Historic Churches and Ghost Stories

by

Special to United Methodist Insight

It was a perfect October Day. The bright red and gold colors were popping on the tree covered hills of southwest Wisconsin as my wife Jo and I joined in a bus tour of historic United Methodist Churches. Lunch at the famous Walker House Hotel in Mineral Point was an unexpected bonus, complete with tales of a hanging and a headless ghost.

It was a kind of homecoming for me. I had served as a part-time student pastor there in the Parish of the Hills in the early 1970s. A larger parish was a new concept, a way for struggling churches to share resources. Six churches at Mineral Point, Willow Springs, Rewey, Linden, Bethel and Waldwick, shared three pastors, an office and a secretary.  Don Frank and Barry Watson were the full-time pastors on the staff.

In Mineral Point, we visited First United Methodist Church where I preached my first sermon on June 11, 1971. Our bus load of 35 United Methodists was greeted at the door by Marilyn Owens, who was a part of the congregation 53 years ago, and to my astonishment, remembered me. I was a long haired, wet behind the ears farm kid with big dreams in those days. The kind Mineral Point people, the descendants of the thousands of Cornish miners who immigrated to the lead-rich hills in the middle of the 19th century, prepared me well to fulfill my dream of becoming a preacher.

Marilyn took us into the beautiful sanctuary and presented a history of the congregation:  “Organized in a log cabin in1834, the United Methodist Church in Mineral Point is one of the oldest Protestant congregations in Wisconsin. The original church was built of logs on Commerce Street… The present church features asymmetrical towers and pointed arch windows, its massive form and substantial corner buttressing offset its strong vertical lines.”

In the village of Linden, population 557, seven miles west of Mineral Point, we saw another historic church, a beautiful limestone edifice built in the Cornish style. It was the site of my second sermon on June 18, 1971. It was actually the same sermon I had preached in Mineral Point the week before, and would preach again at Bethel and Waldwick the following week. Having to prepare only one sermon every three weeks was a boon for a busy college student at U.W. Madison.

Named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the Linden United Methodist Church is the oldest Methodist Church in continuous use in Wisconsin. A church historian wrote of its unique design: “The 1851 church building is a limestone structure measuring 40 by 50 feet… the limestone was quarried locally by Cornish American masons… An overflow congregation prompted the addition of a gallery (balcony) … a masterpiece of workmanship featuring Doric pillar supports.”

Other stops included the Fayette United Methodist Church a few miles East of Darlington, erected in 1873. It is the home congregation of James Whitford Bashford, 1849-1919, a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the first bishop of the Methodist Church in China. At the Livingston United Methodist Church the beautiful stained glass windows reminded us of Jo’s dear great-aunt, Hazel Miller, a long time active member of the church, whose funeral we attended over 40 years ago.

Lunch was at the historic Walker House in Mineral Point. They served their celebrated Cornish pasties and saffron buns, something I grew fond of during the three years I worked in the Parish of the Hills. Julee Reynolds and Judi Asher, who were teenagers in the Bethel and Waldwick congregations when I counseled their youth fellowship group, were among the waiters who served us. It warmed my heart to discover they remembered me, too.

The Walker House is the site of the Cradle of American Haiku Conferences. Julie Schwerin and her husband, our bishop, Dan Schwerin, are both well-known Haiku poets. Julie read from their books on the bus and told us about Mineral Point being the center of Haiku poetry in America. 

Kathy Vaillancourt, who with her husband Dan purchased the Walker House in 2012, regaled our group with stories of the inns history. The old inn sat empty for five years before the Vaillancourt’s restoration work, which included the addition of a labyrinth in the dining hall. Dan, who was professor of Philosophy of Beauty (Aesthetics) and Human Nature at Loyola University Chicago for 45 years, believes all gatherings are sacred.

Kathy said the Walker House, built between 1856 and 1861, is one of the oldest inns in Wisconsin that still fulfills its original function of providing food and lodging. It was the hub of the city, which with the surrounding area, supported a population of 50,000, larger than Chicago and Milwaukee at the time. The old inn, where traveling salesmen sold wares from their rooms, was at the end of the railroad line; the turntable was located where the Cow Tippers Pub & Eatery now sits across the street.

Local ghost lore dates from1842 when a public hanging, outside the site of Walker House was attended by over 4000people, who came with picnic lunches. They say the murderer, one William Caffey, 22 years old, was driven down High Street sitting atop his own coffin as he banged on it with a beer bottle. Legend has it that it was a bad hanging, meaning the rope was too thin and he was decapitated. Some old timers claim the body crawled across the street and went into the Walker House, looking for his head, and can still be seen searching the hallways. They neglect to mention that the Walker House wasn’t built until 14 years later.

Kathy added that there are other ghostly stories associated with the old inn, but no spirits have been seen in the 12 years she and Dan have owned it.  

John Sumwalt is a retired pastor and the author of “Vision Stories,” “How to Preach the Miracles,” & several other books available on Amazon. A noted Storyteller he offers programs for churches and community groups.