Someone told me recently, "No matter how great my Chicago ghost experiences are, Ursula, you always have a better story. Typical is my experience of the famously haunted Peabody Estate at Mayslake--which I first went to check out in for inclusion in.
Chicago Haunts. As a north sider, I hadn't grown up hearing about Francis Stuyvesant Peabody, but I had learned about him in the "campfire stories" I heard from classmates at Benedictine University in the s, and I was eager to check out this harrowing tale of the late coal magnate suspended in a glass casket filled with oil on the sprawling estate-turned-monastery he left behind in suburban Oak Brook.
My mom and I visited Mayslake together on a Sunday afternoon in the mid s, parking and walking out to the Portiuncula chapel--a popular spot for weddings.
A few minutes into our visit, we were greeted by the caretaker of the grounds, a guy named Joe that regular visitors to the hallowed grounds affectionately called "Jesus" for his mustached and bearded countenance and joyful, spiritual demeanor.
Joe gave us an extended tour of the grounds and the crumbling Peabody mansion. He entertained us for a long time with tales of the family and the property. He told us the place was "very special. He had been really nice to my mom. Besides, I wanted to go back. Fast forward a few months to find me taking the Burlington train west after work most days to visit Joe and-of course--"Peabody's Tomb"-- and soon after, the two of us becoming engaged.
