HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
1918 Waukesha County tragedy — the 'Hille Curse' anchors the city's ghost walk
Waukesha County (rural, exact address not publicly listed), Waukesha, WI 53186
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Accessible as part of the American Ghost Walks Waukesha Ghost Walk tour. The farm property itself is private; visit through the organized tour only.
Access
Limited Access
Rural Waukesha County farmland; tour accessibility depends on specific route.
Equipment
Photos OK
World War I Era Home-Front Tragedy · Documented Waukesha County Historical Case
John Hille emigrated from Germany and established a farm in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, during the second half of the nineteenth century. The farm passed to his children, and by June 1918, William Hille and his sister Hulda Hille were managing the property together.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal's account of the case, a farmhand threatened the siblings with extortion, claiming he would report them as German spies — a serious accusation in the United States during the final months of World War I. The Hille siblings, facing what they may have believed was a credible threat with severe consequences, responded by destroying the farm's livestock. They killed five horses and a dog on the property.
William Hille then shot himself. Hulda Hille died from a combination of poison and self-inflicted wounds. Both deaths occurred at the farm. The farmhand's extortion claim was never substantiated in surviving records. In the years following the 1918 tragedy, subsequent owners of the property reported a pattern of misfortunes they described as the 'Hille Curse,' a term that has persisted in Waukesha County oral history. American Ghost Walks, which operates the Waukesha Ghost Walk, describes the Hille Curse as the city's most famous ghost story.
Sources
The Hille Curse entered local consciousness in the years after the June 1918 deaths of William and Hulda Hille. The Wisconsin State Journal documented the subsequent-owner misfortune narrative, describing a pattern in which people and animals connected to the farm experienced bad outcomes. The specific incidents underlying the curse narrative are historical claims reported in regional press rather than verified paranormal events.
American Ghost Walks, a national ghost tour operator, includes the Hille farm story in the Waukesha Ghost Walk and describes it as the city's most famous ghost story. The tour presents the material as historical narrative — a WWI-era family tragedy shaped by anti-German sentiment and extortion — rather than as a conventional haunted-house story. The farm itself is private property; the story is accessible through the organized tour.
Notable Entities
The Hille Curse is described by American Ghost Walks as Waukesha's most famous ghost story, and the farm is featured as a stop on the Waukesha Ghost Walk tour operated by American Ghost Walks. Book through the American Ghost Walks website.
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