September 29, 2016
Just Saying…
By Q.C. Jones
A Haunting Challenge for October…
Since it’s October and Halloween is fast approaching, spook stuff is in order. But first here is a little background on the whole Halloween phenomenon. What do I mean by “phenomenon”? All Saints or All Hallow Eve sprang up as a religious holiday to honor the dead. Somewhere along the way, whether by cross pollination with pagan tradition or
otherwise, it became the day many believed the chasm between the living and the spirts of those past was at its closest. Until the Twentieth Century, it was mostly an obscure holiday celebrated mostly by those who attend church on weekdays.
In the Quad-Cities, the earliest notice of any kind of notoriety for the day comes in 1890 with this little requote from Harper’s which appeared in the Davenport Morning Tribute November 5th:
“A Potent Incantation.
On All-Hallows eve there is one form of incantation which is known to be extremely, nay, terribly potent when all others have failed. You go out by yourself, taking a handful of hempseed with you. You get to a secluded place and begin to scatter the seed as you walk along the road. You say, “Hempseed, I sow thee; hempseed, I sow thee, he who is to be my true love, appear now and show thee.” And if you look furtively over your shoulder you will behold the desired apparition following you. — William Black in Harper’s.”
Halloween wasn’t that big a deal. They completely missed the October 31st date and the small insert would imply the whole thing was more of an afterthought. As an interesting sidebar, hempseed in today’s vernacular would be called “marijuana seed,” and one can only wonder what our great-great-grandparents were up to back in the day.
The whole idea of trick or treat didn’t hit the Quad-Cities until the mid-1920s. It came as a fun version of the British tradition of going house to house collecting food on All Saint’s Eve which stretches back to the 1600s when it was mostly a charity related thing.
Fast forward to our own childhoods, Halloween was a fast and furious holiday. It entailed a little party at school with hastily thrown together costumes, a pumpkin and a night of hitting the neighbors up for treats. In my small home town, many folks opted for homemade stuff. Apples and pears from the back yard tree, brownies, little bags full of cookies and the grand prize of all times, massive popcorn balls often made just minutes before the kids came a knocking. It was simple, quick and cheap; on November 1st we started learning about Pilgrims.
Contrast this with today, where Halloween has become the second most spendy holiday. In 2014 the average American buyer spent nearly 80 bucks in their celebration; decorations, costumes, candy and accoutrements. It’s become a massive $7.4 Billion dollar deal. Is this scary? To your pal QC Jones it sure is. But not as scary as this…
Davenport City Hall
The center of city government lies in an 1895 vintage building with a history. The building was massively expensive for the times ($90,000) and built without the normal municipal bonds or loans. Our city fathers paid it off with cash. Sound like solid civic government, well maybe and… maybe not. Now the back story. Back in the 1890s, Iowa had prohibition. Not to be confused with the grand experiment, Federal Prohibition made into law by the 18th Amendment in 1920, this was a state mandated prohibition. But the Davenport City fathers had a better plan.
Davenport set up ongoing fines for the 200+ saloons and 30 odd brothels within the city limits. It was a semi-legal protection racket with Davenport collecting something like $60,000 a year in monthly “fines” from the owners and employees of the joints. Those who resisted were dealt with harshly and had almost no legal rights in the matter. This brings us to our eerie tale.
According to HauntedPlaces.org, “People claim to see the ghost of a hanged man in the tower at night, allegedly from prisoners who were illegally hanged there.” And, from an un-credited article called Truly Haunted Places in the Quad-Cities “A heavyset man reportedly sits in the city council chamber. They call him Hal. The legend of Hal goes like this. Hal was a citizen who was extremely upset with city government. He ran for alderman of his ward. He lost by a landslide to the incumbent, but Hal wasn’t going to let that stop him. He attended every city meeting that was held in the chamber until he died of a heart attack at 63. Hal has been seen at least 100 times. He also has been said to walk around city hall, and former mayors have said they have seen them in their office on more than one occasion. Often times Hal is smoking a cigar.”
I know what you’re thinking. Preposterous, made up stuff. But digging a little deeper we discovered several credible mentions including this online quote from a lady named Tammy (last name withheld), “I lived in an apartment and could see the body at times. So I started to investigate and
realize there is some truth behind the stories.”
I challenge you. Join me at the corner of Fourth and Harrison as the town clock strikes 12 on All Hallow Eve. If you’re not there, don’t blame the bridge traffic… Just Saying.
