From the 1874 DuPage Atlas – William Henry Hillegas

While William Henry Hillegas built an upstanding reputation in the Naperville community, it’s his son that the guides on the ghost tours talk about. We’ll get to that later, but first, let’s give William his due.

Joseph and Mary Hillegas arrived in Illinois in 1857 and started farming. The family experienced several tragedies including the deaths of two sons before the move, two daughters after the move, and the death of Mary just a few years after their arrival. William and his two sisters, however, settled comfortably into the Naperville community. 

William worked downtown at the hardware store of Andrew Friedley. Friedley’s name pops up all over the early city council records for providing nails and similar items for community infrastructure maintenance. His Lemont store is a national landmark and he died in Lockport, but the family tomb, an impressive pyramid, is in the Naperville Cemetery.

In 1862, William married Maria Hartman. The Civil War was already underway and William joined the 156th Illinois Infantry in 1864, serving until the War’s end. Their first child, Ida, was born in 1863 before William enlisted, Charles was born in 1867, and Harvey in 1869.

Eventually, William took over Friedley’s hardware store, partnered with Louis Reiche. Their establishment was on Water Street, now part of Chicago Avenue, in the building that currently houses Features Bar & Grill and Frankie’s Blue Room. Their names and the date when their store was erected, 1882, are still visible at the roofline.

In addition to working at the hardware business, William was also elected Trustee of the Naperville Village Board, served as a Mason, and was extremely active both with his church and with the local G.A.R. organization. Apparently, he was of particularly strong character, even during trying times, as his obituary in The Naperville Clarion reported:

[He faced] financial trials which test men's courage and powers of endurance and frequently leave physical wrecks and shattered fortunes on the shores of time. That he weathered the storm, maintained his integrity and met every obligation was due to his faith in God, backed by an unconquerable determination to win. And when he did, maintaining to the last the unbounded respect and confidence of every man who knew him.    

William suffered a heart attack in 1906 at the age of 65 and was buried in the Naperville Cemetery. His widow continued to live in the family home, which still stands across the street from Meiley-Swallow Hall. At the time, Meiley-Swallow was the Grace Evangelical Church, but it has since served as a theatre for North Central College. 

So now let’s get back to William’s son, Charles. His gruesome story is a favorite ghostly legend, making it perfect for this time of year. 

Charles was one of many who heeded the “go west, young man” advice during that era. During his travels, he met an English girl named Jessie Robateene Massey and married her in Montana in 1901. 

Unfortunately, Jessie died in 1912, possibly from influenza. At the time, they were living in Seattle, but Charles decided to bring Jessie’s body back to be buried in the family plot in Naperville, a fact confirmed by a short paragraph in The Clarion. 

Within days of the funeral, however, Charles became convinced that Jessie had been buried alive. He was restrained from digging her up several times, but finally giving his watchers the slip, Charles disinterred his wife and brought her back to the family home where he attempted to revive her. 

The sheriff took Charles into custody and the newspaper says he was brought to Wheaton where he was “examined as to his sanity.” This no doubt refers to the DuPage County Home which started out as the County Poor Farm, a place for the old, sick, and mentally ill who could not be cared for elsewhere. The farm was established to be self-sustaining while also providing food for the county jail through the labor of its inhabitants. County Farm Road is a relic of this history. By the time Charles was admitted, however, the Home was evolving to be more like a hospital than a farm and today it’s known as the DuPage Care Center. 

Apparently, Charles remained at the DuPage County Home until his death in 1940. His funeral was in the Beidelman chapel in town and he is buried in the Naperville Cemetery, along with his wife and his parents. 

From the vantage point of time, this may be just a scary story to tell at Halloween, but it’s also a love story as well as a look at how society has historically treated mental illness. For all of those reasons, it’s a story worth retelling. 

Naperville Art: Faith, Hope and Charity

The trouble with murals is that when the wall goes, so does the mural. Planning ahead, the 40th piece in the Century Walk art collection was painted on a removable board that was taken down a couple of years ago and recently re-installed. 

“Faith, Hope and Charity” was sponsored by Euclid Lodge 65, the Naperville chapter of Freemasons, and first unveiled in 2011 on the west wall of Russell’s Dry Cleaners. But after 50 years in business, Russell Breitwieser retired in 2017. The building needed to be torn down, so the Masons put the mural in storage. The outdoor outfitter, Filson, opened in that space this past September, but without the mural. 

Naperville’s Euclid Lodge was founded on October 2, 1849, which means they just celebrated their 170th anniversary last month. In honor of the occasion, they held an open house at their headquarters and rededicated the mural at its new location. You can now find “Faith, Hope and Charity” on the south wall of the Gap on Main Street. 

The mural was painted by artist Marianne Lisson Kuhn. Kuhn, who was born and raised in Naperville, is a familiar sight in the local art community. Other Century Walk art pieces she created are “Naperville Loves a Parade,” “World’s Greatest Artists” and “The Way We Were.” She has also painted several of the fiberglass sculptures that are part of the downtown scene every summer. 

“Faith, Hope and Charity” depicts George Washington and Joseph Naper wearing their Masonic aprons as well as many other symbols of the Scottish rite. 

On Washington’s side of the painting are listed notable Masons such as Winston Churchill, Wolfgang Mozart and Theodore Roosevelt. On Naper’s side are listed local notable Masons such as James Nichols, Lewis Ellsworth and Willard Scott. The first Worshipful Master from 1848, Keith Aylmer, is not listed and others on the list were not Masters at all. 

Behind Naper, Kuhn painted the current lodge meeting hall. The Masons built it in 1916-17 after outgrowing several of their earlier halls. Before 1977, the first floor housed the Naper Theater and the Naperville Running Company currently operates out of the space. During the mural rededication, the hall was open for visitors to tour and ask questions of the members.

Other places Euclid Lodge used to meet include the east part of Empire’s building, Blue Mercury (which was Starbucks until they moved across the street) and the La Sorella di Francesca building, among others. The group’s website features a nice history page with photos of the old locations and past Masters for further information.