This Illinois House Is Among The Most Haunted Places In The Nation
By Elizabeth Crozier|Published September 27, 2018
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Elizabeth Crozier
Author
An Illinois transplant who grew up and went to school in Indiana for 22 years, Elizabeth holds a BFA in creative writing and has enjoyed traveling across the country and parts of Europe. She has visited half of the states, as well as parts of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and regularly travels home to the Hoosier State to see friends and family. With more than five years of writing experience, Elizabeth’s articles have been featured on several websites, and her poetry and short stories have been published in multiple literary journals.
The story of Illinois’ most haunted house is both terrifying and sorrowful. Linked with a terrible period of America’s past, this tale of ghosts and greed is not well known, but it does figure heavily in the Underground Railroad movement, and not in a good way.
Though we are the Land of Lincoln, some bad apples have spoiled our state’s reputation of freedom and anti-slavery. Scroll on to learn about this dark part of our state’s eerie past.
Beginning in 1790 and lasting until the Emancipation Proclamation in the 1860s, the Underground Railroad was a system of roads, trails, and tunnels used by abolitionists and slaves who wanted to escape the south.
The diabolical practice of slavery lasted for hundreds of years in America, and it has left our country with some very wicked hauntings.
Around the same time as the anti-slavery movement, there was an increase in the demand for salt (to preserve food), and there happened to be a large reserve of it in Southern Illinois. Originally owned by the government, these salt reservations were sold off so that the state could afford to build more prisons.
John Hart Crenshaw bought thousands of acres of land and also owned a sawmill and three salt furnaces used for processing. A couple of saline springs along the Saline River made this southeast Illinois location ideal. The river was even connected to the house, which was used for what many believe were horrendous crimes.
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Crenshaw built his house, Hickory Hill (today known as The Old Slave House) in the 1830s. It was constructed in the classic Greek style with large columns, a balcony, and three stories. Though it looks charming on the outside, what may have gone on within its walls was absolutely insidious.
Though slavery was not technically legal in the Land of Lincoln at this time, Crenshaw was one of just a few residents of the state who was licensed to keep slaves. The justification was that the work was so difficult that not enough free white men were willing to do it.
Crenshaw obviously made a good deal of money since he didn't have to pay wages, but his greed didn't stop with the few slaves he was legally allowed. He was responsible for kidnapping black families on the Underground Railroad, who he then either sold back into slavery or kept as his own laborers.
It was these events that lead to the Crenshaw House becoming the most haunted house in Illinois and certainly one of the scariest in the nation. The attic of this place is divided into cells with barred windows, and there is evidence on the walls of the chains that were used to hold people captive.
No one knows what exactly took place behind these walls, but narratives depicting slavery in the Deep South can give some clues. Slaves were often beaten, raped, and treated like animals. Ungodly sounds have been reported coming from the attic from as far back as 1851, right after Crenshaw hired a German family to run the farm before selling it off in 1864.
It is believed that Crenshaw had upwards of 700 slaves before things finally started to go downhill for him. After being indicted for kidnapping a black woman in 1842, people started to become suspicious of his operations. This in combination with better salt reserves discovered in Virginia and Ohio caused his business operations to dwindle completely.
Some of the the rumors around Hickory Hill led to someone burning down one of Crenshaw's sawmills. There is also a rumor that Crenshaw had to terminate his business because he lost a leg. Legend says he was beating a black woman who was working in his fields when a black man hacked his leg off with an ax.
The Old Slave Home is located off Route 1 in the town of Equity, Illinois, which is in the tri-state area with Indiana and Kentucky. Over the years, this most haunted house has been open to visitors who have reported hearing cries, moans, and the rattling of chains. Some experience an overwhelming feeling of fear or sadness while others have felt cold chills and light touches. In 1996, the Crenshaw House was shut down to visitors and sold to the state a few years after that. Currently, the grounds are off-limits and trespassing is illegal, but as it’s still the most haunted house in the state, it could reopen to guests someday in the future.
If you’ve ever seen this most haunted house, we’d love to hear from you. Please share any stories you might have from when it used to be open to the public with us below in the comments.
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