Main Street Cemetery Investigation

In 1856, Samuel Curtiss donated part of his sheep pasture for use as a cemetery. He was later paid $15 for the land, money from individuals who formed a cemetery association in 1864. Nearly 100 members of Downers Grove's early families, including Israel Blackburn, a freedman, and members of the Blanchard, Curtiss and Wells families are buried here. The cemetery was used until 1939 when Emma Foster Miller was the last to be interred. It is one of the few American cemeteries located in a main business district. The first internment was in 1856.

It is located on the west side of Main Street, between Curtiss and Grove Streets, and supposedly is one of the few US cemeteries located in the central business district of the town. All interments are not known, but those which are, are mentioned in the booklet "Voices That Are Gone" by the village Historical Society, and for sale by them. In some cases there is more biographical information in the booklet. Grave numbers were assigned to stones found, when the cemetery was inventoried, and start at the east wall at the sidewalk, and are numbered separately for the north side and the south side.

Address: 5158 Main St, Downers Grove, IL 60515

Owner: Downers Grove Historical Society maintains the property.

Website: https://mainstreetcemetery.com

Hauntings; No known hauntings have said to occur here. Our investigations here were part of the Specters and Spirits public event for the Downers Grove Park District.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Main Street Cemetery on October 8, 2021. Team members included: Marge Sucha, Kelly Griffey, Mari Huff, Ron Lovatt, Andrew Puccetti and Dale Kaczmarek. This was a public investigation.

Equipment setup: Conducted a Live Facebook session, took pictures with cell phone, digital recorder and camcorder, Ovilus V.

Experiments performed: a single EVP session was conducted around the back of the cemetery near the Civil War marker using the Ovilus V in dictionary, phonetic and true/false modes.

Personal experiences:

Mari Huff: I was partnered with Marge Sucha and Kelly Griffey. I used a Melmeter and my iPhone camera.

I walked around the cemetery with the Melmeter but didn’t pick up any anomalies. Afterwards I lent the Melmeter to various participants of the public tour and they didn’t have any luck either. I had no personal experiences at the cemetery. It was very lit up and there was a lot of noise coming from the Irish bar across the street.

My duties were to explain how to use ghost detecting equipment to the participants of the public tour and to tell them about my personal experiences on past investigations.

Ron Lovatt: We went over to the Main Street Cemetery and did an EVP session with the Ovilus V in the Civil War section of soldiers who did during the Civil War fighting in the area of Tennessee. We used various modes to try to communicate during the EVP session. The first mode we used got the following words: Minute, upon, does, Alice

I did find a grave of a Civil War soldier who was black and that made me proud to see that he was honored as much as every other soldier who fought during the Civil War.

We then tried a different mode and constantly got the same words: Help, help here, help

We then changed the mode 1 more time to true/false and got some amazing answers to our questions. The following answers were given as being true.

Need help, wants to leave, and killed in Tennessee, Civil War solider, Captain Blanchard, infantry leader, its Captain Blanchard, wants us to leave.

We then walked around the cemetery and saw the Blodgett family plot and other graves.

(This investigation was conducted after the event was over.)

Andrew Puccetti: Dale, Ron, and I went over to the Main Street Cemetery to do some investigating on our own; however the area was very loud and lit up. I took a lot of full spectrum pictures and recorded some EVPs, but unfortunately received no evidence. But seeing the Civil War soldiers' graves was very cool! My duties that night were speaking with the guests and doing some investigating on my own. I had no personal experiences that night.

(This investigation was conducted after the event was over.)

Marge Sucha: GRS members present: Dale Kaczmarek, Kelly Griffey, Mari Huff, Andrew Puccetti, and Ron Lovatt & I.

Equipment: FLIR, SB-7 Sprit Box, Dowsing Rods, Olympus Digital Recorder

This investigation was a public event. There were two places that were being investigated at this event, the Blodgett house and Main Street Cemetery. Our group divided into two. Dale, Andrew and Ron had Blodgett house. Kelly, Mari and I had the cemetery.

The cemetery is located in the middle of Downtown Downers Grove. Between the traffic, the nice weather and music the restaurant across the street was packed with customers outside. Being on a main street there was a lot of noise pollution and after a short time I decided to turn off my digital recorder.

The interesting part about this cemetery was all the equipment problems. We had drained batteries and equipment not working or completely freezing up. This was theme for the night. One couple’s camera would not take pictures. After numerous equipment failures Kelly who lived close left to get her computer at home. She checked her program on her computer to make sure it was working but once at the cemetery it completely froze. Coincidence or paranormal?

There is a lot of history behind this cemetery and if you’re in the area I would definitely suggest taking a walk thru it.

Dale Kaczmarek: This would be a perfect place to conduct an investigation if it weren’t for the noise coming from the bar across the street. Coming here after the bar closed would be better for experimentation,

A Live Facebook was conducted here after the event was over and I offered both teams the opportunity to investigate the other location. The guys decided to investigate the cemetery while the girls called it a night.

There some very interesting responses with the Ovilus V in the true/false mode.

Evidence collected:

I did help her help here Main.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus V session in phonetic mode near the Civil War marker, the device blurted out, “I did help her, help here.”

Words spoken by the Ovilus V: in dictionary mode – minute, upon, does and Alice; in phonetic mode – I did help her, help here and help.

We tried our first experiment with the newly purchased Ovilus V in the True/False modes. In this mode, the device will light up Green if the answer is True and Red if the answer is False. We conducted this near the grave of a Captain Walter Blanchard who formed the 13^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry that was mustered in on 1861. That company used to train and maneuver on Maple Avenue in Downers Grove, Illinois.

During the Battle of Ringgold in Georgia on November 27, 1863, Blanchard’s Brigade of Wood’s Division was commanded to the extreme left of the Confederate line to seek shelter in the buildings of Jobes Farm from which they could pick off the Confederate artillerists. Apprehensive for their artillery the Confederates advanced on this house in greatly superior numbers and the Illinois men were compelled to fall back. It was in this engagement that Capt.. Blanchard was mortally wounded. His leg wound caused a great loss of blood and the best efforts of the doctors could not save his life. He died December 4, 1863 and was buried at Main Street Cemetery.

Major Edward Blodgett, son of Israel Blodgett, remembered the Captain as “a man like no other and whose memory may be an inspiring force for all as the years go by.”

The following questions were asked in True/False mode:

“Do you need help?” “True”

“Do you want to leave here?” “True”

“Were you killed in Tennessee?” “True”

“Did you serve in the Civil War?” “True”

A reference was mentioned regarding Capt.. Blanchard’s name; “True.”

“Were you infantry?” “True”

“If you’re not Captain Blanchard, are you someone else?” “False”

“Do you want us to stay?” “False” (At that point we stopped the EVP session and left that area.)

“Thank you Captain Blanchard.” “True”

Conclusions: Even though a single EVP session was conducted here, I believe we were in spiritual contact with the essence of Captain Walter Blanchard. The responses we received in the true/false Ovilus V session convinced me and my colleagues that we were indeed communicating with Blanchard. Not all the questions asked were responded to with the affirmative; there were specific questions that the negative response was uttered. This was very apparent when we asked if we weren’t talking to Blanchard and later, towards the end, if he wanted us to leave. Both of these questions were answered in the false response with convinced us that Blanchard was indeed there; a true hero of the American Civil War!

I believe we should try to secure permission of the historical society that maintains this cemetery to attempt another investigation in the future, long after the bars have closed and the area is quieter. What additional equipment and a better investigative environment, we should be able to collect additional data and intelligent responses, if indeed there is anyone willing to communicate with us during our follow-up visit.