The mighty Mississippi River has been of major importance to
the settlement of the Midwest by transporting food, goods, livestock and
materials from Louisiana in the south to Minnesota in the north; thereby,
playing a major role in the expansion of the American frontier. Fortunes where
made using these major rivers, but many criminals also found ways to exploit
these early settlements, which lacked proper protection of civil
authorities and institutions. River pirates terrorized the two major rivers in
the Midwest; the Mississippi and the Ohio. During the eighteenth and
mid-nineteenth century river pirates, often robbed, captured or murdered river
travelers to gain access to cargo, slaves and or livestock, to be later sold
down river. Many river pirates where known to enter homes along rivers to steal
food, weapons and valuables.
Mansions built along these rivers often incorporated a
belvedere as a look out for marauding pirates. Home owners in smaller
communities often needed to be armed to keep their family and valuables safe
since these early establishments lacked proper law enforcement.
One legend from this dangerous time is of Ham House, a large
stone mansion that sits on top of a bluff overlooking the turbulent waters of
the Mississippi River in Northern Iowa. The mansion became the setting for
love, loss, death, revenge, murder and where phantoms of the past refuse to
remain as history. Built by one of the earliest settlers of the area, Mathias
Ham used his fortune from lead mining, lumber, agriculture and his shipping
fleet to build his house in 1856 for his wife Margaret and their six children.
Ham became one of the most socially prominent families in Dubuque at the time.
The house was designed by architect John F. Rague who also designed other
well-known buildings in the Midwest from the original state capitol buildings
in Springfield, Illinois to the old
state capital building in Iowa City, Iowa.
Ham adored his three-story home and decorated it in the most
opulent way; from plaster rosettes and moldings, to ornate walnut staircases.
He furnished his home with Victorian furniture. Ham would often watch boat
traffic move along the Mississippi river from the belvedere perched at the
top of the house. However, one seemly normal day of river watching would change
the course of his family and leave their souls to haunt the beloved home
forever.
Ham spotted river pirates harassing his cargo ships. He
quickly contacted the authorities and the pirates were arrested. The pirates
knew Ham was reasonable for their capture and vowed to take revenge on him and
his family.
That event seemed to be a turning point for the family.
During the next few years, Mathias Ham began to lose his fortune in several bad
real estate deals and from the financial crash of 1857. Mathias and Margaret
died within a few years of each another. By the 1890’s, most of the family died
off; leaving his last surviving daughter, Sarah, to inherit the house and what
was left of the remaining fortune.
Living alone in the empty mansion, Sarah began to have
problems with prowlers late at night. Speaking to her neighbors about this,
they suggested she put a light in her window to signal to them if she needed
help. A few nights later, Sarah was reading in her bedroom on the third floor
when she heard an intruder inside the house. Sarah locked her bedroom door, put
the lit lantern in the window, and grabbed a gun. As Sarah waited in silence,
straining to notice the slightest sound, she faintly began to hear footsteps
slowly creeping up the staircase and moving slowly along the creaking floor.
Footsteps shuffled in front of her bedroom door. Sarah nervously called out to
ask who was there, silence. She raised her gun and shot twice at the door.
Hearing the gunshots, the neighbors peered out toward Sarah’s house to see
the lantern glowing in the window. They rushed over to the house and up the
stairs to find her bedroom full of smoke, the scent of gunpowder hung heavy in
the air and Sarah still holding the gun and upset from the event tried to
explain what had happened. As they began to investigate what had happened,
Sarah and her neighbors saw among the splinters of wood that lay scattered on
the floor in front of the damaged bedroom door, a trail of blood was leading down
the stairs, out the front door, towards to the banks of the Mississippi. At the
end of the blood trail and laying in the thick mud of the river's edge
was the lifeless body of a river pirate, who had recently been released
from prison and returned to seek his revenge on Ham.
As the years went on, Sarah found it more difficult to
maintain her home financially and was forced to sell the mansion in 1912 to the
city of Dubuque. Sarah died in 1921. The Dubuque County Historical Society
converted the mansion into a museum in 1964.
Over the years, the mansion has developed a reputation for
being haunted. Victors as well as employees at the museum have seen several
phantoms throughout the house and have experienced several unsettling events
that have been difficult to explain. The ghost of the vengeful pirate is said
to haunt the main staircase and third floor where he is still trying to seek
his revenge. From the belvedere, Mathias Ham can still be seen watching
the boats move along river. Hushed sounds of footsteps, whispered voices,
crying and faint screams have been heard throughout the house. Locked doors and
windows have been found wide open for no reason. Doors will open and close by
themselves. Lights flicker on and off and the nonfunctioning organ has been
heard playing on its own at night prompting workers to leave the house as soon
as possible when tour hours are over. Unusual cold spots have been felt.
Objects have been known to vanish and later reappear in a different location.
Ghost lights have been seen to drift throughout the house and have even been
spotted floating outside at night. Many museum workers and visitors have had
uncomfortable feelings of being watched.
As for the reason why the spirits of the dead choose to
remain at certain places and not others are not fully known. Many investigators
in the field of the paranormal often think when someone has a deep love for a
place or has experienced a traumatic event that has led to their death, a
spirit may remain earthbound; not realizing they have died or has unfinished
business. Those spirits can’t pass over till they come to terms of its previous
actions or their mortality. I find it ironic that the only true way to know how
the spirit realm works is when we pass through the thin vail of death and into
the spirit world, by then it’s often too late.