The WI Governor Who Talked to the Dead
And the haunted cemetery he left behind
Places mentioned in this newsletter
Years ago, I was meandering through the old gravestones of the historic Rienzi Cemetery, photographing the locations of the alleged gateway to Hell and the Witch’s Circle, when a woman approached me.
“Do you want to see the oldest grave here?”
She had been walking briskly around the cemetery, presumably getting some steps in on that perfect autumn afternoon, and likely noticed my interest in the place as I snapped shots of the pet cemetery, the mausoleum, the receiving vault.
Yes, yes I would like to see that grave.
Years of visiting Rienzi, and I really didn’t know the history of the place at all. I just liked to document the legends. But legends tend to grow from the cracks of real history, and that’s where things get interesting.
I followed the woman to the top of the hill in the section known as the Old Grounds, where a line of aged gravestones perched on the summit. The Tallmadge family.
She lead me to the grave of William Tallmadge, son of Nathaniel Potter Tallmadge, the third governor of the Wisconsin Territory.
This land had once been the Tallmadge farm, where Nathaniel and his wife Abbey relocated their family to when Nathaniel was appointed governor.
The particular area, a patch of beautiful countryside along the Niagara Escarpment (The “Ledge”) known as the town of Empire, is a Fond Du Lac County township that has been home to numerous prominent Wisconsin residents, including several territorial governors, senators, congressmen, physicians, and businessmen.
Take a look at the Witherell House down the road, for example, which has connections to a Wisconsin governor, a senator, medieval superstitions, and Jeffrey Dahmer. Not to mention it’s said to be “cursed with death” and has recently become known as the “abandoned Fond du Lac murder house.”
"The topography of the town was such as gave to men and boys a broad vision," W. A. Titus wrote in 1923, "an outlook over the extensive prairies to the westward that seemed world-wide to the restricted view of the early dwellers in the wilderness."
William, Nathaniel and Abbey’s oldest child, had been away at law school when the family moved to the property. He came to visit, and fell in love with the land. He named the hill Rienzi Hill, and said that when he died, he wanted to be buried there.
Two weeks later, William’s wish came true.
I have have yet to find specific details on William’s fate, but it seems he suddenly came down with a fatal illness that took his life on June 12, 1845.
His family carried him to the top of the hill and laid him to rest as he requested.
Things got weird after that.
The Tallmadge family found solace in the beliefs and practices of spiritualism when the movement began not long after.
The spirits, it seems, were already quite active in that strange land.
I imagine the Tallmadge family gathered in the dark around a table in their parlor, the warm glow of flickering candlelight on their faces, their son’s grave looming on the hill nearby, while they attempt to summon him from sacred shades beyond.
Many of Nathaniel’s experiences communicating with the dead through various mediums were recorded in an 1853 book called Spiritualism, Volume 1.
He wrote that his youngest daughter, then 13, “plays the piano on the instruction of the spirits.”
She had never played piano before in her life and had no understanding of notes, he wrote, until one day she sat down at the keys and played Beethoven’s Grand Waltz.
Today, the whole Tallmadge family can be found atop Rienzi Hill, buried beside William.
Besides the glowing portal to hell locked away inside the receiving vault, and the mass burial of supposed blasphemous nuns, visitors to Rienzi Cemetery seem to encounter other spirits wandering among the crumbling tombstones.
Have you had an experience at Rienzi? Tell me about it »
Lost Tapes of Ed Gein Recap
Have you watched the first episode of Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein yet?
If not, watch it here and let me know what you think.
If you have, check out these four chilling details from Part 1 »
