Articles | Haunted Rockford | Unlocking Secrets Since 2004

Mystery At Winnebago

When one thinks of the library, they often call to mind long stacks of colorful bindings where tall, thin, darkly dressed women glide through putting away books and shushing patrons. That has not been my experience over the last 15 years of library work. (For those of you who have met me in person, you know I am neither tall nor thin and I am usually the one being shushed!)

I am very fortunate to wear many hats at the library and one reputation that I have inadvertently earned is the collector of the odd and unusual. The goddesses that work the Local History room come across some of these stories while researching things for people and always share them with me. I have tucked them away in a file but have decided that this would be a good place to share these tales of the weird and peculiar.

This story came from a Register Gazette article that appeared on August 22, 1908. The headline reads: Mystery at Winnebago. It seems that on this Tuesday morning, Sexton Joseph Dunkley and his assistant James Bouton were hard at work preparing a place to lay the newly departed Mrs. Bradshaw. They were both surprised and a little startled when they stuck the shovel in the dirt and heard a metallic clunking sound. They were only about a foot down so they continued to dig and unearthed the remains of what proved to be a corroded cracker tin such as the one pictured below:

One can only imagine the thoughts that were running through their minds as they pulled the tarnished box from the dirt. The article described the box “badly decayed only one side being in any state of preservation.”

Their greatest fears were realized when they opened the box and there looking back at them were the empty eye sockets of not one but three skulls!

The box also contained the “major portions of the larger bones of the human body, all of which were the bones of adult persons.” As if that wasn’t enough, there was also a black string necktie which it mentions is the “only clothing found”.

There was no more mentioned in this article- nothing to tell us what was done with the bones, where it was thought they might be from, or who they might have been. The last line only yielded another mystery. It mentioned “The Reflector suggests it is not likely to prove another Gunness affair.”

There was stated in such a manner that it implied that this was a name that the reader should know. This intrigued me enough that I again turned to my Local History sages where they declared that the name Gunness refers to a woman of the time period who is suspected of being a female serial killer!

Apparently, this Belle Gunness (who was later found to really be Brynhild Paulsdatter Størseth), was believed to have killed over 40 men, women and children (including her own!) for money. Belle was at first believed to have been killed herself by a handy man that worked for her. The bodies of her two children and a decapitated woman’s corpse were found in the ashes of their LaPorte, Indiana home in February 1908. The handy man was found guilty of the arson but not the murder since he claimed that the body was not Belle Guinness but a woman that she had poisoned and put there as a “body double”, even though the woman was shorter and much thinner.

I will definitely be writing an article in the future to fill you in on all the sordid details! This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I find history so fascinating!

Grewsome Catch

On the morning of August 22, 1908, Ross Foster started his day like he had ended the day before, fishing. He put out the line around 10p.m on August 21 and went back to check it at daybreak the next day. He could not have known that this day would take such an appalling turn.

Mr. Foster was in the Corey’s Bluff area of the Rock River in Rockford. a place that he fished often. He got an early start that morning, it was just around 6:00a.m. He started to bring the line in and when the line reached about mid-point between the shore and an island there, it snagged something heavy.

Foster pulled the line slowly toward him and to the surface. One can only imagine his horror as the object came to the surface and he realized it was the body of a child.

Mr. Foster knew immediately who the child was. The story had been all over Rockford. He carefully rowed his boat within a few feet of the body and called for assistance. With help, the Foster was able to lift the body into the boat and take it to shore.

It seems that the hook had caught the back of the coat as the “body was being rolled slowly downstream by the current.” Mr. Foster helped deliver the young boy’s body to the coroner’s office where a verdict of “death by drowning” was decided.

The beginning of this tragic story started two days earlier. A little 5 year old boy, Earle Morris and his eleven year old brother, Orley were walking in downtown Rockford, Orley told the jurors at the inquest. The article gave this description, “Orly appeared to be a manly little fellow for his age and fully capable of taking care of his younger brother under any circumstances except such trying ones as that which resulted in the drowning on Thursday.”

Orley went on to say that the boys crossed over the Nelson Bridge and started to return on the Illinois Central Train Bridge. He explained that though this was their first trip together on that bridge, he himself had used it several times to cross.

They met a man just as they were starting to cross and he told them to hustle across because there was a train due soon. Orley said that this flustered the younger boy. The boys both became frightened as they reached the middle of the bridge and saw the train approaching. At Orley’s instruction, they took seats on a “heavy plank nailed on the outer edge of the bridge ties” to wait out the train. The boys were facing the track about three feet apart. Orley was horrified when he saw his little brother fall over backward into the river. The article mentioned that Orley watched in horror as his brother came up to the surface three times and he was still straining to see him when men from the train finally reached him.

A follow up article said that an autopsy of little Earle showed a bruise on his forehead that at first was thought to have come from his body hitting a stone in the river. After conducting several interviews of the eye witnesses, a more plausible scenario presented itself. These people mentioned that several cars behind the engine was a tool car that had steps that jutted out several inches farther than the other cars. The engine passed without dislodging the young boy but when the tool car passed it struck Earle in the forehead causing him to fall into the river.

This article was found in the Rockford Morning Star edition for August 25, 1908. Even though this took place such a long time ago, it doesn’t take much imagination to put oneself in this family’s place as they had to bury one young son and help the other recover from this unbelievable tragedy.

Ghost Bridge Road

Have you ever taken a trip (drive or other forms of travel) where you set off for one kind of adventure and end up having a completely DIFFERENT kind?

Well, this is one of those stories. I set off for Central Illinois with my regular ghost adventure buddy, John Hoblit. We were returning from something (neither of us remembers exactly what) and decided to stop at Lincoln, Illinois where John’s father’s family hails from.

John had mentioned this road that leads to an abandoned bridge called “The Ghost Bridge”. Well, I, of course was up for that! John had done some research through a cousin of his named Leigh Henson and Troy Taylor’s website that talked about this bridge that was located between two old cemeteries.

We arrive and find the gate that leads down this old road. (The following picture is from John’s cousin, Leigh Henson). These are the kinds of places I LIVE for.

It is about a 10 minute walk (taking time to slap the mosquitoes!) The road winds through some pretty dense trees with a few clearings that show the field that surround the area.

So we come around the corner and there it is…the last remnants of this old bridge.

This is where I find out the great part. This used to be a part of the famous Route 66 road!

Much of the information to follow came from Leigh Henson’s award winning website: http://findinglincolnillinois.com/rte66atsaltcreek.html

Salt Creek ( which was called Onaquispasippi by the Native Americans. I know what you are thinking and I completely agree! Salt Creek is SO much easier) is the largest stream in Logan County and has been important to this region.

Its history began with the Native Americans and even includes a land dispute settled on the banks of the creek by none other than Abraham Lincoln himself! The churches in the area used it for their baptism rituals which back in the 1850’s included total immersion in the creek.

So, where (most of you are probably thinking) does the Ghost from Ghost Bridge come in? I, too questioned this. I imagined a great story of a love between a Native American girl and a local white boy where both families refused to accept their love and the young lovers took their own lives rather than be separated. I even though that maybe the stories of Boone Hoblit making his moonshine to sell continued on after his death with him chasing visitors away from the road so no one would reveal his secret. But this is not the case.

In my research I found no such story. My buddy John even called the local library in Lincoln. He was assisted by a very helpful librarian who gave him a website that she assured him would prove interesting. Imagine his surprise when the website turned out to be of the ADULT kind! (seems that the Logan County tourism website had changed their address and did not inform their local library!)

That is what I meant in the beginning when I spoke of thinking I was in for one type of adventure and having a completely different one. The cemeteries on either side of the old road are very beautiful and peaceful and Troy Taylor talks of another in close proximity, the Old Union Cemetery on his website. But the reason that this particular bridge is called a Ghost bridge is because that is what the people who seek out such abandoned sites call them.

Even though there is no great story behind the name, I felt that this place deserved to be mentioned. As I stood there, with the light from the sun setting around me, it was easy to picture it as it once was. It has that sense that places of the past carry with them. The ability to, just for a second, transport us back. These places share their layers of history, from the days of Native American hunting and fishing, to the baptisms of the 1850’s, to the bootlegging of the 20’s and 30’s. I hope you take the time to visit if you are ever in this area.

For more great tales of this area, please visit Leigh Henson’s website: http://findinglincolnillinois.com/rte66atsaltcreek.html

Jehial Harmon

Jehial Harmon was born in Suffield, Connecticut, Oct. 5, 1762. This made him only 12 years old in April of 1775 when the Battle of Lexington (and the beginning of the Revolutionary War) occurred. Jehial’s older brother served in the army but Jehial’s parents thought he was too young to go with his brother. The parents finally relented in 1779, when Jehial turned 16. His brother was ill and was forced to leave the service. Jehial joined up and from all accounts fought bravely.

Jehial survived the war and went on to have a family. Some of his children came to the “west” to settle and start families of their own here in Rockford. Jehial came to live with his children in 1844. He died here in Rockford on March 3, 1845. Jehial was buried at Greenwood Cemetery. His grave was marked June 14 1902. “Connecticut in the Revolution.”

Barbara Hamilton

Barbara Hamilton was only 14 years old when she died on June 6, 1909 in her home on North Second Street. She had been ill for a while, in fact, her parents had just brought her home from a hospital in Chicago where she had spent a couple of months struggling to get better.

Little Barbara took a turn for the worst and her father was called home from a business trip to Minneapolis. He was a successful attorney. He made the journey by from Minneapolis to Janesville by train and the rest of the journey by “automobile”. He got to her bedside just a few minutes before she passed away. Unfortunately, Barbara was unconscious and the father voiced doubt whether she knew he was there.

Before her illness Barbara spent time riding horses and was a member of the Children of the American Revolution.

Barbara was said to have been a very sweet young girl and that everyone who knew her loved her. She was the Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Hamilton’s only child and they were devastated when she
died.

There is a legend surrounding this little girl. It seems she loved horses and when her beloved horse passed away, rumor has it that the family buried it here in this hillside so that it could be close to Barbara. Psychics visiting the area in Cedar Bluff have been confused and startled to see a horse running through the cemetery.