John B. Kachuba - Ghosthunting Illinois

COPYRIGHT 2005 by John B. Kachuba

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion, print, facsimile, or electronic, or by any method yet to be developed, without the express permission of the copyright holder.

Published by Clerisy Press

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Printed in the United States of America

First edition, fourth printing 2011

Cover and interior photos provided by John B. Kachuba, with the following exceptions: pps. 30, 32 courtesy of the Chicago Public Library, courtesy of

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kachuba, John B., 1950

Ghosthunting Illinois / John B. Kachuba.

p. cm. (The haunted heartland series)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 978-1-57860-220-9

ISBN-10: 1-57860-220-3

1. Haunted placesIllinois. 2. GhostsIllinois. I. Title. II. Series.

BF1472.U6K32 2005

133.109773--dc22

2005012050

Editor: Jack Heffron

Cover Design: Kelly N. Kofron

Interior Design: Carie Reeves

Clerisy Press

P.O. Box 8874

Cincinnati, OH 45208-0874

www.clerisypress.com

For Riley Elizabeth

Introduction

WHY IS IT WE MORTALS ARE TERRIFIED by the prospect of encountering ghosts and yet so many of us harbor a fascination and yearning for just such a meeting? Why do so many of us share this morbid obsession with ghosts? As children we read ghost stories under the bedcovers at night or huddled around a campfire, afraid to look over our shoulders, as someone told us a ghost story. Some of us grew up near old, abandoned houses that we were certain were haunted, houses that simultaneously repelled and attracted us. We learned, almost instinctively, that we had no business being in cemeteries after nightfall. We learned to whistle in the dark.

One explanation for such an intense interest in ghosts and the world of the paranormal may be a simple one: our fear of death, of life simply coming to an end. If ghosts do exist, then we can be assured that there is some existence for us beyond the grave. Many theologies presuppose an eternal existence after death, often connected to concepts of reward or punishment based upon the lives we led here on earth. These theologies provide comfort for their adherents, but some lingering doubt often remains. After all, has anyone returned from Heavenor Hell for that matterto tell us what those places are like?

But then there are ghosts, creatures once living, now dead who exist on a plane somewhere between these eternal realms and that of the living. It is the ghosts who appear to us, speak to us, and let us know that existence in some form goes on. Death is not the ultimate destination of the living, they tell us, but only a transfer station of sorts to somewhere else. Ghosts connect us in varied ways to a future we cannot comprehend and to a past we may have known little about. There are many stories of ghosts of deceased family members appearing to living relatives to offer comfort or advice in difficult times. There are also as many stories about ghosts who are able to help shed light on past mysteries or injustices, such as unsolved crimes. It may be these connections that stoke our interest in ghosts.

In 2003, I set out to explore this fascination with ghosts. I traveled throughout my home state of Ohio, visiting more than thirty haunted locations. My experiences were published the following year as Ghosthunting Ohio . But far from answering my questions about ghosts, my experiences led to more questions and my interest was piqued. I decided to extend my ghosthunting experiences and Ghosthunting Illinois , the second in the Haunted Heartland series, is the result.

Throughout much of 20042005, I roamed Illinois, checking out almost forty haunted locations. I started off with a lengthy list of haunted locations drawn from many different sources. The Internet sites of various ghost groups, as well as books written by other writers, gave me some ideas for places to visit. The Internet, of course, can lead you down many interesting paths. I would never have guessed that there was actually a Museum of Funeral Customs, or that it was in Illinois, right outside the gates of Springfields Oak Ridge Cemetery, where Abraham Lincoln is buried, had my wife, Mary, not discovered it while doing some research on the Web.

Some of the places were found not so much as a result of research as much as from a stroke of dumb luck, maybe a hunch. As Mary and I passed by an old bed-and-breakfast in a small Illinois town, Mary said she thought the place was probably haunted. I stopped at the house and spoke with the owner, who admitted the house was haunted but didnt want it written about in the book. A similar hunch of hers, however, resulted in the chapter about the C. H. Moore Homestead. You just never know.

Each of the places in the book is open to the public and is part of an eclectic list of haunted theatres, churches, restaurants and bars, hotels, historic sites, cemeteries, museums, and libraries. Mary accompanied me on several of these ramblings, so we were able to trade notes and compare our experiences. I went to each of these places with an open mind and no preconceived notions about the existence of ghosts. I had read too many books about hauntings from writers who see ghosts on every street corner and, frankly, I find such books unbelievable. I am not a sensitive, psychic, or medium. In fact, Im an extra-large. Im an average person, just like you, with a curiosity about things paranormal. My intentions as I wrote this book were to accurately and objectively describe for you my observations and experiences, as well as the experiences of others I met along the way, and then let you draw your own conclusions about ghosts and hauntings.

I encourage you to visit these places and explore them for yourself. Some may require calling ahead for appointments; others may be open only on certain days during the week. Check the Visiting Haunted Sites section in the back of this book for complete information. In addition to addresses and phone numbers, the section also gives you their Web address and hours of operation if available for each location as well as important travel tips.

Having visited close to sixty haunted sites over the last two years, Ive developed some guidelines for ghosthunting that I think you may find useful in your own research:

1. Conduct all your investigations with an open mind, but dont let yourself be fooled by the evidence. No one has yet been able to scientifically prove or disprove the existence of ghosts, and its unlikely you will be the one to earn that fame. Better simply to be non-judgmental and open to whatever you experience and observe for yourself. Be hard-nosed about the evidence you uncover. Make certain that you exhaust all possible explanations before you claim a brush with the supernatural.
2. Interview witnesses separately. Take a page from standard police procedures and always talk to witnesses of paranormal phenomena separately so that one witnesss testimony does not influence that of another. Its easy for people in a group to remember things they never actually saw, making it difficult for the researcher to sort out fact from fiction.
3. Document your activities. I always carry a notebook and pen, tape recorder, and camera with me when investigating a site. The tape recorder is used to interview witnesses, but some people have also used it to record background sound over a period of time to try to catch unidentifiable sounds or voices of the dead in a particular location, a phenomenon known as electronic voice phenomena (EVP).

   A note about photography as documentation is important here. Many people, using either traditional cameras or digital cameras, have reported various anomalies on the photos once they are developed or downloaded onto a computer. These anomalies, usually whitish orbs but also misty smears and other amorphous shapes, are invisible to the naked eye when the photo is taken. There are many reasonable explanations for these objects. They may be dust particles or water droplets on the camera lens. They may be reflections caused by the flash of other cameras or by common objectseven some insects reflecting the camera flashwhich the photographer simply did not notice at the time. Your finger, or the camera strap covering part of the camera lens, may also be possible explanations for your photogenic ghost. Enlarging the photo will often help you identify the anomaly accurately. Despite all these reasonable explanations, there are hundreds of ghost photos that defy explanationmuch to my surprise, I have taken some myself while writing this book. Still, it is important not to jump to conclusions when these anomalies show up. Rule out all logical explanations first before deciding youve captured a ghost on film.