As a paranormal investigator one of the most valuable tools we have is historical research; whether it is the history of the area, the population, or a specific location.
By Rebecca Nidey
Everything I Need To Know I Learned In A Haunted House
There are many ways to do research into this history. Most counties have a historical society or museum that often has obscure information. They may even have pictures of the buildings we may investigate as they were originally…..not the crumbling structures we often deal with.
Libraries generally have areas that store old editions of local newspapers. Our local library in Crawford County, Illinois also has a section devoted to genealogy. In my personal library, I have several large volumes that entail the history of this county and those surrounding it. My personal favorite is word of mouth. Many times, darker facts may be glossed over in records, but have been passed down from generation to generation. It may take some work, but what is fact and what is a long running game of ‘gossip’ can often be discerned. As I mentioned in my column last month, another love of mine is wandering local cemeteries that are a treasure trove of history.
When preparing for an investigation, several members of the investigative team try to gather as much history as possible. This aids in discovering why a location, whether an uninhabited area or a specific building, may potentially be haunted. Often, if it is a private home or business, the owner will be able to provide information on the history surrounding the previous owners from the legal documents from sales of the property, most especially the abstract.
Crawford County is a mostly rural area with many family farms and quite a few of them are Centennial Farms that have been in the possession of members of those families for well over a hundred years. Much of the history of these farms have been passed down orally, most especially if the farms were carved out of the Illinois prairie while the Native peoples still inhabited the area. There are several locations in Crawford County that were the sites of skirmishes and massacres because of the disagreements over the rights to the land. These occurrences are well documented by both the local library and historical society, but also by lore passed down from people by word of mouth through the years. Since many historical buildings have been lost through years of neglect and the flow of ‘progress,’ local historical societies and museums offer an untapped reservoir of information on them.
Many cemeteries have, sadly, been abandoned. This is especially true of small family plots as the members have left the area or died out. There are several cemeteries we visit that are actually in the middle of fields or woods on private property. Unfortunately, not all property owners care for these buildings or cemeteries on their property. We have come upon piles of tombstones thrown under trees in a wooded area where a farmer has abandoned them as he cleared the fields. Often, there are pictures and maps of these locations that no longer exist on display at the societies and museums. If you want to visit these areas, please remember to get permission from property owners before venturing out to find them.
I would like to send a special “Thank You!” to all those who love history enough to preserve the memories by either saving and restoring the sites, or at least recording the information for future generations. I might also add that members of my paranormal research group tidy cemeteries that we visit. We pick up debris and set stones upright whenever possible.
Unlike some paranormal investigative groups, we have found evidence to suggest that many cemeteries are haunted. When we have been lucky enough to find well-kept older cemeteries, we often get interesting EVP in that area. By wandering any cemetery, no matter the age, we can get clues as to events that may trigger a haunting. If there are clusters of graves where people died almost simultaneously, there may have been an epidemic of some disease. If it was whole families, especially in the country where there was no fire protection, it may have been a house fire that took many lives. All of these events are traumatic and could lead to a haunting.
In my column last month, “The Stories In Stones,” I discussed several interesting historical graves in Crawford County. One of my favorites is the grave of Elizabeth “Betsey” Reed. Shortly before the American Civil War, Betsey was accused of murdering her husband by poisoning his sassafras tea. Much lore has sprung up about Betsey. She was housed in the county jail in Palestine, Illinois which was once the land office for most of the Illinois territory. Mysteriously, a fire broke out in her jail cell despite the fact she had no means of starting a fire. She was moved to the jail in nearby Lawrenceville, the county seat in the next county south of Crawford County. Since she was a ‘granny woman’ who served as a healer and midwife in the area, it was rumored that she was also a witch and the fire further cemented that idea in the thinking of local residents. Despite the fact that it was unheard of for a woman to be hung for a crime, a jury convicted her and sentenced her to be hung. A message was sent to the governor asking for a reprieve for her with the sentence being reduced to life imprisonment, but there was no reply. Betsey was hung on May 23, 1845 on what was, until a short time ago, the practice football field of the Lawrenceville High School. Because the city fathers refused her burial in the nearby city cemetery, her body at first rested close to the area she was hung, in a hastily dug shallow grave. Medical students dug up her body and prepared to autopsy it since it was hard to find bodies to learn anatomy from. Betsey’s brother found out in time to rescue her body and take it to a small country cemetery in Crawford County under the cover of darkness. Ironically, Betsey is buried by the husband she was convicted of murdering.
Many of these facts were uncovered by a friend of mine who wrote a wonderful book on this subject. Rick Kelsheimer is the author of “The Hanging of Betsey Reed.” While researching his book, he visited libraries, the Lawrence County Historical Society, and the local courthouse where he was able to view the actual court records for the case. The most interesting facts were culled from an unlikely source, the grandsons (who were in their ninety’s at the time of the interviews) of one of the residents in the area of the rural graveyard which is Betsey’s final resting place. They remembered hearing their grandmother discuss how frightened she was as a child when Betsey’s body was brought by wagon to the cemetery, traveling on the road by her farm. This is the kind of meticulous work that needs to be done sometimes when preparing for an investigation. Interestingly enough, several members of my group have visited Betsey’s grave on the anniversary of her hanging and each time we receive the same reply when we ask her if she has anything to say. A woman’s voice can clearly be heard saying “I’m innocent.” This EVP is posted on our web site if you would like to listen to it. What better way to get historical information than to go straight to the source? Certainly someone who has had their body moved several times after a death by hanging has a reason to haunt her final resting place.
Another source of information when doing historical research in this modern age is the internet. Although this source can be invaluable if you are not close to a library, historical society, or museum, I must caution you. Check sources very closely when using this information as it may not have been verified properly. As we all know, just because it is posted on the internet does not make it true!
While I do love history, I have to remind myself that at this moment I am living through and creating history. What was once our future soon becomes the past…time stands still for no one.
Walking through life (or racing as it seems sometimes), we need to honor those we are lucky enough to have in our lives before they become a part of our past. I am dedicating this column to two such people who passed from life into Spirit since my last column: Bella Parker, who passed suddenly after four years filled with the love that only a child can give, and Terry Legg who passed after fifty five years full of service and mentoring.
About the Author:
Through her work on the investigative team for the Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters, Rebecca Nidey has an understanding of the paranormal, spiritual, and metaphysical worlds and how they work together.
Rebecca has trained in the Healing Touch technique (a form of energy healing). She is a certified Psychic Medium trained by Belle Salisbury, and she is a certified Paranormal Researcher.
Rebecca is the associate editor for Bellesprit Magazine and also writes a column titled Everything I Need To Know I Learned In A Haunted House. She has been a co-host of several radio programs for the Haunted Voices Radio Network and HeyZ Radio Network highlighting the Paranormal, metaphysical and literary fields.
To learn more about Rebecca or to schedule a reading you can contact her at https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.nidey.
