Peabody's Tomb and the Masochistic Monks
Memorial Chapel, Mayslake Estate, Oak Brook, IL
The Legend
If you were growing up on the west outskirts of the city of Chicago, it wouldn’t be very long before you were introduced to the story of Peabody’s Tomb. The story has been told many different ways by many different adolescents, over the last 75 years or so. Most of them sound something like this:
“My big brother’s girlfriend’s best friend’s brother told one of his friends that a group of them went to look for an old haunted mansion that was in the middle of the forest preserve a little bit west of here. The owner died a long time ago and was buried in a clear coffin that was filled with oil to keep his body from decaying. They say that the tomb is hidden somewhere on the property, some say a mausoleum, and is guarded by monks. If the monks catch you trying to find the tomb they will take you into a chapel and force you to kneel on rice, marbles or even broken glass! They force you to pray for the rest of the night and release you when morning comes. They even say that some kids have never come back!” Almost without fail someone tells of being chased by the monks and narrowly escapes being caught.
The Reality
All myths, legends, ghost stories and the such usually involve some fact mixed with some fiction. The question is, which is which? It doesn’t take much of an investigator to figure out where the legend begins. It helps that people seem to have gotten the name right. Well, at least the last name anyway.
Francis Stuyvesant Peabody was born in Chicago to Francis B. Peabody and his wife Harriet in July of 1859 in the family home at Rush and Erie Streets. His father Francis B., an attorney, had just settled in Chicago from Maine two years earlier. Francis S. eventually graduated from Yale in the class of 1881 and made his way back to Chicago where he worked as a messenger boy in the Merchants’ Loan and Trust Company. He became interested in the coal business and 2 years later he formed Peabody, Daniels & Co. Daniels later disposed of his interest in the company and it became Peabody & Co. and was later incorporated. By 1894, Francis S. had grown his business to gross sales of $10,000,000 annually. Francis S. married May Henderson on November 23, 1887. May was the step daughter of John H. McAvoy, Board of Trade operator and founder and president of the McAvoy Brewing Company. Francis and May had two children; Stuyvesant “Jack” Peabody born on August 7, 1888 and May born April 28, 1891. Mrs. Peabody died of Typhoid fever while travelling in the company of one of her best friends, Mrs. Florence Clark. She died on November 27, 1906 in Nice, France approximately one week after contracting the disease. Her daughter May was 15 ½ and her son Jack was 18. Both of the children were away at school at the time.
In 1908, Francis met Ms. Marian Bryant while on a trip in Europe and married her in 1909. F.S. Peabody was a great businessman, an avid sportsman, active in politics and humanitarian causes. He lost a campaign for Cook County Sheriff in 1894 and had to remove himself from consideration as the democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate because of business concerns. He was a strong supporter of the Salvation Army during World War I and was awarded the degree of L.H.D. doctor of humane letters by the Temple University of Philadelphia as well as being decorated by the King of Italy. From 1919 on he concentrated on what was to be his retirement estate in Hinsdale (now Oak Brook) IL. He acquired 848 acres of land from various land owners in the area and hired the architect, Benjamin Marshall to design what would eventually become a 39 room Tudor-Style Mansion at a cost of about $750,000. This country estate, which he named “Mayslake Farm”, became the premier show farm in the nation. It included two lakes, one of which he named Mayslake after his first wife and daughter, 60 buildings, elaborate stables and an outdoor arena. He would invite many socialites to join him on fox and drag hunts on the property. After one particular hunt on August 27, 1922, Mr. Peabody was missing. A search started immediately and the body of Mr. Peabody was found by the superintendent of the estate, Albert E. Cox. Mr. Peabody was lying beside his favorite horse, Dunbar, about 200 yards from the residence. Mr. Peabody was taken to the residence and physicians were summoned. Later it was determined that Mr. Peabody did not fall from the horse but dismounted and collapsed of an apparent heart attack. He had no history of heart disease and was in very good health.
The family did not wish to reside there any longer and the property was sold to the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart, Order of Friars Minor in 1924 at a highly discounted price of $450,000. The family commissioned the Friars to build a monument to Francis Peabody. It would be a replica of the Portiuncula Chapel in Assisi, Italy, which takes its name from the “little portion” of land where St. Francis of Assisi received his call to serve the poor. The monument was originally located on the south side of May’s lake near the spot where Francis Peabody had died. The Franciscans converted to mansion to a retreat home and it became a popular spiritual respite from 1925 to 1991with over 250,000 people spending weekends reflecting on biblical applications to life’s difficulties.
Mayslake Peabody Estate, OakBrook, IL
It was during this time period that the legend of Peabody’s Tomb flourished. I personally did not have any experiences with the Friars at Mayslake but have interviewed individuals who claimed to have had encounters. Once such interview was with a very well respected member of the law enforcement community who is currently the chief of police in a western suburb of Chicago. He agreed to tell me the story as long as he could remain anonymous. The interview took place at the police station in February 2009.
He remembered very vividly that he and a group of friends from high school drove to the edge of the forest preserve and attempted to locate the tomb. He stated that the version of the legend he heard was that Peabody’s see-through casket was inside a small chapel on the grounds of the estate but that there was a large stash of gold buried beneath his tomb. I asked if he had an encounter with the Friars who owned the property at the time and he stated that they were initially scared by what they thought was a monk but later determined to be the statue of a monk. I asked him why there was a statue of a monk and he said that there was a cemetery inside the grounds. (I had previously learned of the removal of many graves from the grounds at the time that the forest preserve had taken ownership, so it did make sense) The second time they were startled it was by actual monks who did chase them. He and another friend had gotten away but another of their friends was not so lucky. When they had spoken to him the next day at school (yes, he did make it back in one piece) the friend had told of being apprehended by the monks and given the choice of kneeling on a broomstick (I had not heard the broomstick version) and praying or having the police called in. His friend chose to not have the police notified. His friend did tell them that it was only a very short period of time (15 minutes or so) and then he was released to continue the spread of the legend.
Eventually the friars sold off portions of the land to local real estate developers and the chapel ,along with Mr. Peabody’s remains, had to be relocated to the northeast of Mayslake Hall. In 1990, the Franciscans announced that they were going to sell their remaining acreage, which included Mayslake Hall, to a real estate developer who planned to raze the buildings and replace them with luxury homes. A massive campaign was undertaken which resulted in a referendum that enabled the Du Page County Forest Preserve district to purchase the property in 1992.
Recent Mysterious Circumstances
There are also some more recent spine chilling encounters. According to Richard Crowe’s 2004 book , Chicago’s Street Guide To The Supernatural, a Du Page County Forest Preserve ranger was spending the night in a wing of the big house and heard what sounded like a child bouncing a ball outside of her door. Of course, when the ranger investigated nothing was found. This same incident occurred a number of times. Mr. Crowe also recounts information from a fiancé of a curator who moved in after the ranger was reassigned. The fiancé mentioned that when peering out of an upstairs window she remembered seeing a small boy approximately eight or nine years old with a mop of curly brown hair. She recalled seeing this boy several times.
While the boy definitely doesn’t fit the description of Francis Stuyvesant Peabody, there is now speculation that the boy could have been the result of an illicit affair between Mr. Peabody and a servant girl. Part of the reason for this speculation, according to Mr. Crowe’s book, is the existence of a “mystery room” that contains a cedar wood closet and is secretly adjacent to the common servants’ quarters.
Secret Passageways
I recently took a tour of the Mayslake Estate. [This was more of a self-guided tour during a recent public event. The Mansion is currently under renovation with money donated by private benefactors as well as a grant that was received from Peabody Energy, St. Louis (The still extant company founded by Francis Peabody) in honor of their 125th Anniversary. It was a magnificent home and while it is in need of renovation, the original woodwork was ornate and very beautiful.
One thing I did notice was a secret passageway that had been left ajar and was blocked off from the tour. It started in a room just off of the east of the entrance foyer adjacent to the grand staircase that led to the 2nd Floor. The entrance to the passageway at the ground level was not hidden very well but the narrow staircase that wound up to the second floor exited through a wall in the personal library/sitting room of Francis Peabody. From inside the library you would not notice the entrance leading down. It appeared as just another panel in the wall adjacent to a bookshelf. It was very well made and you literally could not see the gap in the opening when it was shut completely. I found out (after closer inspection) that this was actually a secret passageway within a secret passageway! If you happened to find the entranceway at the top and walked down the stairway to the exit on the first floor, you might overlook the small shallow wine cabinet to your right. The entire cabinet pulled away and was a hinged door itself! I was told that it went down to a bomb-proof basement.
It seems that Mr. Peabody was very worried about the labor movement of his time and the violence that sometimes erupted as a result of the struggles during that movement. I’m sure that Mr. Peabody’s psyche was personally affected by the Haymarket Affair of May 4, 1886 in Chicago. Also called the “Haymarket riot”, it resulted in the deaths of eight Chicago police officers and an untold number of civilians. It started as a rally in support of striking workers and took place only two years after Peabody started his coal business. It seems that he was worried about his family’s well being and the idea of having hidden rooms or “panic rooms” during those times is not such a “paranoid” idea.
Secret Passageway hidden in study wall Passageway open showing stairs leading down
Where is Peabody's Tomb?
So what about Peabody’s remains? After a little poking around, I discovered that on October 23, 1991, the remains of Mr. Peabody along with the brothers of the Friary were removed from the property and re-interred at a local Catholic Cemetery. He has a very simple, flat stone and is lying next to his son, Stuyvesant “Jack” who passed away in 1946. They are the first and second grave in a plot dedicated to the Franciscan Order. I chose not to include the exact name and location of the cemetery because I did not want to invite any new generations of trespassers but I did want to let any would be “tomb raiders” to know that there are no more graves at the “Peabody Estate”. Currently the “big house” is being renovated and is being used to teach classes in the fine arts. They have many different public festivals during the year including a Shakespeare festival that includes outdoor plays. However, if you don’t believe that the bodies have been moved and you can’t resist the urge to sneak in after dark you won’t have to deal with masochistic monks but you will have to deal with the Du Page County Forest Preserve Police! You may end up wishing that you could just kneel on rice!
F.S. Peabody's Grave Stuyvesant "Jack" Peabody's Grave