see if there were more responses, but nothing happened and no responses from the K-II. Sarah Bowker said she sensed a boy named Nicholas and two other little friends in the barn. Greg's IR camera battery supply drained.

Group 2:

The EVP session did not pick up anything. We heard footsteps on the floor in front of us. We saw a black shadow person in the back of the room by the bathrooms and exit 2 times. We all heard footsteps upstairs.

Greg led a spirit box session and got the following responses: Little boy said hi, little girl said hi, Charlie, Audrey and Lawrence

Group 3:

The EVP session did not pick up anything

Greg led a spirit box session and got the following responses: Don't start, stay out, I know, get out, leave us, yes, hello and right now. An audience member in this group brought her own Dousing rods and we tried to communicate with a spirit in the Barn named Russ. The spirit responses yes or no to questions that the team asked and the audience asked. The following questions and answers were given using the rods....

Russ are you here? Yes

Are you alone? Yes

Where you born in Ireland? Yes

Did you ride horses? Yes

Can you point to where you are standing? Yes

Did you know Mr. Tinker? Yes

Did you know Jesse Door? Yes

Did you get along with the Tinkers? Yes

Do you like the barn? Yes

Did you hang out in the house? No

Did you see ghosts when you were here? No

Are you a solid form? No

Are you the shadow figure we see in the barn? Yes

Do you understand technology? Yes

Can you make a noise? No

Can you point to Anne with the rods? Did

Do you like making fun of Anne? Yes

Do you know who Samantha is? Yes

Do you know you’re dead? Yes

Do you like to scare the director? Yes

Do you like cheeseburgers? No

Can you point to Anne again? The rods do

Anne moves to different part of the room and we ask again to point to Anne. The rods point where she is.

Should we go home? Maybe

Do you like it when everyone leaves? Yes

Do you like Anne? Yes

Did you attend Anne's wedding last year in the Tinker House? Yes

Anne said in a previous Investigation an IR camera captured a picture that they think is Russ.

Conclusion: Every time we have investigated Tinker we always walk away with some new evidence. Very rarely do we leave with any evidence. We are certain this property is haunted and look forward to coming back.

Len Novak: The basement was a pretty active place. Equipment used was a Phasma Box, K-II meters, Tri-Field meters, EVP recorder, a REM Epod and full spectrum camera. We had contact on the Phasma Box, and the REM Epod was placed on the servant’s stairway. While asking questions the REM Epod responded several times. At one time one of the guests felt uneasy and said she felt that someone was standing in a corner behind her. I and several people saw shadows moving in the hallway. A guest was using a set of dowsing rods and had some responses.

Jim Piscopo: We arrived at 6:30 pm and we were assigned to the basement of the main house. I was teamed up with Len. I set up my camcorder with night vision in the kitchen area. Len set up a camera going down the hallway. We also set up a Rem-Pod at the bottom of the stairs. We started getting hits on the REM-Pod right away. I set up my laptop with the Phasma Box and started doing EVPs with the first of three groups. Len and some members of the group saw some shadow play down the hallway; this was constant all thru the night. We moved the REM-Pod to the end of the hall and continued to get hits on it. During our second session someone from our group used dowsing rods along with a physic and we got some good responses. After we were done with the groups we went to the barn for a debriefing. There we learned that there were a group of children playing around outside the house near the window at the end of our basement hallway witch could account for some of the shadow play that we saw.

Michael Rosario: Introduction: Tinker Swiss Cottage is known for its great history, heritage, location, and ghosts! A few GRS team members, including myself, were all-in on this exciting new public investigation!

Equipment and Initial Investigation: Our investigation took off at approximately 6:30pm with a presentation by Dale Kaczmarek, Kathi Kresol and her colleagues on July 19, 2019. Weather was quite nice out, although it was a bit hot and muggy. Equipment used was my K-II meter, a Sony Night Shot Handy-Cam DCR-TRV13 NTSC 560 Digital-8 20X Optical Zoom Video Camcorder, a C&M Vision Technologies 198-IR Light Illuminator Module, and a Police Security Elite Blackout 615 Lumen Hands-free Heavy-Duty Head Strap Flashlight.

For this investigation, GRS members were split up into multiple groups/rooms inside the cottage. Dale and I primarily worked on the second floor’s Robert Tinker Bedroom area. I began filming what I could with my Sony HD Camcorder inside Mr. Tinker’s old-fashioned Bedroom Quarters. Afterwards, I walked around doing some K-II sweeps in and around that area. K-II hits were around 2.4-6.8mG. A few groups had entered these areas every 30-35 mins or so. We would conduct EVP sessions during this time, and encouraged those people in our group to come forward with any questions they had about the paranormal in general and/or to ask any questions during the EVP session. Afterwards the investigations, Dale and I went back to the Command Center (barn/stable area) with Greg, Jim, Ron, and Laura, and had some refreshments whilst enjoying the rest of the time conversing about our experiences we had inside the Cottage.

Investigation Wrap-Up: The investigation ended approximately around 11:30pm on Friday, July 19, 2019.

Evidence: Upon reviewing all of my evidence, it’s sad to note that really nothing appeared out of the ordinary, image-wise, on my night-shot camcorder, nor was there any specific audio captured on my device, like disembodied voices. But in one of the rooms, I did hear a female voice say my name, though. It was unrecorded. It was very neat, to say the least! I must note, however, that there was a lot of inside contamination from groups leaving and entering the upstairs areas, so trying to discern what was a true/genuine EVP or not was challenging for the ear. As said, no particular sounds were picked up (at least on my devices) during this investigation, except for some discernible Phasma Box EVP’s, and my name being called out in an adjacent room (which was not captured on any recording device).

Conclusion/Overall: I thought it was a good investigation, and I really would love to come back again to investigate and do some more work in many other areas of the Cottage as well. Truly a wonder to enjoy and experience. There is just so much fascinating history in this one location alone. Definitely would love to come back soon! A very big thank you to Kathi Kresol and the staff at Tinker Swiss!

Dale Kaczmarek: This first thing that I noticed is that when I attempted to use my laptop for a Phasma Box session, it was completely dead even though it was fully charged before I left. I had to charge the device up and instead used a SB-11 Ghost Box for the first session along with the Ovilus X with DTD screen. While there were a few possible words that came through this device, the most distinguishable one was, “Mommy.”

The most active session was session #2 for Group #1. That session had the most relevant responses via the Phasma Box and a name, “Rose Lin” came through the Ovilus X. The least productive session was the last session that probably ran the longest. Even though there were a number of random words that came through the Phasma Box, no real direct responses to questions asked were captured. There were two words however that was interesting including “investigate” and “human rights commission!” Those were a bit strange.

The other devices that were placed within the confines of the Master Bedroom were a K-II Meter, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter, REM Epod and Laser Grids. None of these devices reacted or alerted to any anomalous energies. The usual room investigated on the 2^nd floor of the main house was the Red Room which was off limits due to new displays being installed.

For my team, this was perhaps the most unproductive investigation thus far. Others however fared much better.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Tinker Swiss Cottage on July 19, 2019. Team members included: Greg Kos, Mike Rosario, Jim Piscopo, Ron & Laura Lovatt and Dale Kaczmarek with help from Len Novak from The Illinois Ghost Society.

Evidence collected:

A maid tinker2019.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #1 in the Master Bedroom, a question was asked, “Can you tell me who used to sleep in the Red Room?” The device responded with, “A maid.”

Before we start tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Summer Kitchen, the device blurted out, “Before we start.”

For sure tinker2019.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #2 in the Master Bedroom, a question was asked, “Do we look funny to you?” The device responded with, “For sure.”

Hallway Jim tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Summer Kitchen, a question was asked, “Who else is down here?” The device says, “Hallway” followed by a loud “Jim.”

Hello Honey tinker2019.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #2 in the Master Bedroom, the device said, “Hello Honey!”

How soon reaper impress me tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #3, the device rambled on with, “How soon…reaper…impress me.”

I don’t like the lesson tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #2, Session #2 in the Summer Kitchen, the device blurts out, “I don’t like the lesson.”

I hope so tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #3 in the Summer Kitchen, a question was asked, “Is Tinker here?” The device responded with, “I hope so.”

I love it tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #3 in the Summer Kitchen, the device says, “I love it.”

I suppose tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #3 in the Summer Kitchen, a question was asked, “Robert are you here with us?” The device responded with, “I suppose.”

I’m sorry tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Summer Kitchen, the device blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

Jennifer tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Summer Kitchen, a question was asked, “What’s your mom’s name?” The device responds with what sounds like, “Jennifer.”

Joe Randy tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #3 in the Summer Kitchen, the names “Joe” and “Randy” came through.

Mommy tinker2019.MPG - while conducting a SB-11 Ghost Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Master Bedroom, a young girl’s voice came through and said, “Mommy!”

My mother Dale tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Summer Kitchen, a question was asked, “What did you keep in the trunk?” The device responded with, “My mother” followed by a very clear name, “Dale.”

Please quit tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #2, Session #2 in the Summer Kitchen, a question was asked, “We’re almost done. Anything you want to tell us?” The device responded with, “Please quit.”

Please stay calm tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Summer Kitchen, a female voice says, “Please stay calm.”

Robert was shot tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Summer Kitchen, the device blurted out, “Robert was shot.”

Scream that’s what I thought don’t touch me tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box for Group #3, Session #1, a question was asked, “What is your name?” A high-pitched scream was recorded followed by the device saying, “That’s what I thought” followed by “Don’t touch me.”

The day is good tinker.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #3, Session #1 in the Summer Kitchen, the device said, “The day is good.”

Yeah tinker2019.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session for Group #1, Session #2 in the Master Bedroom, a question was asked, “Is there anybody here?” The device said, “Yeah.”

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode:

Session #1, Group #3: Be and memory; phonetic mode – help and terrible; SB-11 Ghost Box – Mike, is it and mommy.

Session #2, Group #1: Indicate and Rose Lin; phonetic mode – yeah.

Session #3, Group #2: (nothing); phonetic mode – Did you eat; Phasma Box – investigate and human rights commission. (Lots of words but no direct responses to questions asked.)

Conclusions: In my opinion this investigation wasn’t as active as some in the past. Not a lot of direct responses were collected but quite a few random words came through especially with Piscopo’s Phasma Box in the Summer Kitchen. It seems that when one area is active, others are not. Perhaps the spirits just conglomerated around one particular area and not others. Further investigations and observations on this hypothesis needs to be explored.