Cheney Mansion

Investigation reports archived by the Paranormal Task Force and the Springfield Ghost Society describe Cheney Mansion as a consistently active site, with reported phenomena documented across multiple visits over more than two decades. The basement is most often singled out as the home's heaviest-feeling space; visitors there have reported a strong shadow figure and a sense of being watched from the storage corners.

The so-called Drunk Room — a small upstairs room where Margaret Cheney is said to have locked her husband when he came home intoxicated — produces a recurring set of reports. Investigators describe being grabbed at the wrist or shoulder by unseen hands, and a small number of accounts mention a strong odor of vomit appearing and disappearing without environmental cause.

In the bedroom attributed to Prentiss Dana Cheney, multiple investigation logs describe the mattress moving as though weighted by an invisible occupant, sometimes rising and dropping back to the frame. Witnesses also report heavy breathing recorded in close proximity to the bed.

Electronic voice phenomena are reported throughout the building. Investigators describe brief, intelligible responses on recordings made in nearly every room. The mansion's nineteenth-century mirrors are cited repeatedly in photographic accounts: faces that resemble surviving Cheney-family portraits have been documented in flash photographs, and at least one case was profiled by paranormal author Terri Reid.

Less specific reports include cold spots on warm days, breezes in interior rooms with no open windows, and the sound of a single loud breath delivered into a witness's ear, occasionally captured on audio. The Jersey County Historical Society does not promote the mansion as a confirmed haunted site; it presents the investigation history as part of the building's two-century occupancy record and offers Saturday-night programs for visitors who wish to explore that record firsthand.