Haunted Bachelors Grove

By Ursula Bielski

A terrifying exploration of “the most historic haunted cemetery in the Chicagoland area, and most likely one of the most known in the world” (Chicago Now)!
 
Slumbering beneath a shroud of deep forest and deliberate secrecy, Bachelors Grove Cemetery still exerts a powerful pull on paranormal pilgrims and curiosity-seekers around the world. Shielding the orphaned burial ground from ritual and idle vandalism has also buried the rich history of this magical place. Still, its eerie presence has dominated the folklore of the southwest side of Chicago for every generation since 1838. Brave the woods with Ursula Bielski to unearth decades of mysteries and myriad ghost stories, from the Magic House to the Madonna of Bachelors Grove.
 
Includes photos!
 
“Historian and paranormal investigator Ursula Bielski says Bachelors Grove, a cemetery located on the edge of Rubio Woods in Midlothian, is among the most haunted places in the world. Her book . . . is the culmination of years of research at the site.” —Chicago Tribune
 
“Bielski ascribes the site’s high level of activity to ‘an ancient force, something malevolent,’ as well as a spate of occult activity in the ’60s and ’70s that may have involved unsettling practices like animal sacrifice and grave desecration.” —Time Out Chicago

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781439658239

Ursula Bielski

Ursula Bielski is the founder of Chicago Hauntings, Inc. A historian, author, and parapsychology enthusiast, she has been writing and lecturing about Chicago's supernatural folklore and the paranormal for nearly 20 years, and is recognized as a leading authority on the Chicago region's ghostlore and cemetery history. She is the author of six popular and critically acclaimed books on the same subjects, which have sold in excess of 100,000 copies. Ursula has been featured in numerous television documentaries, including productions by the A&E Network, History Channel, Learning Channel, Travel Channel, and PBS.

Book preview

PART I

THE STORY OF BACHELORS GROVE

Remains of the homes of the Schmidt family—the last family to own the Bachelors Grove Cemetery land—may still be found off the old turnpike road in a reforested area. The Schmidt family is seen here circa 1915, about a decade before the Forest Preserve District purchased their land. The Schmidt family.

1

SETTLEMENT

Cook County, Illinois—which includes the city of Chicago—is home to more than sixty-nine thousand acres of natural and reforested preserve area, the largest forest preserve district in the United States. Hidden in many of these woods of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County are the sometimes plentiful remnants of settlements dating to various periods of history and prehistory, including those left behind during the westward expansion of the nineteenth century. Often, hikers will be surprised by the discovery of house foundations, cisterns and wells, silos and attendant housewares (broken dishes and glassware, furniture, crockery, shingles, tiles and other items) scattered among the flora.

These mysterious reminders of lost lives are truly haunting realities at these hushed enclaves—mute souvenirs of an earlier version of the now-towering city and surroundings. They are almost a funny reminder of the single men and families who were so full of gumption in the most robust period of our heritage; their homesteads today look like trashed hotel rooms, the tenants having gone on to the next party. These were the first settlers of the American West—fearless, bold, far-thinking, at a time when the American frontier meant thirty to eighty miles or so west of Chicago. Of all the preserves in Cook County, however, one vanished settlement has always held more than its share of intrigue. Part of today’s Tinley Creek Division of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the preserve area called Rubio Woods comprises acres and acres of beautiful trails, expansive fields, diverse and beautiful wildlife…and Everden Woods, home of Bachelors Grove Cemetery.

This book is about the one-acre settlers’ cemetery called Bachelors Grove and the reforested area of now-public land immediately surrounding it. It’s a tiny piece of the world today, but Bachelors Grove originally referred to a large parcel of land that included not only the immediate settlement area but also large parts of the area today known as Bremen Township: Tinley Park, Oak Forest, Midlothian, Crestwood and other areas, as well as settlement areas of other townships. Early settlement areas were known by their timber stands—their groves—since harvesting timber was the way the very earliest settlers were able to survive. Farming came later. And so these groves became beacons to prospective settlers, who believed they were made for them, knowing they had a better chance around these natural resources. Part of the original stand of timber at Bachelors Grove is supposed to still exist in Bachelors Grove Woods, a preserve that stands a short walk from the cemetery.

Few of the very first settlers of Bachelors Grove are buried at Bachelors Grove Cemetery; rather, most of that first wave were not really settlers at all, but squatters, who were here a year or two before the first public land sales even happened. Though they did make some of these earliest land purchases, in 1835, most went on to Blue Island, Tinley Park or Joliet or to points farther west: Iowa, Nebraska, even California. These first men and few families came in the early 1830s, mostly through the settlement at Chicago via the Vincennes Trace.

The Vincennes Trace was a major track running through what are now the American states of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Originally formed by millions of migrating bison, the trace crossed the Ohio River near the Falls of the Ohio and continued northwest to the Wabash River, near today’s Vincennes, Indiana, before it passed into what became known as Illinois. This buffalo migration route, often twelve to twenty feet wide in places, was well known and used by Native Americans as a major travel route. European traders and American settlers learned of it, and many used it as an early highway to travel into Indiana and Illinois. It is considered the most important of the traces to the Illinois country and, eventually, the larger West.

Myriad impulses drove Americans west in the earliest days: economic hardship in New England and various European points of origin, the desire for land and farming opportunities, overcrowding on the eastern seaboard and, overwhelmingly, the simple desire to move. The tendency of Americans to move, and to move westward in particular, has been studied by some of the greatest social scientists of the last two centuries. But major issues at first held the travelers back: uncertainty about the terrain and prospects was one; the Native American presence was another. While trappers, traders and rogue explorers took on the West in the earliest days—greatly inspired by the expedition of Lewis and Clark under President Thomas Jefferson’s administration—most Americans were more timid. The War of 1812 had brought chilling tales of brutal massacres of settlers and soldiers by Native Americans, such as at Fort Dearborn, the future site of Chicago. Many reached the more open lands in Kentucky and Ohio, just beyond the eastern cities, and put down roots there, content with a bit of farmland and a chance to improve their families and futures. Those who ventured farther were rewarded with unrest and, sometimes,