My Haunted House Life in Quincy Illinois

Before moving to Quincy, Illinois, my experiences with ghosts were limited to movies and TV. I’d never heard family or friends talk about dealing with ghosts (other than jokingly). But that all changed when I moved my family into a Quincy rental house built around 1890.

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Phase 1: Moving in – It was evident right away that something was off in the house. We only lived in half of the building, and I can’t speak about what may have occurred in the other half. The family members that helped us moved mentioned the heavy vibe in the house almost immediately. “Do you feel that?” was the first comment. It wasn’t long before the answer was "yes". After all of our stuff was in the house and everyone that helped had gone home, we spent the first few weeks just staying in the family room on the main floor. Upstairs was too intense. To go up there was just to get fresh clothes and shower (quickly). I should point out that when we moved in my wife was a practicing witch (true – no punchline). She gathered some sage, lit and “smudged” around the walls upstairs to help calm things down. Following this act, we pushed into the upstairs rooms to “share the space”.

Sage for Smudging

Phase 2: Acclimation – Almost immediately doors that were closed would be opened, lights that were off would be turned on and vice versa. That's when contact began with my oldest son. He told us of feeling his feet being touched and covers being moved during the night. We chalked it up as still being weirded out by an over active imagination from moving into a very old “new” place. Soon though we would all be living it.

Eventually we would all get "touched"

Phase 3: Life with ghosts – Working in morning radio, you have to wake up in the middle of the night. My alarm was set for 3:30 a.m. It wasn’t long before I became aware that I was receiving gentle morning touches when it was time to wake up. Taps on my palm, a caress on my arm or chest. I was only shoved awake once. I was sleeping on my stomach that night. This “wake up call” happened without fail every morning. My wife experienced identical “contact” to aid in waking up each day too, well after I had left the house to go to the station. Our boys continued to have lights and doors turned on/off and opened/closed. My youngest son had specific toys that would get played with. The toys would activate as if they were being manipulated by him, except nobody was holding the toys. One toy was played with regularly, and that continued until we moved out. As I was boxing up toys in his room, one (Bedtime Bubba) was being played with non-stop. I said out loud “Have fun with it now, because it’s going with us.” I boxed that toy up last. It has made no noise since we moved out. I did leave a little light up toy with buttons in the room to be played with.

This was the toy that was played with until the last day

Knowing: During our 7 and a half years at that house, I spent many a Halloween with paranormal teams investigating other haunted places in Quincy and Hannibal. Only one ever seemed anywhere near as haunted as where I lived and slept everyday (that place was/is Woodland Cemetery and Mausoleum). I never wanted the paranormal team to investigate where I lived because knowing too much about it might alter the co-existence situation we had developed. Would I like to know now? I don’t know. Maybe.

I was never comfortable inviting a paranormal team in while we lived there

My wife is no longer a witch. She has been baptized in Christ and is very devout. We’ve lived in our current home for almost 17 years. Nothing really odd happens in our current house. Although…full disclosure, I did get woken up with a single finger touch on my shoulder a couple weeks ago. Just the one time, and the touch was different, although still gentle. Hasn’t happened since, but I haven’t overslept either. I’m always awake before my alarm goes off.