More haunted tales about Elgin
My grandma, Bea, and my great-grandmother, Valerie, were supposed to board the Eastland ship in Chicago in July 1915.
It was set to sail up the Chicago River to Michigan City. The Western Electric Co. was taking its employees and their families on a day cruise and picnic.
At the last minute, my great-grandma said she had an "instinct to not go." So they didn't.
Maybe she knew that the Eastland wasn't going to make it very far. According to accounts, too many people gathered on one side of the boat, and it began to tip. Within seconds, water began to fill the ship. Many managed to escape, but 835 perished in the river that day.
With an overwhelming number of bodies, volunteers made a makeshift morgue that was set up down the street at the 2nd Regiment Armory on West Washington Boulevard.
Harpo Studios, where Oprah Winfrey taped her daily talk show for years, was at that address. Supposedly, it's haunted by the spirits of those who were lost in the Eastland disaster. It is said that you can hear children laughing and tops spinning across the floor. Other reports include hearing sobbing and the marching footsteps of a large crowd. Doors slam shut without anyone being around them.
Although no ghosts have been seen on camera at Channing Elementary School, rumor has it that they haunt the east-side Elgin site.
In 1998, ground was broken for an addition to Channing. After that, 13 skeletons and several grave sites were found. The school's location? It was a former city cemetery, from which it was believed all the bodies had been moved to Bluff City Cemetery.
Most of the skeletons were estimated to be children ages 10 to 17. Supposedly, if you enter this building after dark, you can hear voices whispering in your ear, as well as screaming from the upper-floor doors that open and close by themselves.
Legend is that many night custodians have fled the building in the middle of their shift after being frightened, never to return.
Several Elgin residents have commented on Elginite.org, a blog for Elgin residents, about not only tales of Channing, but of other Elgin haunts.
A woman, Rebecca, said there is a big white house at Adams Street and State Street near the Elgin Mental Health Center where she used to live when she was 4 years old. She said a little blonde ghost is there along with a big man with a long coat and a beard.
"I still have nightmares," she wrote on the blog.
Another woman reported to have seen "a 19th- century soldier" recently in the woods of Jon Duerr Forest Preserve near South Elgin. Two soldiers of Gen. Winfield Scott's army, from the days of the Black Hawk War, are said to have been buried there.
Whether or not you believe in ghosts, some folks swear they're real. I'm one of those people.
As you're tricking-or-treating Saturday along the streets of Elgin, remember that there might be someone next to you that you just don't see.
