Edward Dobbins Masonic Lodge #164 Investigation

The building was erected sometime after June 9, 1856. The building now stands on Lot 69 and is listed in Valentine J. Bradley’s Addition to the Town, now the city of Lawrenceville. The land grant where the current structure is now located was once a land patent from the United States of America to Touissant Dubois on August 28, 1788. The timbers for the roof and cross beams are said to be hand-hewed. This building has been a Masonic Lodge since around 1880. It is also the oldest building in Lawrence County. The foundation is on river rock and the original steeple was removed, however there are plans to reinstall the steeple on the roof in the near future.

The land Patent covered a group of seven locations comprising what is known as Schoals, which was a part of the Northwest Territory France ceded to the colony of Virginia in 1762. The next entry on the abstract is a copy of the will made by Touissant Dubois dated June 15, 1815, in which he left all of his property, including the services of one Negro man named Gabriel and Anna his wife, to his children and his wife Jane Dubois.

The will of Touissant Dubois was filed for probate in the Circuit Court of Knox County Indiana territory April 15, 1816 and the properties held as undivided interest until 1826.  In February 1826 Thomas B Dubois deeded his undivided interest in the estate of Touissant Dubois to Valentine J Bradley.

By that time Illinois had been admitted to the union and the petition of Valentine J. Bradley for partition of the estate came up in Lawrence County Circuit Court; and the report of the commissioners, appointed to divide the property, gave Valentine J Bradley lands which included what is now lot 69 of Valentine J Bradley's addition to the Town, now city, of Lawrenceville, the lot upon which the brick structure stands.

The Bradley Addition was plated June 17, 1826, but the month previously, Bradley and his wife Eliza Ann, for a consideration of $90, had deeded Lot 69 to Samuel Coleman. 30 years later, on June 9, 1856, Samuel Coleman and his wife, Jane P, executed a quitclaim deed, for a consideration of $10, of the lot to I. A. Powell, John B. Maxwell, and Thomas Kirkwood, trustees of the old school Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, Illinois their successors and assigns.

The Presbyterian Church constructed the present brick building, evidently getting some of the building funds from the Board of Directors Erection Fund of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the US of A because in 1880 the board issued a quick claim deed releasing the Church from obligation. But that year the trustees, who were now Thomas Kirkwood, Daniel L Gold, and Leonard Selby, deeded the property to Bainbridge L Cunningham and Mary E, his wife, for a consideration of $300. In April 1881 Cunningham deeded the property to the Lawrenceville City Hall Association; and in December of 1881 the Lawrenceville City Hall Association, for a consideration of $555 deeded it to the Methodist Episcopal Church, the trustees of which were T. A. Curry, GM Whitaker, and Ed Tracy.

The trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who were T. C. Watts, Thomas R. Hennessy, Dickerson Howell, and T. B. Huffman, deeded the lot to George Green on March 2, 1893 for a consideration of $580; and on July 7 of the same year, Green and his wife deeded it to Frank Flowers at al, trustees of Free Methodist Church of Lawrenceville for the sum of $620. It was in 1912 at Lyman W Emmons acquired the property from the Free Methodist Church paying $1505 to the trustees who were D. S. Moore, John K. Trevault, John Havill, J. L. Barcrost, and F. M. Cullison.

Somewhere from 1900 to around 1912 the building was used by the Free Methodist Church. In 1912 the property was purchased by Lyman W. Emmons from the Methodist Church, converted into an undertaking establishment and operated as such until 1955.

Lyman W Emmons sold the property to Clyde H. King and wife on July 31, 1917 for a consideration of $12,000; and on September 19, 1923, King sold the property to Kenneth D Zipprodt and Charles W. Zipprodt for a dollar and other valuable consideration. Kenneth D Zipprodt deeded his interest in the property to Charles W Zipprodt and now the property is deeded to Edward Dobbins Lodge 164, A F and A Masons who purchased the property from Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Zipprodt. Edward Dobbins was a dear friend of Abraham Lincoln.

(Thanks in part to the Lawrenceville Historical Society, Lawrenceville Lore Magazine and their website for this history!)

This building was three different churches in the past and Abraham Lincoln did attend as he practiced law in a building just down the street. It then became a mortuary for about fifty years. The current dining room was the old embalming room.

Address: 1109 Walnut St., Lawrenceville, IL 62439

Phone: 618-943-3900

Hauntings: There are underground tunnel including an opening right under the altar table where human bones and bits of fabric have been found. These tunnels are once thought to be part of the Underground Railroad. These tunnels run under this building and all the way to the river. Some believe that is where some of the many spirits that haunt this location emerge from.

When some of the original Mason chairs were removed to be repaired and refurbished, some saw a tall gentleman dressed in a black suit appear near those chairs.

When there have their meetings, groups of people will sometimes suddenly appear in the balcony.

A former deceased member requested that when he passed for the other Masons to lay his apron on the chair that he normally sat in. Lodge members apparently did not abide but his final request because sometimes that apron will mysteriously appear on his chair.  

A nearby piano is said to play itself without the help of human hands.

Betsy Reed was the first woman hung for her crime of murdering her husband by offering him a cup of arsenic-laced sassafras tea in May of 1844. She was hung not very far from this current building and after they took her down and placed her body in a wooden box, they brought her to the church (now the current lodge) and set her coffin in the middle of the church between the pews for a service. That service never happened and they just removed her from the church.

Occasionally she will be here. One of the members was up in the balcony, cleaning the chandeliers when a lady in a ball gown just drifted by, stopped, waved at him and went on to disappear!

One of the prized possessions her in the lodge is a beautiful key-wound clock. The superintendent went up to wind the clock, when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He believes it was the deceased brother with the apron.

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Edward Dobbins Masonic Lodge on August 28, 2020 and the team members included: Mike Rosario, Kelly Griffey and Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Jason Snider, Courtney Mendenhall and Ed Reese from Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunter's Society

Equipment setup: Most of our investigation was centered in the lodge room where we used a REM Epod, Melmeter with proximity probe, digital recorders and cameras, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter, GS2 Laser Grid, K-II meters, Nightshot IR camcorders.

Experiments performed: Ovilus X, ParaTek app, Phasma Box, Sangean Ghost Box and ordinary EVP sessions were conducted in the main lodge room.

Personal experiences:

Kelly Griffey: On August 28^th – 29^th I attended an investigation of several Southern Illinois locations with Dale Kaczmarek & Mike Rosario led by Jason Snider and some members of his group.  On the first day, we visited the Lawrenceville Masonic Lodge.  The following day we investigated several cemeteries, a hanging tree and Hatchetman Cemetery and Hatchetman House (in which there is a well in which the bodies of his wife and children were supposedly discovered after he’d cut them up with his hatchet.

On the 28^th I only have 1 EVP in file #7 from the Masonic Lodge, and in it I hear a faint name or sound.  This same EVP can also be heard in my file #6 in which “assembly” is a response in the Phasma Box session.

There is 1 EVP #8 that I cannot tell if it’s an EVP or people talking in the background.

There are 7 more sound files from the Masonic Lodge that have responses from the Ovilus or Phasma Box sessions.

While recording an EVP session up on the Balcony of the Masonic Lodge, sitting in the right section (if facing the front of the room) I noticed a very foul odor.  It smelled so badly that I had to leave the Balcony area.  At one point in history, the upstairs Balcony was converted into a new level where a family lived for a time.  Later, when restored, they took that living level out and kept only the Balcony. 

I also got a set of chills while running a ParaTek session right after the device said 5 belong.

Mike Rosario: This famous lodge was at one time the centerpiece of President Abraham Lincoln during his early preaching days in the State of Illinois. It is said that his ghost, along with others, are roaming the halls of this now converted beautiful Masonic Lodge. The following equipment that I used to investigate with here were: a K-II Meter, a Sony Night Shot Handy-Cam DCR-TRV13 NTSC 560 Digital-8 20X Optical Zoom Video Camcorder, an Amzdeal Tri-pod, a Green Laser Grid, a Philips Voice Recorder, an iPhone8 Cellular Phone (for pictures and video), and a Police Security Elite Blackout 615 Lumen Hands-free Heavy-Duty Head Strap Flashlight. From my investigation there at the Lodge, all alluded to no results of audio or visual evidence.

Dale Kaczmarek: The building had a warm feeling to it even though some negative words came through the ParaTek and Ovilus X. These just could have been some random words without any direction to them. The Tri-Field Natural EM Meter was alerting a lot more than normal in the lodge room which was unusual and the GS2 Laser Grid was picking up a lot of cold spots within the same room which was odd.

I believe that those spirits that continue to visit mean no harm to anyone but just had such a strong connection with the lodge that they continue to stop by now and then to show that they’re still around.

Evidence collected:

Bathroom jump down the toilet Dobbins.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session, a question was asked, “Tell us what’s below the surface?” The device responded with, “Bathroom” and then, “Jump down the toilet.”

Gavel Dobbins.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode, a question was asked, “What do they do in this room?” The device responded with, “Gavel.”

Ike Dobbins.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode, a question was asked, “Who’s the president right now?” The device responded with, “Ike.”

Leave Dobbins.MP4 – while conducting a ParaTek app session, a question was asked, “Do you want us to stay or leave?” The device said, “Leave.”

Words spoken by the ParaTek app: incubus, key, Beelzebub, nation, a lot, induce, vowel, iron, inner, newer, wash, hobble, intent, fear me, beer, pennies, report, demand, indeed, hang, idiot, gage, release, Brian, run, trailor, incubus, example, point, react, quiet, 5, belong, is, which, yapping, I am, Ava, leave, information, island, kept, dash, take him, family, usual, adjective, report, sample, noise, tested, up, immersion, December, Scot, left, kicking, science, noon, war, unclear, 0, abort, pack and mother.

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode: muddy and decided; Phonetic mode: tired, evil, hi there, tabletop, gavel, beautiful, horrible, fuck you, Wilhelm, evil, Ike, help, here, danger and Bible.

Conclusions: Masonic lodges are always interesting to investigate and we normally collect a lot of Masonic-like words in our real-time devices. Nobody felt threatened or scared while investigating this location but we did receive a few interesting responses that were fascinating! There is a lot of history to this location and the town of Lawrenceville including Betsy Reed. I believe that this all played into our investigation.

The word combinations like: fear me, Brian run, Scot left kicking and the duplicate word of incubus and then Beelzebub, were disconcerting. They could have just been random words because none of our group or the others felt threatened or ill at ease while in the building.

There was a little contamination from some talking in the background during live EVP sessions. It was obvious that a session was in progress and those need to respect and quiet down while others are running a communication session.

We wish to thank the superintendent and other staff members for allowing us the opportunity of exploring and investigating this very historic and haunted structure! With the possibility of a glass window to show the underground tunnels might just stir up a few more spirits but time will tell.