Runyon Cemetery Investigation

Armistead Runyon was a pioneer settler who came to the Lockport area in October of 1830 and settled along the Fiddyment Creek. Aware of the plans for the I&M Canal, Mr. Runyon bought and platted the property on this site and called in Runyontown. He tried to convince the Canal Commissioners to locate their offices here in 1836. Instead, the Commissioners chose to develop property several blocks south, which became downtown Lockport and the Canal Headquarters.

In 1832, Runyon learned of the Black Hawk Indian War, and he and the handful of people now living in the region, three other families, retreated to Fort Dearborn in Chicago for protection.

The danger passed and Runyon returned to Lockport with his family. Indigenous Potawatomi lived on each side of the Runyons’ cabin, and a trail connecting the encampment ran alongside the Runyon home. Potawatomi would oftentimes enter the cabin, and the family recalled that the Native Americans were generally well behaved.

Others who speculated on land during the canal development stayed and prospered, but Armistead Runyon left the area, as well as his wife and family, for the lure of the 1849 California gold rush. The three gravesites at Runyon Preserve contain the remains of Anna Hornbecker Runyon, Winfred Runyon and Oliver Runyon, the first wife and two sons of Armistead Runyon, the first settler in Lockport.

In the latter years of his life, Runyon became involved with mining operations, and all of his ventures resulted in his becoming wealthy. He was a major contributor to the building of Christian College and Pacific Methodist College, both located in California. He died on September 8, 1876, in Santa Rosa, California, where he and his second wife, Mary Crawford Runyon, had resided since 1871.

The graves of Anna Hornbecker Runyon, Winfred Runyon and Oliver Runyon at Runyon Preserve not only retain a link to the founding of the City of Lockport but also stand testament to the precarious reality of pioneer life in the 19th century. Anna Hornbecker Runyon died at age 38, son Winfred died just shy of his second birthday and son Oliver died at age seven.

Runyon Preserve is one of 23 forested recreational areas located in Will County. There are more than 30 natural areas in pre-settlement condition located throughout the I&M Canal Corridor. This 21 acre preserve was acquired between 1934 and 2004. The preserve is part of the Fiddyment Creek preservation system, which conserves nearly 300 acres.

If you climb a hill, you might see where the old flag pole was and an old well. These are very difficult to find and, to date, have not been discovered by this team.

Address: 202 Morgan St., Lockport, Illinois 60441

GPS: 41°36.072N, 88°2.770W

Telephone: 815-727-8700

Owners: Forest Preserve District of Will County

Directions: It is not easily accessible by its main entrance at Morgan and Table Streets. Take Table Street north to Bluff Street, make a right on Bluff and then take a right at the end of Bluff onto West Street. Once on West, drive past a mailbox on your right that says 410 and just past that on the right side is an opening in the trees with a wooden barricade and a grass path. Park along the street and be careful not to block the road or any driveways. Once on the path, head west a short distance and then make a right.

Hauntings: It is said that you can hear people talking in the forest in the broad daylight and it is not voices you would hear in everyday tone. It is very creepy at night, to the point that you can still hear the “witch” calling for her followers. It is believed to be an area where witchcraft was once performed.

There have been numerous reports of disembodied voices. Sometimes you hear a language you cannot even describe.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Runyon Cemetery on September 20,  2020 and the team members included: Marge Sucha, Charles Williams, Kelly Griffey, Lori Rago and Dale Kaczmarek.

Equipment setup: A Melmeter was attempted but the batteries were quickly drained. An EMF detector model #200-A, Rem Epod, digital camcorders, cameras and recorders, Ovilus X with Digital Text Display screen and ParaTek app were also used.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ovilus X and ParaTek app sessions were conducted within the cemetery proper. Other EMF devices were deployed without any alerts. Griffey was videotaping a lot of Kaczmarek describing what equipment was being deployed and the operation of such.

Personal experiences:

Kelly Griffey: On Sunday, September 20^th I investigated both Runyon cemetery in Lockport and Black Partridge woods in DuPage County with Dale Kaczmarek, Lori, Marge and  Chuck.  I did not turn up any evidence per se, but I did capture Dale’s phone behaving very oddly at our first stop, Runyon. 

I brought my Olympus voice recorder, my Zoom H2 recorder, my Canon Rebel t5 camera and my regular Sony Handycam. 

At Runyon Cemetery, Dale decided he would call his wife to read the history to us because he’d left the clipboard behind accidentally.  After Dale opened his phone to call his wife, the phone apps were wonky, opening and closing by themselves and not working.  I said maybe he was too close to the cemetery!  I think towards the end of this video Dale says it appears like someone had access to his phone (apps were doing their own thing, and not responding to Dale’s touch).

Marge Sucha: Equipment I used:  Digital Voice Recorder, ROOK Meter, and Full Spectrum Camera. This was an outdoor daytime investigation. 

We arrived here around noon.  It was a small family cemetery in the woods.  Overall it had a peaceful feeling. We had a few responses to questions using an app. ParaTek, but overall it was fairly quiet.  There were a couple dirt bikes close by so we had noise contamination.  I did not get any EVPs

Charles Williams: A neat little cemetery tucked into a forest preserve, hard to find.  Felt peaceful.  I had a basic setup- GoPro camera, zoom recorder, full spectrum camera.  It was one of the last warm days of the year, so people in the surrounding area were making the most of their day- yard work with loud equipment, dirt biking, etc.  Despite this, EVPs were picked up, in A/V equipment. 

Dale Kaczmarek: My first time here was back in 2006 with members of the GRS; however we didn’t pick up anything specific except a few minor EMF meter spikes. No EVPs or other evidence was collected. I also scouted out this location in October of 2019 to conduct a more thorough investigation in September of 2020.

When I attempted to use some of my phone apps and call my wife, the phone started switching from app to app and I could not close down all of them. It was as though something strange had taken control of my device. I assume it could have been a virus as this has occurred a few times before.

Griffey was filming me a lot for later insertion into my online paranormal courses that I am putting together. The first piece of equipment I attempted to use was the Melmeter with proximity probe but it would not turn on. I know the battery was fresh before we started. None of the other devices, EMF meters, REM Epod alerted to anything out of the ordinary.

Evidence collected:

Cellphone malfunction Runyon.MP4 – while attempting to access my cellphone, the device began quickly switching from one app to app, constantly opening up pages faster than I could close them down. Weird!

Satan Runyon.MP4 – while conducting a ParaTek session at 12:45pm, a question was asked, “Who creates the voice out here?” The device responded with, “Satan.”

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode: turning, let, grass, brown, soak and decompose.

Words spoken by the ParaTek app: salvation, Henry, inches, government, bloat, Satan, radical, volt, Hell, warrant, truck, severe, praise, damned, yet, emulate, instead, hair, Randy, about, Adam, fan, about, knot, you win, one and banshee.

Conclusions: It was a nice warm autumn afternoon and we had a nice turnout of people that showed up to investigate. There was a lot background noise from dirt bikes, ATVs and possible chain saws which was a bit of a distraction to our EVP sessions.

I was able to train a few newer members, Griffey and Rago out in the field and I believe they both learned a lot.

I can’t be sure that we picked up anything of significance or intelligent responses to questions asked that afternoon. However there were some disturbing words that came through via the ParaTek app; Satan, Hell and damned. There were possible reports of witchcraft in the past. Banshee came through just as we ended the session and that kind of matches some reports of disembodied screams and voices. The wail of the Banshee is supposed to be blood-curdling and sometimes is a portent of death or disaster.

Several names came through that didn’t match to any of those buried here; Henry, Randy and Adam. Further research would have to be conducted to see if those names are related or significant to the Runyon Family.

A very quiet day but nice to be outdoors in the warmth!