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JASPER COUNTY

JASPER COUNTY WAS formed in 1835, organized in 1838, and named for Sgt. William Jasper of South Carolina, a Revolutionary War hero. Most of the county’s central and northern portions were waterlogged, especially in the famous Kankakee swamp. The Kankakee was ten miles wide and covered nearly 500,000 acres, making it one of the largest swamps in the United States.

Illinois land speculator Benjamin J. Gifford purchased approximately 35,000 acres at $4.50 an acre. He ditched and drained the area, turning the land into productive tenant farms yielding corn, oats, onions, and potatoes. He even built his own thirty-two-mile railroad—the Chicago and Wabash Valley, popularly known as the “Onion Belt”—to carry his crops and livestock to the Illinois market.

In the 1890s one of Gifford’s tenant farmers was digging a well and struck oil. Eventually, there were more than one hundred active wells on Gifford’s farms, producing four hundred barrels per day.

Shortly thereafter the town of Asphaltum was founded, and a refinery and several oil well equipment manufacturers located there. The boom and the industries ended quickly, but fifty years later, farmers continued to grease machinery with the heavy petroleum that still oozed from the ground.

New York merchant James Van Rensselaer arrived in Jasper County in 1838 and built a gristmill. The following year he platted a town and named it Newton for Sir Isaac Newton. In 1841 the name was changed to Rensselaer, which became Jasper’s county seat and eventually the largest city in the area.

James F. Hanley (1892–1942) was Rensselaer’s most fa-mous son. A prodigious composer, he provided many songs for movies and stage plays. His song “Indiana” (better known as “Back Home Again in Indiana”) is the recognized anthem at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 500.

The village of Collegeville was founded in 1889 and named for Saint Joseph’s College, which was incorporated the same year. The Catholic Church-supported school be-came a four-year liberal arts college in 1936, and until 1968 it remained all male. The National Football League’s Chicago Bears used the campus as their preseason training camp from 1944 to 1974.

Moody Road Lights

Most Jasper and Pulaski County residents have heard one or more of the many stories concerning the mystery of the Moody Road lights. The stories connected with these lights have extended far beyond the two counties. The lights have even been featured on the television show Unsolved Mysteries.

You must first go to the location on Moody Road to experience the creepy phenomena. Go after dark and preferably on a moonless night. From Francesville in Pulaski County, take County Road 500 South until you enter Jasper County, where the road becomes County Road 200 South. Continue until it intersects with County Road 230 East. At that point, Moody Road is a short distance north. Follow Moody Road until you come to Meridian Road.

From Rensselaer, drive east on State Route 114 to County Road 400 West and turn north. Continue until it intersects with County Road 400 South. At that point, turn east, continuing on until you reach County Road 20 East. Turning north, you will travel a short distance to Moody Road. Turning west, you will reach Meridian Road, and the location of the Moody lights.

Be certain your car is facing north. Turn off your engine, blink your lights three times, and then turn them off. Now, sitting in the dark, prepare yourself for a visit from the mysterious Moody Road lights. They will come. First you’ll see an orb-shaped orange light. It seems to go away and then reappear several times. The light will change from orange to red and from large to small. And you may see as many as four lights bobbing in the night. Intrepid individuals already taking this journey have stated that the orbs darted toward their cars, then quickly retreated, or even crossed the road and back again.

Some explain these “mysterious” lights as just headlights from cars on Highway 49, which is approximately two miles north of Meridian road. Others believe that since this is a low-lying area, the phenomenon is created by swamp gas.

A more supernatural story surrounding the Moody Road lights goes back to horse-and-buggy days. Two brothers were “joy riding” in the family buggy. It was a dark and moonless night. One of the wagon wheels hit a rock on the road, and one of the brothers fell off. Before the other brother could stop the racing horses, the fallen brother had been decapitated by the buggy’s rear wheels. His head was never found. Every night after his chores were completed, his remorseful brother went out with a lantern looking for his brother’s head.

According to legend, along Moody Road where the corn grows high, you can still see the brother’s lantern. The light passes one row at a time. It glows orange as he passes through the field, and becomes red when he reaches the end of a row. The light then turns and moves through another row of corn. You can see the light glowing above the corn stalks. It slowly moves to the end and back, moving up a row, down a row, closer and closer—one row at a time. What happens if the phantom and his light reach your car is not known. No one has stayed long enough to find out.

Another story associated with the lights concerns the Mafia. A contract had been issued on the life of a man. His name is not known, nor is his connection with the crime organization. According to the story, he and his teenage daughter were hiding out in an old farm house on Moody Road. During their stay, she had made friends with some youths in the area. It was her birthday, and she wanted to go out and have fun with her new friends. Her father was against her going, but he could deny her nothing and agreed with one very important stipulation: When they brought her home, they must not bring her to the house. They should stop near Meridian Road, flash their lights three times, and wait. He would come and get her. That way he would know that it was not the Mafia coming to kill him.

Today, if you go to this road, flash your lights three times, and wait, some say you will see the outline of a man walking with a lantern swinging back and forth, the light changing from orange to red to yellow, then veering off into the cornfield. Many believe it is the girl’s father. But what happened that night? Why does her father haunt Moody Road waiting for the signal from his daughter?

In this same vicinity on Moody Road is a cemetery. The oldest known burial dates 1849, with burials continuing into the mid-twentieth century. This location has given rise to another explanation to the mysterious lights: a haunting love story.

Two lovers were walking hand in hand down the road, oblivious of anything but their love. Suddenly the sound of gunfire broke the silence of the night. The man fell beside the road. The girl ran across the road and into the cemetery, hoping to find safety behind a monument. She, too, was shot and killed.

The criminal was never found, nor was a reason for this heinous crime. Could she have been the teenage daughter walking with her boyfriend and waiting for her father? Were they killed by a Mafia hit man? Is this why the father still haunts the road looking for his daughter? Or, are these legends two separate Moody Road tragedies?

Many have parked at midnight near the cemetery, watched, and waited, hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman’s ghost leaving the cemetery and crossing the road to the cornfield where her lover had died.

A resident of the area, George Johnson, says he has heard all the stories. He included some of them in his book, Indian and Nature Stories, which is a two-year collection of his weekly local newspaper column, “By George.”

His own theory of the Moody Road Lights is based on distant headlights that create ghost-like images in the fog. The intersection of Meridian and Moody Road is located on a high glacial moraine ridge. This high point overlooks a low-lying muck swamp ground. About two miles north of this junction is Indiana State Highway 49, which runs perpendicular into Indiana 14. After dark, when vehicles travel down Indiana 49, their headlights bounce up and down and are reflected on the low ground fog. When they turn either east or west at Indiana 14, it makes the “ghost lights” move and disappear. Perhaps this is logical, but that may be the problem with his theory. Where ghosts are involved, the only logical explanation is the simple belief that they exist.