Historic Hauntings in Frankfort

Editor's note: This article has been revised to correct a historical inaccuracy.

The spookiest day of the year has come, and what’s Halloween without a few ghost stories?

Patch sat down with Judy Herder, president of the Frankfort Area Historical Society, who shared several tales of the local ghosts that roam historic Frankfort.

“Frankfort is steeped in history,” said Herder. “Maybe all these ghosts just never wanted to leave.”

Two Brothers, Two Houses, Two Ghosts

Herder’s tales of village hauntings begin in her own turn-of-the-century house on Hickory Street. 

According to Herder, two brothers named Peter and William Fokers once owned and resided in her home and the home of her next-door neighbor.

Herder says that the pocket doors that separate her living and dining area have inexplicably closed on their own. Children are drawn to the doorway, and one Christmas Eve, several years ago, a recorded device placed beside the doors went off in the middle of the night unexpectedly.

For Herder, this can only mean that a ghost haunts her historic home.

Herder’s former neighbor also encountered a resident ghost.

Late one night, approximately 10 years ago, Herder’s neighbor came to the door. She explained to Herder that a psychic had told her not to keep any possessions of the late Fokers brothers in her house and gave her a picture of William Fokers and his wife.

The neighbor claimed to have been pushed down her back stairs by Fokers’ ghost, speculating that the spectral attack might have been caused by her recent home remodeling project and her defiance of traditional gender roles in carrying out the remodel job herself.

Herder brought the picture to the Frankfort Historical Museum that very night, in an effort to prevent future ghostly conflict.

A Tragic Haunting

Local legend has it that in 1901, a 12-year old girl named Sadie got off the Michigan Central Train in Frankfort, says Herder.

From there, she went to a house on the corner of Sauk Trail and Center Road, where she worked as a maid at a brothel. Later, Sadie was killed and dragged to the field beyond Pacific Avenue, where she was buried under a tree near the train tracks.

Today, Herder says her ghost still haunts the house where she met her terrible end.

Ghostly Arrangements

Herder recalls the haunting of a blacksmith shop on Elwood Street, which has since been torn down.

A friend of Herder’s used to own a doll shop on the ground floor of the building. One morning, when her friend came in to open the store, she found that everything had been rearranged in the night and the dolls were in different places.

Friendly Spirits at the Parsonage

For this particular ghost story, Herder rang up her friend Susanne Corkery, who recounted the haunting of her Hickory Street home.

Corkery resides in the former parsonage of the English Methodist Church, an apparent hotbed of spiritual activity.

In her 1920s house, Corkery says she frequently hears the footsteps of unseen residents as they walk down the hallway and up the stairs. She says she has felt pressure on her bed at night, as ghosts sit on its edge.

Corkery and her husband and daughter have all encountered ghostly shadows in the house as well.

According to Corkery, her husband once saw the outline of a woman standing at the kitchen sink. As he walked further into the room, she disappeared.

Corkery has witnessed the shape of a man standing in the doorway of her bedroom, and once, in the night, her daughter encountered a dark mass in the hallway.

The identity of these spirits is unknown to Corkery, although she speculates that they could be previous tenants, the family of a former pastor or even churchgoers whose wakes were held at the house.

Regardless, Corkery does not feel threatened by the ghosts.

“No one’s ever been scared,” said Corkery. “There’s just always a sense that somebody is here.” 

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