Saturday, September 22, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Some Types of Ghosts....
The word poltergeist comes from the German words poltern ("to make noise") and Geist ("ghost"), and the term itself literally means "noisy ghost".
Most reports of poltergeist manifestations involve noises and destruction that have no immediate or verifiable cause. Situations include inanimate objects being picked up and thrown; noises such as knocking, rapping, or even human voices.
Poltergeist are also known to hurt humans but is a very rare occurrence.
To my friend that spoke of some things going on in her house ;).... I trust this is what your dealing with. And ignoring it is the best thing in fact showing it attention may make it more active then again it could be a deceased person wanting prayers to be released we never really know but theory's are many and make scene. This may help a bit to understand it:
The key here is the word "manifest": souls of the departed come to us in many ways, especially in dreams. They try to remind us. They seek our help -- and later they help us. But we have to be careful. Moreover, we have to be careful because demons can mimic the dead in order to gain entry. Many are the "haunted" homes that are actually plagued by evil.
Thus, if we have a manifestation, the first thing we should do is use Holy Water and Blessed Salt or whatever means of a ceremony to do with GOD, and cast out any potential evil with fervent prayer. We do this not as an exorcism (which should only be handled by a priest), but as a deliverance -- and only in the Name of Christ. If that doesn't work, we should have a Mass said in the home, and especially for any deceased who may be connected with the disturbance. While we do not have the authority to cast out a purgatorial soul (as we do a demon), our praying for them often causes their release. There may indeed be souls who haunt places because they are trying to get prayers and also those who died traumatically or are obsessed with a former residence or some other aspect of material existence.
The month of November is set aside as the month to pray for the dead, and we urge this. We urge it especially for those who have died recently, or those who we have seen in dreams; for those who may have no one else to pray for them. If you do this you'll find joy and often release in your own life! And if there is a disturbance -- if there is such a thing.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Thompson Mausoleum Phantom Driver!
I discovered this paranormal experience today on Fathers day 2012. In the Toulon Illinois Cemetery there is a small personal mausoleum that has the word Thompson across the top and is covered in vines, mostly that of ,POISON IVY!
I was going to name this phantom driver poison ivy but decided give it the name it deserves ...the name above the door to this two vaulted mausoleum, THOMPSON. There is just two vaults and an urn in this small stained glass windowed crypt. You can not go in of course, but it is very mysterious coming upon it.
If you come towards it from the back of the cemetery where the wooded creak is and stop just before the door of it that faces the driven path and just stop leaving your car in drive going UPHILL I must add, your car will just idle , but then when you ask to speak to the man that wears very dark cloths and has a white collar and white arm cuffs
the car will give it's self gas, and then if you ask about the little girl that I have seen in there looking out, the car will literally take off without you putting on the gas or anything and go faster as you talk to the spirit asking it who he is and so on. I asked it to stop driving and it FREAKING did! Then I said oh ok you can drive and it went faster, I am so happy to have this evidence.
It was so FREAKING AWESOME!!! We did it four times and got the same affect , then we tried it at another location to only go backwards a bit and just idle in one spot. There was no freaking way our crappy little car went uphill with out me pushing on that gas pedal ..BUT IT DID and we could hear it give it's self gas . I have a video but of course you can't really tell if I am or not so I am going to go make a better video this week I am very pleased with this weeks BACK 40's GHOST HUNT! The video I put on here is a bit crappy but I did NOT push that gas at all.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Zombie????
Ok so we have heard of zombie apocalypses and the walking dead horror flicks and my all time fave the zombie killing video games, but have you ever thought hey could this really happen , what would I do if this took place while visiting a local cemetery? If only right?...well I believe it will happen but nothing like man has made it out to be, I don't think it will be so horrific.
I usually get brow beated whenever I speak of things to deal with GHOSTS, but if you believe in the Bibles word and Heaven and Hell , God and Satan; then you do believe in ghosts. Here is full Biblical proof that there are ghosts or whatever the heck you wish to call the celestial bodies.
1 Corinthians 15:40-59
King James Version (KJV)
40 There
are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the
celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
Note that this verse speaks of ghosts , this is what a celestial body is. And maybe even an alien?????
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE???? In a way I suppose
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
OUR BODY
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
WHAT WE KNOW AS A GHOST! a spirit or thingy of the not so normal
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. So this to me reads Adam was a living soul while he was a man in the flesh as we are, and after death he was the spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
WE ALL!
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
HOW AWSOME!
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
COOL!
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
WE WILL SEE OUR LOVED ONES AGAIN!
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
I would love to be at my fathers grave when he in the twinkling of an eye was out but he will be in the sky with me not in the graveyard walking around wanting brains.
Note that this verse speaks of ghosts , this is what a celestial body is. And maybe even an alien?????
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE???? In a way I suppose
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
OUR BODY
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
WHAT WE KNOW AS A GHOST! a spirit or thingy of the not so normal
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. So this to me reads Adam was a living soul while he was a man in the flesh as we are, and after death he was the spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
WE ALL!
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
HOW AWSOME!
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
COOL!
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
WE WILL SEE OUR LOVED ONES AGAIN!
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
I would love to be at my fathers grave when he in the twinkling of an eye was out but he will be in the sky with me not in the graveyard walking around wanting brains.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
A Mental Haunting
Being haunted don't necessarily mean you see a ghost or see things move and such ,being haunted is more of a mental and emotional terror in most cases. I will give you an example from my own experiences of what I call a mental haunting.
I was 16 years old when my step mother was about due to give birth to her third child which would be my half sister, but to me I am not a dog nor are my sisters so I awaited my SISTER to be born, so excited, at 16 who wouldn't love to have a baby sister or even a baby brother at that age? Well sadly my poor step mother would discover the baby she carried had died by the umbilical cord choking the poor thing. Alyssa was born and the funeral was aside her grave up on the hill in the cemetery down our street. From my upstairs bedroom window you could see the grave stones twinkle by the light of the moon or street light. I often would stand in my bedroom window at night looking down the street hoping to catch a glimpse of a spirit.
It was a sad time for us all, me, my parents, and my three other sisters were struck with grief like a strike of lightening. It was the first time I actually seen my father cry, he had tears and was wearing a face full of worry, not balling but still he had never shown sad emotions, he was always lets say a hard head. But he had a house full of girls and one of his precious daughters had died. I felt constant sadness for my parents and kept thinking of my dead baby sister how she was unholdable and unreachable, how I could do nothing to help her, or take away this painful and heavy gray vail of sadness from my family.
I was shown a picture of her tiny dead body, it hit me so hard the realism of death. I had been making her a baby blanket in home Economics class when she was lost to death, it went into her small box of memory's my step mother had made, unfinished and all hopes of a new born sister would never be wrapped in it's warmth.
One night that I will never forget, I was seeing that picture of her dead body with her clef lip and decaying arm in my head over and over, and then when I opened my eyes there was her little casket in the middle of my bedroom floor , I was astonished, I had awoken from a dream of playing with her and there on my fucking floor was a damn casket, a tiny white one, just like hers and I knew it was hers and it was my own despair ,I wanted her, I wanted my sister with us not death, I was mad and hurt and ready to take on any dark forces to get her back if I had to.
When I got up from my bed to go open this casket in hopes I would be able to hold her and hear her cry or breath, it was gone, I had imagined it. I say this is a mental haunting. But what caused the illusions in my room of a casket to my eyes so real? I will never know, but it was terrifying indeed. And so very sad for a 16 year old girl to have to feel. I was already primed for the loss of loved ones through my life starting with my own baby sister. In my heart I felt nothing could feel this bad no other death could be worse then loosing a baby sister, OH how wrong I was because when death came to take my dad ,it knocked me out from under my knees and ripped my very soul from my body .
Grief will get you every time, it will drive one crazy to put into words written my one of my favorite authors....
As I'd learned what this meant with the death of my father, so many things I felt guilty about, like borrowing too much from him or not telling him I love him enough or not seeing he was sick and making him go to the doctors earlier, hard headed or not.
But I know it was not my fault, I know he loved me and still dose.
But back with the mental hauntings ,one evening as I sat on my bed and my family (husband and children) watched TV in the living room , I heard my dads voice in my ear, he called my nickname he gave me, he always called me by my nickname BLAB! I heard it, it was his voice, we just buried him a few weeks before , I was still grieving and so sad I could barely function normally.
I am one to feel my woes and pains at home in private, I had held a lot in from the funeral and all the visits with family. But this shit was for real, I just heard my dad say my nickname and I yelled Dad but I meant to yell for my husband , my husband came to me and I was in shock , I felt as if my dad was in the room sitting on the bed beside me and I said
I was 16 years old when my step mother was about due to give birth to her third child which would be my half sister, but to me I am not a dog nor are my sisters so I awaited my SISTER to be born, so excited, at 16 who wouldn't love to have a baby sister or even a baby brother at that age? Well sadly my poor step mother would discover the baby she carried had died by the umbilical cord choking the poor thing. Alyssa was born and the funeral was aside her grave up on the hill in the cemetery down our street. From my upstairs bedroom window you could see the grave stones twinkle by the light of the moon or street light. I often would stand in my bedroom window at night looking down the street hoping to catch a glimpse of a spirit.
It was a sad time for us all, me, my parents, and my three other sisters were struck with grief like a strike of lightening. It was the first time I actually seen my father cry, he had tears and was wearing a face full of worry, not balling but still he had never shown sad emotions, he was always lets say a hard head. But he had a house full of girls and one of his precious daughters had died. I felt constant sadness for my parents and kept thinking of my dead baby sister how she was unholdable and unreachable, how I could do nothing to help her, or take away this painful and heavy gray vail of sadness from my family.
I was shown a picture of her tiny dead body, it hit me so hard the realism of death. I had been making her a baby blanket in home Economics class when she was lost to death, it went into her small box of memory's my step mother had made, unfinished and all hopes of a new born sister would never be wrapped in it's warmth.
One night that I will never forget, I was seeing that picture of her dead body with her clef lip and decaying arm in my head over and over, and then when I opened my eyes there was her little casket in the middle of my bedroom floor , I was astonished, I had awoken from a dream of playing with her and there on my fucking floor was a damn casket, a tiny white one, just like hers and I knew it was hers and it was my own despair ,I wanted her, I wanted my sister with us not death, I was mad and hurt and ready to take on any dark forces to get her back if I had to.
When I got up from my bed to go open this casket in hopes I would be able to hold her and hear her cry or breath, it was gone, I had imagined it. I say this is a mental haunting. But what caused the illusions in my room of a casket to my eyes so real? I will never know, but it was terrifying indeed. And so very sad for a 16 year old girl to have to feel. I was already primed for the loss of loved ones through my life starting with my own baby sister. In my heart I felt nothing could feel this bad no other death could be worse then loosing a baby sister, OH how wrong I was because when death came to take my dad ,it knocked me out from under my knees and ripped my very soul from my body .
Grief will get you every time, it will drive one crazy to put into words written my one of my favorite authors....
“Guilt is a tireless horse. Grief ages into sorrow, and sorrow is an enduring rider.”
― Dean Koontz, The Darkest Evening of the Year
― Dean Koontz, The Darkest Evening of the Year
As I'd learned what this meant with the death of my father, so many things I felt guilty about, like borrowing too much from him or not telling him I love him enough or not seeing he was sick and making him go to the doctors earlier, hard headed or not.
But I know it was not my fault, I know he loved me and still dose.
But back with the mental hauntings ,one evening as I sat on my bed and my family (husband and children) watched TV in the living room , I heard my dads voice in my ear, he called my nickname he gave me, he always called me by my nickname BLAB! I heard it, it was his voice, we just buried him a few weeks before , I was still grieving and so sad I could barely function normally.
I am one to feel my woes and pains at home in private, I had held a lot in from the funeral and all the visits with family. But this shit was for real, I just heard my dad say my nickname and I yelled Dad but I meant to yell for my husband , my husband came to me and I was in shock , I felt as if my dad was in the room sitting on the bed beside me and I said
"Dad, what is it like to be where you are ,what is it like to be dead and I heard with his voice, "It's like a window"! what the heck was this, explain this to me it was his voice and it was real to me but no one else heard it?..........So we bring on our own hauntings by those we are connected to I suppose. But I trust my dad came through with an answer for a question I had been begging God to let me know.
I believe we are connected telepathically and this is how we communicate in the after life.
Thou people judge me by what has happened in my life ,uncontrollable, I still know it is not approval from man I seek, it is truth . Only God knows it all and to tell me I am a sinner for wanting to know what lays beyond death is just plain stupid, we all should know and in my Bible it says seek the truth.
I believe we are connected telepathically and this is how we communicate in the after life.
Thou people judge me by what has happened in my life ,uncontrollable, I still know it is not approval from man I seek, it is truth . Only God knows it all and to tell me I am a sinner for wanting to know what lays beyond death is just plain stupid, we all should know and in my Bible it says seek the truth.
Cemetery's are Haunted
Some would say,"No ghost will stick around it's tomb", but I disagree; in fact most supernatural footage is gathered at cemetery's. I believe spirits that stick around and don't cross over, sometimes stay at there tomb, perhaps they don't know how to travel or even know where their living loved ones are ,maybe they even mourn their own death and are waiting to reunite with their body. Perhaps their loved ones come to the grave and grieve and they wait for them because they feel guilt for dying and leaving them to mourn. All I know is that to me cemetery's are the most haunted places on earth. If you are a new ghost hunter or investigator my bet is you will catch evidence to support your haunting claims at a cemetery before you will a residence.
What it all comes down to do actually believe there are ghosts? All I can say is that if you let life happen and feel the energy around you will you will feel that they have not left us they still are real and exist. If your lucky you will hear them as I have. It is a bit creapy at first but would you fear your loved one if they were living? NO then why fear them in death? Be open minded and ready to receive anything spiritual , don't worry about evil shit possessing you , if your a good person and not into gutting puppies I am sure you will be fine. After all evil can't have what's God's.
Scary or Not
I have always had a infatuation with hauntings and the paranormal . I take you into my bedroom when I was about 14 years old maybe older. I had fallen asleep and awoken to something standing in the corner of my room right beside my bed about two feet away, I was face to face with this troll looking cloaked being, it seemed to have brown skin the nose was huge and ugly and the eyes I will never forget the eyes glowing a clearish white but not like in the movies like that on a cat in the dark. I swung at this maybe three foot figure of a short troll, as it vanished I felt it's cloak touch my fist. It was real to me I was awake at this time and wondering what I should I do and was afraid to tell. I was always made fun of or ridiculed for my paranormal experiences.
Most hauntings are not scary at all, they usually go unnoticed. I however am a ware of my surroundings and allow myself to feel the energy of a place or room . I have felt many spirits about me and we are not alone by no means. There is so much more that meets the eye then an old ghost tale around a camp fire. I have seen and felt spirits in the sunshine of day. Sure as there are dark hauntings that will scare the shit of you there are not so scary hauntings and it is a haunting I believe that happens everyday all day. Weather we know it or not the spirit is there.
Try this out go to a graveyard and walk around a bit reading the stones touching them and feeling the sunshine and wind and then stop and listen , soon you will hear the whispering the voices of many whom you can't see but can hear as if they were there. I have actual done this and not on purpose ; I was laying in my bed and began to hear a conversation amongst a few people that were not in our home, it came from the stairs beside my bedroom , no one was there, and to my surprise later on my children said someone was talking and then my husband stopped in front of the stairs and said who is it one night ,and said he heard people talking. One night after we all were in bed asleep we awoke to our dog barked viciously at the stairs and no one there of course. I am sure there is a bigger story and I intend to find out what it is.
As far as people thinking your crazy for talking about hauntings and or anything else of the paranormal , I simply say I find it strange people don't talk about it more being most of us go to a church where they preach about life after death and God and the devil. I mean after all they couldn't fit everything there is to know out there in one book right? There is so much more to it and I trust the Lord has given us a brain to find it and search for it. The truth that is. ~DJ~
Friday, May 11, 2012
Look A Haunted House!
So when you hear haunted house you are probably thinking of either a huge, old ,mansion, palace type, or a run down crappy , condemned country house. But most may not even realize, that most houses that are know for being haunted are simply beautiful and well kept. How many times, I ,have driven past an old run down house and found myself saying, "Oh I bet ya that's haunted"...sure it is, as most my readers know I believe that ALL houses are haunted even newly built ones, simply because the land on which it was built was there a long time before the house or any of us. But actively haunted means the spirits let ya know they are their others just carry on and you will never notice them.
Your Average family home right? Well this home has a reported poltergeist.
Nice big home , perfect for a family but it is a VERY haunted home 1305 Albemarle was once one of the most beautiful homes among the many gorgeous offerings in Ditmas Park.
Haunted, no one stays here long, it is said it is always for sale
No one can know by just a glimpse how haunted or actively haunted a home is. I would love to buy one of these homes just to get proof that hauntings are very real.
THE PHANTOM FUNERAL OF FORT DE CHARTRES
A cool story I found on the net and right here in m y home state so maybe I need to check it out as well.
Between the hours of eleven and midnight -- when July 4 falls on a Friday -- legend has it that three lucky people, on a dusty road in southern Illinois, will be present when the dead decide to walk once more!
Th strange tell from Prairie du Rocher , Il.
Along an old road near the sleepy southern Illinois town of
Prairie du Rocher, the heartland’s most famous phantom funeral procession is
supposed to walk again this summer. The legend of the phantom funeral began in
July 1889 when two women witnessed a mourning entourage of more than 40
wagons, 13 groups of soldiers and a casket rolling along the road outside of
the village. Despite the size of the group, the procession made no sound. It
disappeared in the direction of the small cemetery located outside of town and
never returned to the ruins of the old fort from where it had come. Although
they did not yet realize it, the women (and one other witness) had glimpsed
what has become known as one of the most famous, enduring mysteries of the
Mississippi River region.
Fort de Chartres has a rich, violent and bloody history in
Illinois. The first settlers in the southern portion of the state were the
French. They established trading posts and settlements in places like
Kaskaskia and Cahokia, near the Mississippi River, and not far from the
present-day town of Prairie du Rocher, was the site of Illinois’ earliest
military post, Fort de Chartres.
There were several different forts that stood at this site,
but the first was built around 1720. The area was beginning to be settled by
this time and the French were laying claim to as much land as possible. The
fort became an outfitting location for further colonization. It would also
play several roles in regional history, including a part in a tragic event of
1736. In that year, the commander of the fort, Pierre d’Artaugette, received
orders to attack the Chickasaw Indians. He led 30 regular soldiers, 100
volunteers and a number of Indian allies downriver from Fort de Chartres. At
the mouth of the Ohio River, the expedition was met by Chevalier Vincennes
from the French post on the Wabash. He came with an additional 20 soldiers and
a small contingent of Indians. The combined forces then marched into Chickasaw
territory, only to face disaster.
Vincennes, d’Artaugette and a priest named Senat were all
captured by the Chickasaw and held for ransom. When none came, all of the
captives were slowly roasted at the stake.
In 1751, an Irish soldier of fortune
named Richard MacCarty became commander of the French fort. The original
fort had fallen into ruin by this time and it was his responsibility to
construct a new one using slave labor and local limestone. The new fort
took three years to build and cost over $1 million, an enormous expense at
that time. When completed, the fort could house over 400 soldiers and it
enclosed an area of more than four acres. It also boasted a powder
magazine, a storehouse, a prison with four dungeons, barracks, and
quarters for officers. During the construction of the fort, the men
stationed here would become involved in a series of incidents that would
become the French and Indian War.
In 1753, a group of French explorers in Pennsylvania were
attacked by a company of Virginia militia under the command of George
Washington. In the fighting, the commander was killed, touching off what
historians believe led to the French & Indian War. Neyon de Villiers, the second in command at
Fort de Chartres asked for and received permission from MacCarty to lead an
expedition against the British in retaliation for the deaths of the French
explorers. He took more than 100 hand-picked men, and several hundred
Indians, and started the long journey toward Pennsylvania. The troops were
joined by other French forces at Fort Duquesne and they marched on
Washington at Great Meadow in Pennsylvania. The Virginia troops surrendered the battle but
eventually, the British would win the war.
France was defeated and ceded the Illinois territory to Britain in 1763. The Indians, led by Chief Pontiac, were hostile to the new British rulers however and two years would pass before the English could take possession of Fort De Chartres.
France was defeated and ceded the Illinois territory to Britain in 1763. The Indians, led by Chief Pontiac, were hostile to the new British rulers however and two years would pass before the English could take possession of Fort De Chartres.
Under British command, the fort would
decline and fall into ruin. Many of the French farmers and merchants
migrated west across the Mississippi during the British years, abandoning
the area. To make matters worse, a river flood in 1772 damaged the fort
and left seven feet of water standing inside of the walls. Finally, the
river channel shifted and the west wall of the structure collapsed. After
this, the military garrison was transferred to Kaskaskia and Fort de
Chartres was never occupied again.
As time wore on, the ruins fell apart and birds began
nesting in the crumbling stone. The site was largely forgotten until the
middle 1900’s, when historic restoration efforts began. Today, the original
foundations have been exposed and a few of the old buildings have been
restored. Living history groups frequent the place and visitors are invited to
this isolated place to learn about the earliest settlements in Illinois.
But time never completely forgot about Fort de Chartres.
The events of the past never died here completely and it is said that at least
one of them replays itself over and over again in the form of a phantom
funeral procession that has become one of the most famous haunts in southern
Illinois. According to the legend, three people along the road from Fort de
Chartres to a small cemetery in Prairie du Rocher will be able to witness the
funeral procession between the hours of eleven and midnight, but only when
July 4 falls on a Friday.
The modern version of this intriguing story begins in July
1889. A woman named Mrs. Chris and her neighbor were sitting on the front
porch of the Chris house near Prairie du Rocher one night. It was near
midnight and the two women had escaped the heat of the house by going out into
the cooler air of the porch.
They talked quietly for a short time and then one of the
women noticed a large group of people coming toward them on the road. She
caught the attention of her friend and they both puzzled over why such a
procession of people and wagons would be on the road from the old fort at such
an hour. As they spoke, the wagons rolled into view, looking strange and eerie
in the pale light of the moon. Behind the wagons came carriages and men and
women walking along the dusty road. There was no clue as to their purpose on
this night until a low wagon holding a casket came into view. It was
apparently a funeral procession, Mrs. Chris thought, by why so late at night?
The two women continued to watch and they counted nearly
forty wagons, followed by horsemen and mourners on foot. Then, they noticed
something very peculiar about the grim parade. Even though the wagon wheels
seemed to pound the earth and the feet of the men and women stirred up clouds
of dust, none of them made any sound at all! The entire procession was
impossibly silent!
The only sounds came from the rustling of the trees in the
breeze and the incessant barking of the Chris family dog, which also sensed
that something was not quite right with the spectral and silent procession.
The barking of the dog awakened the neighbor woman’s husband, who also looked
out and witnessed the strange entourage on the road. He verified the women’s
account early the next morning and other than those three people, no one else
saw the phantom funeral march.
Eventually, the procession passed by and faded away into
the darkness. The two women waited the entire night for the funeral to return,
but they saw nothing more. What was it that they had seen, and whose funeral
was being conducted? The answers would come some years later and they would
learn that the procession had apparently also been seen in the past. In fact,
it was a replaying of an actual event that occurred many years before.
During the French occupation of Fort de Chartres, a
prominent local man had gotten into a violent disagreement with one of the
officers of the garrison. The two men exchanged heated words and the local
merchant was accidentally killed. Unsure of how to handle the affair, the
fort’s commander sent a delegation to the government offices in Kaskaskia.
They advised keeping the incident very quiet and ordered the local man be
buried at midnight in the small cemetery that is now outside of Prairie du
Rocher.
There is also another story to explain the phantom funeral
procession. In this version, a quarrel took place between two young officers,
one British and one French, at the fort in 1765. They fought for the
affections of a local girl and dueled one morning with swords. The British
officer was killed and the Frenchman fled downriver to escape the authorities.
The British officer was allegedly buried in secret to prevent hostilities
between the two European factions in the region.
While the truth behind the story has been lost, it is
believed that Mrs. Chris and her neighbors were witnesses to an inexplicable
event that was replayed more than a century after it first occurred. Since
1889, accounts have been sketchy as to when, or even if, the phantom
procession has been seen. It is known that July 4 fell on a Friday as recently
as 1986, but there is nothing to say if the procession walked or not.
In 1997, July 4 once again fell on the designated day and
while no one actually saw the procession (thanks to a lot of foolishness and
people driving back and forth along the four mile stretch of road between the
fort and the cemetery all evening), there was one odd event that took place. A
staff member at the fort reported to me later that summer that on the stroke
of midnight, all of the coyotes in the area began to howl in unison. It only
lasted for a minute or two, but I couldn’t help but think what a strange
coincidence it was. Or was it? Perhaps they sensed something in the air that
no animals of the two-legged variety could discern?
Coincidence or not, you’ll have the chance to search for
the phantom funeral on your own in the future. July 4 will again fall on a Friday in
the years 2008, 2014 and 2025. If you are feeling brave, take along two
friends and stake out the old road that leads to Fort de Chartres. You might
just be in the right place at the right time when the dead decide to walk once
more!
© Copyright 2004 - 2008 by Troy Taylor. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Haunts In Illinois I want To Check Out
I just came across a haunted farm in Shannon Illinois. My cousin lives near this place, so finding it won't be a problem. http://www.hauntedwillowcreekfarm.com/ is a place to check it out. Willow Creek Farm has got some history and the man that lived there kept a journal of all the paranormal things that happened, seems this old place has more then a few spirits. It is said to be the most haunted in Illinois. This is definitely a place for a paranormal research team to check out. I will be investigating more history and getting more info on this one. I found this sight interesting as well http://trueillinoishaunts.com/2009/11/18/fcps-investigates-willow-creek-farm-part-3/
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