Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA rural Fond du Lac County cemetery on land once owned by a U.S. Senator turned Spiritualist — the site of local lore about a haunted vault and a so-called Witches Circle.
S. Rienzi Rd., Fond du Lac, WI 54937
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit; public rural cemetery
Access
Limited Access
Rural cemetery with uneven grass terrain; no paved paths
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1844 · Nathaniel Tallmadge Spiritualist History · Wisconsin Territory Settlement · 19th-Century Receiving Vault
Nathaniel P. Tallmadge served as a U.S. Senator from New York before relocating to Wisconsin Territory in 1844, where he was appointed governor. After leaving office, Tallmadge became one of the most prominent American converts to Spiritualism — the mid-19th-century movement that held that the dead could communicate with the living through mediums and séances. He wrote and lectured extensively on the subject, citing supposed communications he received at his Wisconsin property as among his evidence.
The Rienzi area of Fond du Lac County takes its name from this period of settlement. The cemetery that developed on or near the land reflects the Protestant burial practices of early Wisconsin settlers, including the construction of a receiving vault — a structure that held bodies through winter when the frozen ground made burial impossible. Receiving vaults were common in 19th-century northern cemeteries and are now frequently the subject of local ghost stories.
The property's association with Tallmadge's Spiritualist activities — actual, documented claims that the location was a site of spirit communication — gives Rienzi Cemetery an unusual historical grounding for a haunted reputation. The Spiritualist connection predates the local ghost lore by over a century.
Sources
Two principal legends attach to Rienzi Cemetery. The first involves the receiving vault, a standard 19th-century structure used for winter storage of bodies. Local oral tradition has reframed it as a gateway or portal, which is a common reassignment of meaning for receiving vaults across many old cemeteries.
The second legend centers on a circular section at the rear of the cemetery known locally as the Witches Circle. Area tradition holds that excommunicated nuns from St. Mary's Springs Academy, a Catholic institution several miles away, were buried there without markers. No church records, cemetery records, or historical documentation supports this claim. The pattern — a circular grave arrangement, unnamed women, an institutional scandal — appears at dozens of cemeteries across the Midwest and is well documented as a recurring folklore form rather than a reliable local history.
What distinguishes Rienzi from other roadside-legend cemeteries is the genuine historical record: Nathaniel Tallmadge, the 19th-century Spiritualist senator, actually claimed this land was a site of spirit communication. The folklore grew on top of a foundation that, in its own way, was already paranormal.
A drive-by or walk-through visit to this historically significant rural cemetery, exploring the 19th-century markers, the old receiving vault, and the section local tradition calls the Witches Circle.
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