Bureacratic Forces (or Paranormal Forces?)

The Bachelor's Grove Cemetery lies abandoned, disowned by government, abused by teenagers, protected by a meager staff of volunteers who struggle for any resources to support their mission

 The homesteads and town-site that comprised Bachelor's Grove, IL are lost save a few hints left for the seeking eye. The Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, however, is still a cursed plot of land that is under county ownership and cannot be missed if one travels the old Midlothian Turnpike out of the city of Chicago into southwestern Cook County. It is excised from the surrounding county park though un-acknowledged on current maps.

The Old Midlothian Turnpike, south of 143rd, is now a walking path only.

 The 'Everdon Burying Ground' as described in the earliest deeds to the land that Mr. Everdon passed to the Schmitt's (Smith's). These mention the plot on the SE quadrant of the parcel, but no state registration was ever received for the cemetery by the state board chartered to receive such forms, wrapped around the requisite check for their troubles. The surrounding area had been settled by German immigrants in the early 1800s and a nearby townsite was forming under the Bachelor's Grove banner, though history has melted clarity around how the name was derived. As progress marched on, train tracks were laid north and south of Bachelor's Grove. A power hungry county board under the guise of Manifest Destiny began to reclaim UN-perfected homesteads, and surely though slowly, the land was absorbed by the muck of Cook County interdepartmental politics.



With it's county seat in Chicago, a city most renown for it's criminal organizations and complementary politicians, it should not surprise that I suggest the Cook County government is as accomplished and renown at that next tier of the municipal leadership trough. As the county acquired the private land surrounding the cemetery, an astute underling in my best guess, identified the inconsistent legal recording of the cemetery. Nullifying it's existence as such a property, on paper at least. official heads turned elsewhere, put off by the liability that comes from 72 un-registered graves in the state. Not erasing the land-use entirely, only leaving to a, seeming, perpetual limbo.

Legacy family monuments to match their achievement, though a Fulton family member continued to care for the site into his 80s, the cemetery now relies on compassionate strangers for upkeep

 After the turnpike was closed through this area, the cemetery took on a second life as a weekend hang-out for partying teens, and legend says the pond between the cemetery and 143rd St was the final destination for enemies the Outfit sent to 'sleep with the fishes.' Defacement and vandalism quickly took it's toll on the untended graveyard.

Tombstones have been knocked over and moved about the grounds by mischievous beings, or possibly malevolent spirits, depending on the source you consult.

Though rumors abound of paranormal activity, the site is more likely a victim of vandals and bored teens seeking a reprieve from the rules imposed upon them in the world. This seclusion was sought by other elements, elements that drew bad press coverage of repeated desecrations, attempted exhumations, haunted unscheduled gate shenanigans, and the final stand of a mentally anguished local man.

 Many of the remaining stones exhibit proud, deep cuts carved by stonemasons a century or more gone by.

The Patrick headstone sat near the gate, historical photos show repeated desecration's ensued.

 Many stones lie broken apart and scattered about. These couldn't be tied to the plots without a map of the cemetery, which turned out to be available from the Tinley Park Historical Society. Their newsletter 'Where the Trails Cross' Vol_26_No_1_Fall_1995, focuses on the history of this site.  There's also a map with rudimentary drawings denoting unmarked tombstones by shape and reconciling them to original plots, as available.

Overgrown and abused, grave markers repeatedly repositioned by beings, or spirits, show mars of physical handling.

As the site lay unacknowledged by officials, it was open to wanton destruction and desecration dating back through the 1960s. Rumors of lights in the woods, and distraught but transparent mothers abounded. Others enticed desecration, such as the rumor of an entombed widow who took the family fortune with her manages to incite an "attempted grave robbing every other year," I'm told by an interested party. One of the volunteer stewards, who lives within sight of the access path and makes it his business to identify threats to the grounds, while his name is withheld; his reputation as the 'Ghost of the Grove' preceded him as I'd researched the trip.

Corn left in ceremony feeds an array of birds in the surrounding forest preserve, 

 He'd found Jezebel sitting at the end of the remote shutter release, breathlessly awaiting the return of a cardinal we'd seen 'processing' this offering of corn. She endeared us to him with the honest explanation, he'd become jaded at so many seeking that "paranormal" shot that he'd been speechless for a brief moment. As we demonstrated a basic knowledge of, and deeper interest in, the history of the entire area his animation returned with aplomb.

William Hamilton Noble's personal marker near the fence in SE corner

As documented in the entry 'If That Train Had Come' here on American Ruins, the townsite and homesteads surrounding the cemetery were absorbed into county forest preserves, green space buffering the sprawling suburbs from the stench of the city.

The irony of this obvious cemetery not acknowledged as such by some snafu in the paperwork at origin is disgusting and laughable. With the date of the first burial and that of the first official burial different in various accounts, this site may pre-date statehood.

The lawlessness designation bestowed this plot of ground, as I see it, contributed greatly to, if not formed the origin of, the haunted reputation of these woods.

In the dark the inscription barely legible. The Noble family plot is across the cemetery

Dating back to a time with high infant mortality rates, this stone on a family plot

Though my first visit was on the way back from a shoot in Manteno, a former state asylum*, a place that evoked the most disturbing feelings I've encountered in a lifetime seeking out abandoned and haunted and ghost towns. With that bar, being out in the woods, amongst the stars on a clear and mild November evening; Bachelor's Grove seemed a safe hamlet in the woods. On return trips, I continue to find a peacefulness here.

The bulk of the paranormal reputation seems to stem from the jocularity of teens repositioning grave stones or the rage damaging and defacing them, or from a picture captured by the SW Suburban paranormal research group, Ghost Research Society, the group that captured the image on the right below, purporting it captured a transparent woman that came to be the Madonna in the Grove.

This photo property of bachelors-grove.com, citation below**,

Statement of Use: These materials are included under the fair use exemption and are

                   restricted from further use.

Scholars have debunked this evidence, largely per shadows the legs cast onto the checkerboard stone.

Jezebel's photo of the infamous checkerboard stone captured orbs, as it started to rain

Sneaking in this night we were able to stay below the radar of the Grove Ghost, but were aghast at this image when the processing completed

Jezebel was certain we'd caught something here, it broke my heart to admit the garrulous-gear-sherpa had been, ah, less than disciplined with his flashlight, shall we say. Though it's fun, it's clearly the LED from a mini mag-light sweeping out of frame as the shutter opened. :)

The Hageman family features prominently in the history of the area. Their stately monument lies disassembled and scattered

While Pirelli is skeptical, I'm open to the energies around us. The wasted ruination of the Bachelor's Grove cemetery certainly lends itself to thoughts of disturbed spirits left to defend the resting place for themselves. The excitement and expectations along the initial approach were softened within the grounds. A quiet peace on a moonless night left me to conclude the spirits are imaginary, or they are ok with me. I'm good either way.

The town doctor had come from the Quad Cities upon marrying into the Hulett family, and featured prominently in researching the site. Dr. McKee's headstone sits beside his wife's. Extracted from the ground and arranged at the base of this tree. I took a rubbing, worried they are being staged for a future heist and may prove unavailable next time.

Further reading factual history and such is available at bachelorsgrove.com, and more on the extraordinary history can be sourced at the Ghost Research Society.

* Manteno State Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in downstate Illinois from 1929-1985 and was never christened an "asylum," only my euphemism for the Georgian-Revival, Cottage style facility operating as Manteno Mental Health Center when it closed in 1985.

**Photo Citation;
 Model: Unknown, Bachelor's Grove Paranormal Forums, 2007-2011, http://www.bachelors-grove.com/BG_woman.jpg, 01/25/13, http://www.bachelors-grove.com

Description; The Madonna of Bachelor's Grove - This photo was taken during an investigation of Bachelor's Grove cemetery near Chicago by the Ghost Research Society (GRS). On August 10, 1991, several members of of the GRS were at the cemetery, a small, abandoned graveyard on the edge of the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve, near the suburb of Midlothian, Illinois. Reputed to be one of the most haunted cemeteries in the U.S., Bachelor's Grove has been the site of well over 100 different reports of strange phenomena, including apparitions, unexplained sights and sounds, and even glowing balls of light.

GRS member Mari Huff was taking black and white photos with a high-speed infrared camera in an area where the group had experienced some anomalies with their ghost-hunting equipment. The cemetery was empty, except for the GRS members. When developed, this image emerged: what looks like a lonely-looking young woman dressed in white sitting on a tombstone. Parts of her body are partially transparent and the style of the dress seems to be out of date.

Statement of Use: These materials are included under the fair use exemption and are restricted from further use.