Quincy, Illinois is known for being the Gem City but the town has many stories of being haunted.  

It got the name for having  fertile soil that helped grow crops, flour mills, sawmills, and a flourishing forest. 

Quincy was originally named Coined Bluffs when it was founded in 1819. The name Coined Bluffs only lasted until 1825 when it was named Quincy and it became a part of Adams County.

 Quincy is home to 40,000 residents, John Wood Community College, and Quincy University. 

The town is also known for being haunted. There have been many strange deaths in the town since being founded leading to speculation if the town is really haunted. 

On 1631 N. 24th there was a murder that shocked the town. An article written on March 1st, 2012  by Rodney Hart called “Unsettled spirit: Woman haunted by gruesome killing of boyfriend in 1976”. 

“One day right after Christmas 1979, Brewer claims he took a Polaroid photo of his wife putting away ornaments. A strange face appeared in the photo. It was looking over his wife’s shoulder. The face, as it turns out, looked a lot like Stanley Goodside,” Rodney Hart wrote. 

Quincy is no stranger to weird events happening around the town. Madison Elementary School was built on an old cemetery. 

Thus, causing students and faculty to spread rumors about the school being haunted. 

Quincy Junior High School was ranked the number seven most haunted school in Illinois according to TrueIllinoisHaunts.com in the newsletter “Legends & Lore of Illinois”. Before Quincy Junior High School it was Quincy Senior High School. 

“Former students and teachers tell me that on the anniversary of the students death that they have heard footsteps and mumbling coming from the bathroom of where the student died. In my three years I have never personally heard the voices. Some of my former classmates have claimed to have heard the strange noises but I haven’t,” Nathan Hoebing said.

The so-called ghost that haunts the school is a former student. Rumors say a student hung himself in the bathroom after his girlfriend broke up with him. 

The middle school also had a student drown in the swimming pool. The swimming pool was covered after the incident. There have been no reports of haunting experiences after the death of the student. 

“I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a door closing. Curious, I went to check what the noise was. I went to my daughter Hannah’s room where she was sleeping. Sitting at the end of her bed was a little girl no more than 3 or 4 years old. I walked over and swatted the strange figure on the bed and it disappeared,” Aaron Maguire said. 

Aaron moved to 1023 State Street in Quincy in March of 1997. The Maguire family had no other paranormal activity until the month of August of 2002. 

The strange experience caused the family to move a short 6 months after the strange event.