Legends and Lore of Illinois Volume 2 Issue 1

A Short Message From the Author

Things are looking up in the world of the

Legends and Lore of Illinois. This is our thirteenth

issue―exactly one year ago we began the series with

Bachelor’s Grove and a group of frustrated and

uncertain paranormal investigators who have since

discovered what they were looking for… or so they

believe.

I hope you have enjoyed reading these as much

as I have enjoyed writing them. (Of course, going to the

places and taking pictures is half the fun.) I do this so

that those of you who don’t have the time, money, or

transportation can feel like you are part of the

experience. Until this publication, no public visual

record existed for many of these locations. Readers of

‘ghost books’ were forced to use their imaginations (not

always a bad thing).

Since I have received so many supportive e-

mails, I decided to add more content to these

newsletters. You’ll notice a new section for ghostly

games and an entire page devoted each month to

profiling a member of The Fallen, thanks to sketches by

the very talented Jayme Thurmond.

Don’t hesitate to e-mail me your questions or

comments. I’ll be more than happy to take them. g

Your Letters

My boyfriend sent me to your site. He also printed

out the story/article about the Lindbergh School House and

the farm down the road.

I want to thank you for writing about both places. I

lived on Berner Rd. (just down Shoe Factory--west of those

places) from 1983-1995. My parents continued to live there

until about 2003. My parents fought the developers that

eventually consumed the area. I even brought the info about

the Lindbergh School and the surrounding wetlands to their

attention.

Unfortunately, as we all know, they (and their group

of protesters) lost the battle, and they ended up moving. My

boyfriend and I both urban explore (and rural for that matter)

as well as investigate (just the two of us, bare bones) the

supernatural. We both love the site, and I really appreciated

this particular article. My family loved living in that area,

and to this day, we cannot drive past it without feeling

immense sadness. —Jeannie

Please e-mail your letters to: [email protected]

Contents From the Author 1 Your Letters 1 A Quick and Dirty Guide 2 The Fallen Investigate 3 Ghostly Games 6 Trivia 6 Character Profile 7 Personal Experiences 7

Trent Brandon’s Book of Ghosts (2003). According to

Brandon, the sobbing woman of Archer Woods

Cemetery is known as a “Broken Heart” because “the

feelings of guilt have become so overwhelming that this

ghost believes that it must suffer forever to make up for

her child’s fate.” (pg. 87)

What links Archer Woods Cemetery to the other

locations along Archer Avenue, besides the

predominance of ghostly women, is the appearance of a

terrifying black hearse pulled by a team of mad horses.

The vehicle has no driver. If you have read Legends and

Lore of Illinois Vol. 1 Issue 12, the connection to St.

James-Sag should be readily apparent.

In 1897 two musicians claimed to see a spectral

woman and a similar black carriage near the grounds of

St. James-Sag, which is located only a couple of miles

southwest of Archer Woods. Stranger still, local

legends have placed the body of Resurrection Mary

inside the hearse. They claim that the driverless

carriage is trying to transport her spirit into the

afterworld.

On the grounds of the cemetery there is a

strange looking monument called the “Garden of

Hymns.” It is a block of sandstone slabs with several

metal pipes jutting out from it, which were fashioned to

look like part of a pipe organ. Rumors say organ music

can be heard coming from the area on clear nights.

Whatever the truth to these stories, Archer

Woods Cemetery is a nice excursion for any folklore

enthusiast looking to get off the beaten track. g

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Archer Woods Cemetery

Archer Woods Cemetery sits near to Archer

Avenue and shares many similarities with the more

infamous Resurrection Cemetery. Both feature a tavern

across the street, and both host the ghost of a woman in

white. Some researchers believe this is no

accident―that the two locations are inexorably linked

in the beyond.

Ursula Bielski is one of the few credible

folklorists to have examined this site in detail. As she

pointed out in Chicago Haunts (1998), Archer Woods is

easily passed over in favor of the more famous haunts

that dot the area.

In the past, she assured her readers, Archer

Woods Cemetery was one of the most notorious of the

local cemeteries as a result of its resident specter, a

lonely, sobbing woman. Like the sobbing woman of

Bachelor’s Grove, it is likely that this spirit is in search

of a lost child or lover. These apparitions are so

common that they warranted their own category in

Snow covers the forbidding grounds of Archer Woods.

Archer cemetery has few crypts, but they are impressive.

The Fallen Investigation file 013

When we last left them, The Fallen had appeared

to unlock the gate that would allow them to travel on

the astral plane, but they were unaware of what awaited

them on the other side. Exhausted, cold, and hungry,

Mike, Greg, Aurelia, and Davin were violently

deposited in the woods across from an old cemetery.

The snow stung their cheeks and a dog barked angrily

in the distance.

“Ugh, I feel like I just ran through the Kama

Sutra with Rosie O’Donnell,” Davin groaned from his

position at the bottom of the pile of bodies.

“Thanks for the image,” Aurelia retorted, her left

leg stuck somewhere between Mike and Greg.

The four had fallen into a tangled mess at the

edge of a forest preserve parking lot in the middle of a

circle of wooden stakes that poked just above the snow.

Greg was the first to ask the obvious question.

“Where are we?”

Mike pealed himself off the frozen ground and

looked around. “I don’t know, but at least we’re still in

the same century,” he said, having noticed the parking

lot, paved road, and powerlines directly in front of

them.

Leaping to his feet, Greg dusted himself off and

retrieved his cane. “Let’s see if there’s a sign on that

cemetery gate,” he suggested.

Aurelia and Mike nodded in agreement and

started walking toward the road, but Davin hesitated.

“Did anyone notice where we landed?” he

asked, but none of his companions turned around.

As he approached the gate, it became evident to

Mike that the group was not far from where they had

entered the portal. “Crowley’s ass,” he cursed. “This is

Archer Cemetery. St. James is only a couple of miles

away from here.”

“Geez, we have to walk all the way back to the

car?” Greg complained.

“More importantly,” Mike added, “what

happened to that portal? And how long were we in it?

It was only seconds to us, but who knows how long

that was on earth.”

“As I was trying to tell you,” Davin interrupted,

“we seem to have fallen out inside some kind of circle

back there. Maybe that was an accident.”

“Or maybe not,” Aurelia said under her breath

as, for the first time, she noticed that they were not

alone.

Three figures dressed in black stood blocking

A red flower arrangement contrasts with the snow.

the entrance to the cemetery. Two were men and one a

woman, but all three sported long, black hair. They

were of varying sizes ranging from Ashley Olsen thin to

Kirstie Alley in her ‘fat actress’ stage, with one in

between. Their clothes hung loosely from their bodies

and pentagrams dangled from their necks. The largest

of the group repeatedly stroked his tangled goatee.

“Now who the hell are they?” Davin exclaimed.

“Who cares,” Greg replied.

“It looks like someone watched The Craft one too

many times,” Mike added as The Fallen cautiously

approached the interlopers. “Let me guess,” he yelled

from across the street, “you’re the ones who have been

leaving all those satanic markings everywhere.”

“Congratulations,” the thinnest of the trio, the

other male, bellowed. “You’re even dumber than your

reputation led us to believe. You led us right to the

portal and even got rid of its guardians, those pathetic

middle-aged churchies. How could you have been so

blind?”

“Well, the shoddy work and Hollywood nature

of your magic rituals made me think you were a group

of pathetic losers trying to blow off some steam,” Mike

retorted. “I see that I wasn’t too far off.”

The man stopped stroking his goatee and

frowned. “Tell us how you opened the portal,” he

demanded.

“Make us!” Aurelia retorted before anyone else

could respond. Without a second thought, she bolted

across the street and headed directly toward the three.

Mike and Greg exchanged quick glances and ran after

her.

The man with the goatee didn’t move, but the

smirk on his face vanished when, without hesitation,

Aurelia grabbed his Adam’s apple in one hand and

kicked him in the left shin with one of her steel toed,

platform boots.

“Jesus,” his male companion swore and began to

back away while the man with the goatee turned blue

and began to cough violently.

Mike and Greg quickly arrived. Greg took out

the other male by striking him behind the knee with his

cane. The young man cried out in pain as his entropied

tendons buckled and he sunk to the ground. Their

female companion turned and ran into the cemetery.

The Fallen ignored the two men and ran after

the girl, who was having a difficult time on the slippery

path. She made it about ten yards before collapsing

into the snow. Aurelia, Mike, Greg, and Davin quickly

surrounded her.

She feebly kicked and flayed into the air with

her limbs.

“Hold her down,” Mike commanded, and Greg

and Davin all to eagerly complied. “Where are those

other two?”

“It looks like they’re running away,” Aurelia

reported as her wolfish eyes scanned the horizon.

“Did you hear that?” Mike said. “Your friends

left you here. Now stop struggling. We won’t hurt

The Garden of Hymns monument.

The forest preserve across the road hides many things.

you, you have my word.”

“It doesn’t surprise me they left,” the girl said

bitterly as she stopped squirming. “Assholes!”

“What’s your name?” Davin asked.

Before the girl could answer, Greg noticed scars

on her wrists when he let them go. “Hey look,” he said.

“You two have something in common.”

“Cute,” Davin shot back.

“Let her talk,” Aurelia aggressively interjected.

She shoved Greg off balance and he fell over with a cry

of surprise.

“My name is Emily,” the girl said, quickly

pulling her sleeves down to cover her wrists. She

dragged herself to her feet as everyone else stood up as

well. Her face, aside from some redness from either the

cold or from embarrassment, was as white as the snow

that blanketed the cemetery grounds.

“So what’s the deal?” Mike demanded. “As if

we don’t have enough problems with the P.C.P.R.S. and

those Christian fanatics, now we have to have you

people shadowing us and trying to curse us and steal

our research?”

“They thought they could use the gate to bring

Satan into this world,” Emily coughed.

“Yeah well, we don’t even know what that thing

does, or if we’re going to be able to open it again,” Mike

explained. “We were in the process of figuring that out

when you… interrupted us.”

“I’m sorry,” the young woman said. “I thought

it was a joke. I mean―I didn’t think it was real until we

saw you guys go through it. I couldn’t believe it.

That’s when I knew what we were doing was terribly

wrong.”

“You got that right,” Greg interrupted. “You

guys couldn’t pour pee out of a boot with instructions

written under the heel.”

Davin rolled his eyes. “They did a pretty good

job of ejecting us from that portal, remember?”

“Beginner’s luck,” Mike retorted.

“Anyway, screw them,” Emily said bitterly. “If

they want to leave me here that’s fine. I’ll just walk

home.” She hesitated. “I mean, can I get a ride?”

Greg smirked, but held his tongue.

“No,” Mike replied while throwing Greg a look

of disapproval. “But only because we’re stuck here too.

Our car is still at St. James-Sag.”

“Oh, right,” Emily said sheepishly. “About

that… We kind of trashed your car before we came

over here. You know it’s been almost a week. It’s 2008

now.”

“What, we missed New Years?” Greg blurted.

Mike’s face turned crimson. “You did what?” he

shouted.

“Relax,” Aurelia said. “You promised we

wouldn’t hurt her, remember?”

Fists tightly clenched, Mike turned around and

began to trudge out of the cemetery. His companions

heard him angrily mutter to himself all the way to the

main gates.

“I guess this means your one of us now,” Davin

muttered to their new companion. “For now.” g

Another picturesque view of Archer Woods.

The Neitzel crypt.

Ghostly Games

This section is designed to put fun back into the craft

of “ghost investigation.” Most of these ideas will have

nothing to do with poking around with instruments or

thinking you’ve detected a ghost when you’re really just

standing under a powerline.

Game #1: A Fallen Party

When The Fallen aren’t out getting lost or

stumbling upon ancient magical… stuff, they like to get

together, eat pizza, drink soda (or whatever), and watch

horror movies. You too can recreate that experience

using these simple instructions.

Ingredients

2-3 friends.

2 Large pepperoni pizzas.

Ginger Ale, Dr. Pepper, or other sodas are acceptable.

Ginger Snaps or Ginger Snaps Unleashed.

A TV and a DVD player.

Instructions

Rent or purchase Ginger Snaps or Ginger Snaps

Unleashed. Call your friends and tell them to come over.

Then make sure the DVD is attached to the TV. Order

the pizza or pick it up before your friends arrive. Offer

them drinks as they walk in the door, but don’t be

pushy. Insert the movie into the DVD player after the

usual small talk. Watch, and enjoy. Total time: around

3 hours.

Trivia

Tough questions will be asked in this section. It is up to

you to uncover the clues and determine the solutions.

Sometimes you will find the answers buried in the current

issue; other times you will need to go to the location itself.

The answers to this month’s questions will be posted in next

month’s issue.

1. In what southwest suburban town is Archer

Woods Cemetery located?

2. What is the name of the neighboring forest

preserve?

3. What is buried at the nearby intersection of 95th

Street and Kean Avenue?

4. What is the name of the tavern located across

the street from Archer Woods?

5. At what nearby lake do passersby sometimes

see floating balls of light?

6. How many different “ghostly women” have

appeared in the folklore of Chicago’s southwest

side?

Go out and explore, and good luck!

Answers to last month’s questions:

1. 1850 2. The Spiritual Spector 3. Lemont 4. A Ley Line

5. William Looney and John Kelly 6. Monk’s Castle

A view of Archer Woods Cemetery in the summertime,

courtesy of The Fallen Archive.

A view of the nearby woods in the summertime.

True! Amazing! Unbelievable! Personal Experiences

I had a very interesting encounter in the forest

preserve on the other side of Archer Cemetery.

I was out walking my dog one day in the early

fall. It was still pretty warm outside, but the bugs had

disappeared. At any rate, he was doing his business

next to a tree when I saw something moving in the

woods about ten, fifteen yards away.

My dog didn’t seem to notice anything at first,

but when I tried to bring him over there to check it out

he started whining and scratching the ground. That’s

when my hair stood on end and I decided that it would

be better if we just went home. I never did figure out

what it could have been.

James, 26, Lemont

I probably shouldn’t be telling you this story,

but what the heck. Me and three of my friends decided

to sneak into Archer Cemetery at night a couple of

summers ago. We were drunk, of course, that’s

probably why we got the idea.

Anywho, we climbed the fence over by that

monument that looks like a pipe organ and sat down

beside it. I don’t know if it was the 40-ounce Cobra that

was talking, but I swear to God we heard an organ start

to play. We all heard it. It sounded kind of distant, like

from another world…

Keish, 20, Evergreen Park

Aurelia and Mike have known each other since their

days in elementary school. Unfortunately, Aurelia, or Aura

for short, never got along well with her classmates and was

shipped to a reform school. Aurelia and Mike did not see

each other again until they unexpectedly ran into each other

at St. Sebastian’s College in Maine nearly ten years later.

Discarding the tired warnings of more conventional

Wiccans, Aurelia chose to study both the white and the black

arts. However, nine times out of ten, she prefers to rely on her

fists rather than a spell to get even. She can also sense the

presence of ghosts, spirits, and assholes.

She has been on nearly all of The Fallen’s missions

since she joined the group and is generally known as the

navigator. Whenever Mike gets the group lost, Aurelia

usually leads them to their destination. g

Age: 23

Height: 5’3”

Weight: 130 lbs

Eyes: Green

Hair: Brunette

Attributes

Strength: 06

Perception: 04

Endurance: 08

Charisma: 04

Intelligence: 05

Agility: 07

Luck: 06

Skills

Pugilism 45%

Sneak 24%

Lockpick 38%

Theft 60%

Traps 25%

Repair 40%

Speech 20%

Survival 25%

Intimidation 56%

Navigation 30%

Streetwise 36%

Swimming 55%

Magic 62%

Telepathy 45%

Sarcasm 55%

The Fallen Character Profile:

Aurelia

Legends and Lore of Illinois Volume 2 Issue 1

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Transcript of Legends and Lore of Illinois Volume 2 Issue 1