The mysterious James John Eldred House

 

Death to the Victorians in the 1800s was a very natural and common part of life. Children often died due to disease or infection. Medicine, surgery and the basic understanding of germs was in its infancy. Many diseases that we take for granted today caused considerable suffering and death to those during that time. Entire families could be wiped out within a year from measles, smallpox, tuberculosis to even a simple cut getting infected. The mortality rate was high and the Victorians took such a tragic event to celebrate those who had passed with elaborate showings, funerals, jewelry made from a dead loved one’s hair, and family photographs with the deceased were a very common and natural practice.     

One Illinois family that had seen such tragedy was that of James John Eldred. The house he built and lived in rests among the trees and tall grass of western Illinois north of St. Louis. Built in 1861 for his wife and four children, Eldred built the limestone house in the Greek Revival style with touches of the Italianate style. Eldred made his money farming his land and raising livestock, and was well known for the social parties he often hosted in his elegant home.

The years the Eldred family spent at the house were often filled with hardship and tragedy. The agricultural life was unpredictable, difficult, and constantly left his finances strained. The onset of the Civil War made things even worse for the family. Their three daughters started to get ill from tuberculosis and eventually died; Alma died at age 4 in 1861, Alice died at 17 of in 1870, and Eva died at 17 in 1876. Eldred’s son Ward survived and continued to help with the farm. James J. Eldred and his wife stayed in the home till his death in 1911.
Over the years the house changed ownership and was eventually purchased by a local famer and used for storage.  The house currently is owned by the Illinois Valley Cultural Heritage Association and is used for living history events and ghost hunts. The profits are used to help restore the house.

Visitors to the house often report bizarre experiences, from the sounds of mysterious footsteps to strange rappings on the doors to faint conversations between a man and a woman when the house seems quiet; also poltergeist activity of rocks being tossed within the house has been experienced. Dark shadows have been seen darting throughout the house, giggles of a little girl have been heard and apparitions have been spotted in and on the grounds of the old house. Visitors have even been touched by ghostly hands, leaving a cold clammy feeling at the place of contact. The sighting of a ghost of a traveling salesmen that died on the property as been seen, but finding verification of the death has been elusive. Excavations around the house revealed bones from the grave of a Native American that was buried long before the house was built. Once the burial ground was disturbed a phantom of a Native American has been seen wandering among the trees of the property.   

With the expansion of America towards the west, migrating settlers often infringed on the ancient lands of the natives that have been occupying those places for centuries. The natives lived, worked and died in those lands and the oral history that they shared with each other was the only record of the places where their ancestors where buried. It’s not surprising when these lost graves are disturbed, that those who were buried there become restless and demonstrate to the living their loathing of the careless infringement.   

Yawkey Mansion-Wausau, WI

Elegant, sophisticated, refined from all appearances. The hallmarks of a beautifully restored and maintained turn-of-the-century mansion. Dark, brooding, and haunted upon closer inspection.

Built in 1900 to 1901 in the Classical Revival style designed by the Milwaukee architects Henry Van Ryn and Gerrit de Gelleke, the Yawkey Mansion of Wausau, WI, features large columns and a pedimented portico, 16 rooms and 7 fireplaces. Stained glass windows illuminate the staircase. Eight years after the house was built owners Cyrus and his wife AliceYawkey hired George W. Maher to remodel the first floor and add a two- story addition with a sun porch to the east side of the house.
Originally from Michigan, the Yawkeys moved to northern Wisconsin in 1889 when Cyrus joined with his uncle and a business partner from the Yawkey and Lee Lumber Company. A town was founded by the venture and Alice Yawkey named it Hazelhurst due to the abundance of hazelnut trees in the area. Ten years later, in 1899, the Yawkeys moved to Wausau where Cyrus was the uncontested leader of the Wausau Group. The Wausau Group was composed of wealthy lumbermen who pooled their resources in hopes of improving Wausau's economy as the logging industry was dying in the area. After Cyrus’s death in 1943, Alice continued living in the house until her own death in 1953. Their only child, Leigh Yawkey Woodson, and her daughters presented the house to the Marathon County Historical Society in 1954.

Cyrus Yawkey is believed to continue walking the halls of his beloved mansion. Phantom footsteps can be heard in the upstairs hallway and descending the main staircase. Strange odors have been reported in an upstairs room along with the smell of pipe tobacco in the first floor staircase landing. Staff has reported the sound of a telephone ringing in a room that has no phone. A book of poetry has been known to be moved from one exhibit to another by unseen hands. The door alarm often sounds by itself. A member of the staff has heard Mr. Yawkey’s name being called. Alone in the museum at the time, the frightened staffer tried to exit through the basement door and found it to be held shut. Employees on a lunch break in the kitchen once witnessed a soda bottle cap move across a table before falling to the floor.