211 South Bench Street
(#25 Bench Street Tour)
Courtesy of the Galena-Jo Daviess County Historical Society; Ghosts of Galena book available at the Museum gift shop.
Located at 211 South Bench Street is the Barrows House. The mansion was constructed by Daniel Barrows in 1858 shortly after fire had leveled his previous home on the same site. Barrows was a mover and shaker in Galena. He owned a distillery, a confectionery store and later, a lumberyard. When hard times came after the Civil War, he lost heavily (as did many who stayed in Galena). His wife died and later the creditors came. He had to give up his mansion.
The home remained as a residence until 1922 when the Odd Fellows Lodge purchased it. They removed a rear wing of the house and built a large two-story hall in its place. It served their purposes and that of the community until the Depression came. Forced to sell, they gave up the property to the City of Galena in 1938. City Hall moved into the front two rooms of the first floor. A newly created museum association took over the remaining space through a 99 year lease agreement. The City moved out in 1967 leaving the entire property for use by the historic society.
Our first inkling that something was going on came in the spring of 1989. It was then that we heard strange footsteps. Almost as a joke, we decided to start a file in the computer. Every time something happened, we entered an account of the activity. Following, then, are the entries made by two of us:
January, 1989 (Doug)— it was a quiet morning during the off-season and Gayle and I were at our respective desks in the second-floor office. No one else was in the building, or so we thought. . . Suddenly, we both heard what sounded like a bumping or shuffling noise going down the steps. I thought it sounded like someone quickly shuffling down the stairway. The sound continued for 2 to 3 seconds, so it was not the building creaking or settling with the colder weather.
“Did you hear that?” I immediately asked Gayle.
“Yes.”
“ Is there anyone in the building?”
“ I don’t think so.”
With this, I immediately opened my office door, jumped out into the hallway and looked down the stairway. Nothing. Then began a 20 minute search in which both Gayle and I scoured the building top to bottom to ascertain a likely explanation for the sound. None was found—even though we checked for birds, rodents, falling plaster in the walls, a settling building-- or even a practical joke! There was, quite simply, no logical explanation.
(It was at this time that Gayle entered an experience of hers that had happened the year before.)
April, 1988 (Gayle)— Following the opening reception of our new Pioneer Exhibit, I was closing up the museum and walked through the door into the large hall where it was now pitch black. As I slowly walked toward the steps, I passed an old upright piano. Just as I walked past, a chord played on the piano. Having no desire to investigate, I raced out of the building and on home. (I did, of course, remember to lock up and set the alarm system!)
January 9, 1990 (Doug)— I had returned briefly to the museum after closing to retrieve some papers in my second-floor office. Upon leaving the office and starting down the stairs, I distinctly heard a thumping sort of noise begin at the top of the stairs and descend with me. The sound was almost like someone shuffling down the steps. It seemed to have started in the hallway at the top of the steps, but descended with me- it was almost like it passed through me-- and then moved laterally out into the hallway!
I stopped 2/3 of the way down the steps and looked back along the lower hallway. The light was dim, but absolutely no one, or no thing, was visible. Upon reaching the foot of the steps, a second, and more sinister sound was heard. . . that of a hard soled shoe sliding across the tile floor. This sound is very distinctive and came from the area of the drinking fountain underneath the stairway. I heard it not once, but several times in succession. Each time it was as if someone were sweeping, or dragging their sole across that section of floor. I reached over and turned the hall light on and then swiftly walked back to the drinking fountain area. I was sure someone was playing a trick on me. But there was no one. . . nothing at all. All was quiet.
March 28, 1990 (Gayle)— I was closing up the museum and was about to lock the door when I heard shuffling footsteps in the hall. The sounds were unmistakable, yet no one else was in the building!
April 6, 1990 (Gayle)— I was in the building taking care of a couple of things after hours. Not wanting to be spooked, I had brought my husband and son along. I was in the washroom area with my son when I heard what sounded like a piece of furniture being moved upstairs in the large hall. My husband was up there and I thought it was him. When I went upstairs, however, and asked him if he had moved something. He said, ”No.” He hadn’t touched a thing.
July 16, 1990 (Gayle)— Doug and I were talking in my office when suddenly I noticed the chandelier in the adjacent office swing to and fro. It was the first time that either of us had ever noticed it moving. Doug thought it was the fan from the air conditioner, but the chandelier continued to sway intermittently, ever so slightly, even after the unit was turned off.
September 10, 1990 (Doug)— it was 6:08 PM and I was the only one in the building, waiting for the monthly board meeting to begin at 7:00 PM. While fiddling with the radio to catch some news, I became aware of sounds downstairs. It sounded like someone was down there walking around in the hallway. With the radio turned off, I listened intently. I could also make out some light, indistinctive tapping or knocking noises. And then the stairs creaked—just like someone was coming up to the office! But then it stopped and there was nothing more. Whoever, or whatever, was gone.
September 18, 1990 (Doug)— I was working late in the upstairs office when a squeak from a floorboard out in the hallway caught my attention. The only time those boards ever squeak is when someone walks on them. I then heard footsteps- -move along the hallway until they were just outside the door to my office. I thought surely that someone was still in the building and was coming to the office.
I looked over at the door knob, fully expecting it to turn and the door to open. But nothing happened. Growing impatient- -or anxious- - I grabbed the knob and opened the door, fully expecting to greet someone. But I was wrong, for there was no one and all was quiet.
January, 1991 (Doug)— after Gayle left for a new job in November of 1990, the museum seemed to quiet down. In fact, the staff specifically noted the absence of ghostly happenings. There was some speculation that Gayle had taken the hapless ghost with her, but then came the night of our “mini-taste of Galena”. It was the project of a local dining and lodging establishment and was to be a reception for VIPs holding a convention. Little did their servers know what was in store for them at the museum.
It started when one of the waitresses serving champagne to the arriving guests suddenly and unexplainably dropped her entire tray, sending the bubbly liquid all over the floor. Little attention was paid, however, at the mess was quickly cleaned up. But it wasn’t more than 10 minutes later when the second server suddenly noticed the full glasses on her tray begin to tremble. Before she could steady things, the glasses and tray tumbled to the floor.
At this point, the person in charge admonished her servers to be much more careful. This was all the more embarrassing because these workers were all seasoned veterans of events such as this and had served drinks in this manner many times.
It was at this point that I (after having surveyed the damage) was standing in the gift shop when a tray with 8 -10 champagne glasses- - sitting alone on the gift shop counter- - caught my attention. This was the preparation counter where glasses and trays were made ready for the next serving. But with no one near, the plastic glasses began to shake. Before anyone could rush over to prevent loss, more than half toppled from the tray onto the counter. The servers were once again admonished in the sternest terms to be careful-- there was yet one more group of VPs to come. For this, three waitresses with full trays were lined up along the hallway awaiting their arrival. I was the fourth in line, waiting to present a slide show.
Suddenly, without a bit of warning, the glasses on the tray being held by the girl next to me began to shake. She quickly took hold of the tray with both hands, but the glasses began to topple, despite the tray by this time being held rocksteady. Under her breath I heard her say, “Oh, sh—! I don’t believe this!” Once again, over half of a tray’s drinks ended up on the floor. Since I was standing immediately next to her, I was able to see and hear everything. “How could this have happened again?” I wondered. We were all incredulous.
Afterwords, when we were putting everything away, the coordinator in charge told me that she had never before had so many embarrassing mishaps. Some blamed it on the plastic champagne glasses which were light and spindly, but others of us wondered. We joked that it was the ghost of first resident Daniel Barrows, who was the owner of a distillery, no doubt preferred spirits of another kind.
December, 1991 (Doug)— Once again, some of us were musing about the absence of our ghost, last experienced during the champagne episode. Imagine our surprise, however, when our part-time employee for the summer, Donna, told us that she had heard our “friend” on more than one occasion.
Its presence had taken the form of footsteps and knocking on the wall. The last time, not more than a week ago, occurred as she was closing up and was counting the money at the gift shop counter. She was surprised to hear footsteps that seemed to be upstairs, like someone coming down from the big exhibit hall. They seemed to continue along the upstairs hallway, terminating with a sliding shoe sound, as if someone were sliding the sole of their shoe across the gritty floor.
That was the second time that Donna had heard this distinctive sound. Having worked at the museum all summer, Donna was very familiar with the normal sounds associated with the building, including the pigeons. She had never heard our previous ghost stories, however, and volunteered her experiences only after we joked about our mysterious footsteps. For us the mystery remains.
We’ve heard nothing more from our museum “ghost” since 1991. we did, however, discover that he is been around a while. Staff at the museum years ago recalled gift shop merchandise being tampered with. They said he especially liked their licorice. And there was the woman visitor who asked who the strangely dressed man in the slide room was. When asked minutes later to point him out, he was gone, yet no one had left the building.
But the real treat came when we were told of a City Council meeting being conducted by Mayor Logan over 40 years ago when the building was still City Hall. Only a few were attending when suddenly a terrible commotion was heard in the upstairs hallway. With no one else in the building they all looked at each other and then rushed up the stairs to see what mischief was a foot. Just like our experience years later, they were greeted with silence. Everything was in order. There was no one to be found.
“Given our experiences at the museum, we determined to search through early Galena newspapers to see if there were any ghostly tales from days gone by. Indeed there were!”
(Some of these stories can be found throughout the Ghost Legends section on this app.)