Harrisburg Illinois

Hickory Hill Mansion

A dastardly Salt Refinery owner went into
the slave breeding business on the side…

His attic is one of the scariest places in America!

DESCRIPTION

hickory-hill-mansion Hickory Hill Mansion was not only designed to be the dream home of John Crenshaw, his wife, Sinia Taylor and their five children, it was also built with an evil purpose in mind: to house an illegal slave trade and, according to some, to establish a breeding program.

The outside of the mansion was designed in a “pseudo-Greek revival style,” having both upper and lower verandahs, both of which were supported by massive columns.

The first two floors had six rooms each, where the Crenshaw family enjoyed a life of privilege, and were looked upon as model citizens of their community. The attic, just above the family’s living quarters had thickened walls, and consisted of 12 tiny rooms, not much bigger than horse stalls, and a hallway with two whipping posts. Uh Oh!

Two stories about this infamous attic tenaciously cling to the imagination.

First Story:

The attic was a nightmare for slaves and kidnapped freemen and women. This is where John Crenshaw’s breeding program was located. It was a place of rape and cruel treatment, all for the purpose of making money for John when he sold his pregnant slaves.

Second Story:

John Crenshaw would kidnap freed black families and resell them to Southern Plantations, sort of a reverse of the Underground Railroad. This is what he was accused of, but he was acquitted because he had a lot of community respect.

Perhaps both stories are true. Some say that he didn’t have a slave breeding program, and that stuff just happened. Things may have gotten out of hand with a male slave who couldn’t control his desires and had his way with some slave women.

Whatever is true, the mansion has a boatload of bad public opinion attached to it that still exists today. Perhaps this is why it hasn’t been given restoration funds but instead just enough money to keep it standing.

HISTORY

John Hart Crenshaw got his start running a salt refinery, which in turn was founded by his father, who died when John was in his teens. By 1834, he had made a small fortune. Because he now had money to invest, John was able to lease several salt springs from the government and also applied to be authorized to lease slaves from their owners, as it was an old, established, legal practice in Illinois.

In 1817, because it was getting harder to hire laborers, the state of Illinois (a slave-free state) had given employers permission to lease slaves from their owners in slave territory, and bring them to Illinois to work in businesses suffering from labor shortages, such as salt mining.

But why spend money leasing slaves, when you could kidnap freed blacks? Why not “breed” your own slaves and sell them on the southern market? Some say Crenshaw treated slaves and others like cattle. He found the Saline River to be a very convenient way to transport his cargo to and from the slave states.

Some say that is the reason John had a carriageway built which entered directly into his new mansion. By 1838, when the house was finished, carriages full of slaves/kidnap victims could be secretly hustled up the back stairway to the infamous attic.

Slaves were shackled to the floor of their stall-like rooms. Ventilation was poor, and there was little light. They had to endure indignities, torture, bad treatment and ultimately a doomed existence.

The story goes that at least 300 babies were produced from the efforts of one sire slave alone! Pregnant slaves, or a slave woman with a child brought a high price in the slave states.

In 1842, John was caught holding a freed family, was arrested, and accused of trying to sell them into slavery, supposedly because they owed him services. Because of his financial and political standing in the community, he was found not guilty.

His mill was burned, though, as public sentiment turned against him. He was deemed guilty by public opinion. No one found out what happened in the attic until after John and his wife died (in 1871 and 1881). John Crenshaw was considered by many to be the most evil man who ever lived in Illinois. What he did to make money was the largest scandal in the state’s history.

In 1916, the property was bought by the Sisk family, who stayed there for eighty years. The mansion was eventually opened as Hickory Hill House Museum, but it was closed in 1996. The Sisks could no longer afford the maintenance to keep this mansion up to code. This began the long battle to get the state interested in buying the property as a part of Illinois history, however infamous it was. Although the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency finally acquired the house in December 2000, the site remained closed to the public, due to lack of state funding.

On June 9, 2003, between forty and fifty residents from more than seven counties met at Southeastern Illinois College and adopted a Plan of Action that could reopen the site.

They are still waiting. According to a 2019 article by Sean Crawford for https://www.nprillinois.org, entitled, “Old Slave House” Still Standing – But For How Long?”, no money to restore and stabilize one of the oldest buildings in southern Illinois has been provided. Scandal still permeates it and still has legs, going into 2019.

HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS

Places where cruel injustice and flagrant disregard for human rights have happened are often haunted by angry, unhappy spirits who can’t rest and seek justice from the living, claiming a space in their structure as theirs.

Madam LaLaurie’s Mansion, LA (While a marvelous hostess, events revealed Madam LaLaurie to be an evil, cruel, sadistic psychopath when it came to the treatment of her slaves, whom she tortured, maimed, and killed in slow, agonizing ways. When they could, her victims had no qualms about showing the living what she had done to them).

Alcatraz, CA (Violence, suffering and death at the hands of other inmates or beat-downs by guards caused restless spirits).

Mansfield Reformatory, OH (This prison became Hell on earth: a harsh place of injury and death).

Hickory Hill Mansion, IL (Brutal treatment of slaves and freed African Americans has caused some scary hauntings. Angry spirits have claimed the attic as their domain; the living are not welcome!).

MANIFESTATIONS

Because of the great suffering and cruelty that went on in the attic, there are many angry, tormented entities there, making it one of the “scariest spots in the country.” They are not too fond of the living, and keep a guarded eye on the people on the first two floors. They also do their best sometimes to chase the living out of the attic. The manifestations listed below were observed during the time when the mansion was privately owned by the Sisk clan and operated as a museum.

Tactile & Auditory Activity

During the day, tourists felt growing chills as they climbed the steps to the attic.

Some heard shuffling feet, whimpering cries, and found themselves overwhelmed by uneasy feelings.

Leniently Treated

Over the years, out of at least 150 people trying to spend the night in the attic, only one, a reporter by the name of David, successfully managed to do so in 1978.

Perhaps this was because he only heard a lot of strange noises, and wasn’t treated to the full spectrum of haunting usually given to the living, who dare to enter the attic.

Exorcist Frightened to Death

Others were not treated so leniently by the presences there.

In the 1920s, an exorcist by the name of Hickman Whittington, probably hired by the Sisk family, went up to the attic to try to rid it of its entities.

After only a short time, he ran from the mansion, dying of fright a few hours later…. perhaps having experienced what the marines did – See box 4.

Marines’ Quick Exit

In 1966, two veteran marines decided to try to spend the night in the infamous attic. The full treatment started at 1 o’clock in the morning, when their kerosene lamp started to flicker.

Suddenly, a terrible moan reverberated and shook the attic’s walls. A “cacophony of human voices,” speaking “unintelligible words” assaulted their ears, while ghostly figures swirled and danced around them. Then their only source of light, the kerosene lamp, then blew out.

Blood-curdling screams rang out all around them, and they were filled with anxiety and panic, which inspired them to rush down the steep stairs and make a quick exit.

The Sisks

The Sisks, whose family had owned the mansion for 80 years, stayed on the first and second floor. They never went up to the attic, as they respected the spirits there.

They were interviewed by psychic investigators Richard Winer and Nancy Osborne, for their book, “Haunted Heartland.”

Mrs. Sisk spoke of an icy chill that could hang in the rooms of the mansion, even on hot days.

She had to stop taking baths, because an unsettling and unseen presence would inevitably call out her first name in the hallway, to draw her out of the bathroom. No one was ever there.

Both she and her husband felt like they were being constantly watched by unseen presences, but they learned to live with their spirits, and the spirits tolerated their presence.

PARANORMAL FINDINGS

People who tried to spend the night in the attic sometimes got the full paranormal sports package and didn’t stay long.

An exorcist paid an awful price trying to push the sprits out. This approach was never tried again.

The museum was opened before paranormal investigating became common. As no one is allowed inside now, no one will probably be able to do so, and the house will just fall down in decay unless its terrible history can be overcome enough to get funds needed to at least stabilize the building.

The mansion has been written about in several books, so its story is out there. The website is still viable.

STILL HAUNTED?

Definitely YES INDEED!

The spirits have gotten used to having the mansion to themselves. No one has been able to help them let go. Perhaps their anger and emotional upset has them stuck in this place.

Perhaps if a memorial plaque honoring and apologizing to all the Afro-Americans who suffered greatly here would make them feel better in that their story is widely recognized as being true.

If the mansion never gets restored, and it wastes away and collapses, the spirits will probably link with the property and move into whatever is built there later, if anything. Perhaps then a medium and energy cleanser can help them forget and moved to a better place in the spirit world.

To see more pictures of The Old Slave House, visit the Virtual Tour.

LOCATION

The Old Slave House Museum
Highway 13 Junction
Harrisburg, Illinois 62954

Built in 1834-38, on top of high Hickory Hill, on highway 13, about 14 miles east of Harrisburg, near the town of Equality, Illinois, Hickory Hill Mansion overlooks the Saline River. Harrisburg is located at the southernmost tip of Illinois.

Our Photos are copyrighted by Tom Carr