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Midwest Ghost Hunters Society  Mcpike Mansion History Picture courtesy of www.mcpikemansion.com The house was built in 1869 by architect Lucas Pfeiffenberger. Original owner of the Mansion was Henry Guest McPike. The McPike family owned 15 acres of land, then known as Mount Lookout Park. Here McPike, a horticulturist, perfected his McPike Grape. The family lived in this, their country home, until 1936. The house has changed hands several times since its original owner Henry McPike. The building has been home to Browns Business College and was later owned by Paul Laichinger, who rented rooms in the house to other occupants. The house has not been occupied since the 1950's. Before weather and vandals brought extensive damage to the structure, it was a regal addition to the Illinois town of Alton. The mansion featured 11 marble fireplaces and beautifully carved stairway banisters, all of which have been stolen during its abandonment. Intricate carved trim still border the ceiling in one of the front rooms. McPike Mansion today is owned by Sharyn and George Luedke who have been trying to nurture this great house back to its regal state. It is readily known today for its hauntings in paranormal circles. The grounds are often visited by ghost hunters and haunted tour groups in the area. It is not uncommon to find in photos of the mansion, orbs, balls of light, even figures appearing in the windows that were not seen by the human eye when the photo was taken. This Grand Ole House is thought to still house many of the spirits that once lived here. Many Psychics and Mediums have felt the presence of what they believe to be McPike family, servants, as well as some of those who resided in and owned the house since 1936. The Cellar has been a focal point of many energies felt in the mansion. courtesy of www.mcpikemansion.com  Lemp Mansion History Picture courtesy of www.hauntedamericatours.com Lemp Mansion is a house in St. Louis, Missouri. The ghosts of several Lemp family members are said to haunt the mansion. The house was built in 1868 by St. Louis Jacob Feickert. William J. Lemp and his wife, Julia, moved into it in 1876. In 1911, the house underwent major renovations including conversion of some space into offices for the Lemp Brewery. The Lemps lived in the house until 1949 when Charles Lemp committed suicide. In 1950, the mansion became a boarding house; throughout the next decade, it lost much of its ornate charm. The construction of Interstate 55 during the 1960s led to the destruction of much of the grounds and one of the carriage houses. The current owners, the Pointer family, purchased the house in 1975 and have since renovated much of it as the Lemp Mansion Restaurant and Inn. Adam Lemp and the Western Brewery The original patriarch of the Lemp Family was Johann "Adam" Lemp, born in 1798 in Grüningen, Germany.[1] He became a naturalized citizen in November 1841.[2] He arrived in the United States in 1836, eventually settling in St. Louis in 1838. In the St. Louis city directory of 1840-41, he is listed as a grocer. Lemp started a grocery store at Sixth and Morgan, a site now occupied by the middle of the south side of the Edwards Jones Dome. In addition to typical groceries, Lemp sold his own vinegar and beer. By 1840 he focused solely on the manufacture and sale of the beer, forming Western Brewery at 37 South Second Street (about where the south leg of the Arch now stands). The business prospered, and when a large storage space became necessary, a cave in south St. Louis was used for this purpose as it provided natural refrigeration. The cave was below the current locations of the Lemp and DeMenil Mansions and the Lemp Brewery. By the 1860s there were 40 breweries in the St. Louis area taking advantage of the caves along the Mississippi, with the Western Brewery emerging as one of the most successful. William J. Lemp Sr. - the first suicide Adam's son William J. Lemp was born in Germany in 1835. After completing his education at St. Louis University, he worked at the Western Brewery until he left the company to form a partnership with another brewer. In 1861, he enlisted in the United States Reserve Corps, and achieved the rank of Orderly Sergeant. On December 3, 1861, he married Julia Feickert. On August 23, 1862, Adam Lemp died, and William returned to the Western Brewery as owner and operator. In 1864 he began building a larger brewery above the caves where Western had been storing its goods. Under William Lemp, the Western Brewery became the largest brewery in St. Louis, and then, the largest outside of New York with a single owner. William began to brew and bottle the beer in the same facility to meet growing demand, a practice that was rare at that time. Further demonstrating his innovation and business sense, in 1878 he installed the first refrigeration machine in an American brewery, and then extended the idea to refrigerated railway cars, in a successful attempt to be the first beer in the United States with a national reach. Soon, Lemp Beer was sold worldwide. In 1892, the William J. Lemp Brewing Company was founded from the Western Brewery with William as President, his son William Jr. as Vice-President, and his son Louis as Superintendent. William J. "Billy" Lemp, Jr., was born on August 13, 1867. Like his father, he went to St. Louis University and then studied the art of brewing. However, it was William Sr.'s fourth son, Frederick, born in 1873, whom he hoped to groom to take over the company. Unknown to William Sr. and his family, Frederick had significant health problems, which ended his life on December 12, 1901. William Sr. became despondent and slowly declined. On the morning of February 13, 1904, at approximately 9:30 a.m., he shot himself in the head in his upstairs bedroom and died at about 10:15 a.m. William J. Lemp, Jr., and the "Lavender Lady" On November 7, 1904, William J. "Billy" Lemp, Jr., took over the brewing company as president. Billy had married Lillian Handlan, the "Lavender Lady", five years earlier, and they moved to a new home at 3343 South Thirteenth Street. Lillian filed for divorce in 1908, charging Billy with desertion, cruel treatment and indignities. The divorce proceedings lasted 11 days and ended in an award to Lillian of the divorce, and custody of William III, their only child, with Billy being given visitation rights. After the trial, Billy built "Alswel", his country home overlooking the Meramec River, in what is now the western edge of Kirkwood. By 1914 he lived there full-time and started to lose interest in the brewery. Elsa Lemp Wright The second Lemp suicide was Elsa Lemp Wright, the youngest child of William Sr. In 1910 she had married Thomas Wright, president of the More-Jones Brass and Metal Company. They separated in 1918 and in February, 1919, Elsa filed for divorce. She cited, among other things, damage to her mental and physical health. The divorce was granted after a trial, but Elsa and Thomas soon reconciled and remarried in March 1920. Later that month, on March 20, while suffering from insomnia, Elsa shot herself in the heart while in bed at their house at 13 Hortense Place. Her brothers Billy and Edwin later arrived at the house, where Billy is reported to have commented, "That's the Lemp family for you." Prohibition and the suicide of Billy Lemp The Lemp Brewery suffered in the 1910s, as Billy's lack of interest in the company led to decreased sales. When Prohibition began, rather than keep the brewery going, he simply gave up and shut the plant down, never to reopen. The Falstaff trademark was sold to Lemp's friend, "Papa Joe" Griesedieck. The brewery itself was eventually sold at auction to International Shoe Company for pennies on the dollar. The events depressed Billy, and his behavior began to change. On December 29, 1922, he shot himself in the heart in his office, a room that today is the front left dining room, where a painting of his ex-wife still hangs. William Lemp III and the end of Lemp Beer In 1939, William J. Lemp III, the only son of Billy, licensed the Lemp name to Central Breweries of East St. Louis. Central Breweries renamed itself the WIlliam J. Lemp Brewing Company and began a grand marketing campaign resulting in phenomenal sales of the new Lemp Beer. However, its success was short-lived, and soon the contract was terminated by Ems Brewing, which bought out Lemp in 1945. Charles Lemp, the fourth suicide Charles Lemp, the third son of William Sr., was the final Lemp to live in the mansion, starting in 1929. He had left the brewery in 1917, to go into banking and finance. He had also dabbled in politics, influencing many south side wards. He never married and lived alone in the mansion with two servants, a married couple. On May 10, 1949, he shot himself in the head, leaving the following note: "St. Louis Mo/May 9, 1949, In case I am found dead blame it on no one but me. Ch. A. Lemp". This is the only known suicide note in the family history. Edwin, the final Lemp After Charles' death, the only surviving son of William Sr. was Edwin Lemp. (Louis Lemp, the second oldest son, had died of natural causes in 1931.) Edwin, the youngest son, had worked in the brewery until 1913. He then retired at "Cragwold", the estate he had built overlooking the Meramac in 1911. "Cragwold", in western Kirkwood, had an observation tower, two servants' houses, and a collection of birds, antelope, sheep, yaks, buffalo and other animals. After his retirement, Edwin dedicated himself to many charitable causes, primarily the St. Louis Zoo. In 1970, Edwin died at the age of 90, having been reticent about his family's tragedies for years. His final order to his caretaker was to destroy his art collection and family heirlooms. Ghosts The Lemp Mansion is alleged to be one of the nation's most haunted buildings. In the 1980s, it was ranked in the top nine haunted places by Life Magazine. Reputed paranormal incidents include doors opening, shutting, locking, and unlocking on their own; candles lighting on their own; and a glass flying off a bar and crashing to the floor. Visitors to the mansion have reported feeling as if they are being watched, or sensing an atmosphere of sadness, and some claim to have seen apparitions of members of the Lemp family. One report says that, during the mansion's restoration, a painter working on a mural felt that he was being watched and immediately fled the mansion, without washing his brushes or taking out his equipment, and never returned. Various groups have held seances in the mansion, and reported that most of the paranormal activity is related to the ghost of Charles Lemp. Ghosts of other family members, including Lillian (the Lavender Lady), have also reportedly been seen. MTV once used the tunnels below Lemp Mansion and the former Lemp Brewery as a location on their short-lived reality show, FEAR, disguising it as "The Boettger Brewery''. (Go to the MGHS Forum to watch the episode!) courtesy of www.wikipedia.org  Good and Bad news about the Lincoln Theater The good news is I was able to find out the price to gain private access to the Lincoln Theater. The bad news is that it is $1,000.00. Now hold on before you freak out over the price there is an upside to this as well. We can join a very large group of people for an over night investigation. The price for that varies with the size of the group anywhere from $30 to $50. If anyone is interested in doing the large group investigation contact me so we can coordinate when to go. If you want to add to the $1,000 fund to gain private access contact me so we can set that up as well. Scot  Vishnu Springs "Throughout the 1880s groups as large as 2,000 people gathered in a western Illinois river valley to drink natural spring water that was said to have medicinal properties capable of solving a variety of physical and psychological ailments. Some time in the 1880s, the land was named Vishnu Springs after the Hindu god Vishnu because of the supposed healing power of the water. Near the start of the 20th century, a man named Darius Hicks took steps to start a town and health resort on the land around Vishnu Springs. He divided the land owned by his family into plots and sold them for $30 each. The centerpiece of the town was a three-story hotel named the Capitol Hotel which was built to attract people seeking the health and spiritual effects of the spring. The town featured two stores: a blacksmith shop and a restaurant. Transportation was provided by horse and buggy from the nearby town of Colchester, Illinois. Later, Hicks added parks, a fishing pond, a racetrack, and a schoolhouse. Despite Hicks’ efforts, the town never prospered. Transportation was difficult due to the lack of rail lines or an easily navigable river. Hicks left the resort town in 1903, and indifferent management let the town decay. By the 1920s most of the businesses had closed, large numbers of guests stopped visiting, and the town could be considered abandoned. A man named Ira Post attempted to revive the resort in 1935. Post marketed the area as a vacation and picnic area that had limited success until the 1950 when Post died. In 1968 a woman named Alfred White and a man named Albert Simmons tried to reopen the restaurant and country music attraction. In the 1970s a group of students from Western Illinois University started a commune on the land. The commune sustained itself with farming, livestock, and occasional music festivals. The hotel was once-again abandoned by 1982. Most of the town is gone today, however the hotel still stands. Much of the hotel has been ruined by vandals and decay. The land was donated to Western Illinois University in 2003 as a wildlife refuge and a place for conservation and research. There are longstanding rumors that the land is haunted by the ghosts of those who once lived in the thriving town." courtesy of www.wikipedia.org  Bartonville Insane Asylum Peoria State Hospital Historic District, also known as Bartonville State Hospital or Illinois Hospital for the Incurable Insane, was a mental health hospital operated by the State of Illinois. It was abandoned in 1973. The hospital grounds and its 47 buildings are listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The hospital is located in Bartonville, Illinois, near the city of Peoria in Peoria County. The legislative beginnings came from the Illinois General Assembly when, in 1895, they provided for the establishment of the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane. In response to the legislation, then Governor John Altgeld appointed a three person commission charged with site selection. The commission president was John Finely, a Peorian and one of the members was J.J. McAndrews of Chicago who later served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Congressman. The commission selected the site near Peoria, in Bartonville. Construction at the site started in 1895 with the main building being completed in 1897. The 1897 building was never used as its structural integrity was compromised when the abandoned mine shafts it stood over collapsed. Interestingly enough, the 1927 history of the hospital gives a fully different reason for the abandonment of the first structure: The first building erected was a facsimile of a feudal castle, but before it was occupied it was found to be wholly out of harmony with modern ideas for the care of the insane and it was razed and replaced by the present cottage plan, under the direction of Dr. Frederick Howard Wines, the able secretary of the State Board of Charities. In 1902 the facility was rebuilt under the direction of Dr. George Zeller. The hospital became a complex under Zeller as a cottage system of 33 buildings was employed as opposed to the former enormous castle-like building. Among the buildings at Bartonville State included patient and caretaker housing, a store, a power station, and a communal utility building. After the hospital finally began operation, under Zeller on February 10, 1902, patients characterized as "incurably insane" were transferred to Bartonville from other Illinois facilities. In 1906 the hospital opened a training school for nurses. From 1907 to 1909 the Illinois Hospital for the Incurable Insane, as Peoria State Hospital was known, became the Illinois General Hospital for the Insane; Insane was dropped altogether in 1909 when all Illinois institutions were designated "state hospitals. Under the new name of "Peoria State Hospital", the board of commissioners and Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities were abolished as all state-run charitable institutions were administered by the Board of Administration. On the hospital's 25th anniversary, February 10, 1927, the population was 2,650 with 13,510 patients having entered the facility during this time. The hospital was known as part of a revolution in mental health treatment and Zeller was widely respected for his focus on patient strengths and working toward improvement and discharge whenever possible. Zeller crusaded for a better public understanding of the mentally ill; he invited reporters and community members to visit Peoria State and a number of stories attest to the respect he earned. From 1943 until 1969 the hospital participated in a departmental affiliation program for psychiatric nursing. The program provided instruction in psychiatric nursing to students from general hospital nursing schools. At its peak in the 1950s, Bartonville housed 2,800 patients. When closure was announced in 1972, patient census had dropped to 600.[6] From 1917 until 1961 the hospital was operated by the Illinois Department of Public Welfare. In 1961 the Department of Mental Health was created and assumed responsibility of Peoria State Hospital which closed in 1973. After the hospital closed the buildings stood empty and were auctioned off. The auction buyer was bankrupt and Winsley Duran, Jr. took over ownership with the hope of creating office space in the structures. The buildings, however, remained empty. Since that time, many of the remaining structures have been torn down, or remodeled and now house various commercial and industrial businesses. The Village of Bartonville has established the entire property as a TIF district to encourage further growth and development of the property. The Bowen, or administration, building is currently under the ownership of the "Save the Bowen Foundation," a group seeking to raise funds to renovate the exterior of the building. Peoria State Hospital maintains a reputation as a haunted spot. Claims are that the area is still inhabited by the ghosts of many former patients. The idea is probably perpetuated by the fact that there are four on-site cemeteries, because Zeller implemented a system for burying the hospital's unidentified deceased. One specific ghost yarn tells of the spirit of "Old Book", a patient who dug graves at the hospital until his own demise. It is said that upon his death he took over the physical form of a tree on the grounds dubbed the "Graveyard Elm". Locally it is known as the "crying tree." Though several attempts have been made at removing the tree it no longer stands at the hospital. In the 1920s, Zeller penned a book titled, The Bereft, drawn from the mysterious experiences he had at the hospital during his two tenures as superintendent, 1902–1913 and 1921–1935. Included, among numerous other eerie stories, were Zeller's own account of Old Book and the Graveyard Elm. courtesy of www.wikipedia.org  Old Salem Cemetery Old Salem is the oldest cemetery in the area. It has many stories of hauntings and strange happenings. There is said to be a grave of a young girl who died in a fire, and that it is impossible to light a match anywhere near her grave. Also there have been a lot of locals mention of car problems leaving the cemetery. courtesy of www.strangeusa.com  The Story of Resurrection Mary Picture courtesy of www.scaryforkids.com Resurrection Mary is the Chicago area's best-known ghost story. Of the "vanishing hitchhiker" type, the story takes place outside Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, a few miles southwest of Chicago. Since the 1930s, several men driving northeast along Archer Avenue between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery have reported picking up a young female hitchhiker. This young woman is dressed somewhat formally and said to have light blond hair, blue eyes, and wearing a white party dress. Some more attentive drivers would sometimes add that she wore a thin shawl, or dancing shoes, and that she had a small clutch purse, and is very quiet. When the driver nears the Resurrection Cemetery, the young woman asks to be let out, whereupon she disappears into the cemetery. According to the Chicago Tribune, "full-time ghost hunter" Richard Crowe claims to have collected "three dozen . . . substantiated" reports of Mary from the 1930s to the present. The legend says that Mary had spent the evening dancing with a boyfriend at the Oh Henry Ballroom. At some point, they got into an argument and Mary stormed out. Even though it was a cold winter’s night, she thought she would rather face a cold walk home than spend another minute with her boorish boyfriend. She left the ballroom and started walking up Archer Avenue. She had not gotten very far when she was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver, who fled the scene leaving Mary to die. Her parents found her and were grief-stricken at the sight of her dead body. They buried her in Resurrection Cemetery, wearing a beautiful white dancing dress and matching dancing shoes. The hit-and-run driver was never found. Jerry Palus, a Chicago southsider, reported that in 1939 he met a person who he came to believe was Resurrection Mary at the Liberty Grove and Hall at 47th and Mozart (and not the Oh Henry/Willowbrook Ballroom). They danced and even kissed and she asked him to drive her home along Archer Avenue, of course exiting the car and disappearing in front of Resurrection Cemetery. In 1973, Resurrection Mary was said to have shown up at Harlow's nightclub, on Cicero Avenue on Chicago's southwest side. That same year, a cab driver came into Chet's Melody Lounge, across the street from Resurrection Cemetery, to inquire about a young lady who had left without paying her fare. There were said to be sightings in 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1989, which involved cars striking, or nearly striking, Mary outside Resurrection Cemetery. Mary disappears, however, by the time the motorist exits the car. She also reportedly burned her handprints into the wrought iron fence around the cemetery, in August 1976, although officials at the cemetery have stated that a truck had damaged the fence and that there is no evidence of a ghost. In a January 31, 1979 article in the Suburban Trib, columnist Bill Geist detailed the story of a cab driver, Ralph, who picked up a young woman – "a looker. A blonde. . .she was young enough to be my daughter - 21 tops" – near a small shopping center on Archer Avenue. "A couple miles up Archer there, she jumped with a start like a horse and said 'Here! Here!' I hit the brakes. I looked around and didn't see no kind of house. 'Where?' I said. And then she sticks out her arm and points across the road to my left and says 'There!'. And that's when it happened. I looked to my left, like this, at this little shack. And when I turned she was gone. Vanished! And the car door never opened. May the good Lord strike me dead, it never opened." Geist described Ralph as "neither an idiot nor a maniac, but rather [in Ralph's own words] 'a typical 52-year-old working guy, a veteran, father, Little League baseball coach, churchgoer, the whole shot'. Geist goes on to say: "The simple explanation, Ralph, is that you picked up the Chicago area's preeminent ghost: Resurrection Mary." Some researchers have even attempted to link Resurrection Mary to one of the many thousands of burials in Resurrection Cemetery. A particular focus of these efforts has been Mary Bregovy, who died in a 1934 auto accident in the Chicago Loop, as well as Anna "Marija" Norkus who died in a 1927 auto accident while on her way home from the Oh Henry Ballroom. The Resurrection Mary story is a type of vanishing hitchhiker story, a type of folklore that is known from many cultures. One such story, written in 1965 by fifteen-year-old Cathie Harmon for a Memphis, Tennessee newspaper, was picked up by psychologist-songwriter Milton Addington, who used it as the basis for Dickey Lee's song Laurie (Strange Things Happen). There have also been a few low-budget horror films recently released that are based on this legend. courtesy of www.wikipedia.org Don't Forget to Check Out Our Forum |
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