Victorian-era cemetery walking tours with costumed guides re-enacting historical figures each October
1020 S. 5th Street, Quincy, IL 62301
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Ticketed seasonal tours; see Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County website for pricing
Access
Limited Access
Cemetery paths with uneven ground and gravel surfaces
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1846 · National Register of Historic Places · Victorian rural cemetery design · 1912 Pfanschmidt ax murders · Civil War era history
John Wood, the former governor of Illinois and Quincy's first mayor, laid out Woodland Cemetery in 1846 on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. The site was designed in the rural cemetery tradition of the era — rolling terrain, ornate monuments, and deliberate naturalistic landscaping — and today encompasses roughly 58 acres.
The cemetery achieved listing on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural and funerary monument collection, which includes examples spanning from the antebellum period through the early twentieth century. Prominent Quincyans from commercial, political, and military life are interred here, along with soldiers from multiple American conflicts.
The Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County has operated cemetery tours since at least the early 2000s. The October format — guides in period dress assuming the personas of historical figures — draws on themes specific to Adams County's past: the regional impact of the Civil War (referred to in some period documents as the Bloody Conflict), cholera outbreaks, and one of southern Illinois's most sensational unresolved criminal cases. In 1912, Charles Pfanschmidt, a Quincy-area farmer, was tried for the ax murder of his family, including his parents, wife, and daughter. He was acquitted after two trials despite significant circumstantial evidence. The case remained officially unsolved and drew national press attention. Annual tours include this story as a centerpiece narrative.
Sources
The Woodland Cemetery tours operate at the intersection of theater and historical education rather than traditional paranormal investigation. Guides in period costume assume the voices of notable buried figures, speaking about their lives and deaths as if still present. The format was designed by the Historical Society to make local history accessible to general audiences.
The 1912 Pfanschmidt case — in which Charles Pfanschmidt stood twice before a jury for the murders of his parents, wife, and daughter at their rural Adams County farm — anchors the darkest portion of the tour narrative. The crime scene, an overnight fire set after the killings, destroyed much physical evidence. Pfanschmidt's acquittal left the murders legally unresolved.
The Halloween mausoleum extension takes visitors inside the cemetery's stone mausoleum structures, which are otherwise not accessible to the public during standard visits. No organized paranormal investigation events are documented at the site; the 'ghost' framing is primarily theatrical.
Notable Entities
Costumed guides from the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County portray historical figures buried at Woodland Cemetery, covering themes from the 1861–65 Bloody Conflict, pandemics, and the 1912 Pfanschmidt ax murders. Tours run throughout October.
Special Halloween night tours that take visitors inside the historic mausoleum on the cemetery grounds.
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