(#74 Main Street Tour)
Located at 123 North Commerce St. is the Market House, built in 1845. The cost of the building was $3,104, and it was first owned by the City of Galena.
The Market House was open from the first day of April until the first day of October, Mondays through Saturdays.
The upper floor had small office rooms for the Survey and Market Master, and a large spacious room which was occupied by the City Council Chambers. The Meeting Hall accommodated a wide variety of public meetings, and the Auditorium was a forerunner of the modern community center.
The lower level, or market room floor, ran the entire length of the building. It was divided into 12 produce market stalls. Typically, the farmers’ wives would park their wagons in front of the Market House, and from their stalls they would sell fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, meats, and other homemade goods.
It was a lively place as women did their shopping, and the men stood around discussing politics, the price of lead, and the Mexican War which had just begun.
The Market House also had a basement with two jail cells called the “Calaboose.” This is where our ghost story comes to play. The calaboose was described as a miserable hole into which human beings were put: a low, damp, dreary underground room beneath the Market House. The cellar window had iron bars and prisoners would try to reach through them to catch girls’ legs if they happened to be walking too close.
The calaboose was infested with the largest species of wharf rats, and prisoners often complained that they would be awake all night fighting them off!
While researching the Market House, I came across a sensational story about a farm woman around 40 years old by the name of Mary Anne Miller. Mary Anne liked to slip into town when her husband Jack was away to enjoy the local taverns. A newspaper article told of how she came into town with a man calling himself her husband. She was first seen on Spring Street, drunk and creating a disturbance. She was arrested by Watchman Simmons and put into the calaboose. Due to flooding issues, she, along with other prisoners, was discharged. A few days later she was once again creating a disturbance in the streets and was arrested a second time by the Watchman. This time she was placed in the county jail. Monday morning she was released, with her promise that she would leave the city immediately. But instead of leaving the city, she went to a local tavern where she proceeded to get drunk and disorderly. At 10 o’clock that night she was arrested again! The warden at the county jail declined to receive her, so she was taken back to the calaboose. It was a rainy night, and muddy water was pouring into the dark and dreary basement. A couple of male inmates demanded to be moved to drier quarters. However, Mary Anne, drunk, belligerent, and stubborn, refused to go with them and instead insisted on remaining in the cellar. The jailers attempted to build her a platform on the stairway which she could sleep on, and the key was left with the Market Master with directions if her husband came, to allow him into the prison to take her home. Later in the evening the officer visited her and found her quiet and apparently rational. Unfortunately, even later in the evening, in her inebriated condition, she fell off the platform and drowned in 20 inches of water!
Ever since, it is said that her spirit continues to reside within the cellar’s walls, and her spirit has been reported wandering the cemetery looking for her gravesite!
