Subject: Dubois Hills
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 01:48:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: LLeebron@aol.com
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
This may be something for you to "edit" and place in your scary legends location.
The following is from a letter I have in my file from someone in Vincinnes to a Mrs. Tobin. This letter is dated July 4, 1962.
Dear Mrs. Tobin,
A friend of mine was looking over an old scrap book recently, and found an article on the Old Post Country Club, which was a few miles West of Vincennes in Illinois, situated on part of the old Dubois Hills. Apparently, the newspaper from which this was clipped was published 1924, as it says the Club was organized in 1914, and "the organization has been intact for more than 10 years." I will copy parts of it which may interest you.
". . Robeson's Hills, at the foot of which flows the crystal lake, and where the Club House is located, presents a beautiful and inviting appearance at this season of the year, were originally known as 'Dubois Hills'. There is much history, romance, and sadness associated with them. Toussaint Dubois, whose life history it would require too much space to recount, was their first owner. He was a close friend of General Harrison and played an inportant part in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Through his untiring energy, Mr. Dubois, as a merchant in Vincennes, and as a fur trader whose operations extended all through Wabash Country, amassed quite a fortune and his landed estates were among the most valuable possessions for scenic beauty (of which Ft. Knox was one) to be found in this part of the country.
There is a legend connected with Dubois Hills, a weird gruesome story founded on the facts of an actual occurrance--in which quite a few people formerly placed great credence. Between two of the most prominent of these hills, is a deep, dark ravine which the rays of the sun never penetrate. It has luxuriant growth of vegetation, the verdure of which ferns endless variety intensify, and on the sultriest days of summer, there issues from its mouth, which opens in full view of the river road, a delightfully cooling breeze with a sweet and refreshing fragrance. This locality is known as Dark Hollow, and on beholding it one cannot fail to note the appropriateness of the name.
Many years ago, a lone traveller, who was making his way on horseback through the howling wilderness, was set upon in the nighttime by a band of migrating Indians. They led him captive into the Hollow and decapitated him.
Singularly, the Indians never scalped this victim, neither did they take his horse. This animal was discovered grazing near the headless body of his master. Of course, the hunting party took the horse in charge, leaving the mutilated and badly decomposed body of the man to remain as a feast for the buzzards. And so, the legend goes, on every Thursday, after midnight, the nocturnal spectacle of the headless rider mounted on a fractious steed, is the phantom picture which the cavernous depths of Dark Hollow reveal.
Whether in jest, or because their overwrought imaginations made a vision like this possible, some people have solemnly declared that they have been confronted with such an apparition.:
And I believe that this could be so, because I have visited there, and Toussaint Dubois was my great great great great grandfather!"
Linda Leebron, from Oklahoma