Peoria State Hospital

The Peoria State Hospital, as pictured above is one of great folklores in the Peoria area. Much of it has been torn down and re-developed, but the stories remain. As of right now, I will not be discussing the Hospital itself, but let us focus on the cemetery of the hospital.

The cemetery of the old Peoria State Hospital has a great ghost tale to it. It begins with an old man that was dropped off at the hospital while it was still open. The man had no identity, but was a book binder. With no name, the man became known as Old Book. Old Book was observed having a careing personality and always morned over the deaths of the patients. Due to Books personality, the Warden made Book part of the burial team. After diging the graves, Book would go lean against an old oak tree, and sob for the passing. Now, when Book died, the entire hospital was in morning, due to Books nature. The entire staff went to Books burial, but as the coffin was being laid into the earth, a noise arose from the coffin, and the Warden, demanded that the coffin be opened. As the coffin lid was opened, Books body was there at rest, but the onlookers saw Books image there at the old oak tree, leaning on the tree with his hat off just like any other time a person was burried. The Warden then comanded that the coffin be put in the ground and covered. The onlookers who saw Books image, all ran in terror.

Years had passed now, and a care-taker reported to the Warden that the old oak tree was begining to die, and looked aweful. The Warden ordered for the tree to be cut down. The care-taker went to the tree, and to one swing with an axe to the base of the tree, when a horrible scream came from the tree scaring the care-taker away. After hearing of this, the Warden decided to have the Fire Department burn the tree down. The Fire Department arrived with its horse drawn wagon, and set the tree on fire. But in front of all these witnesses, the tree began to scream again, and an image of Old Book was seen in the blaze. The horses began to go crazy, and the Fire Department extinguished the blaze immediately. After these two attempts of doing away with the tree, no other attempts were made, and the tree was there to stay.

The pictures below are of that tree, at least I believe. Many of the tomb stones around that area have no names on them, just numbers. The hospital was closed down to an overwhelming number of deaths. There were too many patients, and not enough staff. Most of the patients were not mentaly ill, but just had diseases that medicine did not understand at the time. It has been said that many of the deaths occured day after day, and that two or three would happen in one day alone. This is true, as you walk through the rows of stones and observe the dates.